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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 2, 2023 11:22:02 GMT -8
I was re-reading a Hesse "novella" titled The Marble Works which deals with a young man's love. I came across a couple of lines which I found worth noting. The English translations are mine. That you become a real man, that doesn't depend on your "wisdom" - One becomes a man through scars and that is wretchedly painful. I cannot describe it. The most beautiful, and deepest and most delicious cannot be said. Simple lines but worth considering.
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Feb 2, 2023 21:56:54 GMT -8
Post by artraveler on Feb 2, 2023 21:56:54 GMT -8
I found Hesse work in the early 70s after Nam and the 73 war. There was a lot of talk about Demian, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha and, of course Das Glasperspiel (Glass Bead Game). The counter-culture folks thrived on what they perceived as Hesse's radicalism. In reality Hesse was very traditional. the Glass Bead Game is his best known work today I believe, although it is not well received on campus much any more. I believe professors find Hesse to be too introspective, almost narcissistic. A large part of that I put on the translation.
Of all his work I enjoy The Glass Bead Game the most as it as it has so many inside jokes and insights into the characters. I fully agree that Hesse is not for everyone, but there is a place for him in the great German literature of the 20th century along with Thomas Mann.
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 23, 2024 10:53:52 GMT -8
I recently had the urge to read some good quality fiction, so over the last week and a half, I read A Murder of Quality, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and The Sun Also Rises, in that order. Each book is fairly short. The longest, "The Sun Also Rises" is just over 200 pages. "A Murder of Quality" deals with the murder of the young wife of a public school don in England. Through an unusual set of circumstances, George Smiley, who has left the intelligence service, is asked to visit the school and determine who and what is behind the murder. Le Carre' is excellent at describing the unusual atmosphere, which surrounds the British public school in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Back biting, jealousy and arrogance abound. Of course, Smiley gets to the bottom of things in his almost lachrymose way. There is a very interesting turn toward the end, but I won't spoil the fun. Of the three books, I liked this one the best and believe it is the most tightly written. "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" deals with a burnt out British agent, Alec Leamas, who runs German spies in Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall was built. His whole network has been rolled up by his counter-part in the DDR, Mundt. The book deals with an extremely complicated operation to plant Leamas, as a turncoat, within DDR intelligence. Without going into detail, this is accomplished through means which surprise even the cynical Leamas.
I found two major problems with the book. First, I do not believe Leamas would be so naive as to believe all the nonsense being fed him by Control, the head of British Intelligence. Leamas, whose adult life has been spent in the sewage that is the intelligence service, is surprised (more than once) at the way he and others have been used by Control. Second, the ending does not make much sense. To swallow it, one must ignore the preceding pages and assume that the characters also forgot the past. As I recall, the movie did a better job of handling this. That said, I still found the book enjoyable. "The Sun Also Rises" deals with Jake Barnes, an American journalist in Paris in the early 1920s, as well as other expatriates, American and British, who are morally and mentally adrift. Barnes is in love with Lady Brett Ashley, a woman of English extraction, but due to a war wound, Jake is unable to consummate the relationship. This problem is almost comical as Lady Ashley is a round heals of the worst sort who is unable to remain faithful to anyone. For long stretches, the book reads like a travel guide and goes into unnecessary detail such as plotting out where Jake is walking in Paris. He goes down x street, turns left into y street and proceeds to cross z bridge which takes him past this or that Cafe'. Perhaps I would not have found this so silly if I had lived in Paris at one time or another. The crux of the story takes place in Pamplona, Spain which is now so famous for the Running of the Bulls. In fact, it was this novel which brought the event world-wide attention. Jake and a group of friends, and others, leave Paris and spend the week in and around Pamplona soaking up the festive atmosphere. In so doing they all drink like fish and show themselves to have zero honor and less self respect. This was the least interesting of the three books, in my opinion. I have no idea why it is considered one of Hemingway's masterpieces. The characters are pretty one dimensional and not one is attractive. None appear to have any self-control and let themselves be tossed around by life like a discarded hot-dog wrapper in the wind. One could conclude that they are a bunch of degenerates. Perhaps that is what a post-WWI America found interesting about the book. A look at the Wild Side without actually touching it. Surprisingly, this was the least interesting book of the three. It was not a bad novel, just a somewhat silly one.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Feb 23, 2024 19:44:01 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 23, 2024 19:44:01 GMT -8
Haven't read the book. But good to hear that I can just stick with the Richard Burton movie. And I tried to read a Hemingway novel a few years ago and it was just as boring as hell.
However, A Murder of Quality sounds much more up my alley. I'll put that on the list.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 23, 2024 21:49:23 GMT -8
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold This was the first book that Smiley appeared in and sets the tone for the Karla Trilogy ( Tinker, Tailor/ Honorable Schoolboy/Smiley's People). It is an excellent movie with Richad Burton and Clair Bloom. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY8Jn_YKJIs&ab_channel=YouTubeMovies You can probably find it on one of the streaming services for free, but it can also be found on Amazon Prime for $3.99 rental. It's a 1965 movie, if I recall black and white a fitting format for a Cold War movie.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Feb 24, 2024 8:26:31 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 24, 2024 8:26:31 GMT -8
I think that's an astute aesthetic observation and a good justification for b&w.
I'm like a nattering old man telling the same stories that I've told before. But I remember seeing an interview with Mel Brooks about Young Frankenstein. He wanted to shoot it in black-and-white but the studio thought it was too risky. They insisted he shoot it in color (as a backup) and then it would be reduced in the printing process to black-and-white for distribution to the movie theatres.
But Brooks said he knew that once his movie was in color, there's no way the studio would distribute it in black and white, so he (likely Wilder as well) insisted on black-and-white and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 25, 2024 14:11:24 GMT -8
I also thought that, but it is not the case. In fact, Smiley appeared in Le Carre's first book Call for the Dead. I have not been able to find a free copy of this novel, so I cannot comment on how developed Smiley's character was.
In "A Murder of Quality" Smiley plays a very important part so one gets to know the man much better.
In "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" Smiley is almost a shadow. He is briefly mentioned in a few places, but the only thing a reader can firmly ascertain about the man is that he is no longer in the service, or if he is he is in deep undercover mode. Hint: it is the latter. I believe he is said to have money and dress somewhat flashily, at least for British gentlemen. In those days, that could simply mean he wore gold cuff links and a red tie, instead of an old school tie.
I believe "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is the book in which the reader gets the true idea of what Smiley is like, particularly in an intelligence setting. At least, that is what I recall although it has been decades (the 1970s) since I read the book.
When I was younger, I used to think Smiley a good man. Having reached my "three-score-and-ten" I now believe he was an evil man. Perhaps not as evil as a Beria, but evil none the less. All the moaning which follows him around the various novels is nothing more than a way to "expiate" his crimes without actually doing anything of the kind.
After having read, "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" I believe Le Carre shared a similar belief. He goes into the actual reality of spying toward the end of the novel. If there is a spy who truly tries to repent and pay for his crimes it is Alec Leamas, when in that split-second decision, he climbs back down the wall. Smiley is simply a manipulating sociopath, in my opinion. That said, the character is still interesting.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 25, 2024 14:43:04 GMT -8
Smiley is simply a manipulating sociopath I thought, Spy who came in, was the first Smiley book also. That one sentence describes most intelligence agencies I have been familiar with. I believe it is Connie Sacks who says, "George Smiley, born in captivity". He is the ultimate government spook. I don't see him as a sociopath but as a man of his times, WWII. It's funny how the times find men and women to who could only be successful under a particular set of conditions. Perhaps one of the problems with our current times is the lack of someone who fits. The Cold War is different and Smiley is trying to adapt. His counterpart Karla has the same problem. What makes Smiley more interesting is his dispasonate nature. He says of Karla, "one day that passion will be the end of him, and I'll be there to pick up the pieces". In the real world it was very much the same. James Angleton was simply Smiley with an American accent.
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Feb 25, 2024 16:25:07 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Feb 25, 2024 16:25:07 GMT -8
Dealing with the enemy in WWII was a much easier moral question. Even so, there were still moral problems. But the Cold War was sometimes so blurry and opaque that those with any type of conscience had problems. No doubt, many dropped out of the game. Of course, the sociopaths and climbers had little problem adjusting. In all such cases, the longer one stays in a corrupt organization, the more corrupt one has to become. Leave and maintain some morals, stay and become a complete criminal.
There might be the occasional type who stays for good reasons and tries to maintain his honor, but this must be very very destructive of such a person's mental state.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 25, 2024 18:01:33 GMT -8
Cold War was sometimes so blurry and opaque Connie Sacks to George in Smiley's People, "half angels chasing half devils, and nobody knows who the goodies are".
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Brad Nelson
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Feb 25, 2024 19:30:13 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 25, 2024 19:30:13 GMT -8
Had did you know the Democrat Party secret-handshake slogan?
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 25, 2024 20:47:01 GMT -8
Speaking of criminals.
Do not doubt this for one moment. The symbiotic relationship between tech and the security state is well advanced. Idiot savants like Brin, Zuckerberg and Page are greedy geeks who got very lucky. I am not saying they weren't clever fellows, but there were many many other clever fellows who had good products and did not gain the fortunes these types made. One of Gates' biggest mistakes with Microsoft was ignoring the government too long. He learned his lesson and has prospered enormously ever since.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Feb 26, 2024 15:01:40 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 26, 2024 15:01:40 GMT -8
I can't add anything that will change the world for the better. But it's time to start understanding these people as religious fanatics.
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Feb 29, 2024 19:14:38 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Feb 29, 2024 19:14:38 GMT -8
This is a more detailed look at how the techsphere and military-industrial-foreign-affairs-intelligence-finance-security-state complex work. It is very interesting that Benz mentions the fact that the Eastern Ukraine, now under Russian control, contains all the shale oil and gas wealth. I had heard of this sometime back but forgot about it. Big oil is always there, with pols and spooks doing its bidding.
As I have said before, American interests have bought large swaths of the Ukraine and are very unhappy that they can no longer squeeze the country. They have settled for enrichment of the weapons industry and look forward to screwing the American tax-payer, who will fund the "rebuilding" of the Ukraine which will be directed by Black Rock and a few others.
Jack Posobiec is ex-naval intelligence. Mike Benz was in charge of the State Dept's. Cyber Project. They have some personal experience whereof they speak. The interview is broken up into three parts starting with the second part "The Global Corruption of Corporations."
If you want a more in-depth interview of Benz, watch Tucker's interview.
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