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Quote by Isaac Deutscher

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The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879-1921

This book delves into the formative years of Leon Trotsky, examining his early influences, revolutionary activities, and his role in the Russian Revolution. It provides a comprehensive look at Trotsky's intellectual and political evolution during the early 20th century. more

Author

Isaac Deutscher
Isaac Deutscher

Isaac Deutscher was a British writer and historian, renowned for his biographies of Karl Marx and Trotsky. Born on April 3, 1907, in Latvia, he passed away on August 19, 1967. Deutscher's work, characterized by its scholarly depth and literary quality, has had a significant impact on the understanding of Marxism and the Russian Revolution. more

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“And I wonder, therefore, how James Atlas can have been so indulgent in his recent essay ‘The Changing World of New York Intellectuals.’ This rather shallow piece appeared in the New York Times magazine, and took us over the usual jumps. Gone are the days of Partisan Review, Delmore Schwartz, Dwight MacDonald etc etc. No longer the tempest of debate over Trotsky, The Waste Land, Orwell, blah, blah. Today the assimilation of the Jewish American, the rise of rents in midtown Manhattan, the erosion of Village life, yawn, yawn. The drift to the right, the rediscovery of patriotism, the gruesome maturity of the once iconoclastic Norman Podhoretz, okay, okay! I have one question which Atlas in his much-ballyhooed article did not even discuss. The old gang may have had regrettable flirtations. Their political compromises, endlessly reviewed, may have exhibited naivety or self-regard. But much of that record is still educative, and the argument did take place under real pressure from anti-semitic and authoritarian enemies. Today, the alleged ‘neo-conservative’ movement around Jeane Kirkpatrick, Commentary and the New Criterion can be found in unforced alliance with openly obscurantist, fundamentalist and above all anti-intellectual forces. In the old days, there would at least have been a debate on the proprieties of such a united front, with many fine distinctions made and brave attitudes struck. As I write, nearness to power seems the only excuse, and the subject is changed as soon it is raised. I wait for the agonised, self-justifying neo-conservative essay about necessary and contingent alliances. Do I linger in vain?”

PowerNew YorkDebateCommunismPatriotismFundamentalismCold WarManhattanNew York TimesAuthoritarianismAmericansAnti SemitismJewsGeorge OrwellIntellectualsAnti IntellectualismObscurantismLeon TrotskyRight Wing PoliticsTs EliotCommentary MagazineDelmore SchwartzDwight MacdonaldJames AtlasJeane KirkpatrickNeoconservativismNew CriterionNorman PodhoretzPartisan Review
Book:Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
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“He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something -sub-human -something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something - ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in - anthropological studies! Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is - Stanley Kowalski - survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you - you here - waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been discovered yet! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! - you call it - this party of apes! Somebody growls - some creature snatches at something - the fight is on! God! Maybe we are a long way from beng made in God's image, but Stella - my sister - there has been some progress since then! Such things as art - as poetry and music - such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! In some kinds of people some tendered feelings have had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag! In this dark march towards what-ever it is we're approaching . . . Don't - don't hang back with the brutes!”

EvolutionAbusePrimitivePrimalRegressionApeBlanche DuboisApe LikeStanley Kowalski
Book:A Streetcar Named Desire
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“True? Yes, I suppose-unfit somehow-anyway.... So I came here. There was nowhere else I could go. I was played out. You know what played out is? My youth was suddenly gone up the water-sprout, and-I met you. You said you needed somebody. Well, I needed some-body, too. I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle-a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in! But I guess I was asking, hoping-too much! Kiefaber, Stanley and Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.”

Blanche Dubois
Author:Tennessee Williams
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