BBC R3: Closer to Blood than Ink (on Pablo Neruda)
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1chrisharpe
BBC R3 is repeating an hour-long programme on Pablo Neruda tonight at 22:00. It will be available on-line for seven days afterwards at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p8dcj .
Pablo Neruda is a literary Che Guevara, an idolised figure, much loved, but not much scrutinised. This feature reassesses him, taking a close look at his work and his life; in particular his role in getting refugees out of fascist Spain, and what this unknown but highly significant story reveals about him.
In 1938 Neruda was a diplomat, representing Chile in Paris. He chartered a ship, the SS Winnipeg, to convey 2,000 Spanish Republicans to Chile. He was there on the quay, in a white hat, waving them off. And he wrote the poem Let Me Explain a Few Things in which he disowned his previous romantic and lyrical self and committed himself to exposing the world's injustices.
But it has been alleged that Neruda was a kind of reverse Schindler, with a list of people who were not going to get on the Winnipeg. As a diplomat he had access to passports, and he made sure these went only to those of his particular left-wing beliefs (which were Stalinist). According to Neruda's critics, the Anarchists and more moderate socialists were rejected and were therefore interned in France. Many were executed soon after when the Nazis moved in.
Neruda remained devoted to Stalin and wrote a threnody on his death: 'We must learn from Stalin/ his sincere intensity/ his concrete clarity.'
Nick Rankin investigates this episode in Neruda's life, talking to his latest biographer, Adam Feinstein, to the writer Stephen Schwarz, who makes the allegation, to the anarchist publisher Stuart Christie, the poet Jane Duran, whose father was close to, then rejected by Neruda, and to Victor Pey in Santiago, who was one of those who sailed on the Winnipeg. He considers the impact it had on his poetry, and reassesses that achievement. What emerges is more complex and nuanced than at first appears.
Producer: Julian May.
Pablo Neruda is a literary Che Guevara, an idolised figure, much loved, but not much scrutinised. This feature reassesses him, taking a close look at his work and his life; in particular his role in getting refugees out of fascist Spain, and what this unknown but highly significant story reveals about him.
In 1938 Neruda was a diplomat, representing Chile in Paris. He chartered a ship, the SS Winnipeg, to convey 2,000 Spanish Republicans to Chile. He was there on the quay, in a white hat, waving them off. And he wrote the poem Let Me Explain a Few Things in which he disowned his previous romantic and lyrical self and committed himself to exposing the world's injustices.
But it has been alleged that Neruda was a kind of reverse Schindler, with a list of people who were not going to get on the Winnipeg. As a diplomat he had access to passports, and he made sure these went only to those of his particular left-wing beliefs (which were Stalinist). According to Neruda's critics, the Anarchists and more moderate socialists were rejected and were therefore interned in France. Many were executed soon after when the Nazis moved in.
Neruda remained devoted to Stalin and wrote a threnody on his death: 'We must learn from Stalin/ his sincere intensity/ his concrete clarity.'
Nick Rankin investigates this episode in Neruda's life, talking to his latest biographer, Adam Feinstein, to the writer Stephen Schwarz, who makes the allegation, to the anarchist publisher Stuart Christie, the poet Jane Duran, whose father was close to, then rejected by Neruda, and to Victor Pey in Santiago, who was one of those who sailed on the Winnipeg. He considers the impact it had on his poetry, and reassesses that achievement. What emerges is more complex and nuanced than at first appears.
Producer: Julian May.
2lriley
Neruda was a life long communist. There was no love lost between the Anarchists and the Communists in Spain during the war. The Communists had the upper hand because Stalin became the main source of logistical supply on the Republican side. The anarchists and other groups got hand me down equipment. They were put into situations set up to fail. Many of them also became victims of internal pogroms. Not surprising at all that Neruda only would save fellow travellers. There was a lock step mentality at work and one could imagine the majority on board that ship throwing anyone suspected of diversion from that mentality into the ocean long before they reached their destination. FWIW I'm sure Hemingway who was also very enamored by the Communists would have thought and acted the same.
None of this had to be of course. It just was. The Republican side could have won but were torn apart internally. The world as it is today might look a lot different for better or maybe even for worse. It was the first real chance to stop Hitler and Mussolini in their tracks though. Arguably though Stalin was just as bad.
None of this had to be of course. It just was. The Republican side could have won but were torn apart internally. The world as it is today might look a lot different for better or maybe even for worse. It was the first real chance to stop Hitler and Mussolini in their tracks though. Arguably though Stalin was just as bad.
