I have never really understood what we mean when we talk about culture. Particularly difficult to understand is the idea of American culture. If it is what we seem to be exporting to Poland on CDs and TVs, we may all have questions.
The televisions in hotel rooms and store windows of Warsaw seemed to be stuck on MTV. There is no doubt that rock is a particularly American art form, but it is hard for someone like me from the past generation to understand the universal appeal. It was particularly hard to understand in Poland. It seemed out of context with another cultural world that I was seeing.My first chance to see was a walk in one of the many parks of Warsaw. I bought an ice cream cone by pointing and pantomime and by saying the only Polish word I knew, prosz. In return the vendor chose a flavor for me and taught me my second word, dzikuj. Now that I had please and thank you in my vocabulary I carried my lody (ice cream) through the park and looked.
I saw people reading to each other. Parents sat on park benches with children and read to them. I saw a young couple and tried to guess what he might be reading to her. An old woman was reading to an older man. Three men on a park bench were exchanging parts of a newspaper with animated discussion that probably validated the Polish aphorism that two Poles will make for three opinions and four political parties.
There was a vendor at the park entrance with a cart of books and another with newspapers. There are 14 dailies now in Warsaw. They seem to go in and out of business quickly because of their sponsorship by particular political parties, the fact that they are not market sensitive in seeking an audience and the fact that journalists think more in terms of what they want to say rather than presenting analysis to a particular audience. The number of papers available in a small market may at least be evidence that someone reads.
I observed at the opera. This year is a celebration of Mozart, and "The Magic Flute" was sung in German. I followed the English libretto but noticed that the young teen or old pre-teen sitting next to me was humming along and obviously understanding the opera.
I tried to be polite at intermission, but he could only speak Polish and German, and I was an English speaker still working on please, thank you and ice cream.
The standing room area was mostly young people. They sat on the stage stairs and stood around the perimeter of the hall. Most didn't have librettos. I wondered if they understood. I also wondered if they watched MTV.
Ilone Morzol-Ogorek, a publisher, tried to explain. She said that Poland is writing a new definition of culture. In the past it seems that culture was difficult to censor. Plays and books made the points with biting clarity that couldn't be censored. Books were smuggled and clandestinely exchanged. Videos of American movie classics were smuggled into the country, and Voice of America spoke to the people with information and music. Now the artistic world is free and easily accessible.
"In the past there was no thought that literature may have some commercial value. This past literature and culture was part of a fight for the souls of the people. We found, however, that culture is not an instrument of ideology; it is an instrument of freedom."
"We used to think that it was the same in America. We used to believe that artists made films in America. Now I've seen `Shining' and also learned what it means to `go ahead, make my day,' and I'm not certain about American culture. I'm not certain about the future of culture in a Poland that imports from America.
"We used to import the best. Now we import blindly. The choice, if we have one, is narrower that when we were censored. The first Polish `Playboy' will be published this month. It seems that the culture of the past was about politics. Now it is about money."
It is easy to agree with her that "Playboy" is about money and not a weapon in the "fight for the souls of the people" like "Solidarity Weekly," which was published in the '80s and was both censored and courageous. It is also easy to agree with her that the 14 dailies published now in Warsaw may be part of the fight for votes and minds rather than for souls.
Now there is more confusion. I started not understanding American culture. Now I don't understand Polish culture either. Is "Playboy" the price society has to pay to freely enjoy Mozart? Perhaps most important is that there is now a choice in Poland.
Culture can be what Polish people choose. Neither literature nor junk must be clandestinely exchanged. Both are in the market now as they are in the United States. We can all hope the best will win by being the best and not by force of censorship or ideology. We can also wonder along with some of the people in Poland why it is that the best of the culture seemed to thrive more in adversity than with freedom.
Roger G. Baker is associate professor of English/education at Snow College. Comments or questions about "Learning Matters" may be addressed to Dr. Roger Baker, English Department, Snow College, Ephraim, UT 84627.