There are questions being thrown at you all the time as Amis works through the war years and the final chapter of Stalin’s life. Was he a madman? Deluded failing to accept reality? Was he a coward or a fighter? Did he really understand that some of those old communists around him understood it was all a lie?
Most of the answers are given by Amis who uses numerous sources to back up his assertions but of course this is history and there are always different interpretations.
Bullet points between pages 170 – 230
* Stalin purged through the army at such a high profile rate that it was clear to everyone in Europe that Russia would potentially not be in a position to defend itself if it was attacked
* But when the war does start Stalin is paralysed and the question of his strength of character is called into question and despite him being described by Churchill as a great leader there were millions of lives wasted as Stalin worked out how to win
* He went back on certain policies realising that people would not lay down their lives for socialism so religion and ranks in the army along with all of the awards and military honours reappeared but the purges and prison sentences continued
* Amis then widens it to look at the impact Stalin had on writers with Gorky being compromised and then destroyed by the system along with other poets and writers that were killed for having talent
* Another terror was coming just before Stalin died with the enemy of Hitler ironically picking up where he had left off and starting an anti-Jewish campaign that was honing in on doctors just around the time Stalin died
More tomorrow…
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Things seem to have all gone wrong and in the end it is not because of a lack of trying but because of the obsession that Fix has with arresting Phileas Fogg. You hope that there has been some terrible mistake with the clocks and there is still time for him to win the wager but you sense that all is lost.
Highlights between chapters XXXI - XXXIV
After rescuing Passepartout the group take a sledge with sails and fly through the snow and ice to catch up with the main line and then take a train to Chicago. Then they switch to take a train to New York but when they arrive they have missed the steamer to Liverpool by three quarters of an hour. Fogg tries to get a boat but the captain on the only one that will go fast grudgingly accepts his passage to Bordeaux so Fogg takes over the boat and only releases the captain when they have run out of coal;. He buys the boat and burns the deck and pulls into port to catch a train to Liverpool.
Once on British soil Fix turn round and arrests him and puts him in a cell. The train to London leaves and Fogg is still in the cell. Fix bursts into tell him the real robber has been found and receives a punch in the face from Fogg for his efforts and then heads off but time has run out and he heads home rather than going to the Reform Club to collect his winnings.
Final chunk tomorrow…
Highlights between chapters XXXI - XXXIV
After rescuing Passepartout the group take a sledge with sails and fly through the snow and ice to catch up with the main line and then take a train to Chicago. Then they switch to take a train to New York but when they arrive they have missed the steamer to Liverpool by three quarters of an hour. Fogg tries to get a boat but the captain on the only one that will go fast grudgingly accepts his passage to Bordeaux so Fogg takes over the boat and only releases the captain when they have run out of coal;. He buys the boat and burns the deck and pulls into port to catch a train to Liverpool.
Once on British soil Fix turn round and arrests him and puts him in a cell. The train to London leaves and Fogg is still in the cell. Fix bursts into tell him the real robber has been found and receives a punch in the face from Fogg for his efforts and then heads off but time has run out and he heads home rather than going to the Reform Club to collect his winnings.
Final chunk tomorrow…
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Koba the Dread - post III
The content starts to focus on the life and upbringing of Stalin and covers his relationship with Lenin but all through this there are constant references to the horrible excesses of the regime and a haranguing voice that is shouting out: ‘how could you be so stupid and support these monsters?”
Bullet points between pages 100 – 170
* Stalin creeps up on the Lenin regime disturbing the leadership with his brutal behaviour handling Georgia and heading for a final split with Lenin but he is put in charge of Lenin’s medical care and makes sure that he is not isolated
* Trotsky makes a few mistakes and Stalin rises with a determination and a willingness to destroy his rivals at quite a pace and the purges begin and the volume of people fed into the camps is phenomenal with whole families going into captivity
* There are references to some of the most famous Gulag memoirs with the experience and the language of those incarcerated is limited to reducing them to idiots with doctors losing their ability to talk and think
* Those who voted against Stalin, expressed an opinion against him were destroyed and he almost willingly destroyed the lives of his two sons and even made the life of his daughter difficult although she survived him unlike Stalin’s two wives
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 100 – 170
* Stalin creeps up on the Lenin regime disturbing the leadership with his brutal behaviour handling Georgia and heading for a final split with Lenin but he is put in charge of Lenin’s medical care and makes sure that he is not isolated
* Trotsky makes a few mistakes and Stalin rises with a determination and a willingness to destroy his rivals at quite a pace and the purges begin and the volume of people fed into the camps is phenomenal with whole families going into captivity
* There are references to some of the most famous Gulag memoirs with the experience and the language of those incarcerated is limited to reducing them to idiots with doctors losing their ability to talk and think
* Those who voted against Stalin, expressed an opinion against him were destroyed and he almost willingly destroyed the lives of his two sons and even made the life of his daughter difficult although she survived him unlike Stalin’s two wives
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Just as it seemed to be going so well for Phileas Fogg his servant jeopardizes the chance to make it back to London in time. You wonder if Fogg would have not been better leaving his servant Passepartout earlier when he had the chance. But still he might have his uses, and does save the trainload of passengers.
Highlights between chapters XXVI to XXX
On board the train to New York the only hiccup is that the man Fogg was determined to have duel with is also onboard so his company try to keep them apart but in the end fail. A duel is called for and the two parties go into a large carriage at the rear of the train and are left alone but shooting breaks out at the front and the train is being attacked by red Indians who hope to take over the train. There are casualties on both sides and the acrobatic Passepartout is the hero when he crawls along the chains to the front of the train and releases the engine from the carriages.
But when the train stops near a fort and the Indians are chased off it is clear three passengers including Passepartout have been taken prisoner. Fogg takes give soldiers and goes looking for him but as a result misses the train and is 20 hours behind and almost certain to miss the connection with the steamer to Liverpool.
More tomorrow…
Highlights between chapters XXVI to XXX
On board the train to New York the only hiccup is that the man Fogg was determined to have duel with is also onboard so his company try to keep them apart but in the end fail. A duel is called for and the two parties go into a large carriage at the rear of the train and are left alone but shooting breaks out at the front and the train is being attacked by red Indians who hope to take over the train. There are casualties on both sides and the acrobatic Passepartout is the hero when he crawls along the chains to the front of the train and releases the engine from the carriages.
But when the train stops near a fort and the Indians are chased off it is clear three passengers including Passepartout have been taken prisoner. Fogg takes give soldiers and goes looking for him but as a result misses the train and is 20 hours behind and almost certain to miss the connection with the steamer to Liverpool.
More tomorrow…
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Koba the Dread - post II
This book is about a tragic subject but is written with real anger. Admittedly it is an informed anger but it is constant and it is refreshing. There are so many dry history books that cover the gulag system or the excesses of Stalinism but none have the determination to highlight it like this one. You are either informed, aware of the horror and against it or some sort of blind obsessive who is determined to support the regime run by monsters.
Bullet points between pages 42 – 100
* The first part of the book comes to a point where it has made it clear that Lenin was quite capable of not only ordering mass murder but seemed to have it in for the intellectual class in Russia and set out to destroy them
* This means that even from the start those who were infatuated with the Russian experiment were mistaken and were backing a monstrous regime that was quite happy killing its own
* But at the heart of this attack on different types of people – intellectual, politically aware as well as criminal – were the camps and a system of torture that meant its victims often had just a matter of months to live
* Then there are the inevitable comparisons that can be made with Hitler and Stalin and the determination they both had to wipe out entire races of people with the difference being that Stalin had a wider number of targets and the violence was random
* Although both dictators had a great deal in common in terms of their background the key advantage that Stalin had was time and he was able to destroy more lives because he was able to sit there until 1953 and keep the killing machine going
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 42 – 100
* The first part of the book comes to a point where it has made it clear that Lenin was quite capable of not only ordering mass murder but seemed to have it in for the intellectual class in Russia and set out to destroy them
* This means that even from the start those who were infatuated with the Russian experiment were mistaken and were backing a monstrous regime that was quite happy killing its own
* But at the heart of this attack on different types of people – intellectual, politically aware as well as criminal – were the camps and a system of torture that meant its victims often had just a matter of months to live
* Then there are the inevitable comparisons that can be made with Hitler and Stalin and the determination they both had to wipe out entire races of people with the difference being that Stalin had a wider number of targets and the violence was random
* Although both dictators had a great deal in common in terms of their background the key advantage that Stalin had was time and he was able to destroy more lives because he was able to sit there until 1953 and keep the killing machine going
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
With 52 of the 80 days gone and the worst of the journey apparently over it looks like Fogg will make it with a few hours to spare as he travels from San Francisco to New York by train, New York to Liverpool by boat and then onto London by train. But you sense it will not be as easy as that.
Chapters XXIII to XXV
Passepartout has left the steamer and is trying to get money to get out of Japan and onto America and in the meantime Fogg has arrived in Japan and set off to find his servant. They meet and join the steamer and head off to the US but Passepartout decides not to reveal what happened with the detective Fix.
Then he meets Fix on board the steamer and after hitting him several times the detective explains that although he now has an arrest warrant he can only get his hands on Fogg when he is back in London so he is going to work with them to make sure he gets there. So they land in San Francisco and get involved with a scuffle over electing a Justice of the Peace and Fogg fights with a man he vows to come back and settle accounts with.
More tomorrow…
Chapters XXIII to XXV
Passepartout has left the steamer and is trying to get money to get out of Japan and onto America and in the meantime Fogg has arrived in Japan and set off to find his servant. They meet and join the steamer and head off to the US but Passepartout decides not to reveal what happened with the detective Fix.
Then he meets Fix on board the steamer and after hitting him several times the detective explains that although he now has an arrest warrant he can only get his hands on Fogg when he is back in London so he is going to work with them to make sure he gets there. So they land in San Francisco and get involved with a scuffle over electing a Justice of the Peace and Fogg fights with a man he vows to come back and settle accounts with.
More tomorrow…
Monday, August 13, 2007
Koba the Dread - post I
Having read The Madhouse where Stalin and Lenin come in for some re-examination and are revealed to be the brutal architects of a systems that is capable of destroying people it seemed apt to stay in that mode. A quick tour of the charity shops in Blackheath on Sunday threw up the £3 gem of Koba the Dread by Martin Amis.
When this book came out it caused quite a fuss with Amis being seen as swiping at a liberal generation that supported Russia and communism when it was running into trouble. The question is whether or not those supporters of Stalin’s regime, among them Kinglsey Amis, Martin’s father for a while, knew the truth about the monsters they cheered on from the safety of the UK. The case against ignorance starts from the very first line.
Bullet points between pages 1 – 42
* Amis starts this historical memoir by quoting from a Robert Conquest book about the great famine that claimed 20 million lives and was deliberately allowed to continue by Stalin pointing out that this was not the actions of a society that was led by a benevolent leader
* Then it enters memoir territory with Amis recalling the conversations between his father and Conquest and the flirtation his father had with communism despite all the things that were happening ranging from the show trials to the gulags
* But the duping of an intellectual class was not isolated to just a few and there were other from the Bloomsbury set that went over and met Stalin and were convinced that communism was fantastic
* Conquest stood largely alone, along with émigré writers who knew what life was really like, and stood against the pro-soviet tide but then things started to change and the reality hit home and most turned against Stalin
* But even before Stalin there was a case to be made that Lenin was an inhumane obsessive who was happy for plenty of blood to be split along with Trotsky who also liked executions
* Those writers that painted fuzzy warm heroic pictures of Lenin came in for criticism by their contemporaries and in blunt fashion from Amis here in the text reminding you there are both sides to the story and the opinions still continue to divide
More tomorrow…
When this book came out it caused quite a fuss with Amis being seen as swiping at a liberal generation that supported Russia and communism when it was running into trouble. The question is whether or not those supporters of Stalin’s regime, among them Kinglsey Amis, Martin’s father for a while, knew the truth about the monsters they cheered on from the safety of the UK. The case against ignorance starts from the very first line.
Bullet points between pages 1 – 42
* Amis starts this historical memoir by quoting from a Robert Conquest book about the great famine that claimed 20 million lives and was deliberately allowed to continue by Stalin pointing out that this was not the actions of a society that was led by a benevolent leader
* Then it enters memoir territory with Amis recalling the conversations between his father and Conquest and the flirtation his father had with communism despite all the things that were happening ranging from the show trials to the gulags
* But the duping of an intellectual class was not isolated to just a few and there were other from the Bloomsbury set that went over and met Stalin and were convinced that communism was fantastic
* Conquest stood largely alone, along with émigré writers who knew what life was really like, and stood against the pro-soviet tide but then things started to change and the reality hit home and most turned against Stalin
* But even before Stalin there was a case to be made that Lenin was an inhumane obsessive who was happy for plenty of blood to be split along with Trotsky who also liked executions
* Those writers that painted fuzzy warm heroic pictures of Lenin came in for criticism by their contemporaries and in blunt fashion from Amis here in the text reminding you there are both sides to the story and the opinions still continue to divide
More tomorrow…
Finding a good holiday link
Watching Rick Stein cook his way round the Mediterranean the other night one of the little touches he kept throughout the programme in each country was to find a literary hero who had written about the place he was visiting. Most of the writers he chose were British writing about foreign lands from the perspective of a traveller. His approach is a great one because it adds a different dimension to the trip. As a result I am trying to dig out books that have a Swiss connection. Have a few so far but it remains to be seen if the link is just a fleeting glance through a railway carriage window or with the action actually based in my chosen holiday destination.
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Luck twists and turns not just for Phileas Fogg but also his servant as the half waypoint of the 80 day journey is reached and the truth about just why detective Fix is trying to detain Fogg becomes shared knowledge with Passepartout.
Highlights between chapters XIX to XXII
Having discovered that the steamer they were hoping to catch has been delayed everyone seems relaxed but as he goes to book the cabins Passepartout discovers that the boat is sailing that evening with the problem fixed slightly earlier than expected. But rather than let him tell his master Fix takes him to an opium den, tells him who he really is and not an agent of the wagers. He plies the servant with drink until he falls unconscious and sure enough Fogg misses the boat. But he charters another and pays the crew to get him in a position to catch up with the steamer.
Terrible storms ravage the boat but Fogg is totally focused on his goal and the boat draws near to port he sees the steamer leaving and calls on the captain to hail it with a distress call. Meanwhile things are filled in on the side of Passepartout and he is onboard the steamer after having been taken aboard after shouting out the name of the boat as he came round in the opium den. He realises that his master is not on board and starts to panic about what he will do when the boat reaches port.
More tomorrow...
Highlights between chapters XIX to XXII
Having discovered that the steamer they were hoping to catch has been delayed everyone seems relaxed but as he goes to book the cabins Passepartout discovers that the boat is sailing that evening with the problem fixed slightly earlier than expected. But rather than let him tell his master Fix takes him to an opium den, tells him who he really is and not an agent of the wagers. He plies the servant with drink until he falls unconscious and sure enough Fogg misses the boat. But he charters another and pays the crew to get him in a position to catch up with the steamer.
Terrible storms ravage the boat but Fogg is totally focused on his goal and the boat draws near to port he sees the steamer leaving and calls on the captain to hail it with a distress call. Meanwhile things are filled in on the side of Passepartout and he is onboard the steamer after having been taken aboard after shouting out the name of the boat as he came round in the opium den. He realises that his master is not on board and starts to panic about what he will do when the boat reaches port.
More tomorrow...
Sunday, August 12, 2007
bookmark of the week
A few days ago we visited Herne Bay, which is a different seaside location for the family because we usually go to Whitstable where there is a great bookshop among other things. But Herne bay was okay and we managed to enjoy a pebbly beach, sunshine and some great fish and chips before I made the obligatory stop for a bookmark to add to the collection
Saturday, August 11, 2007
A good idea for City book lovers
There was an interesting piece in The Independent about some of the things that other cities do that could be possibly copied in London and one of them was an idea to do with books.
This is the description of what happens in Madrid with its Bibliometro scheme:
This is the description of what happens in Madrid with its Bibliometro scheme:
“Bibliometro libraries can be found in a handful of the busiest Madrid metro tube stations. A membership scheme gives readers access to a selection of literature recommended by librarians. Books can be returned via drop-boxes, convenient for the rushed commuter, or exchanged for another book.”Add to that the book vending machines they have in Paris and you start to get a theme here about books being made more widely available and that would be a great thing not just for London but for many cities.
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Phileas Fogg is almost half way through his trip with 35 days elapsed and he is twenty four hours behind shedule but there is a chance that could be made up on the boat journey to America. He has picked up another member of his party and continues to be dogged by Fix the detective convinced that Fogg is a bank robber.
Highlights from chapters XII to XVIII
On the back of an elephant the party start to go through the jungle and are making good time and certainly look like reconnecting with the line in time to catch the steamer to Hong Kong. But in the jungle near the end of the journey they witness a religious procession with a young woman who is going to be killed as a sacrifice. Fogg displays rare emotion and suggests she is rescued and they pull it off with Passepartout the hero after he pretends to be a corpse also being burnt on the funeral pyre and jumps up and carries off the girl.
The celebrations though are short lived as they are taken straight into police custody before they can board the steamer. Fix, still without an arrest warrant from London thinks he can delay Fogg until it arrives as they are sentenced to a week in prison for the temple sacrilege Passepartout was responsible for in Bombay. But Fogg asks for bail and hands over £2,000 to get it and they get it and head on their way.
Fix again boards the boat and meets Passepartout but the servant thinks he has rumbled him as an agent for the Reform Club wagers and his hints leave the detective wondering what is going on. But Fix hopes to detain them in Hong Kong, where he has asked the arrest warrant to be sent. Even with a horrendous storm luck is on their side because the steamer out of Hong Kong is also delayed for 24 hours with boiler trouble. Without any sign of friendly relatives the woman rescued in the jungle is invited to stay with Fogg's party.
More tomorrow....
Highlights from chapters XII to XVIII
On the back of an elephant the party start to go through the jungle and are making good time and certainly look like reconnecting with the line in time to catch the steamer to Hong Kong. But in the jungle near the end of the journey they witness a religious procession with a young woman who is going to be killed as a sacrifice. Fogg displays rare emotion and suggests she is rescued and they pull it off with Passepartout the hero after he pretends to be a corpse also being burnt on the funeral pyre and jumps up and carries off the girl.
The celebrations though are short lived as they are taken straight into police custody before they can board the steamer. Fix, still without an arrest warrant from London thinks he can delay Fogg until it arrives as they are sentenced to a week in prison for the temple sacrilege Passepartout was responsible for in Bombay. But Fogg asks for bail and hands over £2,000 to get it and they get it and head on their way.
Fix again boards the boat and meets Passepartout but the servant thinks he has rumbled him as an agent for the Reform Club wagers and his hints leave the detective wondering what is going on. But Fix hopes to detain them in Hong Kong, where he has asked the arrest warrant to be sent. Even with a horrendous storm luck is on their side because the steamer out of Hong Kong is also delayed for 24 hours with boiler trouble. Without any sign of friendly relatives the woman rescued in the jungle is invited to stay with Fogg's party.
More tomorrow....
Friday, August 10, 2007
The Madhouse - post IX
This is all going to be the wrong way round today because I am hoping to read some of Around the World… later tonight but in the meantime my lunchtime read is the final part of The Madhouse. Finally it seems to make sense and although you sense that some of the cuts here did impact the novel’s cohesion the general point – freedom of thought is not going to be tolerated - does come across in the end.
Bullet points between pages 452 – 501
* The time at the rest home comes to an end and JRF heads back to Moscow not really having made any friends but certainly having found more evidence if it was needed of a deep cynicism about the system
* Before he leave he has an encounter with the former head of the academy who calls for his papers that JRF had been working on and then burns them and shortly afterwards dies but starts to appear in dreams to JRF telling him that he had denounced plenty of other people to save his own skin
* Back in Moscow and JRF senses something is wrong because no one is happy to see him and things start to get bleaker with the May Day parades coming up and the KGB vowing to get any potential troublemakers off the streets
* After visiting his parents JRF realises that he is not wanted and starts to feel vulnerable and heads back and sure enough is called to the directors office and escorted off the premises by two men
* The irony is that he had just begun to contemplate conforming to the system and was ultimately punished for the imaginary world of his dreams and his thoughts
A full review will follow shortly…
Bullet points between pages 452 – 501
* The time at the rest home comes to an end and JRF heads back to Moscow not really having made any friends but certainly having found more evidence if it was needed of a deep cynicism about the system
* Before he leave he has an encounter with the former head of the academy who calls for his papers that JRF had been working on and then burns them and shortly afterwards dies but starts to appear in dreams to JRF telling him that he had denounced plenty of other people to save his own skin
* Back in Moscow and JRF senses something is wrong because no one is happy to see him and things start to get bleaker with the May Day parades coming up and the KGB vowing to get any potential troublemakers off the streets
* After visiting his parents JRF realises that he is not wanted and starts to feel vulnerable and heads back and sure enough is called to the directors office and escorted off the premises by two men
* The irony is that he had just begun to contemplate conforming to the system and was ultimately punished for the imaginary world of his dreams and his thoughts
A full review will follow shortly…
Thursday, August 09, 2007
The Madhouse - post VIII
An ex boss of mine once made the comment when we were particularly under worked that we would find the work we had would fill the time. The same principle works with The Madhouse with it almost being at the end but enough reading has been left to fill the commute for tomorrow.
As a result the treacle pace continues but it cannot do for much longer because the pages are running out. The reason it’s so slow going is not so much because of the book, which is slightly repetitive in labouring the point, but it’s more to do with tiredness and failing to keep the eyes open on the way home from work.
Bullet points between pages 408 - 452
* There are two stories running in parallel with Stalin killing Lenin and taking the reigns of power in such a away all of those who felt they were close to Lenin and part of the leadership are isolated and weak compared to Stalin
* The way the story is told it is clear that n* ot only did Lenin not rate Stalin but he could hardly remember who he was and putting the structure of the party in his hands was more of a way of getting rid of him rather than building him up
* But Stalin is ruthless and believes that the way revolutions are won is not through speeches and slogans but through action, most of which is brutal
* Back at the rest home JRF and the rest are told to be on their best behaviour as a VIP arrives who spends most of his trip drunk and unable to speak or stand but the result of him appearing is that the food improves
* The VIP manages to get through the weekend unscathed meanwhile the party supporters start to write denunciations of colleagues they don’t approve of and the jokes about communism and Brezhnev continue
Final chunk tomorrow…
As a result the treacle pace continues but it cannot do for much longer because the pages are running out. The reason it’s so slow going is not so much because of the book, which is slightly repetitive in labouring the point, but it’s more to do with tiredness and failing to keep the eyes open on the way home from work.
Bullet points between pages 408 - 452
* There are two stories running in parallel with Stalin killing Lenin and taking the reigns of power in such a away all of those who felt they were close to Lenin and part of the leadership are isolated and weak compared to Stalin
* The way the story is told it is clear that n* ot only did Lenin not rate Stalin but he could hardly remember who he was and putting the structure of the party in his hands was more of a way of getting rid of him rather than building him up
* But Stalin is ruthless and believes that the way revolutions are won is not through speeches and slogans but through action, most of which is brutal
* Back at the rest home JRF and the rest are told to be on their best behaviour as a VIP arrives who spends most of his trip drunk and unable to speak or stand but the result of him appearing is that the food improves
* The VIP manages to get through the weekend unscathed meanwhile the party supporters start to write denunciations of colleagues they don’t approve of and the jokes about communism and Brezhnev continue
Final chunk tomorrow…
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Madhouse - post VII
Reading this is a bit like treacle at the moment and although the end is in sight it is getting harder to read a decent chunk each day and the result is that you feel the book will never finish which is a bit like the characters feel about communism.
The location does not seem to matter for the sickness at the heart of communism to be displayed so the same complaints are made at JRF’s rest home. As usual JRF seems to go through the entire experience without seeming to get much attention.
Bullet points between pages 368 – 408
* In the rest home JRF is put in with five other patients and he manages to quickly find a girlfriend and get set in a group of about ten that seems harmless enough but contains the usual characters that both put up with and hate the system
* Everyone gets excited and distracted by the idea that they find a lecture discussing the idea that there might be aliens around that come down in their spaceships and take party members away
* Throughout the JRF segments there is a story being told of the rise of Stalin with him being a double agent for the Tsarist police and building up a violent network of revolutionaries that are prepared to do his bidding
* Stalin is made out to be a driven individual who understands more than Lenin that it takes actions not speeches to win a revolution and he of all the possible pretenders is prepared to do it
More tomorrow…
The location does not seem to matter for the sickness at the heart of communism to be displayed so the same complaints are made at JRF’s rest home. As usual JRF seems to go through the entire experience without seeming to get much attention.
Bullet points between pages 368 – 408
* In the rest home JRF is put in with five other patients and he manages to quickly find a girlfriend and get set in a group of about ten that seems harmless enough but contains the usual characters that both put up with and hate the system
* Everyone gets excited and distracted by the idea that they find a lecture discussing the idea that there might be aliens around that come down in their spaceships and take party members away
* Throughout the JRF segments there is a story being told of the rise of Stalin with him being a double agent for the Tsarist police and building up a violent network of revolutionaries that are prepared to do his bidding
* Stalin is made out to be a driven individual who understands more than Lenin that it takes actions not speeches to win a revolution and he of all the possible pretenders is prepared to do it
More tomorrow…
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