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第２巻第６章 アメリカ（1938～1944）
1939年の夏,ジョンとケイトは,学校の休暇期間中に,私たちのところにやってきた。彼らが到着して２，３日すると,第二次世界大戦が勃発した。そのため,彼らを英国に戻すことが不可能になった。そこですぐさま私は,二人のそれ以後の教育の手配をしなければならなかった。ジョンは17歳だったので,カリフォルニア大学に入学させた。しかしケイトの方はまだ15歳だったので,大学に入れるのは若すぎるように思われた。私は,ロサンゼルスでは,どの学校が一番学力水準の高い学校かということを友人たちに尋ねたところ,彼らが全部一致して推薦してくれたところが一校あった。そこでケイトをその学校に入れた。しかしその学校で教えられている科目でケイトがまだ知っていないものはたった一つしかなく,それは「資本主義制度の長所」というものであった。そのため私は,彼女は年齢が若すぎたが,ケイトを大学にやらざるえなかった。1939年から1940年までの間,ジョンとケイトは私たちと一緒に暮らした。 1939年の夏,私たちはサンタ・バーバラに家を一軒借りた（右下地図出典：Google Maps, c2011）。サンタ・バーバラはとても心地よいところであるが,運悪く,私は背中（背骨）を痛め,そのためにとても堪えられないほどの坐骨神経痛に悩まされ,１ケ月間背を伸ばしたまま寝ていなければならなかった。その結果,講義の準備が遅れ,（秋から始まる）次の学期を通していつも過労となり,自分の講義が十分ではないという意識を常に持っていた。 学問的雰囲気は,シカゴ大学よりもはるかに感じの悪いものだった。カリフォルニア大学ロサンゼルス校の教員たちはそれほど有能ではなかったし,（カリフォルニア大学）総長（President）は －私の見方は正しいと思うが－ 私が大いに嫌悪を感じる人物であった（注：ロバート・ ゴードン・スプロール総長／Robert Gordon Sproul, 1891-1975 ）。もし講師が余りに自由な意見を言うと,その講師は職務を十分果たしていないということで解雇された。教授会がある時には,その総長はいつも,あたかもジャック・ブーツ（注：17,18世紀に騎兵隊が着用した厚皮の膝上まであるブーツ）をはいているかのような足取りで入って来て,そうして,不規則ないかなる提案も,たまたま自分が気に入らなければ,いつもそれは規則違反であると判定した。全員が学長の渋い顔に怖れおののいた。私はその光景を見て,ヒトラー支配下の国会での会議を思い起した。 |
v.2,chap.6: America I became a professor at the University of California at Los Angleles. After the bleak hideousness of Chicago, which was still in the grip of winter, it was delightful to arrive in the Californian spring. We arrived in California at the end of March, and my duties did not begin until September. The first part of the intervening time I spent in a lecture tour, of which I remember only two things with any vividness. One is that the professors at the Louisiana State University, where I lectured, all thought well of Huey Long, on the ground that he had raised their salaries. The other recollection is more pleasant: in a purely rural region, I was taken to the top of the dykes that enclose the Mississippi. I was very tired with lecturing, long journeys, and heat. I lay in the grass, and watched the majestic river, and gazed, half hypnotized, at water and sky. For some ten minutes I experienced peace, a thing which very rarely happened to me, and I think only in the presence of moving water. In the summer of 1939, John and Kate came to visit us for the period of the school holidays. A few days after they arrived the War broke out, and it became impossible to send them back to England. I had to provide for their further education at a moment's notice. John was seventeen, and I entered him at the University of California, but Kate was only fifteen, and this seemed young for the University. I made enquiries among friends as to which school in Los Angeles had the highest academic standard, and there was one that they all concurred in recommending, so I sent her there. But I found that there was only one subject taught that she did not already know, and that was the virtues of the capitalist system. I was therefore compelled, in spite of her youth, to send her to the University. Throughout the year 1939-1940 John and Kate lived with us. In the summer months of 1939 we rented a house at Santa Barbara, which is an altogether delightful place. Unfortunately, I injured my back, and had to lie flat on my back for a month, tortured by almost unendurable sciatica. The result of this was that I got behindhand with the preparations for my lectures, and that throughout the coming academic year I was always overworked and always conscious that my lectures were inadequate. The academic atmosphere was much less agreeable than in Chicago; the people were not so able, and the President was a man for whom I conceived, I think justly, a profound aversion. If a lecturer said anything that was too liberal, it was discovered that the lecturer in question did his work badly, and he was dismissed. When there were meetings of the Faculty, the President of the University used to march in as if he were wearing jack-boots, and rule any motion out of order if he did not happen to like it. Everybody trembled at his frown, and I was reminded of a meeting of the Reichstag under Hitler.
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