Ernst Jünger

Storm of Steel

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The First World War in person. One of the books where even the introduction is worth reading. I agree with Gide's words (as mentioned in Michael Hoffman's introduction of his translation):

'Storm of Steel', is without question the finsest book on war that I know: utterly honest, truthful, in good faith.'

I have to quote also a few more lines that I completely agree with, and explain better than any review what this book is about:

"Its contrast with most of the others is stark. It has no pacifist design. It makes no personal appeal. It is a notably unconstructed book. It does not set its author and his experience in any sort of context. It offers nothing in the way of hows and whys, it is pure where and when and of course, above all, WHAT. There is nothing in it about the politics of the war -nothing even on its outcome- and very little on the wider strategy of its conduct."

That sums it all pretty well for me. This is pure literature. The best memoirs I have read to date of any conflict (aside from Sledge's 'Of the Old Breed"). I couldn't help thinking of all the 'liquor-loving intellectuals' of the left bank of the Seine, who might have been drinking their narcissistic lives away in the cafés of Paris while Ernst Junger was creating this masterpiece of literature out of a real experience, and only a few miles away.

I can´t wait to read more by and about Ernst Junger.

The similarity with Homer'´s Iliad is not that far-fetching as you might think.

Oh, and if you just want to satisfy your prejudices by knowing in advance if this is a pacifist or a bellicist book, you might as well look elsewhere, because asking that question reveals you ain't ready for simply the truth, the 'real thing' like 'Storm of Steel' and better stick to your utopias.


NINOTCHKA,

O EL DISCRETO DESENCANTO CON EL SOCIALISMO 

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On Cuba's Revolution:

"The revolution was a cover for committing atrocities without the slightest vestige of guilt ... we were young and irresponsible. We were pirates. We formed our own caste ... we belonged to and believed in nothing -no religion, no flag, no morality or principle. It's fortunate we didn't win, because if we had, we would have drowned the continent in barbarism."

Jorge Masetti, In the Pirate's Den

España [por el contrario de Estados Unidos] se ha ido configurando, siglo a siglo, como una sociedad herida por la envidia, en la que todavía hacer demagogia con la pobreza rinde réditos electorales y donde los que han tenido o tienen grandes riquezas -tanto los progres como la iglesia católica– no pocas veces predican la solidaridad con el prójimo a la vez que protegen sus patrimonios nada desdeñables en SICAVs, algo, dicho sea de paso, bastante lógico tal y como está el panorama fiscal.”

César Vidal en su artículo Las razones de una diferencia en Libertaddigital.com

2. La Constitución se fundamenta en la indisoluble unidad de la Nación española, patria común e indivisible de todos los españoles.

3.1. El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. Todos los españoles tienen el deber de conocerla y el derecho a usarla.

'The Pale Maiden'
"Thus heaven I've forfeited,
I know it full well
My soul, once true to God
Is chosen for hell."

by Karl Marx

from Richard Wurmbrand´s book on Marx

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