From Olesha’s “Speech to the First Congress of Soviet Writers” delivered on August 22, 1934:
Every man may suddenly feel in himself the appearance of some double. This phenomenon is particularly acute in an artist; one of the most amazing things about him is his capacity to experience other people’s passions.
In every artist the seeds of an entire range of passions, bright and dark, are implanted; he knows how to make them grow and turn them into trees…
… I step through the archway, look at myself and see that my youth has returned to me.
Youth has suddenly and for some unknown reason come back to me…
I have come to the conclusion that my greatest wish is the right to preserve the colors of my youth, the freshness of my vision, to defend that vision from assertions that it is not needed, from accusations that it is vulgar and worthless.
It is not my fault that when I was young the world around me was horrible. But it would be absurd for me not to make use of the colors on the palette of my youth for that reason…
… In this country the first new generation, the first Soviet man, is now emerging. Being an artist, I pounce upon him.
“Who are you? What colors do you see? Do you ever have dreams? What sort of things do you long for? What do you think of yourself? How do you love? How do you feel about the world? What do you accept and what do you reject? Which is stronger in you, reason or emotion? Can you cry? Do you know what tenderness is? Have you understood all those things that used to frighten me so, that I couldn’t comprehend, that bewildered me? Tell me, what kind of a person are you, young man of the socialist society?”
Perhaps these are the questions we, ultimately, ask of everyone in our lives.
What sort of things do you long for?
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Matty Charles & The Valentines’ “Where They’ll Bury Me” — fabulous track about getting older and wiser
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