På omslaget skriver Independent on Sunday: A brilliant novel. Jeg er ikke enig. Bogen er en fiktiv biografi over Ravelstein, skrevet af hans ven, Chick. Den form er vanskelig at gøre levende. Der skal nu også noget ganske særligt til at få mig til at læse en rigtig biografi.
Jeg har - jeg kan ikke længere huske hvor - læst, at Ravelstein dækker en virkelig person. Strauss-eleven (som de andre af slagsen også neokonservativ og Israel-First'er) Allan Bloom. - For denne gruppe, se Bussemænd - Chickenhawks. Det er derfor jeg læste bogen. Jeg kom ikke til at synes bedre om dem. Strauss omtales formentlig i bogen.
Den eneste formildende omstændighed jeg kan finde ved Ravelstein er, at han er ærlig (men hård) mod sin ven. Udover at han kan lide at udstille sin rigdom, er han typisk amerikansk navlebeskuende og uden nogen tanke for andre mennesker. Det illustreres fint i et enkelt eksempel. Som de andre neocon'er er Ravelstein - ganske uamerikansk, skulle man synes - ligeglad med den amerikanske Constitution.
Hele bogen er typisk moderne amerikansk, overfladisk, en underlig vigen udenom i valget af ord. Altså de aktuelle fyord. Her bl.a. HIV, AIDS, homoseksuel.
Det er ikke centralt, ja, det er vel ganske ligegyldigt. Men det er sjusket, når Vela på side 120 ikke rører gulvet med hælene og på side 123 sætter hælene militærisk i gulvet. Specielt, når hun har "original notions about walking". I samme boldgade synes jeg, at hvis man anvender udenlandske ord, skal de staves rigtigt.
We were staying at the Pont Royal Hotel. Impatient, in high spirits, keen to see me, Ravelstein called out from the anteroom and without waiting for an answer he rushed in. He intended to hug me - or Vela, if she should happen to be first. But she was in her slip and she wheeled round and ran, slamming the bathroom door. But Abe and I, happy to see each other again after so many months, hardly gave a thought to Vela, or to Ravelstein's impropriety in barging into the bedroom. He should at least have knocked. It was her bedroom, as she was to remind me. 104
As I have said, Ravelstein was crazy about gossip and his friends were given points for the racy items they brought. And it was not a good idea to assume that he would keep the lid on your confidences. 114
As for you. Chick, you're making your total American declaration of rights. It's very brave of you to do it but it's also off the wall For miles around, you're the only Jew. Your neighbors have one another to rely on. Whom do you have - a gentile wife? You've got a theory - equality before the law. It's a big comfort to have constitutional guarantees on your side. and it's certain to be appreciated by other devotees of the Constitudon itself. ... 116
He was not vulnerable to her sort of charm. I on the other hand continued to see what others saw in her - crossing a room, dressed very expensively, so rapidly planting her toes that her heels hardly ever touched the ground. She had original notions about walking, talking, shrugging, smiling. 120
She had cavalry cruppers, together with a very fine bust, and the knocking of her heels when she entered a room were like military drums but gave you no clue to what she was feeling or thinking. 123
"They use you as their cover," said Ravelstein. "You wouldn't have become chummy with those Jew-haters. But these were Vela's friends, and you put yourself out for them, and you gave Grielescu exacdy what he was looking for. As a Romanian nationalist back in the thirties he was violent toward the Jews. He wasn't an Aryan no, he was a Dacian." 125
There was no way I could refuse to do this. He clearly didn't want me to write about his ideas. He had expounded those fully himself and they're available in his theoretical books. I make myself responsible for the person, therefore, and since I can't depict him without a certain amount of self-involvement my presence on the margins will have to be tolerated. 129
Abe was taking the common drug prescribed for his condition but he didn't want it to be known. I remember how much it shocked him when his nurse walked in -the room was full of friends. She said, "It's time for your AZT." 142
He was doomed to die because of his irregular sexual ways. 160
... a text from her schooldays that went "Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone." 161
According to Davarr, who was a very great analyst, German militarism produced the extremest and most horrible nihilism. For the rank-and-file this led to the bloodiest and craziest kind of revanchist murderous zeal. Because it was implicit in carrying out orders that all responsibility went back to the top, the source of all orders. And everybody was thus absolved. 168
"Well, but there was a general willingness to live with the destruction of millions. It was like the mood of the century to accept it. In combat you were covered by the special allowances made for soldiers. But I'm thinking of the great death populations of the Gulags and the German labor camps. Why does the century - I don't know how else to put it - underwrite so much destruction.? There is a lameness that comes over all of us when we consider these facts." 169
[Kipling]. He said that the Jews had already distorted social reality for their Jewish purposes. But not satisfied with that, Einstein was disfiguring physical reality with his relativity theory, and the Jews were trying to give a falsifying Jewish twist to the physical universe. "You'll have to drop Kipling from your list of favorites, then. said Ravelstein. "No, we can't afford to set up a Jewish Index, For one thing we could never impose it, not even on Jewish readers. 174
Then the Europeans arriving in charter flights. And what they carry home with them is the feeling that the Americans have made a mess of things and that Castro deserves the support of independent intelligent Scandinavians and Dutchmen." 182
bistrot. 190
Machts nicht. 191
Orla Jordal, 2007
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