One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - the film

Just a brief update - got the film working - my mistake before.

John Hurt who was to go on to play Strelnikov in Dr Zhivago, not only played the part of Ivan but also narrated - reading passages from the book. Today, no doubt, the part would be played by a Russian or at least an Eastern European.
  The film throughout exposes the futility of the Gulags, the endless privations, and most of all the gloom, coldness and bleakness of the inmates' lives.
  There is some criticism of the film on the web but we found it to be true to the book and cleverly filmed.
  The minutiae of the men's lives, the close ups of eating disgusting looking gruel, the hiding places for precious objects - all in subdued greys and browns - evoked a feeling of despair and desperation for their plight. The sense of isolation is conjured up by the opening and closing sequences. Not only is the camp miles from anywhere but there is also the feeling that these men are forgotten by society and could just disappear.

  PS And because I like to find allusions -  I heard this in the film and found it in the book.
'Morning came as it always does'.
  I have always liked this phrase which is in a favourite children's book - Amos and Boris by William Steig and now I know where it originates from - Ivan Denisovich - very satisfying.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

We were supposed to watch the film but despite having viewed it in the afternoon with full sound when the time came to watch it with the members sitting patiently I could not get the sound to come on so instead we discussed the book, its writer and the relationship between the two. The film is available on UTUBE as are a series of interviews with both Solzhenitsyn and other members of his family.
   It is 51 years since the book saw the light of day and was considered to have changed Russian's view of their country. Kruschev approved its publication in line with his attempts to put an end to the Stalinist era. (We remembered reading his speech to the politburo in the Great Speeches series).
   A number of translators have been involved and while we didn't have time to do a careful analysis of the differences it would be interesting to do. My copy was translated by Gillon Aitkin in 1970 without any preface as some later editions have.
   While not autobiographical One Day obviously draws upon the author's own time spent in a Gulag. We discussed many aspects of the book from its beautifully poetic descriptions of the cold to the interplay between the different characters. The sense of humanity, the love of the mother country and the endless wariness and weariness of the main character Shukhov are powerfully depicted. We are given a clear, uncompromising picture of the utter futility of the camp. The pointlessness thereof - and not only for the prisoners but for those who are guarding them as well - for they too have to watch their backs, endure the perishing cold and the ghastly food.
   Numbers feature prominently throughout - the cyphers by which the prisoners are known, the tortuous counting and recounting and re-recounting of the men as they line up again and again for work parties, for food or simply to be counted. This reminded me of the German concentration and POW camps where those in power delighted in the numbers game - to what end I wonder. We talked about self-perception, about remaining an individual, how to stay sane.
   We read how important it is for Shukhov to maintain his dignity and his insistence that the work he does is of the highest standard - despite knowing that it is in fact a complete waste of time but to give up is to fail and to fail is to be trampled and to lose self-respect and probably to become the cypher and to lose one's identity and ultimately to die. The whole experience is a dreadful game but a game that can be won with the right tactics - it might not seem so but though the stakes are high positive outcomes are possible. Shukhov knows this and plays the game - a game of life indeed such that we hope never to see again.
  The Baptists in particular are able to survive - 'the camp does not get them down' - they find inner strength from their faith. Everyone tries in his own way to find a way to survive but not all succeed.
   Yet there are still countries ruled by tyrants with overwhelming power over their citizens - where to dissent from the 'party' dogma or criticism of the leadership or in fact anything that they don't like can result in death - North Korea's leader has just executed his ex-girlfriend.
   If you ever think it is cold - read this passage
  'Shukhov's face-cloth had got all wet from his breath, and in places it had frozen and formed an icy crust. He pulled it down from his face to his neck and stood with his back to the wind. He didn't feel cold everywhere, but his hands were numb in his thin mittens, and the toes of his left foot were frozen: his left boot was in bad shape and would have to be sewn up again'. How many times had it already been sewn up we wonder.
  Read this book and if you have read it pass it on the someone younger than you - it is important for this story to be read and re-read to remind us not only of man's inhumanity to man but also of one man's courage - to tell us how it was and to shame those who would continue such cruelty.
  Solzhenitsen is today part of the school curriculum in Russia but sadly that does not mean that it is read by all nor that his message has been understood.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman

This is a re-telling of the life of Jesus, told mostly in the voice of Jesus' twin brother, Christ. Christ is a fictitious character who plays the role of both story-teller and reality check. Christ often appears as an alter-ego, the shadow of Jesus; Christ is a weak and quiet person, in awe of his brother Jesus who is so charismatic and a natural born revolutionary. After being approached by a 'stranger', Christ is persuaded to write down and record the 'disturbances' that his brother appears to be causing through his preaching. So while Jesus is stirring up trouble with the authorities, Christ is in the background observing and writing reports for the stranger.

Giving Christ the status of Jesus' twin status gives Pullman, an atheist and humanist supporter, a handy device for providing a logical and rational explanation to some of Jesus' miracles, not least the resurrection, in which Christ is mistaken for, and assumed to be, Jesus when the tomb is found to be empty.

So why is Christ a scoundrel? He plays two significant roles – that of Satan when Jesus is in the desert, and that of Judas who betrays Jesus to the authorities. But there are also moments when Jesus' behaviour not as saintly as we might expect. For example, before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane he feels deserted by his god who never appears to listen to his prayers and expresses disillusionment. Jesus also treats his family quite harshly and abandons them in pursuit of his mission.

The re-telling came about when one of Pullman’s admirers, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, asked Pullman during a public debate why having tackled God he had neglected to write about the figure of Jesus. This version of the Gospel stories may appear to be unchristian but it is certainly not anti-Jesus. The main point of the re-telling emphasises the 'Christianity' of Jesus as a person vis-a-vis the corruption of the church. This is the paradox that Christ is able to manipulate for the reader. Christ believes he is doing the right thing when he betrays Jesus, following the strangers instructions, because in that way Jesus will be revered and will become the foundation of a new religion. However, at the end of the story we, and Christ, are faced with the reality that the stranger is as mortal and mercenary as the rest of us, and has no desire to promote the true voice of Jesus' word. Finally the 'Church' takes over the myth of Jesus and interprets the stories for its own ends – as did the stranger.    

I enjoyed this re-telling because it helps me to understand the times that Jesus lived in and to put the crucifixion into a historical context. I also liked the character of Christ because he displays 'normal' human emotions: fraternity, sibling jealousy, loyalty, gullibility, guilt and regret. I have never really got on the the Bible and the Gospels, but I found this re-telling not only a good story, but a very readable account of the life of Jesus.