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152

Wednesday. Dec 22 
[[strikethrough]] May 21 [[/strikethrough]]

AM- Finally got my palette - a labor of love presented to me by Chinese carpenter Joe Lee, 262, 39th St. Railway Block- Rangoon
   
Then to 239 Barr St. Art Shop- run by 'Mya Maung,' 'Maung Tnan' & Tum Kyi for paints. (No turpentine- have to get it at drug store) I do hope the custom duty will finally be removed on art supplies - 25 Chats yd. canvas ($5.00) small bottles of medium 2.50 (50¢) everything exhorbitant & prohibitive especialy for young local artists.

Did small watercolors all day (poor results Eve- Reading 'The God That Failed- Richard Wright, Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone [[Initiates]] Louis Fischer, Stephen Spender & André Gide - worshipers from afar - the Communist experience.

Impossible to work in room evening. Even with double screened windows - a single light attracts literally hundreds of bugs of all sizes & shapes which prove
distracting beyond belief.

Mailing letter home tomorrow morning-


143

André Gide -  
Art & Communism)
(AW.)
[[strikethrough]] Dec. 24. Thursday [[/strikethrough]]
[[strikethrough]] May 22 [[/strikethrough]]
Wed. Dec. 22

Interesting to compare the search for a faith made by André Gide - is analogous to the search the artist must make. In his youth, Gide was completely individualistic & held strongly to a personal sense of liberty. In his middle years, he was forced to the realization that man without God is doomed to defeat unless he substitutes some other idea for God. The individual, in other words, is bankrupt because he tries to be entirely self sufficient He now theorizes that liberty was not sufficient in itself, that it destroys itself if it is not linked to some ideal beyond egoism & self-expression.

Many years later (1946) a further development in his conception of individuality & liberty became apparent. He (now) believed that absolute liberty destroys the individual & also society unless it be closely linked to tradition & discipline. That the strong, purposeful & courageous individual is able to return safely from the maze only because he has clung tightly