In 2000 I started watching them build it there. It was horrible. Shortly there after, it began to take shape here, as well. This past month, both officially opened to the public. Maybe I\’m just being a fascist and elitist aesthetics and design bastard, but is it just me or are the new Scottish Parliament main building and the building for the National Museum of the American Indian essentially the same ugly building dedicated to an ancient people who were wrongly put under the thumbs of the Anglo-Saxons three hundred plus years ago to only now be poorly paid their due in a patronizing and embarrassing architectural and symbolic manner?
I was thinking on that for the past two weeks and after sitting outside the NMAI in the rain for an hour today, staring at its hideousness, I feel that I can no longer remain silent on this subject. With that out of the way, here\’s more of things that few other people give a damn about…
I cooked through the 300 pages of Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall in the last 24 hours. It was hard to put down, to put it mildly. I skipped the Mouse on Mars show so that I could finish it… don\’t know if that\’s saying more about the book or the music, though.
The writing style annoyed me; I was halfway through before I realized there is a byline on the cover that reads \”non-fiction.\” It unravels in a very sort of currently fashionable way, in that the author pays stunning amounts of detail to her own personal life and how it interacts with the story she is telling. Due to that, I thought I was reading yet another historical dramatization. I was startled and pleased when I realized I was not, which instantly made the storytelling more annoying. Guess I\’m a stickler for history without an author. At any rate, the lives she was able to uncover are mostly fascinating, and she did a remarkable job of describing the literal landscape of East Germany. Dickens could have learned a thousand lessons from her on the wonders of mincing words while still painting a full picture.
The sum of the story is moving, though perhaps slightly wanting for those seeking more reasons for vitriol, particularly against the Stasi. While trying to explain the East German character, however, I couldn\’t help but feel that Funder does, beneath it all, blame the population for bending over and taking it up the ass from the government and its various agencies. And admittedly, though, I am perhaps just paranoid and projecting my own fears about my country onto her.
Anyway, what an arse review. I feel like I\’m going blind from all the staring at tiny print. Check this one out for an interesting read, particularly you history and politics vultures (you know who you are). Brought tears to my jaded and cynical eyes more than once, it did.
