tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post1673339843678011608..comments2024-03-04T11:22:53.502-05:00Comments on Fifty Books Project 2023: In the First Circle (the uncensored edition) by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynFifty Books Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08640286429668778869noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-934096967055481899.post-43484630438738276482010-04-13T16:19:38.066-04:002010-04-13T16:19:38.066-04:00I strongly recommend his Nobel Lecture (it's a...I strongly recommend his Nobel Lecture (it's accessible online but it's worth owning the hard copy). He speaks with clarity and insight, and the gems of illumination come out more often in his speeches than his novels (it is either that, or I don't have the patience to dig for them in his larger works). It seems to me that the Russian authors seem to have been given the gift of prophecy more than their western counterparts. <br /><br />"So perhaps that ancient trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty is not simply an empty, faded formula as we thought in the days of our self-confident, materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the scholars maintained, but the too blatant, too direct stems of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, not allowed through - then perhaps the fantastic, unpredictable, unexpected stems of Beauty will push through and soar TO THAT VERY SAME PLACE, and in so doing will fulfil the work of all three?"<br />~A. Solzhenitsynjoelchopphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04278306152265483260noreply@blogger.com