Solzhenitsyn, literature and transcendence
- Ariane Bilheran
- Jul 17, 2022
- 12 min read
Article (first version) published in Antipresse number 346 of July 17, 2022, of which you will find here the improved version, also published in the art and literature journal Les Cahiers de Tinbad n°14, May 11, 2023.
It's as if in the universe
An elemental force
She became the mother again
Of all love that is lost.[1]
Strive to love your fellow human beings actively and tirelessly.
As you progress in love, you will also become convinced of the existence of God and the immortality of your soul.
And if you go so far as to completely forget yourself in the love of your neighbor, then you will surely believe and no doubt will be able to penetrate your soul.[2]
On March 1, 2022, the Italian writer Paolo Nori denounced the cancellation by the University of Milan-Bicocca of his course dedicated to the Russian writer Dostoevsky[3]. A curious coincidence, because if there is one literature that denounces the totalitarian temptation, it is that of Dostoevsky, as Koestler understood very well, and who even alluded to it in Darkness at Noon: "The question is whether the student Raskolnikov had the right to kill the old pawnbroker. He is young and talented; she is old and utterly useless to the world." But the equation doesn't work out […] because Raskolnikov realizes that two times two doesn't equal four when the mathematical units are human beings…", says the protagonist, to which Ivanov, a Party cadre, replies: "If Raskolnikov had murdered the old woman on orders from the Party—for example, to increase strike funds or to set up an illegal printing press—then the equation would work out, and the novel, with its misleading problem, would never have been written; and that would be for the best."
Want to read more?
Subscribe to arianebilheran.com to keep reading this exclusive post.
