Saturday, January 03, 2004

 
Martin Amis writes about Stalin and his historial legacy for the guilty left in Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million .

Some anecdotes:

In the Arctic prison camps, a moment before freezing to death, known as "the whispering of the stars," a last breath frozen in midair, the icy cloud breaking audibly on the frozen ground.

A Stalinist "election" where the "ballots" feature not merely a single "candidate" but even a mark already placed next to the single name. "Voters" emerge from the "polls" doubled over with laughter.

Stalin was reportedly fond of a certain saying: "There is a man, there is a problem. No man, no problem."

Stalin frequently screen a Hollywood film for himself, commanding the presence of a translator. For years, Stalin watched his favorite movies -- especially Tarzan epics -- as the translator babbled away. Yet in all that time, the translator was so afraid of saying anything that might displease Stalin that he avoided translating anything. Instead, he limited himself to describing the visual action that Stalin could see for himself.
posted by Open Mouth 5:22 PM

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

 
"...I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free--
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet" (11).

--Sylvia Plath, "Tulips" from Ariel (New York: Harper and Row, 1961).

To float in zero gravity...
posted by Open Mouth 1:17 AM