Brecht was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria. He was attracted to the literary arts at an early age and was also a gifted student; in fact at the age of 16, his poetry was published. Later in his life he enrolled in the medical school in Munich, where he attended some seminars by famous playwrights. As World War I came around, Brecht served in the army as a medical orderly, and it was after serving in the war that he became famous for his plays “Baal” and “Drums in the Night”. In the 1920’s Brecht moved to Berlin to further his career, and in Berlin is where he found his love of politics. During this period he began studying the work of Karl Marx, and by 1929 he had embraced Communism. All of this work suggests that he was a playwright that was not just a writer for entertainment, but a playwright with a purpose to educate the masses about the reality of the world around them. Because of his ability to humor as well as educate the crowd, Brecht had won many awards and was becoming a notable writer in Europe. Brecht’s writing though did not stand well with the Nazi party and after they took over Germany, they made sure that Brecht’s plays were banned. Brecht left the country for Denmark in 1933 and constructed his first version of “Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties” in 1934 as part of an essay contest.
Looking into Brechts work one can draw the conclusion that not only were his works against facisism and capitalism, but his work, he was trying to relay the truth of events and of the world to his audience. This theme also carried over to the “Five Difficulties”, for it was a piece of writing that was supposed to inspire the writers of today and the future to go after the truth and portray it to the people that can change the world with that truth. Since the piece was written during World War II, the lack of truth during that era drove him to write about not only the difficulties that writers’ face but also he drew the realization that writers do not present the truth because they are cowards.
He had originally only proposed three difficulties with the name of his essay being “Poets Are To Tell Truth”. The second version was printed in German in April 1935 with two more added truths. The fourth truth was the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective and the fifth truth was the cunning to spread the truth among the many. Why did he print these in his second publication rather then the first? It could be that he was afraid of the consequences of his writing the first time around, for the world was engaged in violence. The second reason for Brecht to add the truths on a later publication could be that he was still working on the idea and had time to develop his writing. Another reason for this could be that his audience was different both times, or because he thought that the message was going to effect people differently depending on the time that it was published. The third publication was a translated version of the second that was published in the United States to yet another audience. This might have not had the same effect because the United States was a capitalistic nation.
Brecht, I believe created a piece of work that is different from that of many of his predecessors in the sense that its purpose is not only leave behind a classic but to actually ignite a search of truth till the end of time. I believe this writing is going to endure the test of time also because truth is something that is never fully exposed, no matter the state of the government as well. The five major points were once again, the courage to write the truth, the keenness to recognize the truth, the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon, the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective, and the cunning to spread the truth among the many. The perfect example of this to have ever taken place in the history of our country was the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. These two journalists worked together to overcome all five difficulties and unveil the biggest corruption scandal of the country. His reasons ring true to this day because even today we need the courage to write the truth, and also to be able to recognize the truth. If the truth is not recognized then your point and courage holds no meaning. The validity of the truth needs to be established before the next step is taken; the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon. This in its own a tricky thing to do, but what we have to know is that instead of making generalizations we need to attack exact points that we are writing against. Once these points have been made, it is also then up to the writer to try to find the right people that can bring change with this knowledge. Then, when it comes to the publication of the work, the writer should keep in mind that the only people that can read that are people that read that newspaper, so that the job of the writer becomes to somehow get their message to the masses instead of a select group of people. Though the Watergate example took place a while ago, there are still truths to be figured out and systems to be changed around the world and so this is something that is still relevant to today.
Brecht’s five truths can then be applied to the contemporary world in the form of the 2008 Presidential Debate. Obama and McCain are two political leaders that want to help the country during its tumultuous times and both believe that their plan is the best to fix the current situation. They both claim to be showing the truth of the opponent; what really the politics of the other are. According to the five truths, they are both courageous to speak the truth. But the truth is not something that can be proved in this election because each party wants to claim that they are right, but for the purpose of this paper we will say that they are both couragous enough to spread the truth. Both men are actually using their truth as a weapon against the other. Obama and Mccain are also politicians that know who they can supply with the truth, so that it becomes action; for the time being it seems to themselves as presidents in the near future. And as far as getting the information to the masses is concerned, we know that with mass media, that is no problem for any of the candidates. So that leaves with the last truth of Brecht, the keenness of recognizing the truth, and that is something that someone else has to catch the two candidates on. They both claim that they are correct right now and in their future plans but the world will only know when it comes into action.
“Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties”, an essay by Brecht, poses difficulties that are indeed not ones that you can overcome in a short amount of time, but overcoming them is going to be the key of our world and social systems. Galileo, one of the characters of Brecht and scientists that caused a scientific revolution, understood this and worked with it. I wanted to pursue the career or journalism and after reading this essay I know that this is a lot more difficult then what I had imagined before. Everyone can write about one’s feelings and statistics, but writing about the truth is truly a huge burden. One thing that I took away from his essay is to be straightforward with the truth because only then can you make your point and cause change. Keenness to know the truth is something that I envy people for, for I believe that there are very few people that have that characteristic in their writing. Writing the truth is not hard, and sugarcoating it is very easy. A strong writer, understands their goal, writes to the right audience, and goes straight for the truth. That is the writer I want to become a writer who can direct constructive discussions and questions; questioning the fundamentals of society and making people want to go find the truth rather than being beings that get “fed” their facts.
Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt. Galileo. Ed. Eric Bentley. Grove Press: New York, 1966.
Bertolt Brecht. October 20, 08. Theatre Database. Octover 20, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment