(1980)
by Valentin Silvestru (1924-1996)
excerpt 'A friend, newspaper reporter' tries to mystify the author by dropping the 'bombshell' about the arrest of some very dangerous anarchists, with bags full of dynamite, poison, daggers, pistols, and compromising letters. The man inquires around and finds out it's all a fabrication, upon which the reporter serves him another one, 'even tougher,' about the war declaration, which, confronted again with an authorised source, leads to the conclusion that 'these people want to baffle the world.' The author's normal reaction is to ridicule the inflamed reporter by feeding him the news that the Bridge of Cernavodă blew up, upon which the journalist goes straight to the telegraph to forward the fresh information to the newspaper headquarters. Pressed by the printer to provide materials, the editor writes an article full of fierce opposition to the current policy: 'The nation has had enough of the turpitude, knavish tricks, stealing, corruption, infamy, betrayal of its most sacred interests, enough of the cruelty, cynicism, defiance, baseness, and repulsion of this so-called conservative regime, an unjust and decayed regime, corrupt and corrupting, spoilt and spoiling.' When the typesetter draws his attention upon the fact that the article seems paradoxical in a newspaper that has no intention of being against the government, the editor has no problem in switching to the exact opposite opinion and blame the former collectivist (liberal) regime for all the wrong doings attributed to the current one (Politics). Caracudi, the reporter is the prototype of the mythomaniac mystifier without any principles or professional scruples. In the chaos of this intentional misleading, Caragiale proposes a specific way of finding out the truth, by a simple mathematical operation: 'I am a man who loves the truth and because I love it, I know how to look for it. I've long made myself a recipe which, in terms of politics, is almost infallible in obtaining it. For instance, the opposition newspaper says: "…more than 6000 citizens, all the Capital has of more distinguished in terms of liberal professions, traders, proprietors, etc., had hurried to join our meeting…"The government newspaper says:"… this meeting of theirs could hardly force together about 300 rakes, cads, and tramps…" So I reckon there would have been about 3000 people, all sorts of, both like this and like that". (Tense Atmosphere) Along the same lines, in one of the Advice pieces we have the following suggestion: 'Take half a statement from an opposition newspaper and stir it well with half a denial from a governmental one – here is a recipe that might often turn out to be useful in finding out the truth.'
(1980)
by Valentin Silvestru (1924-1996)
(1980)
by Valentin Silvestru (1924-1996)