Hitchens on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

solzhenitsyn

Eugenio
Monday 4 August 2008 at 20:32

I beg to disagree with the Hitch. I like some of the man’s books but always disliked the man, a bloodthirsty religious nutter. Given the power, he’d have been a Stalin of the other side, and I think Hitch knows that but lets his admiration for the literary genius take precedence over everything else.
hakmao
Monday 4 August 2008 at 21:12

‘Mad as a goose on stilts’ just about covers it.
george s
Monday 4 August 2008 at 21:56

He went sort of mad, but that was after he had left the Soviet Union.

And yes, he would have been a Stalin on the other side, or indeed any side, but an awful lot of people would be Stalin if they could, and those first few books of his are a pretty remarkable epic record.
Gadgie
Tuesday 5 August 2008 at 8:45

The remarkable end to Hitchen’s essay sums it up:
But it serves to remind us that writers, however much they may disown the idea, are nonetheless ultimately responsible for the political influence that they do choose to exert. Therein lies the germ of tragedy.
Will
Tuesday 5 August 2008 at 22:54

A piece by swivel eyed loon Roger Scruton here is worth looking over.

Forra laugh like.

PS. I look forward to Norm’s post on this as he is bound to do like.