August 17, 2006

GUNTER GRASS: THE MIND OF THE MORALIST

        Many authors of fiction are not content to create their imaginary worlds for our entertainment. After all, they are 'artists', striving for higher truths. They like to pretend that they possess superior moral wisdom and understanding of the real world. Unlike most of us, their falsehoods, if skillfully and entertainingly rendered, can win them acclaim and sometimes Nobel Prizes. Doesn’t their creativity make them special?
        Well actually, no. The human mind is always 'creative' as it seeks to find solutions to the psychic conflicts that are part of human nature. Why should verbal creativity be valued above, say, the creativity of the guy in the parking lot at Yankee Stadium who found a way to shoehorn my car into a lot that looked full to bursting? And unlike most authors of novels, he was upfront about his motivation: money.
        Should verbal creativity be more highly prized than scientific or technological, or athletic, or just plain everyday problem solving creativity? Creativity is one universal functional aspect of the human mind. Its uses are limitless, for good or ill. A patient whose life is saved by a novel surgical procedure might value his surgeon’s creativity more than the deft verbal skills of a Gunter Grass. Moreover, non-wordsmiths are unlikely to claim moral superiority in the fashion of wordsmiths. That surgeon doesn't feel called upon to lecture his patient on the immorality of capitalism; he just enjoys its benefits and does his job using creativity when needed.
        These traits of self-righteousness, moral condescension and entitlement, flow from the exalted status of the writer of fiction. But who granted that status? Well, guess what, its the writers themselves! As Robert Nozick pointed out, wordsmith intellectuals have always valued their own work above all others, and wrote down this self flattery as ‘truth’. The benighted, less verbally talented citizenry is expected to show proper deference to the views of the “great” scribblers. Hence, when a leftist mountebank like Gunter Grass, rants about the evils of Amerika and happens to possess a Nobel prize for literature, we are supposed to nod seriously and think of him as a man who cares for all humanity.
        What a loathsome piece of work Mr. Grass turns out to be, an imposter who hid behind his self-created shield of moral righteousness ever since he was saved from death in World War II by the kindness of American soldiers. It makes you wonder how much valuable ink and paper might have been saved, had they taken no prisoners. Ever since his capture, Grass has yearned for “peace”, and has been thwarted by the forces of darkness in America. He has worked hard to equate the evil Bush empire with the Nazism he at one time, proudly served. It almost makes Horsefeathers yearn for the straightforwardness of another “great” writer, Gertrude Stein, when she said: "…Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace ... By suppressing Jews ... he was ending struggle in Germany" (New York Times Magazine, May 6, 1934.)

Here are the details about Grass from Wikipedia:

Disclosure of Waffen-SS Membership

On August 15, 2006, the online edition of German weekly "Der Spiegel" published three documents of US forces dating from 1946, verifying the membership of Günter Grass within the Waffen-SS.