tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post7523174535128347851..comments2023-07-06T10:55:44.311+02:00Comments on Attempted Essays: The Berlin WallFrancis Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00422476000328664994noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-88630127245376291692011-08-19T13:29:16.375+02:002011-08-19T13:29:16.375+02:00awesome blog, do you have twitter or facebook? i w...awesome blog, do you have twitter or facebook? i will bookmark this page thanks. <br /> <br />My site: <br />dsl flat anbieter und <a href="http://www.dslvergleichdsl.com" rel="nofollow">dsl anbieter</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-65304300816787324112011-08-18T11:38:32.615+02:002011-08-18T11:38:32.615+02:00Invisible walls, I agree, are the most hard ones t...Invisible walls, I agree, are the most hard ones to bring down. Yet even they can be torn to pieces eventually. I often visited my grand-father when I was a child. His house was situated a mere kilometre from the (back then Yougoslavian) border (now it's the open EU-border to Slovenia). And sometimes we strolled down to the "grüne Grenze", the green border. On the Austrian side: fields and forests. On the other, forbidden, communist side: the same fields and forests. The border: a small, inocuous brook. Even a two-year-old child could jump over it effortlessly. Yet the divide, the insible wall was extremely powerful.<br /><br />Another memory concerns our summer trips to Croatia (part of Yougoslavia as well). We'd always bring coffee for the cleaning ladies because that was an expensive, warmly welcomed gift back then. And I remember my father listening to a Lale Andersen-record in the car. She was singing German sailor songs. And each time, when she started singing "Lili Marlen", my mother would press the fast-forward-button. Because that song was strictly forbidden in Yougoslavia.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04430687233562149810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-78466615602858561662011-08-18T04:13:27.693+02:002011-08-18T04:13:27.693+02:00Your last paragraph does indeed give me hope.Your last paragraph does indeed give me hope.lisahgoldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11158660223296807317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-43565142429787006732011-08-17T02:18:57.179+02:002011-08-17T02:18:57.179+02:00we only have to start by taking down the most obst...<i>we only have to start by taking down the most obstinate ones – those in our heads and our hearts.</i> <br /><br /><br />Very profound, but ... <br /><br /><br />You cannot change the way you think, without first changing the way you think. <br /><br />Your name came up in casual conversation the other day. I was asked why I am not a professional writer. <br /><br />I had to admit that is is because I am not employable as such. <br /><br />"Why not?" <br /><br />"Too hard." <br /><br />"Are other bloggers that you visit writers?"<br /><br />"Obviously." <br /><br />"No, I mean professional writers." <br /><br />"I know one is, Frank Schaeffer. Most are not, though. I am not sure if Francis Hunt is. I cannot remember. There are commercial writers and more literary writers. Most of them are what I would call commercial." <br /><br />"Who are the literary ones?" She knows that is the kind I mostly like. <br /><br />Frank Schaeffer <br />Ian Vincent Mulder<br />Osori<br />Burr Deming<br />S.W. Anderson (marginally) <br /><br />That's all I can think of. <br /><br />So, I got to wondering. Are these folks professional writers? <br /><br />Frank is. <br />Burr is not. <br />Vincent, hmm. <br />Osori is not. <br /><br />I don't think Anderson is. (I would categorize him as mainstream more than commercial, but also mainstream as more than literary, actually).<br /><br />Francis. Hmm. Oddly enough, I cannot remember. <br /><br />You're up.John Mystehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16263634313238599515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-87104510309461529452011-08-17T02:09:41.280+02:002011-08-17T02:09:41.280+02:001. What brought you to Germany, especially then?
...1. What brought you to Germany, especially then? <br /><br />2. Where were you before. <br /><br />3. Give me a quick bio, very short. My attention span is tiny.John Mystehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16263634313238599515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1911334903016795718.post-37903048267187180982011-08-16T21:36:02.051+02:002011-08-16T21:36:02.051+02:00Another excellent post Francis.
I have only ben t...Another excellent post Francis.<br /><br />I have only ben to Berlin once and that was when the wall was still in place. It was a vile sight.<br /><br />Being of a similar age I thought that we would not see the downfall of the Iron curtain and the bankrupt ideology that supported it. Like many people at the time I half expected my fate to be that described in Threads.<br /><br />And the in a matter of months the regimes fell, Communism was dead and many apparatchiks showed the ability to become wrynecks.<br /><br />I am glad that the Wall is gone that communism is gone but I can't imagine for many that lived under that regime that they have seen a brave new world. It struck me that the best way to profit from the fall was to be part of the Nomenklatura in the first place.jams o donnellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17315325008175184363noreply@blogger.com