What aristocratic writers take from nature gratis the less privileged must pay for with their youth Try to write a story about a young man – the son of a serf  a former grocer  choirboy  schoolboy and university student  raised on respect for rank  kissing the priests’ hands  worshipping the ideas of others and giving thanks for every piece of bread  receiving frequent whippings  making the rounds as a tutor without galoshes  brawling  torturing animals  enjoying dinners at the houses of rich relatives  needlessly hypocritical before God and man merely to acknowledge his own insignificance – write about this young man who squeezes the slave out of himself  drop by drop  and who  one fine morning  finds that the blood coursing through his veins is no longer the blood of a slave but that of a real human being