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1.0étoiles sur 5
Political propaganda, Janv. 8 2002
Par Un client
Halldor Laxness is a world-class writer as his masterpieces like Independent People and The Fish Can Sing demonstrate. There is however, one aspect of Mr. Laxness' life that casts a shadow over his career, and is, regardless to say, quite disturbing. That is his lifelong love affair with communism and the former Soviet Union. Enter The Atom StationMr. Laxness published The Atom Station soon after Iceland and the US agreed that the latter would handle national defense of the island. With less than 300 thousands inhabitants, and no national defense, Icelanders relied on British and American troops during WWII to defend against Nazi aggression, and then extended the defense agreement with the US after the war. Around the same time, in 1949, Iceland also became one of the founding members of the NATO alliance, along with the US, Britain, France, and others. While an overwhelming majority of Icelanders were eager to align themselves with countries of the free world, a small, but vocal group of communists, in which Mr. Laxness had the loudest voice, was the only exception. In my opinion, Laxness' career reached an all-time low with the publication of The Atom Station. The book is nothing more than an attempt to attack his political advisories and those who had spent a lifetime fighting communism, promoting civil liberties, free enterprise, and individual freedom. In The Atom Station, Mr. Laxness implies that drunken Icelandic politicians sold out the island to the evil United States so it could be used for an "Atom Station" - a base for nuclear weapons. He also uses his book to smear the United States and what it stands for. The protagonist, Ugla, is the only one who stands tall while others, especially conservatives, libertarians, progressives, and social democrats (basically everybody except communists), are portrayed as being morally bankrupt. The only one who has in fact been proven morally bankrupt is Mr. Laxness himself. As a frequent traveler across the Iron Curtain, and as a "distinguished guest" of Joseph Stalin, he knew all about the shortcomings of communism, the human rights violations, and the harsh treatment of those who dared to question the political system. Despite of this knowledge, he continued to write books and articles praising Joseph Stalin and communism, viscously attacking those who questioned and pointed out the shortcomings of communism and the Soviet Union. The Atom Station is just one example of his writings on this subject. Mr. Laxness had a great gift, and many of his books are true masterpieces, humorous and great reads. It is therefore sad to know that he wasted so much of his exceptional talent praising Joseph Stalin and his klan - a man who ranks number one along with Mao Tse Tung and Adolf Hitler as the most infamous mass murderer in history of the world. In 1963, Mr. Laxness finally departed with communism, and admitted that some of his previous statements about the "better way of life" in the Soviet were slightly untrue, if not just outright lies. The irony of course is that Laxness used the freedom of speech he enjoyed in Iceland to question and undermine the political ideas and the political system that ensured that very same freedom of speech! As much as I encourage you to read Laxness' Independent People, one of his greatest books, I cannot recommend The Atom Station to anyone. It's just a ... piece of political propaganda that promotes ideas that have been proven wrong all over the world. It should be regarded as such.
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