190

HERMINA JOLDERSMA, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

Renate Rubinstein: an Introduction

Of the numerous Dutch books I borrowed and Niets te verliezen,£n toch bang. Particularly read during my six months of dissertation this latter book, \Yhich documents Rubinstein's research in Amsterdam in 1979, two by thoughts and feelings about her painful Renate Rubinstein were so memorable that separation and divorce in the early 1970s, may eight years later I feel compelled to investigate serve as a good introduction to the compelling the reasons for the impact of her writing. In images in her writing, and to her ability to retrospect, it seems that both place and time provide a uniquely Dutch perspective while were conducive to my receptivity. Certainly preserving universal human validity. In the my room in Amsterdam Oost, right across book she alternates between spontaneous from the Tropenmuseum, its windows filled emotional reactions to events during the with plants and lace curtains, my black Dutch separation and divorce process, and incisive bicycle, the' market down the street, my analysis from the distance afforded by looking borrower's card to the city library and my desk back after some time has passed. It is, to quote at the P.J. Meertens Instituut, my two Aad Nuis from the Haagse Post, housemates who studied at the Gemeente Universiteit, and the fleas of the otherwise ... een bericht uit een zelfgesponnen hel, waar lovely resident cat, all gave me an insider's het inzicht dat je aile proporties uit het oog verloren hebt, helemaal niet lijkt te helpen bij empathy for Rubinstein's world that I could het terugvinden van die proporties. 'Een not have had in Canada. More importantly, kroniekschrijfster van de onwijsheid' noemt ze perhaps, and again in retrospect, I was zichzelf ergens in het boek. Je kunt ook emotionally receptive: I wanted to experience zeggen dat het haar beste reisverslag is, van modem Dutch culture as intensely as I had de moeilijkste reis die ze heeft gemaakt (Rubinstein: leder, p.195). experienced the small-town rural Calvinist Holland of the 1930s and 1940s, via my In her unabashed honesty Rubinstein immigrant parents and grandparents. expresses feelings, particularly the desire for Rubinstein's books provide a condensed form revenge on the partner who has left for of such an experience: her general theme is someone new, which are taboo for most modem Dutch culture, her style is personal members of Western societies. In almost no and emotional. Yet time and place were not moral system in our Western world is the the only factors, for even now her work desire for revenge now acceptable: it is fascinates and delights me, and each new considered primitive, uncivilized, unchristian reading gives me greater appreciation of and certainly, after the open marriage herself and her interpretation of modem philosophy of the late 1960s, very repressed Western society. and bourgeois. Rubinstein has no compunctions about admitting that she The two books I read in Amsterdam in 1979 wanted, and took, revenge: in one of the most were the controversial, just published memorable images in her writing, she Hedendaags jeminisme and the slightly earlier Renate Rubinstein: an introduction 191

describes how one day she just "happens" to books (leder). The following biographical be bicycling down the street in which her sketch is based largely on the information she estranged husband's "nieuwe vriendin" lives, gives about herself in her writings and on her how the sight of her husband's bicycle leaning interview with Jan Brokken in the Haagse against the railing brings all the anger she Post in 1985. thought she had dealt with maturely rushing to the surface once again, and how she - already Rubinstein was born in Germany in 1929 (the over forty at that time - takes revenge as only interview, p.41, says 1930); her father had a a Dutchwoman could and would, by letting coat factory in B~flin and her mother's family the air out of both his tires. lived there as well (Tamar, p.233, 236). When she was five her family moved, first to the Who is Renate Rubinstein? Despite the fact Netherlands, after two years to England, then that in 1979 she was awarded the Multatuli in 1939 back to the Netherlands again. Her prize for literature, and that since 1964 she has father was a Jew, her mother was not; the published at least 18 books, she is virtually children were not raised in any particular unknown outside of the Netherlands, and religion and Rubinstein has only recently certainly unknown on the North American begun to feel Jewish, something she qualifies continent. A thorough search in the average vaguely uneasily as "een Canadian university library (in. this case the ouderdomsverschijnsel" (Interview, p.41). Her University of Calgary) yielded almost nothing first reaction, as a child, to the invasion by the at all: she is not listed in any sort of Germans in 1940 was that she would have a international bibliography or encyclopedia, day off school. One month later, flOp de she has not been mentioned by the New York ochtend van de tiende juni 1940," her father Times, her books published between 1978 and was taken away by the "Gruene Polizei" who 1982 are not listed in the National Union promised: "Jullie vader komt gauw weer Catalog for those years (after 1983 the NUC terug" (leder, p.l00). Her father died in makes up for lost time by listing titles from as Auschwitz (Interview, p.37), and indeed none far back as 1979, but is still not of her father's family survived Nazi Germany, comprehensive), and she is not mentioned in except for one sister, unhappily married to a Delta, a Review ofArts, Life and Thought in drunkard who was fortunately a Gentile the Netherlands (issues from 1958 to 1973). (leder, p.65). She once calls Germany "mijn Only the Humanities and Social Sciences moordende land van herkomst" (Tamar, Review yielded one, very' meager, review p.226) and remarks "Moffen zijn heel enge (Nichols). In Holland, in contrast, Rubinstein mensen" (Wantrouwen, p.54), but in general is a well-known public persona; her work is she rarely refers to modem Germany. reviewed in a variety of Dutch newspapers such as NRC Handelsblad, De Groene During her studies in the 1950s at the Amsterdammer, De Volkskrant and the Gemeente Universiteit in Amsterdam, Haagse Post; she is a regular guest on talk RubiIistein was on the editorial staff of the shows, forums and panel discussions; and student weekly Propria Cures (Wantrouwen, even my Calvinist relatives, who faithfully p.44), a newspaper which seems to have been read Trouw, know something about her ideas. the first public forum for a number of Unfortunately I have not· yet been able to prominent Dutch writers during their student locate what seems to be a biography of sorts days (e.g., Aad Nuis, Jan Donkers). by Ischa Meijer, referred to as "een Rubinstein mentions her work on· the paper geschreven portret" on the cover of one of her only incidentally, in a column of political 192 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies comment ("Hongarije 1956 en Nederland wordt. De meeste emstige ziekten zijn 1981," Wantrouwen p.42-49), but this column progressief want als ze dat niet waren waren ze niet emstig. Het supreme voorbeeld is is a good example of the intricate web of natuurlijk het leven zelf waaraan ze immers cultural comment she weaves into her work. sterft. Ais je maar oud genoeg wordt takel je The issue of Propria Cures which she voordien af en verlies je een voor een je describes was a response to the crushing of the functies. AIleen duurt het meestal langer Hungarian revolt by the Russians in 1956, and voordat het zover is (Nee, p.21). to Dutch reaction to this event. The pro­ Moscow Dutch communist party supported Rubinstein is the oJdest of three children: her the Russians, but this support enraged a sister lives in LOl)don, England, her brother in population which remembered its own recent the Netherlands. Both are married and have foreign oppression and triggered serious children (Tamar, p.233), and she writes fondly rioting against the communist party and its that she relies on "een technisch begaafd buildings in Amsterdam. Most recently these neefje" to keep her version of the wheelchair, events have been compellingly portrayed in "het 20km autootje," in running condition the award-winning Dutch film De aanslag (Nee, p.108-109). Rubinstein herselflives in (Academy Award for best foreign film 1987). Amsterdam; as befits typical Amsterdammers, at least in foreign eyes, she has a cat, a In 1964 Rubinstein published the first Siamese named Tiepje, who occasionally collection of her columns, a book entitled merits an entire column of her own. Namens Tamar, Tamar being the pseudonym Given Rubinstein's prominence in Dutch under which she writes in the intellectually intellectual circles, it is surprising that so little left-liberal Vrij Nederland. Most of her books is known about her abroad. Without a doubt are similar collections; because each column one major reason for her international is dated, the reader, and especially the foreign obscurity is that her works are not available in reader, can trace a thread of significant events translation. This in tum could be attributed to and personalities in recent Dutch history. A two factors, cultural and linguistic: because few of her books were not written as columns her work is so rooted in modem Dutch but as books around a select topic; her "thema­ culture, often refeming to people and events boeken" (Nee, inside front cover) include the (e.g. TV shows or peace marches) which are previously mentioned Niets te verliezen en not known to outsiders, translations would be toch bang (about divorce), Liefst verliefd meaningless without extensive explanations. (about love), and her most recent Nee heb je, At the same time such explanations would notifies over ziek zijn. This last book is a contradict the spontaneous conversational moving account of an individual's struggle to style which is so characteristic of her work, a come to terms with illness and death. As is style which makes optimum use of all the usual with her writings, the book is rooted in "untranslatable" features of the Dutch personal experience: in 1977 Rubinstein was language, particularly idioms, intensifiers and diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. "Een qualifiers. progressieve ziekte," she calls it wryly, These two factors do not explain, however, commenting: why her work has never been discussed by foreign Neerlandici. For them the perception een progressieve ziekte is niet wat je op het eerste gezicht zou denken, een ziekte die beter that her writing is "journalism" rather than wordt, maar integendeel een ziekte die erger "literature" (Nichols) may be the major Renate Rubinstein: an introduction 193 deterrent, as she is a columnist for the weekly It is impossible, when reading Rubinstein's literary periodical Vrij Nederland (circulation writings, to miss the fact that she is "not circa 112,000, Willing's, p.759), and her books wholly in sympathy" (Nichols) with much of are usualy collections of these columns. But what is going on around her, and the title for the Netherlands in general and Rubinstein "Onze Lieve Vrouw van de Eeuwigdurende in particular, the distinction Tegenstand" (Interview, p.39) bestowed upon "journalism/literature" is not really valid. her by one of her compatriots, is more than Instead, her articles belong to the feuilleton, just an honorary one. Nevertheless, her the catch-all category for precisely those scathing attack~/against all that annoys her newspaper articles which are not journalism. must be seen within the context of what she is The feuilleton concerns itself with cultural passionately fighting for, namely Western comment in the broadest sense, and depends democracy with all its frailties, foibles and on intelligent witty personalities who provide faults. Consequently she is a Liberal with a such comment in a personal subjective capital L, dedicated to intellectual freedom, enjoyable style. Every country has its famous inimical to any sort of dogmatism encouraging feuilleton writers, such as Mark Twain and or demanding blind adherence rather than Hemingway in the USA, Balzac and critical analysis - and these dogmatisms Baudelaire in France, and in smaller countries include communism, feminism, socialism, the such as Austria and the Netherlands, feuilleton peace movement, and occasionally, organized personalities have given the genre a distinct religion. The positive side of this anti­ flavour. dogmatic coin is the affirmation of the individual: in her writings individual ideas Along with other Dutch columnists, of whom and emotions are always championed against Simon Carmiggelt is one of the best known, a larger moral system which claims authority Rubinstein has developed the feuilleton into a at the expense of human beings. Needless to game of autobiographical fact and fiction in say, with this principle Rubinstein steps on which the author is the main character and many ideological toes, and her columns are develops that character bit by bit in every new sometimes a running dialogue with detractors weekly column. In comparison with of various stripes (e.g. Wantrouwen, p.7, 23, Carmiggelt's pieces, Rubinstein's are more 39). Frequently her readers focus on the directly autobiograpical and deal with broader specifics of what she writes and miss her real Dutch society in a less refracted way - at point: her opponents on the left dismiss her least, one would hope that Carmiggelt does ideas as "right wing" (Interview, p.35), her not really spend as much time in seedy opponents on the right misread her as Amsterdam bars as his columns would supporting their favourite reactionary stance indicate. Nevertheless, Rubinstein's curious (Nuis 1984). Both of these positions fail to mixture of situational descriptions, understand her polemics in the context of her autobiography, philosophy, conversation with "dogmatically undogmatic" stance. the reader and cultural comment, all centered around and emanating from one individual, For Rubinstein the touchstone for any sort of give the impression that her books are dogmatism is always Germany from 1933 to chapters in a longer novel telling the story of 1945, and it is both a strength and a weakness an observant, thoughtful, lively, always of her thinking that her ultimate reference critical woman's life in twentieth-century point in dealing with life today, regardless of Holland. the topic, is Nazi Germany and the ideas and events which led up to it. This is most 194 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies immediately obvious in her formulation of any from her ingrained fear of mindlessly sort of biographical detail. So she writes about ideological crowds. "En natuurlijk doen de a boy on whom she had a crush at the time joden niet mee," she writes. "Een rilling van when her father was taken away: "Hij heette herkenning loopt over hun ruggen als ze horen Kurt, maar ondanks die stoere naam werd hij dat Mient Jan Faber de honderdduizenden later gewoon, met zijn hele familie, oproept voor een Nieuw Europa" gedeporteerd. Ik ben daarna niet meer verliefd (Wantrouwen, p.28). Such a comparison geworden op eenjoodse jongen, ik denk dat ik automatically draws vehement protests, but it mijn les geleerd had" (Tamar, p.228). Later, is not as far-fetched as one might at first reflecting about her multiple sclerosis and suppose. One protesting reader later God, she writes: withdraws his objections:

... woede op mijn ziekteheb ik niet gekend. Ik.· Hij heeft intussen een foto gezien die ik u zal weet niet op wie ik kwaad zou kunnen zijn, beschrijven. Plaats: Museumplein. Datum 27 het was niemands schuld of opzet, in God juni 1941. Het plein is tjokvol mensen, alleen geloof ik niet. Trouwens, als ik wei in hem stonden ze toen met hun gezicht naar het geloofde zou ik hem allang zoveel hebben Rijksmuseum en hun rug naar het moeten vergeven want ik was al Concertgebouw. Ze demonstreren. Over de zevenenveertig toen ik hoorde dat ik ziek was, hele breedte van het Concertgebouw hangt maar mijn vader was pas vijfenveertig toen een spandoek: Mit Adolf Hitler in ein Neues hij, in een daartoe aangelegd kamp, vemietigd Europa. De demonstratie is georganiseerd werd (Nee, p.81). door de NSB. Duitsland is een week tevoren Rusland binnengevallen. Een heel andere But Nazi Germany is above all her political aanleiding dus en een andere mentaliteit. Maar toch, veertig jaar later wordt onder and ideological yardstick, her antenna for the ovaties opnieuw op het Museumplein om een type of mentality in which group feeling Nieuw Europa geroepen, en een "rilling van eradicates individual common sense. This is herkenning" is dan onvermijdelijk the backdrop for her fundamental mistrust of (Wantrouwen, pAO). peace marches, such as the one organized by the IKV on November 21, 1981 in Amsterdam Wanting peace is, of course, "een andere (Wantrouwen,p.22). Rubinstein has in the mentaliteit." But uncomfortable though past participated in demonstrations herself: the Rubinstein's comparisons may be, her back cover of Tamar kolommen shows a fundamental objections to the dynamics of picture of her with a sign bearing the name crowds and ideology bear careful "Sinjavski," a sign which she carried when she consideration. They cannot be dismissed, as and six others demonstrated for the freedom Rubinstein's detractors have sometimes done, of Russian authors in front of an unreceptive by calling them the result of "een Russian embassy. She comments: oorlogstrauma." Rubinstein herself is quick to "Demonstreren helpt zelden en ik doe het niet defend her comparisons with Nazi Germany. eens met plezier. Liever schrijf ik stukjes. Die "Hoezo trauma?" she retorts. "Het vermogen hal en ook niets uit, maar ik schrijf ze graag." van een ervaring te leren, is dat een trauma?" In her remarks about the 1981 peace march, it (Interview, p.35). The question here is perhaps becomes clear that her intuitive aversion to not so much whether people can or do ever such marches does not come chiefly from her learn from history, but rather Rubinstein's political criticism (Western peace marches basic thesis that experience does and should concentrate only on American nuclear shape theory. World War II and all it stands weapons and ignore Soviet ones), but rather for IS Rubinstein's most fundamental if I

Renate Rubinstein: an introduction 195

experience; it is not invalid simply because it worldwide importance, and who had expected is shared by fewer and fewer people in the usual provocatively honest comment from Western society. a Rubinsteirtwhodid not hesitate to voice her opinions on China and· Vietnam, will· find Probably more disappointing to the thoughtful these excuses disappointingly hollow. reader open to her criticism of "the left" is what Aad Nuis has called her "vriendelijke Whether or not one agrees with Rubinstein's onverschilligheid tegenover rechts. " He political comments, however, it would be a continues: mistake to concentrate solely on them in an effort to come to terms with her writirtg. More Gedeeltelijk komt dat, denk ik, doordat ze important than her views, she has a style onderschat wat hetNederlandse which induces readers to read her columns (or conservatisme voor kwaad kan, maar zelfs die onderschatting komt weer voort uit het feit dat her books) faithfully even if they do not agree rechtse opinies voor haar niet echt meetellen, with her analysis. In the jury report for the of ze nu met de hare overeenstemmen of niet. Multatuli prize in 1979,· Rubinstein was Waarom zou ze zich druk maken? Het is te praised for the "volstrekt persoonlijke to on en saai om op te noemen (Nuis 1984). een doeltreffende woordkeuze" which constitute the major characteristics of a "door Without sharing Nuis' concerns about "het haar zelf gecreeerd precair personalistisch Nederlandseconservatisme," which after all is genre" (Wantrouwen, back cover). While remarkably liberal when seen in a global "persoonlijke toon" and "doeltreffende perspective, we may find it puzzling that the woordkeuze" seem quite clear, otherwise wide-ranging Rubinstein so "personalistisch genre" is not a common consistently manages to leave non-communist literary term and merits further discussion. dictatorships out of her writing. Of the works Generally, of course, the feuilleton is I have read, only "Onze onpartijdigheid," a characterised by a personal tone, and column from 1982 (Wantrouwen, p.67-74), subjectivity is a distinct stylistic feature. addresses this discrepancy directly: there is Renate Rubinstein's "personalistisch genre" already a lot of public criticism of rightist bears the stamp of her "dogmatically dictatorships (inherent in the anti-American undogmatic" stance: it is characterized by sentiment currently prevailing in the constant interaction between a rationally Netherlands); geographically she feels a lot confessed doctrine and a completely opposite closer to the communist dangers in Eastern emotional response. Equal weight is given to Europe than to the rightist dangers in Latin both rational doctrine and emotional response, America and Africa; emotionally she can and this usually leads to a contradiction or identify much better with the struggles of the paradox with no easy solutions. Such Eastern Europeans who, after all, had some contradictions are inherent in life; most of us sort of a democratic tradition before the manage to avoid them by avoiding either the Russians took over; Latin America is more of doctrine or the emotions. In her writing an American than a European concern; and, Renate Rubinstein avoids neither. Every historically, communist dictatorships need higher moral order is tested for its effect on more opposition, for "rechtse dictaturen human beings; every .spontaneous human houden eerder op dan linkse" (p.69). Readers emotion is checked for its effect on the who consider the explosive situation in Latin community. America, such as the effect of its staggerirtg debt on the world economy, to be of But contradictions can also have a humorous 196 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies side. Again and again, Rubinstein saves ze lelijk tegenvallen want ze krijgen toevallig herself from lofty moralization or dejected weI met mij te maken." Groot vertoon van resignation by her ability to see, and to convey luchtigheid dus (p.45-46). to the reader, the humour inherent in life's After veiled proposals for other activities, the many contradictions. A few examples: in one boys do eventually bring her to the train of her columns, "Opgepikt" (leder, p.45-48), station, where she invites them to the "stations Rubinstein tests the liberal dictum of racial restauratie": "daar zaten we dan: twee equality. This dictum denies that race makes aspirant-zware jongetis ieder achter hun pilsje any difference at all, a laudable position which en ik, als tante mit haar neefjes, achter een seems impossible to maintain in practice, as kopje koffie" (PA7). Through an impossible Rubinstein discovers: situation the moral "wie goed doet, goed ontmoet" has been tested and proven sound, Het was in Den Haag en ik stond om een uur of negen in de avond onder het neon van de but it is clear that the entire episode took place halte te wachten op de tram naar het station. only because the boys were black and Een Volkswagen rijdt langs, stopt aan de Rubinstein held to liberal denials of race overkant van de straat en iemand vraagt: perception, in reality a reverse sort of race "Zoekje vervoer?" "Ik moet naar het station." discrimination. Rubinstein has no solution to "Stap maar in, we rijden je wel." De this sort of contradiction, as she states in a automobilist was een neger en ik dacht dat er een vrouw naast hem zat, maar kon dat niet typically anti-authoritarian conclusion: goed zien en liep al maar naar ze toe. Het waren twee zwarte jongens. En wat de moraal van dit verhaal is weet ik ook niet. Dat het aardige mensen zijn, Not many of Rubinstein's readers would have Surinamers, net als wij, maar toch gotten themselves into such a situation - they vreemdelingen, want ze zijn hier vaak pas kort en hebben daarom meer sympathie nodig dan would have stayed under the neon lights of the de ingezetenen (p.48). tram stop or, if things had gotten this far, would have refused politely and beaten a hasty On the other hand, in one of my favourite retreat. Rubinstein anticipates this response: columns, "Rood lichtje" (leder, p.68-70), experience does not question but rather Op dat moment had ik natuurlijk nog kunnen, affirms principle. The situation is familiar to en in veler ogen moeten zeggen: "Sorry, ik wacht toch maar liever op de tram," maar ik most of us: stapte in. Omdat het toch een beetje lullig is en truttig en beledigend om zoiets te weigeren Op weg naar de kapper reed ik vanmiddag als het negers zijn. Omdat ze dan denken dat door het rode licht. Er was ogenblikkelijk een je bang voor ze bent omdat ze zwart zijn enje auto van links, maar ik kwam met de schrik al die verhalen hebt gehoord, terwijl je in vrij. Met die schrik zit ik bij de kapper en werkelijkheid zonder meer zou weigeren als stamp het erin: denk erom, nooit meer door het twee witte binken waren. Moeilijk rood, wat er ook gebeurt, nooit door rood, weigeren dus. Het is tens lotte een vriendelijk nooit door rood, gewoon niet doen, nooit door aanbod, nietwaar? Je hebt geen been om op te rood. Want je moet het er bij mij instampen. staan als je dat afslaat. Wie goed doet, goed Kennelijk. Gewoon, normaal, automatisch ontmoet, en omgekeerd. Tenminste, dat stoppen voor rood doe ik niet. Dat wist ik niet, hoopte ik, terwijl de bijzitter uitstapte, zijn maar dat blijkt nu (p.68). stoel opklapte en ik instapte en achterin ging zitten met gemengde gedachten, waarvan de She had the usual good reasons for running voomaamste waren: "Mijn portemonnee maar the red light as she did: daar zit niet viel in" en "die jongens denken dat ze het voor mekaar hebben, maar dat zal Renate Rubinstein: an introduction 197

Waarom reed ik eigenlijk door? Ik was Pff. Waarom komt de moraal niet vanzelf, geprovoceerd. V 66r mij zat een klootzak die zoals de liefde en de eetlust en het slapen, mij had gesneden en mij daardoor in mijn waarom gelukkig is de schrik echt? Daar ziet vaart belemmerd had en die reed door het niets aangeleerds aan, die kun je dus oranje heen. Ik wou dat niet op mij laten vertrouwen. Met plechtige geestdrift verklaar zitten. Een ander snijden en daar nog voordeel ik het: ik zal nooit door het rode licht rijden. van hebben ook! Dat zou onrecht zijn. Ik reed Wat een mooi gevoel is dat. Want het is in dus achter hem aan met een diep gevoel van mijn eigenbelang en tevens ontzettend moreel. innerlijk gelijk. Door rood. Dat is wat ik Zo'n gevoel maak ik niet vaak mee (p.70). bedoel: het mag niet, maar ik vond dat ik mocht (p.68). Both "Opgepiktwand "Rood licht" are good examples of / the style which makes She continues: "Ik lees op het ogenblik een Rubinstein's columns so delightful. This style verschrikkelijk goed boek over Hitler." The is first of all anti-authoritarian: it elicits the reader stops in amazement. What connection reader's emotional sympathy by appealing to could there possibly be between Renate an actual or possible common experience. It Rubinstein running a red light and Hitler? But then proceeds to analyse that experience by there is: "die man dacht voortdurend dat hij isolating various aspects of it under a spotlight gelijk had, dat hij boven de wet stond, dat hij and innocently asking bothersome questions zelf uitmaakte wat de wet was. Zo'n monster which eventually lead to a rethinking of the schuilt ook in mij. Kijk maar." Again humor entire experience. "Een tot op de tanden met saves from melodrama: "je kunt niet van mij argeloosheid gewapende scribente," Ischa zeggen dat ik de omvang van het probleem Meijer calls her, whose "stijl van schrijven onderschat. Het is imponerend hoe diep ik steeds sterker bepaald wordt door een manier mijzelf verafschuw en ik vertel het aan de van vragen, die onontkoombaar leidt tot kapper: 'Ik ben door het rode licht gereden.' ontmytho-Iogisering ... " (leder, front cover). De kapper schiet in de lach ... " Rubinstein herself theorizes little about her writing style, though in the interview with However, she does not let a sympathetic Brokken she mentions her preference for hairdresser alleviate her awareness of the autobiography and "de korte vorm": "Ik ben severity of her crime and instead underscores niet goed in het verzinnen van dingen. Ik houd the importance of a general moral order: niet van een lange vorm. Mijn manier is een onderwerp als een rode draad te gebruiken en Geen afleidingsmanoeuvres: rood licht is niet misleidend. Het betekent stoppen, stilstaan, het dan van verschillende kanten te belichten. afblijven, bek houden. Dat weet je best... En De verbindende stukken sla ik over" (PAl). daar ben ik het gloeiend mee eens. Ik vind niet Her ideals are expressed more clearly in her dat niemand zich van het rode licht iets aan negative evaluation of Jung's style as moet trekken, of dat iemand daar weleens een characterized by "een plechtige toon, zonder uitzondering op mag maken. Ik ben daar juist humor en scepsis, cultureel zowel als sociaal heel streng over: de maatschappij moet door wetten geregeld worden, sonst wordt het een gewichtig en met nooit een onverwachte janboel (p.69). zinswending of conclusie" (leder, p. I 77). Her own writing is precisely the opposite: even in In her conclusion, however, personal her self-righteous moments she preserves a experience still triumphs over the abstract sense of humor and a tone of scepticism about moral order, since even moral behaviour herself, characterizing herself, for example, as reinforced by the knowledge that it is in a "trots als een aap" for having delivered a person's best interests is not easy to maintain: particularly eloquent critique of the Dutch left 198 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies

(Wantrouwen, p.34). Nichols has called her het stuk in het weekend af heb. Voor zo'n style feminine hut not feminist: he is column moet je vrij veel lezen en veel presumably thinking of the appeal to opzoeken. Het wordt erg vermoeiend. Ik heb arguments and logic via experience and er de energie bijna niet meer voor" (Interview, emotion, the asking of pointedly innocent p.36). Of course, even energy is a relative questions, and the constant self-deprecation thing; without underestimating the effect of through humor and scepticism. Nevertheless, her illness on her ability to work, one must call the debate on an identifiable feminine style is nothing less than p}:lenomenal all the energy still raging (Schouten), and Rubinstein's which she has already invested in her lifelong relationship to the feminine and the feminist, contribution to Western culture as embodied in whether in style. or in ideas, is a subject for the Netherlands. The German writer Kurt another study. Tucholsky, Rubinstein once wrote, was "de grootste satirische columnist van onze The most vivid impression left by her works, roteeuw" (Wantrouwen, p.66). She herself however, is the primary importance in her life could make a strong claim for that title. of words and writing. Words are her weapons, her tools, her philosophical categories for Postscript 1996. dealing with an unpredictable world which is sometimes friendly, often hostile, but always "Opnieuw is de wereld weer een stukje leger fascinating and worth exploring. Certainly geworden," wrote Annie M.G. Schmidt in Vrij politically, in her crusade on behalf of Western Nederland of December 1, 1990, about Renate democracy, words play a crucial role. Her Rubinstein's death. Multiple sclerosis had most fundamental redefinition of "right" and finally taken its toll; in an interview with "left" is based on the significance of words: Libelle (July 9, 1993) her sister Gerda hints "rechts is een maatschappijstructuur die that Renate, fiercely independent to the last, gebaseerd is op geheimhouding ... en rechts is did final battle with increasing incapacity and een persoon die zijn uiterste best doet om wat pain, inevitable hospitalization and institutional hij doet of gedaan heeft geheim te houden ... death, by choosing her own time to go. Links is een maatschappij die de communicatie tussen de mensen niet belemmert en links is Being Renate Rubinstein, however, she had een persoon die de waarheid zoekt en zegt of the last word: the posthumous publication of schrijft" (leder, p.83). But words are no less her most controversial theme book, the lyrical important in the personal realm. In the age-old account of her secret thirteen-year affair with debate amongst children about which sense the nationally revered writer Simon (sight, hearing etc.) one would miss the most, Carmiggelt. Mijn beter ik (Meulenhoff, 1991) she picks speech. "Niets zou mij zo is at one and the same time the most typically belemmeren en stigmatiseren," she writes, "als "Rubinsteinian" collection and an exaggeration niet meer in staat zijn mijn gedachten of of that style: the trademark subjectivity is grappen met mijn eigen mond te formuleren. concentrated entirely on the personal, on the Die handicap zou me niet meevallen" (Nee, minute details of the relationship between her p.86). With her illness, her physical ability to and her lover, but in that concentration is express her thoughts in written form, captured the strength of love, irrationally particularly under the deadline of a weekly insistent in spite of its evident flaunting of column, is steadily diminishing. "Het wordt rules Rubinstein continued to affirm. moeilijk," she said already a few years ago. "Iedere keer is het weer een overwinning als ik In a long letter of thanks she wrote me in the Renate Rubinstein: an introduction 199

summer of 1987, after I had sent her a copy of ---. "Ziekentroost voor ongelovigen." Rev. of Nee my article, she expressed her appreciation for heb je. Notities over ziek zijn, by Renate Rubinstein. my "reading" of the column "Rood licht." De Volkskrant 18 October 1985. "Everything in that column happened as I Peeters, Carl. "Renate Rubinstein," 'T is vol van describe it," she wrote, "but the poignancy has schatten hier, Vol. 2. Nederlandse literair Museum, another origin. The sin I write about was that Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1986, p.225-226. I had fallen in love with a married man, who after a while ended the liaison. I· found the Rubinstein, Renate. ledf!r Woelt hier om verandering. Amsterdam: Meulenh0ff, 1979. metaphor in the running through a red traffic / light and I think that the column got its ---. Interview/with Jan Brokken. Haagse Post 30 urgency from the hidden meaning" (in Mijn November 1985, p.33-41. beter ik, p.30, she explains this to the world). How it must have delighted her to write, in --.-. Met gepast wantrouwen. Notities over de that same letter, "Simon CarmiggeIt, who was Hollandse ziekte. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1982. a very good friend of mine ... "! Her death ---. Nee heb je. Notities over ziek zijn. saddened me, in a way that few deaths of Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1985. people I've ever actually met do: indeed, "de wereld is weer een stukje leger geworden." ---. Tamar kolommen en andere berichten. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1973.

Schouten, Diny. "La Querelle desDames. De discussie WORKS CITED over de vrouweIijke stem." Ret literair klimaat 1970- 1985. Ed. Tom van Deel, Nicolaas Matsies en Cyrille Nichols, EJ. Rev. of Twee eencijes en wat brood, by Offermans. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1986, p.121- Renate Rubinstein. World Literature Today 56 (1982): 130. 712. Willing's Press Guide 1986. 112th Annual Edition. Nuis, Aad. "Rubinstein valt aan met emotie en West Sussex: ThomasSkinner Directories, 1986. argumenten." Rev. of Naar de bliksem? Ik niet, by Renate Rubinstein. De Volkskrant 9 November 1984.