Peter Weiss

thumb|right|Against Nature's silence I use action In the vast indifference I invent a meaning I don't watch unmoved I intervene... Peter Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German-born Swedish writer, painter and filmmaker. Quotes I could buy myself paper, a pen, a pencil and a brush and could create pictures whenever and wherever I wanted. … That evening, in the spring of 1947, on the embankment of the Seine in Paris, at the age of thirty, I saw that it was possible to live and work in the world, and that I could participate in the exchange of ideas that was taking place all around, bound to no country. Vanishing Point (1962) In Dante the hero would rather flee and renounce the tempting embrace instead of yielding to his desires and enduring the attendant dangers. Dante (written 1963, published 2003) Only in his poetry did he have the courage to love. Dante (written 1963, published 2003) Marat/Sade (1963) Full title: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade) English version by Geoffrey Skelton. Verse adaptation by Adrian Mitchell. Music by Richard Peaslee. Atheneum, 1981, 0-689-70568-9 We've got rights the right to starveWe've got jobs waiting for workWe're all brothers lousy and dirtyWe're all free and equal to die like dogs Patients, act 1, scene 6 (p. 11) Charlotte Corday walked aloneParis birds sang sugar callsCharlotte walked down lanes of stonethrough the haze of perfume stallsCharlotte smelt the dead's gangreneHeard the singing guillotine Singers, act 1, scene 10 (p. 19) Don't soil your pretty little shoesThe gutter's deep and redClimb up climb up and ride along with methe tumbrel driver saidBut she never said a wordnever turned her headDon't soil your pretty little pantsI only go one wayClimb up climb up and ride along with meThere's no gold coach todayBut she never said a wordnever turned her head Singers, act 1, scene 10 (pp.19-20) Every death even the cruellest deathdrowns in the total indifference of NatureNature herself would watch unmovedif we destroyed the entire human raceI hate Naturethis passionless spectator this unbreakable iceberg-facethat can bear everythingthis goads us to greater and greater acts Sade, act 1, scene 12 (p. 24) Against Nature's silence I use actionIn the vast indifference I invent a meaningI don't watch unmoved I interveneand say that this and this are wrongand I work to alter them and improve themThe important thingis to pull yourself up by your own hairto turn yourself inside outand see the whole world with fresh eyes Marat, act 1, scene 12 (pp. 24-25) 11px|frameless QOTD 2007·11·08 Sound file And the priests looked down into the pit of injusticeand they turned away their faces and saidOur kingdom is not as the kingdom of this worldOur life on earth is but a pilgrimageThe soul lives on humility and patienceat the same time screwing from the poor their last centimeThey settled down among their treasuresand ate and drank with princesand to the starving they saidSufferSuffer as he suffered on the crossfor it is the will of God Marat, act 1, scene 13 (p. 28) So the poor instead of bread made do with a pictureof the bleeding scourged and nailed-up Christand prayed to that image of their helplessness Marat, act 1, scene 13 (pp. 28-29) We're all so clogged with dead ideaspassed from generation to generationthat even the best of us don't know the way outWe invented the Revolutionbut we don't know how to run itLook everyone wants to keep something from the pasta souvenir of the old regimeThis man decides to keep a paintingThis one keeps his mistressHe [pointing] keeps his gardenHe [pointing] keeps his estateHe keeps his country houseHe keeps his factoriesThis man couldn't part with his shipyardsThis one kept his armyand that one keeps his king Marat, act 1, scene 15 (p. 34) Singers: We've got nothing always had nothingnothing but holes and millions of themKokol: Living in holesPolpoch: Dying in holesCucurucu: Holes in our belliesRossignol: and holes in our clothes act 1, scene 16 (p. 35) Once and for allthe idea of glorious victorieswon by the glorious armymust be wiped outNeither side is gloriousOn either side they're just frightened men messing their pantsand they all want the same thingNot to lie under the earthbut to walk upon itwithout crutches Roux, act 1, scene 19 (p. 45) MaratToday they need you because you are going to suffer for themThey need you and they honour the urn which holds your ashesTomorrow they will come back and smash that urnand they will askMarat who was Marat Sade, act 1, scene 20 (p. 46) And now Maratnow I see wherethis revolution is headingTo the withering of the individual manand a slow merging into uniformityto the death of choiceto self denialto deadly weaknessin a statewhich has no contract with individualsbut which is impregnable Sade, act 1, scene 20 (p. 49) Don't be deceivedwhen our Revolution has been finally stamped outand they tell youthings are better nowEven if there's no poverty to be seenbecause the poverty's been hiddeneven if you ever got more wagesand could afford to buymore of these new and useless goodswhich these new industries foist on youand even if it seems to youthat you never had so muchthat is only the slogan of thosewho still have much more than you Marat, act 1, scene 23 (p. 55) What has gone wrong withthe men who are rulingI'd like to know whothey think they are foolingThey told us that torturewas over and gonebut everyone knowsthe same torture goes on Singers, act 1, scene 24 (p. 58) Long ago I abandoned my masterpiecea roll of paper thirty yards longwhich I filled completely with minute handwritingin my dungeon years agoIt vanished when the Bastille fellit vanished as everything writteneverything thought and plannedwill disappear Sade, act 2, scene 28 (p. 82) What's the point of a revolutionwithout generalcopulation copulation copulation Chorus, act 2, scene 30 (p. 92) Fight on land and seaAll men want to be freeIf they don'tnever mindwe'll abolish all mankind Singers and Patients, act 2, scene 31 (p. 98) We can say what we like without favour or fearand what we can't say we can breathe in your ear Singers, act 2, scene 33 (p. 100) Our play's chief aim has been to take to bitsGreat propositions and their opposites, See how they work, and let them fight it out, To point some light on our eternal doubt. Marat and I both advocated force But in debate each took a different course. Both wanted changes, but his views and mine On using power never could combine. On the one side, he who thinks our lives Can be improved by axes and knives, Or he who, submerged in the imagination, Seeking a personal annihilation. Sade, epilogue I've twisted and turned them every way, And can see no ending to our play. Sade, epilogue External links Peter Weiss pages by emmyBCA Profile at imagi-nation Profile at IMDb Review of Marat/Sade at The Complete Review Review of Inferno at The Complete Review Review of The Investigation at The Complete Review "The Political Aesthetics of Holocaust Literature: Peter Weiss's The Investigation and Its Critics" by Robert Cohen, History and Memory Vol. 10, No. 2 (Fall 1998) Category:Painters from Germany Category:Painters from Sweden Category:Film directors from Germany Category:1916 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Playwrights from Germany Category:Playwrights from Sweden Category:Jews from Germany Category:Christians Category:Communists from Germany Category:Anti-war activists Category:Tony Award winners