The article focuses on Philip Roth's fictionalized adaptations of those interesting times, but there's also "Why write? : collected nonfiction 1960-2013" (ISBN 9781598535402, according to my public library catalog) which contains a lot of collected essays and interviews about Czech dissident writers and Roth's visits to Prague.
The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#22It's frustrating to hear stories about writers under totalitarianism, not just because of the pervasive state oppression, but because not one of them will prevent it from rising again. Writers like Havel and Solzhenitsyn's work ostensibly contributed to the ending of the European totalitarian system, but only decades after it rose, and after those cultures were destroyed. I worked with people who left or escaped comm…
> The necessary condition for it to prevail is when people (young men in particular) lose their sense of social identity and personal networks so that they are isolated from each other and can't get more than three to five together at once to privately share their experience of the movements infiltrating their communities. It's a playbook.
You made up this part up and even got it opposite. If anything communism gave you more social outlet and company then capitalism. You was part of a group a lot more. A lot more was communal. Moreover, socially, family relationships were a lot more important for individuals.
It lacked freedom. But it did not lacked company.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#23It's frustrating to hear stories about writers under totalitarianism, not just because of the pervasive state oppression, but because not one of them will prevent it from rising again. Writers like Havel and Solzhenitsyn's work ostensibly contributed to the ending of the European totalitarian system, but only decades after it rose, and after those cultures were destroyed. I worked with people who left or escaped comm…
> The necessary condition for it to prevail is when people (young men in particular) lose their sense of social identity and personal networks so that they are isolated from each other and can't get more than three to five together at once to privately share their experience of the movements infiltrating their communities. It's a playbook. You made up this part up and even got it opposite. If anything communism gave…
Might be true on the surface, but at least in East Germany, people were shocked/angry/surprised when they read their Stasi file and found out that within their small social circle there was usually at least one spook who reported them to the Stasi (so called 'IMs' - Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) - often somebody they wouldn't have suspected or even considered a friend. You literally couldn't trust anyone, except maybe closest family.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#24It's frustrating to hear stories about writers under totalitarianism, not just because of the pervasive state oppression, but because not one of them will prevent it from rising again. Writers like Havel and Solzhenitsyn's work ostensibly contributed to the ending of the European totalitarian system, but only decades after it rose, and after those cultures were destroyed. I worked with people who left or escaped comm…
And what group identity do young people, or young males as you identify, have today? Sports teams, comic book movies, fancy sneakers, streaming subscriptions, fast food, alcohol, and video games. Group solidarity was destroyed and now every "community" is a virtual group of fan-based product consumers. Or possibly also - according to the news - an oppressed minority activist group. I don't see this as caused by or leading to totalitarianism, but I agree it is terrible.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The necessary condition for it to prevail is when people (young men in particular) lose their sense of social identity and personal networks so that they are isolated from each other and can't get more than three to five together at once to privately share their experience of the movements infiltrating their communities. It's a playbook. You made up this part up and even got it opposite. If anything communism gave…
Might be true on the surface, but at least in East Germany, people were shocked/angry/surprised when they read their Stasi file and found out that within their small social circle there was usually at least one spook who reported them to the Stasi (so called 'IMs' - Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) - often somebody they wouldn't have suspected or even considered a friend. You literally couldn't trust anyone, except maybe cl…
But that had nothing to do with "can't get more than three to five together at once" or "young men loosing sense of social identity and personal networks".
Even you said, "they were surprised" over it. And my point is that person I responded to is projecting supposed contemporary isolation on back then, so that he can draw equivalence. And that equivalence is faulty. (And likely just serves to reinforce whatever conspiracy theory.)
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either. Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforceme…
[flagged]
[flagged]
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#27> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
Jachymov had strategic importance for survival of the Soviet Union. Soviets invested into building mine and provided initial workforce. Jachymov was not some siberian gulag for wood choping. Soviets also paid for uranium. Mine was closed as too expensive. How Czech communist party ran the mine, and what it did to its citizens is something else. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294280450_Vyvoz_ces...
On the East German side of the border, Uranium mining started essentially as gulag-style worker camps under Soviet control right after the war, and a few years later was moved into the "Wismut AG", which was a company under shared East German / Soviet ownership. From the tales of my grandparents, it was a mix of Soviet oppression and Wild West. In the Wismut, the miners were very well paid (for post-war East Germany), but they were a rowdy bunch and quite often had quarrels (also physical) with the East German police and Soviet camp guards (who of course couldn't simply "mow down" their highly qualified work force). Eventually in the mid- to late 50's, it calmed down, and working for the Wismut was more or less a normal job (albeit with a high risk of dying early of lung cancer and/or silicosis).
After the reuninification, the German government invested big into fixing the environmental damage that was done in 40 years, and that took over a decade. Props to them for this, the Erzgebirge is quite a nature paradise today.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
So might the Western powers. That was still the moment when Americans had the only working nuclear weapons on Earth. The width of the possible scenarios is unsettling, one of them may be Prague turning into European Hiroshima.
> So might the Western powers. That would be unlikely - Czechoslovakia was in Soviet sphere of influence as decided in Yalta and the West was severely outgunned (at least in conventional weapons) by Soviets in Europe.
Unlikely, yes, but stranger things have happened during the early Cold War.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#29It's frustrating to hear stories about writers under totalitarianism, not just because of the pervasive state oppression, but because not one of them will prevent it from rising again. Writers like Havel and Solzhenitsyn's work ostensibly contributed to the ending of the European totalitarian system, but only decades after it rose, and after those cultures were destroyed. I worked with people who left or escaped comm…
And what group identity do young people, or young males as you identify, have today? Sports teams, comic book movies, fancy sneakers, streaming subscriptions, fast food, alcohol, and video games. Group solidarity was destroyed and now every "community" is a virtual group of fan-based product consumers. Or possibly also - according to the news - an oppressed minority activist group. I don't see this as caused by or le…
The larger risk - in my opinion - is that many of these communities (as much as they are) rely on communication channels that they cannot control (whether privately or publicly owned). Fracturing those communities is far easier and nearly cost free compared to interrupting in person communities (even as persistent surveillance makes in person communities easier to suppress).
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Might be true on the surface, but at least in East Germany, people were shocked/angry/surprised when they read their Stasi file and found out that within their small social circle there was usually at least one spook who reported them to the Stasi (so called 'IMs' - Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) - often somebody they wouldn't have suspected or even considered a friend. You literally couldn't trust anyone, except maybe cl…
But that had nothing to do with "can't get more than three to five together at once" or "young men loosing sense of social identity and personal networks". Even you said, "they were surprised" over it. And my point is that person I responded to is projecting supposed contemporary isolation on back then, so that he can draw equivalence. And that equivalence is faulty. (And likely just serves to reinforce whatever cons…
I agree with you with regard to the historical specifics; however, the point about intentionally fracturing communities and suppressing communication is consistent with authoritarian oppression of all kinds.