It has also been a shock for some that an ardent socialist such as Reimann and her story Siblings received a euphoric review last year in the New Yorker.
Shocker, eh? Who would have thought that such a magazine might praise socialism?
It has also been a shock for some that an ardent socialist such as Reimann and her story Siblings received a euphoric review last year in the New Yorker.
Shocker, eh? Who would have thought that such a magazine might praise socialism?
Having read that review I’ll stick to following Katja Hoyer to learn about East Germany.
Reimann and her story Siblings received a euphoric review last year
Considering she’d been dead for more than 50 years I question the veracity of the first word in that sentence.
There is an utterly brilliant Instagram account called DDR Mondbasis, where old Erich is still alive and the SED have decamped to the Moon to continue to build the snti-Fascist Socialist Dream.
https://www.instagram.com/ddr_mondbasis?igsh=dms4cHd5N3Q0MXAy
The inimitable Ace on James Lindsay and his explanation for the difficulty leftists have in leaving their stupid, murderous cult:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/411110.php
Unfortunately, their means of protest is the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). According to polls, the AfD could become the strongest force in Saxony, the state where I grew up. This is incredibly dangerous and intolerable.
“Communism, razor wire and the Stasi were all great – but don’t you go voting to put a stop to the rape and conquest of your country by lightbulb headed tribesmen.” – some Lancaster-dodger.
“This also meant books, plays, paintings, sculptures, films and music were buried and left behind, because they too were considered wrong.”
Name one that anyone has heard of.
The thing with totalitarian art is that it’s overwhelmingly shit. Not just because it has to tick various boxes in terms of what can be said, but also because you get corruption in terms of who gets the commissions. It goes to the people who can fill out the paperwork and have connections.
WB
This applies to state sponsorship in general too. Look at the Arts Council and how it has ruined arts and music in Britain.
But you are right, in authoritarian regimes one winds up with a lowest common denominator and this implies Realism ( Socialist, Fascist whatever and wherever ).
After the Revolution there was a great explosion in Expressionist art in Russia. Lenin, the bourgeois that he was, didn’t understand it, but allowed it to flourish. Until that is, the Communists had full control and started stamping it out.
The thing with totalitarian art is that it’s overwhelmingly shit. Not just because it has to tick various boxes in terms of what can be said, but also because you get corruption in terms of who gets the commissions. It goes to the people who can fill out the paperwork and have connections.
Just like any government contract in the UK.
The thing about those who suffer from Ostalgie which in her case is by proxy on account of her age is that they defend a system of government which imprisoned its population and shot those who tried to escape.
The government in Berlin today has many of the characteristics of the government in Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR so for her the good times are coming back.
Carolin Würfel is a writer, screenwriter and journalist. She is the author of Three Women Dreamed of Socialism and a regular contributor to Die Zeit
“Three Women Dreamed of Socialism”? Sounds like a real page-turner.
Can anyone direct me the the capitalist enterprise that sells it?
Dennis – attractive women never dream of socialism.