Subject
Re: 1930s Berlin photographs
From
Date
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The color stills communicate the tragedy, especially the deluded
enthusiastic youngsters unaware of their own doom, in ways old History
Channel footage and other media do not. By the old adage about a picture
being "worth" 1000 words, these are at least a short novel.
On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 6:26 AM, Stan Kelly-Bootle <stan@bootle.biz> wrote:
> Fran/Jansy: your reactions are understandable. Being reminded of past
> horrors is something we naturally shun. My Austrian-born
> musicologist/linguist friend, Fritz Spiegl (1926-2003), who escaped by Boys’
> Train after the Anschluss, went beyond your distaste for 1930s photographs.
> He nurtured throughout his life a deep loathing for the German language
> itself.
>
> He realized that this was irrational, but found it difficult to
> disassociate the Nazi monsters from their barked, guttural commands. Like
> VN, Fritz became super-fluent in English, dispensing grammatical advice in
> his Daily Telegraph columns.
>
> The cry in one of the earliest notes smuggled from the death camps was *Record
> and Remember*. (I can’t locate the original Yiddish text. Alexey might
> know?). Let’s not forget the many who need constant reminding: the polled
> USA/UK schoolchildren who think Germany were our allies in World War II. And
> the many DENIERS, old and neo, who resist the abundant evidence.
>
> Incidentally, those who watch the History TV channels will be aware of vast
> FILM archives recording Der Fuhrer’s rise to power, the attempted Final
> Solution, and his ignominious downfall. The LIFE magazine STILL photos,
> however crisp and chilling, really are melyuzga (small fry) in comparison.
> SKB
>
>
> On 18/07/2010 18:15, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
>
> *Fran Assa* on 1930s Berlin photographs: I for one won't open these
> photos. I do not even write the H word. I use Der Fuhrer instead. It may
> be some form of animism, but to replicate the images, even the name, to me
> is a form of having these monsters live on. Somehow I think VN would agree.
>
>
> JM: I deleted the images as soon as they reappeared at the VN List. I
> chided myself because they are historical items but, although I wouldn't
> have minded to keep them printed inside a book, I refused to have them in my
> archives in a computer - it's another instance of animism, perhaps. I found
> the relation bt these images and what VN saw while he lived in Berlin or
> what he would think about them a very strange preoccupation. Curiously, it
> was Walter Benjamin's suicide that came to my mind, the destruction of any
> stable reference in art, culture, "humanity," something that I feel to be
> worse than physical obliteration.
>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
--
Norky
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enthusiastic youngsters unaware of their own doom, in ways old History
Channel footage and other media do not. By the old adage about a picture
being "worth" 1000 words, these are at least a short novel.
On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 6:26 AM, Stan Kelly-Bootle <stan@bootle.biz> wrote:
> Fran/Jansy: your reactions are understandable. Being reminded of past
> horrors is something we naturally shun. My Austrian-born
> musicologist/linguist friend, Fritz Spiegl (1926-2003), who escaped by Boys’
> Train after the Anschluss, went beyond your distaste for 1930s photographs.
> He nurtured throughout his life a deep loathing for the German language
> itself.
>
> He realized that this was irrational, but found it difficult to
> disassociate the Nazi monsters from their barked, guttural commands. Like
> VN, Fritz became super-fluent in English, dispensing grammatical advice in
> his Daily Telegraph columns.
>
> The cry in one of the earliest notes smuggled from the death camps was *Record
> and Remember*. (I can’t locate the original Yiddish text. Alexey might
> know?). Let’s not forget the many who need constant reminding: the polled
> USA/UK schoolchildren who think Germany were our allies in World War II. And
> the many DENIERS, old and neo, who resist the abundant evidence.
>
> Incidentally, those who watch the History TV channels will be aware of vast
> FILM archives recording Der Fuhrer’s rise to power, the attempted Final
> Solution, and his ignominious downfall. The LIFE magazine STILL photos,
> however crisp and chilling, really are melyuzga (small fry) in comparison.
> SKB
>
>
> On 18/07/2010 18:15, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
>
> *Fran Assa* on 1930s Berlin photographs: I for one won't open these
> photos. I do not even write the H word. I use Der Fuhrer instead. It may
> be some form of animism, but to replicate the images, even the name, to me
> is a form of having these monsters live on. Somehow I think VN would agree.
>
>
> JM: I deleted the images as soon as they reappeared at the VN List. I
> chided myself because they are historical items but, although I wouldn't
> have minded to keep them printed inside a book, I refused to have them in my
> archives in a computer - it's another instance of animism, perhaps. I found
> the relation bt these images and what VN saw while he lived in Berlin or
> what he would think about them a very strange preoccupation. Curiously, it
> was Walter Benjamin's suicide that came to my mind, the destruction of any
> stable reference in art, culture, "humanity," something that I feel to be
> worse than physical obliteration.
>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
--
Norky
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/