Vysotsky

[joanna bujes]

At 11:48 AM 01/28/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>So the "counter-culture" in Eastern Europe was driven for the most part
>by low supply and urban legends of state repression that "explained" it
>- - which drovbe the demand even higher.  The local writers and performers
>quickly discovered that  these legends can boost their own popularity,
>I personally knew a score of unpublished writers or song singers who
>claimed that theier inability to get a publication or a record was due
>to "censorship: rather than medirocre quality of their writing or music
>- - which allowed them to bask in a "dissident" glory, perform in student
>clubs and have a steady following of groupies.
>
>Wojtek

Hey Woj!

Right on, on most accounts. When I left Romania in 63, life really was 
pretty good. The decline started with IMF loans in the early seventies(?). 
But, as for the censorship, it was there. My mother was a writer and it 
seemed as if she had to write to a certain formula to keep her 
perks....which were amazing!!! Basically, she got to be a writer full-time, 
to go off and live in castles in order to have the space/time for creative 
work -- she also had daily heavily subsidized restaurant meals (she didn't 
have to cook a single meal until we left the country) and like everyone 
else, she had free childcare, free education, free health care.

I'm not saying that people who write for the "market" don't have to write 
to a formula...they do. But you do understate the censorship issue.

Joanna