The Name Bergson Stirs up the Blood of the French, part two
by R.S. Levin Once names like Bergson, Spengler, Dewey, and William James, and the ideas espoused by them were de rigueur as subjects for conversation in the salons and cafes frequented by thinking men up to the second world war. Times have changed. Undoubtedly more Frenchmen today are familiar with Madonna's songs, than withHenri Bergson's "Matter and Memory." But in France intellectuals are still respected as much as basketball players, at least for the present. Most serious students of liberal arts still know le Professeur's name, even if they don't read his books anymore. And now that name may once more be on the ascendancy, due to the burgeoning success of Henri's clansman. He left England for good in 1965, which was, in his own words, "As soon as I could." Adrian was quite disenchanted by the attitudes and prejudices of the British working and lower middle classes. One of Adrian's parents was half black-African, and Adrian's complexion is so dark he is often taken for a Pakistani or Indian. He reveals that he never felt quite at home in Britain, but feels very comfortable in Paris, where status as an artist and an ndividual can supersede even skin color and national origin. Adrian's choice makes an interesting parallel with the professor's life. Henri Bergson also rejected a chance to live in England, his mother's homeland. Born in France, Henri chose to remain in France. The French ntellectual spirit seemed cheerful and attractive in comparison to the reary outlook of English thinkers, personified by the dull logical positivism of Russell.
Though both Henri Bergson and Adrian's father were descended from a prominent Polish Jewish banking family, Henri appreciated the life-affirming themes of French Catholicism and French culture. Henri made a deliberate decision to participate in a philosophical tradition emanating directly from Descartes. At one time Henri seriously considered converting to Catholicism, but the escalating Nazi persecutions influenced him to remain loyal to his origins. He made this decision during the period when the Jews were about to undergo the greatest ordeal in their history. Henri died in 1941 just before the deportations of Jews began. Several prominent French intellectuals, though officially collaborating with Vichy, risked Nazi censure by daring to eulogize their old professor in print after his death. Meanwhile Adrian's branch of the family fled the Nazis. Henri (the professor's namesake) had remained in Poland, from whence Adrian's father Joseph fled to England as a refugee. Like many victims of the Holocaust, Joseph never recovered from his feeling of dislocation and persecution. He never enthusiastically embraced life in London, a feeling which his son inherited in spite of a degree in English literature from Oxford in 1963.
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