Soviet Chic

The Conning Tower ^ | May 8, 2004 | Trentino

[Davis]

Here is link to the Malone piece on Soviet Chic

[CWOJackson]

I wonder if our faux soviet will read this.

[Burn24]

Hmm, I saw one of these chic-sters the other day, wearing the Red Star. In the streets of NYC, of course.

But I don't think he even knew what it represented.

[Zeroisanumber]

Christ, what next? SS chic? Retro-crazed neo-Nazis invading Poland?

[ChiMark]

What a coincidence. We were discussing the famine of the 1930's Stalin used to crush the peasants. My, how chic it is to starve millions of people.

[Pharmboy]

Oops..I thought it was Russian CHICKS...

[dwills]

the truth of the psychological appeal of soviet and nazi chic is in their wealth of stark symbolism and contempt for familiar americana

nobody who espouses the 80/20 rule wants to consider themselves as being among the 80

unfortunately, americans feel too comfortable and free to appreciate what they will lose once their fantasy so easily becomes reality

[Tribune7]

Will they have Nazi chic, too?

[MediaMole]

Hasn't everyone read Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and Robert Conquest's The Great Terror?

Uhh, no. They don't fit the template for the educational establishment.

[hrhdave]

I think the autheor, Trentino, was being sarcastic, suggesting that everyone has read The Gulag Archipelago and The Great Terror. Of course, it isn't necessary to have read those books to know what a horror house the Soviet Union was.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

How true! There is a lot of material dealing with the death mask of communism, even in popular culture-films, books,etc. unfortunately, not much of it can be found in the vapid world of Hollywood, the OAH, AHA, and nearly every other cultural institution that the hard-left has a death grip on.

A brilliant polemic that immediately springs to mind is the Black Book Of Communism.

Some other interesting books include Richard Pipes' history of the Soviet empire, Darkness At Noon- Bubba's favorite-and virtually any book written by David Horowitz.

If you want to see a few interesting flicks that touch on this subject, go out and get "East-West", "Canary Season"and the stunning Cuban drama "Bitter Sugar."

[norcalvet]

Hey, you can get a CCCP thong, lunchbox, or even a "Commi Teddy Bear"

http://www.cafeshops.com/kncccp/

 

[hrhdave]

East-West is a magnificent movie. See it if you can as often as you can.

[swilhelm73]

Let's be frank here. Most leftists, at least deep down inside, would love to have the power over society - and their political opponents - that the Soviets had.

Listen to modern American liberal thought and the primary impediments to utopia are capitalism and, even though they attempt to obscure such thoughts, representative government.

So the notion that they would look upon the Soviet system with horror is somewhat questionable. Given the right people, or more specifically them, the system would work wonderfully, past history be damned.

[dwills]

have you all seen the Russian "Burnt by the Sun"?

it's out on DVD--I rented it through Greencine.com

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Another great one that I neglected to mention was Children of the Revolution.

I know, it's a comedy and it stars Judy Davis, who can be mistaken for Trotsky's wife under the right circumstances; but it's a hilarious send-up of Joseph Stalin's crimes. It's also one of the few farces that actually punctures the myth of a benevolent "Uncle Joe", which we've been force-fed all these years.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

No, I haven't. But I have seen "Enemy at the Gates." Even though it might not technically fit into this category, it's still a tremendous film.

It's also one of the best treatments-are there others I haven't yet seen-of the siege of Stalingrad out there. It really explored the different aspects of being a trained sniper, which aren't usually dealt with in a such a serious manner.

The movie was so good that I even suppressed my contempt for Ed Harris. He was great in that role!

[Cacique]

Remember that waitress at SAGA?

[CharlotteVRWC]

There was an article in our local paper a few months ago, touting the new 'cuban' manicure as a fad.