Liviu Rebreanu (1885–1944)

If you study the context long enough, you may get it why Slavici was highly innovative (and influential) after a period of „lowbrow” and short-breath prose (though not without some charming pieces; if you ask me, I'd pick Alecsandri's Călătorie în Africa...) and why Rebreanu hit the jackpot at a time when the Romanian novel was still close to non-existent. Nevertheless, it is easy to see why it is one of the favorite hate targets of pupils who hate having to read canonical books and making stupid pseudo-analysis for the „bac” exams. Nothing glossy here (in any way), nothing too vivid, everything is rigorously programmed and therefore falls flat easily for most teenagers (that the plot happens to have some similarities with modern Latin soap operas is an oft-used excuse). As for me, I am stranger enough from the very concept of a realistic novel to begin with...… (más)

This book catalogs the empirical evidence of the social, psychological, physical and spiritual wreckage left in the wake of the sexual revolution. Documenting the wide array of demonstrable deleterious effects on men, women, young adults, and children, the weight of the arguments and evidence are hefty. From increases in divorce and unwed motherhood, to erosion of family ties and greater social estrangement; from the rise of pornography, to abortion; more and more social science and empirical data confirms the traditionalist, over the liberationist, position.

The bulk of the book covers these empirical findings that support her thesis, as well as citing lettered opinions of non-traditionalist and non-religious psychologists, biologists, sociologists who nevertheless concur with some key point made against the sexual revolution. For instance, a secular sociobiologist who makes the case that the advent of the Pill, and widespread and easy access to contraception, has resulted "in the breakdown of families, female impoverishment, trouble in the relationship between the sexes, and single motherhood", as well as declaring that “contraception causes abortion.”

Throughout this central section of the book, Eberstadt presents a powerful case, though I think she could have dealt with potential objections more strongly. For example, when she notes that some might make a correlation/causation objection to some argument, she merely dismisses it out of hand, when it could have been easily dealt with from her perspective. In certain circumstances, correlation is enough to make the case; if, for example, the fact that divorce and breakdown of the family visa vis more single motherhood etc. have demonstrably increased as a result of the changes wrought in the 60s (on this level, causation can be demonstrated, more or less), then establishing correlation between, say, broken families and worse financial strife, greater chances of children from broken families being imprisoned etc. is all that is required. When the fact of significant increases in polluted chickens and rotten eggs is undeniable, as are the forces which precipitated the increase, which came first is not the point.

Eberstadt also includes two intriguing "thought experiment" chapters that theorize the stigma and taboos surrounding food consumption today, and the moralistic attitudes that go with it, have switched with the taboos and attitudes that used to accompany sex, before the 1960s. The second chapter of that sort posits a similar switch in attitudes about pornography and tobacco on the same timeline: what is today socially acceptable and taken as a mostly immutable fact of life in mainstream culture (pornography) was yesterday reviled and taboo; what yesterday was socially acceptable and taken as a mostly immutable fact of life in mainstream culture (tobacco) is now reviled and taboo. This makes the case that the anti-moralist attitudes of the liberal, liberationist ethic are mostly a false veneer and that the moral preening just takes on a different guise.

It also makes the hopeful argument that weight of evidence and education can overturn a seemingly entrenched social fact, even when there is a lobby and industry on the side of not doing so (smoking), and make it taboo. Eberstadt sees hope that this could happen with pornography, given the ever increasing evidence of its empirically demonstrable social and personal negative effects.

The closing chapter is rather delightful as it makes the case that, more and more, Humanae Vitae -- the 1968 papal encyclical of Pope Paul VI condemning contraception -- though universally reviled by secularists, is being vindicated by more evidence daily. A fitting close to the book.

… (más)

Apostal Bologa has grown up in Hungary although his family is Romanian. When World War I begins, he enlists in the army and after earning several medals for bravery, he is faced with being transferred to the Romanian front where he will have to fight for his country against his brothers. In these circumstances, many other Romanian citizens of Hungary choose to desert the military and escape to Romania. Those who are caught are court martialed, sentenced to death by hanging, and are often strung up in trees and left there to serve as a warning to others, hence the title of the novel. Even before the war, Apostal was facing a kind of existential and spiritual crisis, and the war only intensifies his desire to discover the meaning of life. Alternately, he finds it fleetingly in God, love, the essence of the soul, duty to his country, Romanian patriotism, and intellectualism. At the Romanian front, however, Apostal’s crisis reaches a boiling point and he is forced to decide between his duty to Hungary and his roots in Romania.

It was difficult for me to figure out what I thought of this book. As with any war novel, the subject matter is often hard to take, but that’s to be expected. The bigger struggle for me was that I wanted Apostal to decide which convictions were most important to him and to stick to them. Many of the other characters faced their situations stoically, but since we were inside Apostal’s head, we saw all of his doubts and indecision. I also think the novel could have been written a little better, but that may have just been the translation or the fact that I lack a frame of reference to really understand what it’s like to live in this part of the world. Overall though, this novel gave me a lot to think about, raised a lot of interesting questions, and was well worth reading for those who are interested in seeing the world from a different perspective.… (más)

If you study the context long enough, you may get it why Slavici was highly innovative (and influential) after a period of „lowbrow” and short-breath prose (though not without some charming pieces; if you ask me, I'd pick Alecsandri's Călătorie în Africa...) and why Rebreanu hit the jackpot at a time when the Romanian novel was still close to non-existent. Nevertheless, it is easy to see why it is one of the favorite hate targets of pupils who hate having to read canonical books and making stupid pseudo-analysis for the „bac” exams. Nothing glossy here (in any way), nothing too vivid, everything is rigorously programmed and therefore falls flat easily for most teenagers (that the plot happens to have some similarities with modern Latin soap operas is an oft-used excuse). As for me, I am stranger enough from the very concept of a realistic novel to begin with...… (más)