The Democracy Wall [1978-79] poets I first met and wrote about were recited widely by youth and their poems turned into songs. While official politics were so dour and gray, underground youth culture was alive and celebratory. Here is one of the shortest ones that everyone could recite:
Nice. What I am sneaking up on is that in his youth he did things like that. After 45 became the man in charge of all the other poets, not in a good way. Man I knew was his foreign friend during the transition, then fled. This book is by Communists and fellow travelers working romantically in Ha Noi close to victory 20 years later in 75. Not as dopey as the Les Chinoises crowd. They worked with the publishing people I worked another 20 years later with just after doi moi. So a rich situation for me though fraught. Could not do it at all if he had not been a real poet when young.
I understood all of this from your original post. Just seeking common ground. A lot of similarities in our experiences with post-Communism. This is the answer to George Packer's question: "What's with Viet Nam?" If you don't understand this, you don't understand anything, and go repeating the mistakes by supporting wars of choice/lies in Iraq et al.
enticing Daniel
The Democracy Wall [1978-79] poets I first met and wrote about were recited widely by youth and their poems turned into songs. While official politics were so dour and gray, underground youth culture was alive and celebratory. Here is one of the shortest ones that everyone could recite:
My Generation
The dark night has given me dark eyes,
I use them to seek light.
一代人
黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛,
我却用它寻找光明
Nice. What I am sneaking up on is that in his youth he did things like that. After 45 became the man in charge of all the other poets, not in a good way. Man I knew was his foreign friend during the transition, then fled. This book is by Communists and fellow travelers working romantically in Ha Noi close to victory 20 years later in 75. Not as dopey as the Les Chinoises crowd. They worked with the publishing people I worked another 20 years later with just after doi moi. So a rich situation for me though fraught. Could not do it at all if he had not been a real poet when young.
I understood all of this from your original post. Just seeking common ground. A lot of similarities in our experiences with post-Communism. This is the answer to George Packer's question: "What's with Viet Nam?" If you don't understand this, you don't understand anything, and go repeating the mistakes by supporting wars of choice/lies in Iraq et al.