Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Huliganov's belated rant for July

Huli's late with the rant again, but was inspired to speak about Solzhenitsyn on reading this morning the sad news of his demise.

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People & Blogs

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• Alexander
• Solzhenitsyn

[killyouridols333]

Raskolnikov doen't kill his landlady. 

[usenetposts]

@killyouridols333 I know that, but I don't want to spoil the plot for future readers by telling them how brutally he murders Marmeladov...

[konman001]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a great writer. . . but I`m not sure if quoting Nietzsche while talking about Solzhenitsyn is in the right spirit. Nietzche was one of the founding philosphers of the modern humanistic philosophy, but Solzhenitsyn was against humanism (something that is made even clear in his Harvard speech of 1978).

[usenetposts]

So am I against humanism. I am firmly felinist and tropicalpisceanist in outlook. Nevertheless, it is not wise to ignore all the insights of another person just because he has been assigned to one or other movement.

[konman001]

Being a Christian I cannot say that I agree with views of Nietsche - he did say that the last Christian was the one that died on the cross and that God is dead.

I do wonder what you mean by "felinist and tropicalpisceanist" - sounds like you are like a lazy cat that likes warm weather and tuna.

[usenetposts]

OK, but he also said "what doesn't kill you makes you strong", which is a reasonable observation. On balance, Nietzsche was way off base, but he did have a pithy way of putting things.

My felinist comment is basically to say that humanism is nothing to do with supporting what's right for humanity. The name is as inappropriate as "gay" is for homosexuals, who in my experience are no more merry than we are and often far less so.

[Redelimeter]

I read Gulag while I was sick in bed in 1980. I've read the prison camp genre since I was a kid despite the bad dreams it would sometimes cause.

But what was really influential was reading about Solzhenitsyn's Harvard speech. At first I was a bit annoyed and thought he was ungrateful; then I took his words to heart and started to look at my own country in a new way.

I've never actually heard or read the entire speech, though. I was looking for a YouTube clip of it; so far, no luck.

[ulcerprone]

i believe he was initially imprisoned for referring to stalin as "the man with the mustache" in a letter.

[alanheath]

In Poland they did the same - the put the political dissidents with the criminals.

[alanheath]

I thought he criticised Stalin which was the reason for his arrest.