Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message from 23-08-1997 05:19, Marc James Small (msmall@roanoke.infi.net) wrote: > >This is starting to get irritating. > >Two points. First, Riefenstahl was never a Nazi Party member nor did she >ever attempt to join. She never endorsed the Party in any manner. She >never spoke on its behalf. She never made any public statement with regard >to Hitler or Goebbels or the Party. She simply made films at the direction >of Goebbels and his cronies. And, of course, she had a falling out with >the Party leadership in '38, after which they would give her no work at all >and discouraged others from doing so as well. From 1940 on, her work was >surpressed, for reasons never explained to her and for which no record >survives, save for a couple of sarcastic notes in Goebbels' wartime diaries. > >Second, you simply cannot attempt to judge the artist by their era or >society or else we will condemn all art. Is Eisenstadt any less a >cinematographer for being a Communist Party member? Is Picasso to be >damned because he was an eyes-open fellow-traveller lending both his >support and his genius to the Communists in the 1930's? What about >Leonardo and Michaelangelo, both of whom accepted commissions from the >Catholic Church at the very time it was killing Jews in Spain, torturing >Protestants in the Low Countries, and destroying the Maya and Incan >cultures? And what about Edmund Spenser: the book he wrote immediately >prior to THE FAERIE QUEEN is a positively scurrilous attack on the Irish, >suggesting that civilization would best be served by exterminating them >root and branch. > >Pray, do not be "shocked" by my expressions, as their are consistent with >every statement of cultural belief I have ever posted to the LUG. I hold a >sincere belief that an artist can only honestly be judged on the integrity >of his or her work and, to that end, applaud those who have commented on >the quality of her work while I condemn those who wish to judge her for >some alleged -- and factually non-existent -- endorsement of the Nazi regime. > >Marc > > >Marc James Small >Cha Robh Bas Fir, Gun Ghras Fir! >FAX: +540/343-7315 > > Couldn't agree with you more, Marc. Folks, could we please stop this useless debata about Riefenstahl having Nazi sympathies or not? This is really not the place to discuss such political issues (this is a Leica list after all). Could we please all go back to our hobby/profession instead of starting such futile flames? If not, we might as well debate about communist inspired photographers and so on, as communism is on the same line as Nazism (both ideologies killed millions, just think of Stalin's epurations and Goelags, up to Brezhnev's area). Just proving how silly such discussions are! Thanks. Pascal - --------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was created with Claris Em@iler on a Macintosh PowerBook - --------------------------------------------------------------------- <<<PGP public key available on request>>>