Evidently The Arts, All The

The Most Dangerous Aspect Of Present-day Life Is The Dissolution Of The Feeling Of Individual Responsibility. Mass Solitude Has Done Away With Any Difference Between The Internal And The External, Between The Intellectual And The Physical.

Art Is The Production Of Objects For Consumption, To Be Used And Discarded While Waiting For A New World In Which Man Will Have Succeeded In Freeing Himself Of Everything, Even Of His Own Consciousness.

Mass Communication, Radio, And Especially Television, Have Attempted, Not Without Success, To Annihilate Every Possibility Of Solitude And Reflection.

For My Part, If I Consider Poetry As An Object, I Maintain That It Is Born Of The Necessity Of Adding A Vocal Sound (speech) To The Hammering Of The First Tribal Music.

But Poets Were Not Considered Dangerous And They Were Advised To Exercise Self-censorship. At Most, Poets Were Requested Not To Write At All. I Took Advantage Of This Negative Liberty.