Sunday 15 July 2012

Mihail Sebastian: Reading Past Lives and Enduring Problems

One of my companions for the past year has been Mihail Sebastian's Journal. At 620+ pages it is quite a read, but it is not because of its length it takes me so long to finish it: it's because I can only take it in relatively small doses.

Mihail Sebastian (born Iosif Hechter, 1907–1945) was a Jewish-Romanian writer and playwright in pre-WW2 Bucharest, a time of booming intellectual activity but also one of increasingly vocal nationalism, and fascist and anti-Semitic fervour. Sebastian burst onto the literary scene in 1934 with a controversial novel , "De doua mii de ani" (For Two Thousand Years), dealing with the condition of the Jew in the contemporary Romanian society. The controversy stemmed not only from the first person narrative (which may be construed as being to some point autobiographical), but also from the introduction written by Sebastian's mentor, the philosopher and journalist Nae Ionescu. Although Ionescu's text was overtly
anti-Semitic, blaming the Jews for their own suffering, Sebastian decided to publish it. In this way, he attracted the ire of segments from both the Zionist and the nationalist movements.

Notwistanding the increasingly nationalist and anti-Semitic atmosphere, Sebastian was part of a very lively group of young writers and journalists, including Mircea Eliade, Eugene Ionesco and Camil Petrescu, and was very active on Bucharest's intellectual stage.

The Journal shows Sebastian worrying constantly about his work, and struggling to write - and forcing himself to record his thoughts in the journal. In this way, we get to assist
to the birth of his first play, Jocul de-a vacanta (Playing at holiday), and the novel Accidentul (The Accident). We go with Sebastian through various amorous episodes, through trips to the mountainside and skiing, and we find out about his love of classical music.

And then we find out about the political and social troubles. Although the social situation had deteriorated enough by the time the war started in 1939, with casual anti-Semitism cropping up more and more often, even in his close circle of friends, Sebastian's world truly begins to collapse once Nazi Germany begins to conquer Europe. As a Jew, Sebastian was barred from working as a lawyer (a profession he was not very keen on practising), lost his job as a book editor, and could no longer publish because of the racial laws enacted by the pro-fascist regime. And at some point his radio - his main connection to the outside world, a source of both hope and despair - is confiscated, as yet another racial law comes into force.

There are many things which can make one seethe with indignation. But this note from November 1941 summarises very well why I feel I can take the Journal only in small doses, thus keeping depression at bay:

"Ceausescu * - the general secretary at the Economics Ministry - listened avidly to the French-language bulletin from London at 11:15, happy that fifteen thousand Germans and Italians had been taken prisoner in Libya. He too is expecting a British victory. But in the interim he sees nothing odd in holding public office under the present regime. Incompatibility is not a problem that occurs to people here on the Danube."
- - - -
no relation to the future dictator.

PS - my favourite work of Sebastian's is his play Ultima ora (Final Edition), taking place in a news-room. It is a play about typos and misunderstadings, which reveals in an admirable manner the true workings of the press industry and its relationship with people in positions of power.