Re: Koestler's Demons

["Jose G. Perez" <jose_g_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have no opinion about Koestler as a person, nor interest, really, to be
absolutely frank. I have no idea what the charges are about or whether
they're true. I do not propose to join either the defense or prosecution in
this case.

I think Darkness at Noon is a great book -- not at all a true history, not
at all a book whose political ramifications or message I might agree with,
but a great book nevertheless. This quite totally and completely
independently of how good/bad a man Koestler may have been.

My objection had nothing at all to do with Koestler; it had to do with
Clinton. The author of the In These Times  article considers "chronic
womanizing" a form of rape or vice-versa. Read especially the last sentence
of my post; I think it is very clear that what I object to is ITT pandering
to their fellow bourgeois journalist's reactionary puritan campaign against
Clinton; which they do, among other ways, by equating what Clinton was
accused of with what Koestler is accused of.

José
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Yates" <mikey+@xxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: Koestler's Demons


> Jose,
>
> Koestler is accused of rape.
> This seems a pretty serious accusation and if true surely reflects badly
on
> him.  Working people certainly for the most part do not condone rape, do
they?
>
> Michael Yates
>
> "Jose G. Perez" wrote:
>
> > > Both men were tragically
> > > incapable of self-reflection when it came to their most unsavory
urges,
> > and
> > > consequently both may now be remembered as much for their chronic
> > womanizing
> > > and sordid private lives as for their public contributions.
> >
> >     What a crock of liberal shit.
> >
> >     This is the kind of brain-dead moralistic crap the American people
spent
> > all of 1998 trying to convince the bourgeois reporters and  politicians
to
> > give up on. Just Like "In These Times" to resurrect it.
> >
> >     What is this about "chronic womanizing"? Sounds to me like the same
old
> > Papal Bull the nuns in Miami kept trying to shovel down my throat when I
was
> > a kid. "Till death do us part." Or else GOD is going to send you to burn
in
> > the fires of hell for all eternity.
> >
> >     "Sordid private lives..." Just whose private lives wouldn't seem
sordid
> > when made the subject of a Holy Inquisition by the press, the
prosecutors
> > and the Congress?  The "geniuses" in the pig press NEVER even suspected
the
> > truth. They kept writing how Clinton's approval rating had gone up
DESPITE
> > this, that or the other thing. No, Clinton's approval rating went up
BECAUSE
> > of all those things, it was an expression of sympathy and support for
> > someone being persecuted for doing exactly what every one of his
accusers
> > would have done (and in many cases, it has now come out, actually did
do)
> > under similar circumstances.
> >
> >     The pundits kept asking how it could be that the public was willing
to
> > forgive Clinton for having sex with Monica and lying about it.
> >
> >     The public, and especially working people, of course had no
difficulty
> > understanding both the sex AND the lying. What the big majority of the
> > public COULD NOT forgive were the lawyers, prosecutors, Congressmen and
TV
> > gasbags asking about it in the first place, and then continue INSISTING
on
> > the inquiry for an entire year.
> >
> >     Imagine that! A middle aged man who accepted the sexual favors of a
> > young woman who very eagerly initiated the dalliance! Quick, my smelling
> > salts! And he lied to the lawyers pressing that totally bogus,
trumped-up
> > Paula Jones suit. For shame!  Just what is this world coming to!
> >
> >     You know, I was well brought up. My parents tried to instill in me a
> > sense of Chivalry and Honor. "Lying about it" is, of course, precisely
what
> > an honorable gentleman is supposed to do rather than besmirch the
reputation
> > of a young lady who favored him with her attention. Of course, no
> > *civilized* person would ask about it anyway.
> >
> >     And now we have the Koestler=Clinton=serial rapist/murderer. This is
> > just what the nuns tried to warn us about. Get a blow job and next thing
you
> > know you'll turn into Jack the Ripper if not a teenage werewolf.
> >
> > José
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Michael Pugliese" <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 5:23 PM
> > Subject: Koestler's Demons
> >
> > > 2/21/00, In These Times
> > >
> > > Koestler's Demons
> > >
> > >
> > > By Laura Brahm
> > > Arthur Koestler:
> > > The Homeless Mind
> > > By David Cesarani
> > > The Free Press
> > > 646 pages, $30
> > >
> > >
> > > L ast year, as the Lewinsky scandal oozed across the United States,
Bill
> > > Clinton reportedly lamented to a colleague that he felt like the
> > protagonist
> > > in Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon. In that classic Cold War novel,
> > > Communist Party member Rubashov is convicted of treason in a show
trial by
> > > the totalitarian regime he helped bring to power. But in light of the
> > latest
> > > biography of the renowned anti-Communist author, perhaps it would be
more
> > > accurate to say Clinton felt like Koestler. Both men were tragically
> > > incapable of self-reflection when it came to their most unsavory
urges,
> > and
> > > consequently both may now be remembered as much for their chronic
> > womanizing
> > > and sordid private lives as for their public contributions.
> > > David Cesarani's new biography, Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind,
> > portrays
> > > Koestler as a misogynist and philanderer whose failure to stop his
third
> > > wife from joining him in a suicide pact may have constituted his final
act
> > > of aggression against women. To those charges it adds the allegation
that
> > > Koestler was a "serial rapist."
> > > Koestler's reputation as a humanist, political novelist and staunch
> > opponent
> > > of tyranny (Darkness at Noon was named the eighth best book of the
century
> > > by the Modern Library) has been severely damaged by the revelations of
> > > sexual violence. Last year, the release of the Cesarani book in the
United
> > > Kingdom caused an uproar. A bronze bust of the writer at the
University of
> > > Edinburgh, where the Koestler archive is housed, had to be taken down
for
> > > fear of vandalism. In the British press, debates raged whether the
book
> > > constituted legitimate biography or prurient demolition job on a
literary
> > > and political great.
> > >
> > > Laura Brahm is a freelance writer and an editorial associate for the
> > > Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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