Well, I agree that these are serious questions, Mark, and with much of this
uneasy conscience that you discuss here, Alison. But Orwell is somewhat
troubling too, or at any rate has been to me since I read these particular
accounts, one from an old issue of the Guardian and another from European
Digest.
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-blacklist.htm
http://www.european-digest.com/docs/digest08.htm
best,
Rebecca
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:29:15 +1100
>From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: poem
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>On 24/1/05 6:35 AM, "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Everyone who didn't leave or go into self-imposed retirement carries a
>> stain, those who toadied more so. But what does that leave us? There were a
>> lot of Germans--do we dismiss them from consciousness? To what extent
does
>> Furtwangler get a pass for resisting the murder of his Jewish musicians,
>> but of no one else? To what extent do we condemn those without the means
or
>> courage to leave and with no other way to feed themselves and their
>> children than to conform publicly?
>
>Very difficult questions, Mark, because they are real questions. Last night
>I read Orwell's defence of PG Wodehouse, who made some broadcasts for the
>Nazis. (Also his very interesting and somewhat prescient essay on
>anti-Semitism in Britain, and his speculations on its connections to
>nationalism - made me think I ought to go back and read Kristeva again,
whom
>he was, in some ways, anticipating). He asks why Wodehouse, who from what
>he says was completely naïve politically and whose crime was no worse than
>gross stupidity, was so roundly condemned, when people in high places who
>were all for Hitler _before_ the war, who never said a peep about the camps
>and were very happy to intern Jews as suspicious aliens who were fleeing the
>Nazis &c, got off scot free. He puts his finger squarely on a bad
>conscience which has not, I think, yet been fully exposed. In a way, it's
>become trickier, since anti-Semitism has become a trait that everyone agrees
>is a shocking thing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. A bit like men
>who think not pinching women on the bum means they're not sexist.
>
>Best
>
>A
>
>
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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