The Kindly Ones and Night of the Generals (1967)

[rich]

merci, clement

i liked elementary particles, too (sort've a warped sci-fi version of
the great movie carnal knowledge). can't say much of
worthiness/villains re: french literature but I can think of others (I
should add that the effects in France of the German occupation pbly
had something to do with it at least w/r/t post war efforts)-Celine
also comes to mind.

one may being up Austria here, too no?--Bernhard and Jelinek..not mass
crimes are subjects per se but on an individual level just as
devastating--but they thru these characters fundamentally condemn
austria fascist past though their spokespeople be just as hideous and
in some way fascists themselves

rich

2011/2/19 Clément Lévy <clemlevy at gmail.com>:
> Well, I just heard about a book written by a young French scholar, Charlotte
> Lacoste, about the way French literature favours the point of view of the
> authors of mass crimes, and other torture acts. She mainly talks about
> Maximilian Aue, the hero of The Kindly Ones, but also about Houellebecq's
> Elementary Particules, about other genocides as well.
>
> This book is called Séductions du bourreau, Négation des victimes, Paris:
> Presses universitaires de France, 2010. It could be translated as "The
> Seduction of the Mass-murderer and the Denial of the Victims".
>
> Have you heard about it? She may have presented her book in Germany
> recently, if I understood it correctly. I think her opinion would help us
> think in a more general way about great characters who are also absolute
> badasses (and there are a lot of evil nazi preverts in popular culture!).
> That is to say that I do not think Littell is a genius in any way, and he
> certainly knows Dominus Blicero or Tiffauges, in Michel Tournier's Erlkönig
> fantasy, and many many other nazi villains.
> Clement
>
> Le 14 févr. 10 à 07:14, rich a écrit :
>
>> fwiw...
>>
>> i wonder if Littell watched Night of the Generals, a somewhat stiff
>> production of a German german serial killer on the loose during the war (and
>> particularly around the time of the assassination attempt on Hitler),
>> (1967)--a major investigates.
>>
>> both book and film focus on a weird, sexually perverted SS officer
>>
>> Both book and film involve the (in some ways absurd) investigation of a
>> criminal murder during a time of larger-than-life, bigger, obscuring all
>> others events, political. state sponsored violence/mass murder
>>
>> The major played by Omar Sharif specifically invokes the Euminides and the
>> justice thereof
>>
>> Peter O'Toole is simply wonderfully evil as the SS General (almost ranks
>> with his role(s) in The Ruling Class--crack!)
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_of_the_Generals (Gore Vidal with
>> unacknowledged writing credit)
>> rich
>
>