| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
 Posted - 13/08/2008 : 15:16:34
|
Next Wednesday (20 August) will see the 40th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. I know that many of us will recall how on that day the promise of a more free and a brighter future for a whole nation (and perhaps for the entire world) seemed to have been snuffed out in an instant. As part of its 1968: Myth or Reality season there will be a special programme devoted to this on BBC Radio 4 at 9AM BST on Tuesday 19. In a trailer broadcast this lunchtime, a brief extract from Love's 'Your Mind and We Belong Together' was played.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/1968/yearofrevolutions.shtml
Additionally, the BBC are asking people to contribute their memories of 1968 generally so that they can build up as complete a picture as possible for everyone to see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/memoryshare.shtml
I just wonder whether there has ever been another year like it... politically or culturally. And is it purely a coincidence that it also saw the greatest album of all time? |
Edited by - John9 on 13/08/2008 15:19:09 |
|
|
rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 14/08/2008 : 14:10:58
|
john.. thanks for the heads up..I also get BBC America so I'm wondering if there would be a tv component as well...hope to check out the radio..
'68..what can we say?...an incredible momentous year..well at least for those of us in a certain age...I don't know how other feel but I felt that it was a time of things exploding from the "center". Remember the star-gate sequence in '2001'?. That was what the trip in '68 was like in my eyes. It was headlong into the abyss......
And since we're on '68 and Czechslovakia I'd suggest for those inclined to read Tom Stoppard's play called "Rock'n'Roll" which in essence shows how rock at the time had a handle in affecting Czech's view of communism. I enjoyed it and could understand it very much since I was there in Europe '69, a year after '68. |
 |
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 14/08/2008 : 17:47:26
|
Thanks Rocker - I recently heard a radio production of Tom Stoppard's 'Rock and Roll' - a great play. I visited Prague in 1981 during the time of deepest communist austerity, but in August 1968 I was a 16 year old grammar school kid waiting for my exam results. As I went downstairs on the morning of the 20th, unaware of what had happened during the night, the first thing I heard on the radio was "it has been reported that people have been trying to stop the tanks with their bodies". Later that day we were able to see live continuous coverage of what was happening from clandestine TV cameras.
"Write the rules in the sky .....but ask your leaders, 'why?'"
"Buy them toys to keep in practice, waiting on the war."
"We're all normal and we want our freedom."
and
"The news today will be the movies for tomorrow"
|
Edited by - John9 on 14/08/2008 17:57:36 |
|
|
|
steve64
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
344 Posts |
Posted - 14/08/2008 : 19:43:17
|
I got back from Prague a few days ago , spent 5 days there last week with my wife and daughter, it is a wonderful city , great beer and Absinth too
The John Lennon Wall In Prague
St Wenceslas Square last week, 40 years ago Russian Tanks were here!
Memorial To Victims Of Communism
Paris Journals at http://timparistalk.proboards99.com |
|
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 14/08/2008 : 22:38:00
|
| These are wonderful pictures, Steve. As you have said, Prague is a truly beautiful city and I think that it is probably the most 'western' of all the former Iron Curtain capitals. I gather that these days it is a very popular venue for stag and hen parties! In August '81 I arrived in the city from West Berlin. There were quite a few visa and currency formalities and the upshot of it was that I found myself in Wenceslas Square at about 7pm and without any local money. My hotel was way out in the suburbs and I needed to take the metro and then a tram. A kindly hotel receptionist actually gave me a couple of tram tickets and a broadminded metro official agreed to look the other way when asked if I could pass through the barrier without paying. However, when two days later, I managed to track down Prague's one (and virtually empty) Indian restaurant, I was refused admission on the grounds that I had failed to comply with official regulations. Some things you don't miss! |
Edited by - John9 on 14/08/2008 23:59:21 |
|
|
|
rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 15/08/2008 : 14:23:48
|
| steve..yes thx for the pix...One of these days I hope to go to Prague....I can see that it's a beautiful and old city with a great heritage. And if it's anybody that appreciates 'freedom' (right john we're all normal and we want our freedom) it's the Czechs. They know what it is to be deprived of it. |
|
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 15/08/2008 : 17:33:59
|
| And of course, to link with The Castle thread for a moment, it was also Kafka's city. And with an enormous castle dominating the city, it could well have been the inspiration for the novel - which as we have discussed, may.....or may not have been....in Arthur Lee's mind when he wrote that classic song. |
Edited by - John9 on 15/08/2008 17:37:45 |
|
|
|
rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 18/08/2008 : 21:06:26
|
And just an update..there's a lot of action now in Kafkaville...a book's out now which is supposed to give some insights on his personality and breaks some myths about him...that he was "lonely" and all..."Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life".
Also, there's a trove of his papers that an heir has and there's prressure on her right now to give them away. She says the situation is "Kafkaesque". |
|
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 19/08/2008 : 11:49:01
|
| Yes Rocker, Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life has just been published in the UK under a different cover....and with a different title. Here it is simply caused Excavating Kafka and its author James Hawes was interviewed recently on Radio 4's Front Row last week. Apart from the themes you have mentioned, he looks again at the theory that Kafka was deeply influenced by Charles Dickens' Bleak House - in particular the interminable legal dispute between Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Whatever the truth or falsehood of any connection between Kafka and Arthur Lee, Kafka's In the Penal Colony is cited as a direct influence on the cover of We're Only in it For the Money by the Mothers of the Invention. |
Edited by - John9 on 19/08/2008 11:51:21 |
|
|
|
rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 19/08/2008 : 14:29:07
|
That's interesting on the change in title..See? How they gotta jazz up the title here??? I figured they didn't think "Excavating Kakfa" wasn't going to fly off on the bookshelves.
Anyway, that author is doing some different with Kafka..opening up the window on him I guess. I'll probably get the book. And as far as "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" I'd recommend the new "Bleak House" dvd that came out about a year or two ago i think with Gillian Anderson. I found it done real well. |
|
|
|
John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 19/08/2008 : 15:35:21
|
| Yes that is an interesting point about titles. Have you ever seen Tom Stoppard's play 'Jumpers'? Its central character, philosophy professor George Moore, is complaining to a police inspector (who has arrived to investigate a murder) about his American publishers. Apparently they want to give his treatise on moral absolutes and the existence of God the title......'You'd better believe it!' And of course, there is another link here - Stoppard was Czech born. The TV adaptation of 'Bleak House' you mentioned was fantastic - it won several awards here. |
Edited by - John9 on 19/08/2008 15:39:00 |
|
|
|
lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 19/08/2008 : 18:02:06
|
quote:
Originally posted by John9
Yes that is an interesting point about titles. Have you ever seen Tom Stoppard's play 'Jumpers'? Its central character, philosophy professor George Moore, is complaining to a police inspector (who has arrived to investigate a murder) about his American publishers. Apparently they want to give his treatise on moral absolutes and the existence of God the title......'You'd better believe it!' And of course, there is another link here - Stoppard was Czech born. The TV adaptation of 'Bleak House' you mentioned was fantastic - it won several awards here.
Love that book! Haven't seen the movie...glad to hear they did a good job. Hate what was done with the Gormenghast Trilogy......one of my all time favorite novel(s)....a little anti-establishment stuff going there. Some movie adaptations work, some don't. Turned off the much praised Lord of The Rings movie(s) after a few minutes. All I kept saying was, "why did you do that, why did you change that!!??". Guess I'm too much of a purist when it comes to Tolkien, having first read the trilogy in "67. Already had a picture of all the characters too deeply to allow for a movie casting....only Frodo could play Frodo!!! Hah!
____________________________________________________________
Now I see that in my vision
That my eyes are seeing twice
Once for every expectation & once for what I realize.........
(Gene Clark, "Some Misunderstanding")
|
|
|
|
rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 20/08/2008 : 14:37:54
|
| You know I read that Gormenghast did pretty good on BBC2 when it came out..record viewing...not sure how it has stood up though...the fellow who wrote it (Peake) reminded me of Dickens and how he names people...nothing like a guy named "Steerpike"!.... |
|
|
|
lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 20/08/2008 : 17:48:11
|
quote:
Originally posted by rocker
You know I read that Gormenghast did pretty good on BBC2 when it came out..record viewing...not sure how it has stood up though...the fellow who wrote it (Peake) reminded me of Dickens and how he names people...nothing like a guy named "Steerpike"!....
Oh yah, Gormenghast (the movie) viewership did very well, & it is a really popular print trilogy in the UK...much more so than in the US. It's more of a cult classic over here. Does feel very Dickensian, rocker. Titus Groan, Prunesqualler, Sepulcrave, Rottcod, Flay, Swelter, Fushia, Musselhatch AND Steerpike!....doesn't get any better. (And Titus Alone, the third book in the series, with the two "kafkaesque" policemen pursuing Titus, is just the icing on the series.) Come to think of it the "castle" in Gormenghast is very kafkaesque in that nightmarish sense of helplessness, no future, just the constant ritual that Titus is trying to free himself of & the sense of impending danger......the "ritual", & later, Steerpike pursuing Titus at every turn.
Peake was another of those creative artists (playwright, novelist, painter) with some of those Syd Barrett, Arthue Lee, Bryan McLean "mental/emotional issues" that we spoke of in another posted subject.
____________________________________________________________
Now I see that in my vision
That my eyes are seeing twice
Once for every expectation & once for what I realize.........
(Gene Clark, "Some Misunderstanding")
|
Edited by - lemonade kid on 20/08/2008 17:50:45 |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Your country and we belong together
