Word: simonov
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Looking at Simonov's work one finds Communism rarely mentioned. The emphasis is rather on nationalism and on people. Communism is affirmed indirectly, however, because the people and nation about which Simonov cares all accept it. One is reminded of a passage in Days and Nights in which a priest, the father of one of the soldiers is being described: "... he was a powerful man, and sometimes a rough one. But the father had never known hatred. He had not loved the demobilized Red Army soldier, Stepanyuk, who had opened a branch of "The Society of the Godless...
When the conversation turned to Soviet films, Simonov became more animate. Asked how he liked The Cranes Are Flying, Simonov replied that, although he had no argument with it "in principal," he thought it was overdone. "Their suffering was a little too beautiful. It was not real...
...Simonov then began to describe a film which he felt had been better done, Ballad of a Soldier. As he retold the plot, his hands, which are nearly always active, became powerfully expressive. He would push his fist forward with a twisting motion, suddenly pull a chunk of space toward himself with both hands; sometimes, when he was looking for a word, he would feel the air with his fingers in a "je ne sais quoi" gesture. Then he would explain, "I can't say it. I can just express it like this, with my fingers...
...U.S.S.R., in addition to doing his own creative work, Simonov is also an active and very important member of the Union of Writers. As literary editor of the Union magazine, Novyi Mir, he was among the first who read and refused to publish Doctor Zhivago. "There were two reasons why I didn't like the book. First, it seemed to me that Pasternak considered the February revolution a good thing and that he thought the October revolution was evil. I think the October revolution was a good thing. So, from the standpoint of ideas, I disagreed. Then, the fact...
Asked earlier in he converation, "Are you a Marxist?" Simonov replied in a low voice, but with obvious pride, "I am a Communist" (i.e. a party member). When he was asked, however, whether or not he wrote Marxist books, he smiled and said "I never thought of describing my work in just that way. I was never particularly good in philosophy and so my books aren't very philosophical. Just the same, I can see no contradiction between my writing and my politics...