Читать книгу Reading (in) the Holocaust - Malgorzata Wójcik-Dudek - Страница 23

The Academy, Adam and all the “A-boys” make up the space which is controlled by Mr Inkblot, the mentor. To assume that amassing protagonists whose names start with an A is a pure coincidence would be quite a stretch of the imagination. Of course, Mr Inkblot himself explains this onomastic elitism by citing his reluctance to memorise and litter his mind with other letters. However, Mr Inkblot’s reverence for the letter A – aleph in Hebrew – cannot but prompt further inquiries. Although in the phonetic transcription this vowel is just a variety of aspiration, it means more than all the other letters of the alphabet.¹³² The point is that, according to kabbalists, aleph is the sum of the three fundamental geometrical forms which are the cornerstones of the Hebraic alphabet. Specifically, these forms are: the point (corresponding to the letter yod from which everything took its beginning), the line (corresponding to the letter vav and symbolising erect posture) and the plane (two lines forming an L and corresponding to the letter dalet). With its shape formed by these three letters, aleph itself means the unity of God.¹³³

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Władysław Panas insists that the Hebraic sign for aleph is similar to the Greek χ (chi), the first letter in chiasmos, i.e. the crossing. Panas understands it as tantamount to meeting the Other. If so, aleph is a record of encounter as it symbolises God and man with one hand gesturing up at the sky and the other down at the ground, the point of beginning.¹³⁴

The idea of attending to the script and hidden meanings may by particularly germane to the story of Mr Inkblot. The dense fabric of evocations of writing (including inkblotgraphy lessons, the spinning of letters, the recording of dreams, china tablets with secrets inscribed on them, an expedition for ink and the very name of the eponymous character) makes this interpretive perspective particularly compelling. Importantly, Hebrew is a holy tongue (Lashon Hakodesh), for the letters of its alphabet possess such an extraordinary power and energy that they served as the primary tools of creation. It should be remembered that Jewish kabbalists dismissed the idea of the creation of the world out of nothing and argued that because God had created the visible world in emulation of the invisible Torah, all the creatures of this world imitated the letters of the invisible, mystical Torah.¹³⁵

As a consequence of this doctrine, a specific approach to the interpretation of the world was developed in which the central axis is provided by philosophical reflection on individual letters of the visible Torah, while their order is believed to be reflected in the surrounding world.

Let us focus on another series of letters, one that lines up into a name. In Hebraic tradition, to relinquish the name means to give up on life and language because, as Jacques Derrida reminds, following Scholem: “Speech is name. In the names, the power of language is enclosed, in them its abyss is sealed.”¹³⁶ Jews ←61 | 62→believe that God will use their names to call them to rise from their graves on the day of resurrection, and the Talmud suggests that God’s judgment can be revoked by changing one’s name.¹³⁷

Adaś is certainly a prominent name in The Academy. Adaś in Polish is an endearing diminutive of Adam, and Adam is the term for the human being in Hebrew.¹³⁸ Gematria ascribes to the letters used in this name the numeric value of 45, which is represented in ma, that is, “what?”¹³⁹ The human being is thus a question about what s/he is or perhaps of what s/he becomes and what s/he intends to be. Within such an interpretive framework, the human being is potentiality itself, a pure possibility which is usually attributed to the child alone.

Adaś is twelve years old when he enters the Academy in order to be changed, improved and mended so as to turn from a loser into a man of success. He is to be helped by Mr Inkblot, the mentor of the boys. However, Mr Inkblot immediately explains what rules apply at his Academy: “ ‘Remember, boys,’ Mr Inkblot told us right at the start, ‘that I will not teach you your multiplication tables, nor grammar, nor calligraphy, nor all those sciences which are usually taught at schools. I will simply open your heads up and put some brains inside.’ ”¹⁴⁰

What does it mean to “open the heads up” and “put some brains inside” in the context of Mr Inkblot’s “educational” interventions? His Academy is not a cheder, contrary to what the age of his students could imply.

The magnificent building of the Academy, situated amidst a park which borders with fairylands, does not resemble a cheder at all. The stately three-story edifice with its halls for study and play, the mysterious room which belongs to Mr Inkblot alone and the huge garden which is surrounded by a wall with a glass gate and innumerable gates leading to various fairy tales, resembles a well-organised institution, even though the Academy is free of an oppressive system ←62 | 63→of instruction. Bringing to mind a palace rather than a school, the building substantiates the fairy-tale status of Brzechwa’s narrative. When the students pass through the glass gate, they enter a space of promise which by no means exhorts them to “abandon all hope,” instead encouraging them to develop self-confidence.

Or is it a yeshiva perhaps? Under the First Republic of Poland (i.e. between the 15th century and the third partition of Poland in 1795), such schools were called Talmudic academies. They admitted thirteen-year-old boys after their bar mitzvah. The biggest yeshiva in pre-war Poland was situated in Lublin (Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva/Yeshiva of Wise Men in Lublin) and taught boys from fourteen years of age.

Mr Inkblot establishes a hybrid institution which performs a range of functions. It is certainly a school, an extensive playground and a therapeutic facility in which the boys are helped to develop self-reliance, paralleling the worn-down appliances repaired by Mr Inkblot. The path to repair leads through a revolution in consciousness, a unique metanoia. The transformation is triggered by dialogue between the student and the teacher. In this sense, Mr Inkblot’s school is reminiscent of Plato’s Academy combined with a cheder or, considering the age of the boys, with a yeshiva.

As a result, the typical cheder rebbe comes across as merely a poor caricature of what a real teacher and guide should be, which is what Mr Inkblot professes and is considered to be. His exceptionality does not solely reside in his magical abilities, obvious attributes of the fairy-tale protagonist as they are, but first and foremost in his approach to learning and studying. Mr Inkblot becomes a second father to his boys,¹⁴¹ improving their minds and opening them up to dialogue.

Unlike in the cheder, his methods primarily appeal to the unfettered imagination of children. Instead of calligraphy lessons, he offers classes in inkblotgraphy. To grasp the meaning of his actions, we should examine the contrast between an inkblot and a calligraphed character. The teacher repudiates repetition, imitation and replication of the ancient pattern, instead prioritising activeness, dynamism, creation and naming. Like images in Rorschach tests, the shapes of inkblots compel the Academy students to be actively involved, enthusiastic and committed to constructing stories, all of which would be impossible without the ←63 | 64→work of their imaginations. A spot of ink on paper is submitted to imaginative interpretations, which presupposes creative freedom.

In Hebrew, the verb “to study” is symbolised by the letter lamed ‒ ל. As the only one of the twenty two characters in the alphabet, lamed extends above the line of script. Therefore, to study means to rise, to go beyond oneself and to open up to infinity. This process is usually dynamic; rather than wordless, silent and associated with the asceticism of individual study, it is captured in a metaphorical image of a battlefield. It is enveloped in motion and noise, takes place in the company of other learners and above all involves the presence of the master. Knowledge is acquired in this way not only by students at batei midrash, but also by the pupils of Mr Inkblot’s Academy.

The transgression of boundaries in emulation of the letter lamed is supposed to develop an open mind, to foster a creative imagination and to unblock intellectual capacities. Steeped in such an educational milieu, the individual “becomes,” and the teaching process never ends. Mr Inkblot insists that interpretation is not a given but a possibility which sets thinking in motion. Thus the task that Mr Inkblot devises for himself is to put thoughts in constant motion.

Stretching beyond the ruling, the letter lamed points to what forms the bedrock of studying. Studying is a continual “ascent towards” which defies any ultimate definition. It ensues from a creative refusal to answer the question lying at the core of the human being: Adam – “what?”. To answer it would mean the end of the quest and the achievement of stabilisation, which opposes the human calling to self-fulfilment through “being on the way.”

Therefore Mr Inkblot activates the imagination of his students in the belief that the teacher-student encounter is grounded in trust and an “honest” flow of knowledge. Such a relationship is well conveyed by a tale about Zeno of Citium and the meaning of his gestures. The philosopher would show his open hand and say “A visual appearance is like this.” Then, folding his fingers a little, he would explain: “An act of assent is like this.” Afterwards, he would clench his hand into a fist and say that this was what comprehension was like. Finally he would firmly press his left hand around his right hand and “say that such was knowledge, which was within the power of nobody save the wise man.”¹⁴² However, the ←64 | 65→Talmudic master critically reinterprets this tale. He starts by releasing the right fist from the left hand. Then he slowly extends his fingers, shows his hand resembling an open flower and comments that this is how intelligence blooms. In the following step, the open hand with stretched-out fingers expresses an invitation to encounter. This is the hand of the wise man who knows that dialogue is the greatest of gifts. Finally, his hands cross at wrists, forming wings of a bird. This bird ascends…¹⁴³

This is the way in which Mr Inkblot opens up his students’ minds because he knows that only such an intellect mirrors transcendence, while restraints imposed on it produce stabilisation, which halts free thinking, a guarantee of life. Mr Inkblot seems to rely on characteristic yeshiva methods as by surprising his students he forces them to constantly reflect on the world. Specifically, his approach is reminiscent of pilpul, a method in which Biblical contradictions are studied and reconciled by recourse to various works of Talmudic literature.

Such a “flow” of ideas is vividly emblematised in the tablets of stone (luchot avanim). Eben means “stone.” The word can be parsed into av and ben, which denote respectively “father” and “son.” So what actually takes place in “stone” is a symbolic encounter of two generations. Given this, it is not in the static matter of stone but in the process of intergenerational transmission that the value of the stone-engraved record of the commandments itself lies.¹⁴⁴

At the heart of studying lies an encounter with another human being (the face) and an exchange of thoughts in which a new meaning originates, briefly khidush.¹⁴⁵ For this reason, studying is a loving exchange, and the Book transfigures into the master.¹⁴⁶

Alojzy’s arrival marks the beginning of the Academy’s end. Certainly neither the boy nor his guardian Filip seeks an encounter or the self-development it is supposed to entail, let alone the values inherent in dialogue and communication. As a matter of fact, Jewish tradition envisages and even encourages a student’s rebellion against his teacher. However Alojzy is patently not the representation of the Other with whom it is possible to cohabit provided that the word appears in the space between him and those who are “at home.” The function of the word ←65 | 66→is to bind and to ensure the continuity of transmission. It is not a coincidence that “one” and “other” in Hebrew “bear the secret of peaceable existence: One is echad (aleph, chet, dalet). Other is acher (aleph, chet, resh). Both words […] start with the letter aleph. As the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph has the numeric value of one. In Rabbinic tradition, aleph is associated with God, who is one. […] Neither I nor you can usurp the right to superiority because both one and other, all of us receive life from God.”¹⁴⁷

This is not the only similarity of the two words. Importantly, they share the same root, which means a “brother,” which is itself etymologically related to the verb “to sew.”¹⁴⁸ This produces a vivid image of brotherhood which is founded on sewing together – bringing people closer and building strong communal bonds.

Alojzy’s natural element, however, is destruction rather than construction. Being a mechanical doll, his artificiality prevents him from embracing dialogue and from being incorporated in the concept of brotherhood. He brazenly announces his intentions: “I will be destroying everything because that’s what I fancy doing!”¹⁴⁹ He is bored with the company of the boys and would like to acquire the whole of knowledge quickly and almost “mechanically.” Mr Inkblot takes notice of the inhuman pace at which his pupil learns and finds it difficult to accept: “Basically, he has outdone all of us. He is simply a wonderful creation. He has learned everything there is to learn at the Academy, and he can even speak Chinese. It seems to me that he literally devoured my Chinese dictionary, for I cannot find it anywhere.”¹⁵⁰ The fact that Alojzy devours books is however not coupled with any love of knowledge: “I didn’t ask Mr Inkblot to teach me thinking. I could do very well without it.”¹⁵¹

He that can do very well without thinking chooses to take shortcuts. He gulps books unreflectingly and unemotionally, and seeks to defeat his master by destroying his secrets inscribed on china tablets. What meanings are conveyed in the name Alojzy? It is a name of Germanic origin and means “omniscient,” deriving from al-wis, all-weisse (“all-knowing/wise”).¹⁵² He that is called so is also ←66 | 67→branded with pride, which makes him ignore the truth that study, i.e. interpretation, is inextricable from patience and readiness for encounter. He embodies an aversion to constant hypothesising and inferring. The rebellion of Alojzy, the rebellion of a machine, puts the time of free imagination and dialogue to an end.¹⁵³

This “exchange” of values inevitably brings to mind the birth of fascism and the outbreak of the Second World War. The destruction of the community which Mr Inkblot and his students have formed results in deconstructing the ancient order reflected not only in the relationship between the student and the teacher, but also in the relations among individual signs – letters that form the text. The cracking of the china tablets with the secrets recorded on them reverberates with a range of cultural references, both bringing to mind time-honoured thought traditions and offering a historical context-specific topical allusion. For one, it re-enacts shevirat ha kelim (the shattering of the vessels), and for the other, it evokes the burning of books in Germany in 1933 and, more generally, the destruction of dissenting works by totalitarian systems.

As Alojzy wrecks books and the china tablets, language is also annihilated, because “if in the name of God, Shaddai, one single point, the tiny letter Yod, were lacking, there would remain the word Shod, that is to say, devastation. It is by virtue of this dot that the awful power of God, which at any moment could utterly devastate and annihilate the world, brings about the world’s redemption instead. This dot is the primeval originating point of creation.”¹⁵⁴

Alojzy violates not only the order of letters, but also the order of law; he does not follow the letter of the law, so to speak. If books have not escaped annihilation, the end of the Academy is also possible. And without the Academy, all the points of reference which have so far provided the children in Mr Inkblot’s care with a sense of security will be gone. Consequently, the eradication of the Academy can be construed in several ways: as the end of childhood, the loss of the Temple or the outbreak of war. Still, all of these interpretations entail one ←67 | 68→common ramification; namely, Adaś and the other boys are doomed to be exiles and their journey will become a real test of the values which their master sought to instil in them.

One of the final episodes of The Academy of Mr Inkblot deserves closer scrutiny. Filip, the constructor of Alojzy, steps into the building and uses his razor to cut off, one by one, the candleflames glimmering on the Christmas tree. Darkness descends upon the Academy, and with it upon the entire world.¹⁵⁵ Alojzy’s rebellion is not only an act of defection from ancient principles, but also an expression of the desire to obscure fundamental meanings which are metonymically rendered in letters that form continuous sequences of words.¹⁵⁶ Therefore Adaś must go and gain light, read: ink, which will make it possible to record the world as letters are guarantees of its existence. Ultimately then, his quest will be a restitutive one, which means that its aim is to restore to the world the shape it had before the disaster. Mr Inkblot and Adaś face the difficult task of leading the world out of darkness, which epitomises stagnation, ignorance and the impossibility of writing, and into light, which is identified with freedom, knowledge and the writing of a narrative.