[lit-ideas] Re: TUESDAY'S FORCAST

>>Knut Hamsun
He is a great author. _Hunger_ is a great book. Cases like his always raise the question of complicity with social evil and how to separate an artist and his or her work. Or how to separate artists and thinkers from the despots who admire them.
Some examples of the latter. Hitler admired Carl Orff. Besides being a Wagnerian, Hitler also was a Bruckner fan. When Stalin, who killed more, died and went to hell, Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto performed by Maria Yudina, was on his turntable.
Then the collaborators. Prokofiev and Shostakovitch straining to please Stalin; Prokofiev writing Zdravitsa to celebrate Stalin's birthday. Sometimes the collaborators get offed (Mayakovsky) and sometimes they prosper (Herbert von Karajan). 

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