Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler –‘In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Darkness at Noon number eight on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, even though Koestler wrote it in German https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/top-100-modern-library-books-that-ive.html - 10 out of 10

 

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler –‘In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Darkness at Noon number eight on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, even though Koestler wrote it in German https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/top-100-modern-library-books-that-ive.html

 

10 out of 10

 

Darkness of Noon is one of the most important masterpieces, The Modern Library says it is at eight, among the Top 100 Best Novels, describing the horror of the communist regime of the Soviet Union, although the country is not named, Stalin is just Number One, the government is just called the party, and there are other code names

 

I have lived under such a regime, and therefore, my spoiler alert is right here, this note will veer towards the feelings that such a book provokes in this reader, my conclusion is up there, however insignificant, and moving forward, there is the need to share some of what has happened in this place, an echo of Darkens at Noon

There is a link at the end of this, otherwise a format I keep putting with every review, in the hope that there is some feedback, maybe in connection with the AT&T business, or else with that lotus, head contraption I do, or just the revolution, in which I took part and got mentioned in Newsweek, back then a major publication

 

In other words, I will not just lament here the terror and the destitution, but end with the pride of having taken a massive step, they could have killed me, when we took to the streets, back on December 21, 1989, when a few hundred stood in front of the forces sent down by Ceausescu, at the Roman Square, where I was

This is nothing to compare with the torment, trauma, torture that we find in Darkness at Noon, or The Case of Comrade Tulayev https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-case-of-comrade-tulayev-by-victor.html by Victor Serge, it is just to insist on the understanding that such a reader has when reading those great works

 

You can either enter the realm of imagination and get the point, or you could recall what has happened to you, albeit on a smaller scale, and feel closer to the characters that have suffered at the hands of the communists, we have felt the hunger, cold, lack of liberty, brain washing, hey, if something is wrong here, it is because they screwed with my brain

We have had the nomenclature, and it is heinous to find them today – there is fellow, as an example, we see at the club downtown, who claims he had no problem with food, heating, he lived in the center of the capital…and yes, you can bet this is so, for the apparatchiks had their special access to amenities, benefits

We had an aunt, Lelia, very intrepid, and married to the guy who was the secretary of the commie organization at the Metro aka Subway, and with that, he had food in the fridge, and, Alhamdulillah, some of that came close to expiring, getting bad, and therefore, I got to make the trip near the railway station, to get it for us

 

Which means there were bad feelings, instead of feeling grateful for this charity, there was reproach and in effect, I have cut ties with them, and so had had my mother, when she was still alive, she was not exactly hateful, I think, but she was very upset with the superior airs, and the treatment we have received

‘Give some nose to Ivan and he jumps on the heat stove’ there was such a silly saying or proverb, meaning to say that you are nice to some fellow, and in his turn, he will just take more, otherwise ‘the one you save, won’t let you live’, another version of the same stupid ‘popular wisdom’, which is so dumb…

 

Our venerated sage, Constantin Noica, has exposed proverbs https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/02/povestiri-despre-om-de-constantin-noica.html and I am very glad I had the chance to read his Stories About Man, to be left at least with this caution – if not contempt – for the overrated folklore

Take ‘all is fair in love and war’, what kind of miserable, horrendous dogma is that, how can we say it is fair to do anything to the one we love, and also, that Putin is right to kill so many in Ukraine – the other day they said Russia has seventy thousand soldiers dead in this conflict too – and make it a wise saying that is obeyed?

 

To give just one other example ‘appearances deceive’, and yes, sometimes they do, but on the whole, we overwhelmingly get information from what we see in the first seconds, on appearance, as explained in the psychology classic by Malcolm Gladwell, who uses the Thin Slicing Effect to make us understand how we decide

Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html includes research that shows how we form opinions, and then what overwhelmed me was the study made with CEOs from the Top Fortune 500 companies, who are in large numbers…very tall

 

Indeed, about one third of them are 190 centimeters tall, or thereabouts, while that height is met in only 3% of the population in general, which seems to mean that they are ten times more frequent at the top, and we can conclude that when they enter the boardroom for the selection, they impress with their height

Notwithstanding their impressive CV, for those of other sizes have a long, successful career, others make a decision looking at the large men (they are mostly men) and this is called The Harding Effect, from the American president who was one of the worse, until Orange Jesus came along…

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”