[lbo-talk] Goodbye Lenin

Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 7 15:24:06 PDT 2004


--- joanna bujes <jbujes at covad.net> wrote:
> I saw "Goodbye Lenin" last night and recommend it to
> everyone. It might
> not be as analytic as a die-hard marxist would like,
> but I think the
> analysis occurred on a poetic level -- if that makes
> any sense. Anyway,
> don't miss it. It's definitely worth seeing.

Joanna, agreed. This is the most nuanced, complex treatment of German reunification, fall of the eastern bloc, that I have seen or read. And it's not the least bit arid: I almost wept at parts and in other moments, as you know, I couldn't contain my laughter.

What I keep thinking about are "the lies". The son lied to the mother, making her believe the DDR still existed, in order to protect her. The mother lied to the children about the disappearance of the father, apparently to protect the children in some way. These are somehow analogs of State lies. Lies that we can imagine the DDR told its people (no need to mention the lies the West told about the eastern bloc), in order to protect itself. One has to wonder what would have happened if there were not these lies buffering people from reality. Perhaps there would have been a crisis, but with the crisis also the possibility of advancing. As long as everything is locked in a lie, there can be only stasis and decrepitude. I couldn't help but think of Tolstoy's "The Life and Death of Ivan Ilyich".

-Thomas

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