Breakfast and Remembrance: The Writer As Monster

 




I recall the works of Ignazio Silone — Last night I was going through my old files and found the notes I have taken in a lecture about exiled writers in Zurich. They were somehow accommodated by Swiss writers two of which were giants: Duerrenmatt and Frisch. It was through old newspaper and magazine interviews of the two that I came across Silone. That was in the 1990s.


Silone the anti-fascist then anti-communist, anti-Stalinist — He was an attractive study in that distinct time when totalitarianism of the right and the left were being revoked. Funny, but I even went to visit the cafés and restaurants where Silone and the likes of Frisch or Duerrenmatt frequented if only to fill the gaps brought by questions that will never be answered.

Suddenly, news detailing Silone's early collaboration with the Fascist regime of Mussolini came to light. Then followed by more revelations about his relationship with the American intelligence (OSS- precursor of the CIA). The writer a political monster?

I thought about some colleagues who for many years had lent their energies and talents to a political entity only to abandon it later, disillusioned. As I look at them now, I cannot help but wonder about this immense sea of contradictions — Like the paradox that was Silone?

Perhaps I made my coffee too bland. Magandang Umaga!

Pasig City. June  2021 

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