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| Portrait of J.V. Stalin by Isaac Brodsky, 1933 |
This entry in André Gide's journal dates from November 30, 1933. In a previous entry from the 29th of August of the same year, he writes a longer reflection on how Communism is just another religious fervor with its own dogmatic texts, and he renounces any such belonging to an authoritative tradition. Pour vraiment pouvoir renoncer à une idéologie, si on la considère telle, il faudrait pourtant la bien connaître. Personally I was raised in an atheist setting and I don't really know what communion is like. Et j'aurais aimé en avoir fait l'expérience, in order to choose à bon escient whether to reject it or not. Although, I think it would have made it more difficult to leave the fold if I had been immersed in it from early childhood. But who knows? The world is so complex nowadays, with so many influences and exposures, that there are many possibilities from which to choose. But I do have a certain longing for religion and wish I had experience with it. I think it is in contrast to my tendency to be an outsider and a creative who does not admit the anxiety of influence, even though I live with it daily. My friend once said there is nothing new under the sun. Is it true though? I am not so sure. Familiar things can take on unfamiliar guise. But do we ultimately recognize them as familiar? Who knows... I certainly think logic would have us reduce them to a concept or a bit of knowledge that we can process. But art and emotion are not limited ranges of experience. Maybe I have not lived long enough yet to know.
"Indeed, it a barely a play on words: note that there is also communion in communism." - André Gide
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