A Tranquil Star and Chickens

"A Tranquil Star, unlike most of Levi’s other writings, includes sections that are decidedly comical. An obvious example is his story “Censorship in Bitinia.” The leaders of the fictional country Bitinia found that human censors developed psychological problems. They switched to mechanical censorship, but that led to errors. They trained dogs, horses, and monkeys to do the job, but these animals “were too intelligent and sensitive.” Finally they found the answer: chickens. The story ends with the words “approved by the censor,” followed by the signature—the footprint—of a chicken.

On the surface the story is silly, but Levi had experienced the horrors of totalitarianism. The fear of dictatorship seems to lurk behind the fantasy and humor of his writing. Repression of any kind is dangerous, potentially murderous. At the same time, it is stupid. The chickens who carried out this policy were birdbrains, literally. The human monsters like Hitler and Pol Pot who caused the enormous suffering brought about by the tyranny they inflicted were idiots—figurative birdbrains—who slaughtered millions of innocents and by doing so brought about the end of their own regimes..."  -

~George Jochnowitz, essay, March/April 2008 issue of Midstream