Dear listers,
Could there be any other reason for people continuing to read Hamsun than a
desire to once again reveal him as a reactionary supporter of the invading
Nazis? Yes, writes Henning Howlid Wærp in a new book on Hamsun and
Ecocriticism. Hamsun's adoration of Hitler was only rivalled, Wærp
suggests, by an inclination to question our idea of "progress," such as in
this passage:
"We live in a time when the inner voices of life are silenced to an ever
greater extent; the exterior dominates: the masses, the machinery, the
Americanisms, the mechanisation. Everything is industry, all is steam and
wheels."
So what is progress, then? "The big Knut," as we call him here, proposed
that we reserve the term for "the body's required recuperation and the
spirit's necessary rest. Progress is the well-being of man."
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld
http://torgeirfjeld.com/
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