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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 1

Wounded People

Wounded People

In compiling this collection of his own prose and verse, Bertolt Brecht had in mind the ‘peasant calendars’ of the past, in which anecdotes and aphorisms provided a satirical and entertaining comment on everyday life. Brecht tried to write for the people. He understood very well those humiliations which the man without property has to put up with. This knowledge gave blood to his Socialist view of the world. In ‘Socrates Wounded’ it is Socrates as cobbler whom he describes; and in his fictional account of the assassination of Caesar, it is Carpo, leader of the plebeians, who stands out –

First Carpo has to be found. There are so very many erstwhile plebeian prisoners in this dungeon that they are rotting away by the dozen. But after some coming and going the building worker Carpo is hoisted up out of a hole on long ropes and now the dictator can talk to the man in whom the Roman populace puts its trust.

They sit face to face and eye each other. Carpo is an old man; possibly he is no older than Caesar, but the fact is he looks eighty. Very old, very wasted, but not broken. Without beating about the bush Caesar expounds his incredible plan; to reintroduce democracy, hold elections, retire into private life himself, etc., etc.

The old man is silent. He does not say yes, he does not say no; he is silent. He looks at Caesar fixedly and utters no sound. As Caesar takes his leave, he is lowered into his hole again on the long ropes. The dream of democracy is over . . .

This long quotation may serve to illustrate Brecht’s peculiar strength, which is not achieved by a single image, but by cumulative detail, and which continually sets against any Caesar the gaze of the permanent underdog.

1962 (273)