The argument Treglown makes in his new book Franco’s Crypt is quite bizarre. If you agree that beautiful works of art were created during Franco’s dictatorship, he says, then you have to agree that the dictatorship wasn’t all that bad. And if you insist that the crimes of fascists should be investigated and discussed, you must surely hate Laforet, Berlanga, Saura, Cela, Marse, etc.
It logically follows from this that if you believe that the Diary of Anne Frank is an important and poignant book, you can’t afford to be critical of Hitler.
Clarissa's Blog 
Our prime minister recently stated that it was a fine thing that the car manufacturing company and Australian brand Holden was leaving Australia, because now all the workers would be liberated from their jobs and that would be a great way of looking at it.
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Ah, I see Treglown is not alone in self-serving mental acrobatics.
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No, it is very common for right wingers to do this. Thing is, it works much of the time.
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I like movies and tv shows from central and eastern europe from the communist period far more than ones produced since then. It’s really a shame that communism (and the CCCP) had to fall….
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Oh yeah. Ruka (The Hand) is in my top 10 for greatest animated films.
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Bloody hell, Cliff, I hope you mean it jokingly. I’d really rather not have to choose between celibacy and becoming a brood mare for the state, to pick just one of commie-era abominations, just so you can get slightly better quality entertainment.
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No, he’s just adapting Treglown’s weird argument to a different set of circumstances. Like, “I enjoyed the movie Hotel Rwanda, so Rwandan genocide. . .” I can’t force myself to continue because even as a joke this is too disgusting.
It is so shocking that one would come to a foreign country and be so insensitive and dumb that he would not even be bothered by saying, “I like these books and movies, so all those Spaniards who whine that they were sent to concentration camps during the dictatorship should just shut up and be grateful their suffering provided me with entertainment.”
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Ah right, I read the “shame communism had to fall” line and saw red. Serves me right for not re-reading the blog post the comment was attached to, so I could be sure that I remembered the context.
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“Ah right, I read the “shame communism had to fall” line and saw red. ”
– I’M EXACTLY LIKE THAT. 🙂 🙂
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We’re both Eastern European women and not complete idiots, so this doesn’t surprise me 😀
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Cliff 1 – Clarissa/Stille – 0 !!!
Anyhoo…. Yeah of course I would never seriously argue for communism for the sake of art (and for every gem there was a truckload of dreck) but now it seems more like nothing but dreck.
There have been a very few good things but not much…. (and IIRC Clarissa also prefers CCCP movies to modern Russophone productions).
And let me shill for a favorite movie now. If the Lives of Others is the (so far) definitive movie on commie era drudgery then The Romanian movie A fost sau n-a fost is (so far) the definitive movie on the post communist experience, much better than Goodbye Lenin (which was very enjoyable).
In English it’s also called 12:08 East of Bucharest
If you watch it be patient, it takes a little while to really get going (and is a little confusing) but the second half more than makes up for it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809407/
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Indeed, you got me there 😉
I support your A fost sau n-a fost shilling. Pretty good movie, and very relevant for this time of the year. Thanks for reminding me of it.
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Yes, Soviet movies were the best. Today, Russia and Ukraine are experiencing the golden age of television. The best television (everything except newscasts) is in Russian / Ukrainian.
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