Rude Neruda
Gotta love Stephen Schwartz's takedown of Stalin's favorite dicksucker, Pablo Neruda, in the latest issue of The Weekly Standard. Entitled "Bad Poet, Bad Man," Schwartz's piece provides ample evidence for both. Here’s some of Neruda’s “poetry”:
To be men! That is the Stalinist law! . . .
We must learn from Stalin
his sincere intensity
his concrete clarity. . . .
Stalin is the noon,
the maturity of man and the peoples.
Stalinists, Let us bear this title with pride. . . .
Stalinist workers, clerks, women take care of this day!
The light has not vanished.
The fire has not disappeared,
There is only the growth of
Light, bread, fire and hope
In Stalin's invincible time! . . .
In recent years the dove,
Peace, the wandering persecuted rose,
Found herself on his shoulders
And Stalin, the giant,
Carried her at the heights of his forehead. . . .
A wave beats against the stones of the shore.
But Malenkov will continue his work.
The faults of this verse are many and lie too deep for correction, and demonstrate yet again that to prove someone a bad writer, all you really have to do is quote him. Of course, in light of the above, it’s no surprise that one of those defending Neruda’s writing is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Castro’s favorite dicksucker.
Again, lovely stuff, that. But wait a minute…ham-fisted political propaganda attempting to masquerade as art? Sounds vaguely familiar, hmm?
posted by Shawn @ 4:25 PM
