The Power of Taste
This was meant as a photography blog. The events in Tehran made me write again and made me change the topic. I will come back to the images soon. Today one more thought on the struggle against a system. Our fight, our protest, is often fuelled by the sense of taste. Dictatorships are unacceptable because of their plain offensiveness. Slogans are ugly. Faces disfigured by infallibility. The poem below is by a Polish poet and a dissident Zbigniew Herbert. Translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter (used without permission). Photo by UPI.
It didn’t require great character at all
our refusal disagreement and resistance
we had a shred of necessary courage
but fundamentally it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
in which there are fibers of soul the cartilage of conscience
Who knows if we had been better and more attractively tempted sent
rose-skinned women thin as a wafer
or fantastic creatures from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch
but what kind of hell was there at this time
a wet pit the murderers’ alley the barrack
called a palace of justice
a home-brewed Mephisto in a Lenin jacket
sent Aurora’s grandchildren out into the field
boys with potato faces
very ugly girls with red hands
Verily their rhetoric was made of cheap sacking
(Marcus Tullius kept turning in his grave)
chains of tautologies a couple of concepts like flails
the dialectics of slaughterers no distinctions in reasoning
syntax deprived of beauty of the subjunctive
So aesthetics can be helpful in life
one should not neglect the study of beauty
Before we declare our consent we must carefully examine
the shape of the architecture the rhythm of the drums and pipes
official colors the despicable ritual of funerals
Our eyes and ears refused obedience
the princes of our senses proudly chose exile
It did not require great character at all
we had a shred of necessary courage
but fundamentally it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
that commands us to get out to make a wry face draw out a sneer
even if for this the precious capital of the body the head
must fall
