Solzhenitsyn

A great man has died. This man revealed the suffering of what so many fell victim to, what tore so many apart, and the effects of which some of us still feel today. He showed the plight of many to the world, which had previously chosen to ignore. I weep for him as I would for a relative. If I had to describe him in one word, it would be this:

Герой

I'm actually holding back tears. I'm not going to give the generic Rest in Peace message. I think he'd like it better like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

Shukhov felt pleased with life as he went to sleep. A lot of good things had happened that day. He hadn't been thrown in the hole. The gang hadn't been dragged off to Sotsgorodok [settlement]. He'd swiped the extra gruel at dinnertime. The foreman had got a good rate for the job. He'd enjoyed working on the wall. He hadn't been caught with the blade at the searchpoint. He'd earned a bit from Tsezar that evening. And he'd bought his tobacco.

The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one.

Just one of the three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days of his sentence, from bell to bell.

The extra three were for leap years.

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Yes I just heard. Very sad. RIP.

Heard this on the news this morning. Although it was a long while before they gave a name, I could tell it had to be Solzhenitsyn the talking heads were eulogizing.

I still remember reading "One day..." when I was at school. Not one of the course books, one of those which my teacher took me to one side and said "I think you would appreciate this". One of the benefits of being a fast reader was that I cleared the bog standard course books with plenty of time left over, so the teachers would dig out some extra literary jewels from the store cupboard. "One day..." was one of these jewels (another was Huxley's "Brave New World"). It was an eye-opener, it still sends shivers down my spine, exposing facets of human nature I'd barely considered at that age. And the strength and simultaneous frailty of individuals in conflict with a pathologically authoritarian state.

A significant man, a significant writer. The world is less colourful without him :bow:

He was almost a rock-star over here in the 70's, except that he mostly shunned the public eye.

Rest in Peace. :bow:

The world has lost one of it's greatest modern-day literary giants. Farewell, sir; may you rest easy now. :bow:

May he go to a great reward in the afterlife. Truly, the world has lost a great man. Rest in peace.

CR

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

May he go to a great reward in the afterlife. Truly, the world has lost a great man. Rest in peace.

CR

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I heard the news when I was in Prague last week. It was all over the local papers. I read most of his work and loved it for literary reasons. The obits and eulogies were mostly political, for obvious reasons, but somehow they didn't really grasp the man. Solzhenitsyn was a true literary genius, a man who wrote about or touched upon politics in all of his work, yet one whose humanity never found a political form simply because none would fit his talent, curiosity and profound insight. Neither the Russians nor (after 1974) the Americans knew what to make of him or what to do with him, and I suspect the feeling was mutual. Revered as a hero, decried an an anti-semite, he belonged in a realm of his own. Despite any mistakes of judgment he may have made, he made them in all honesty, never in search of vain glory or profit, we have his many novels as undeniable proof of his greatness.

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RIP
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