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Nobody's Listening Any More

Walking through some wasteland near the lake, which also serves as a dumping ground, I saw some books abandoned with the rubbish. Normally I wouldn't wish this on a book, but after a closer look I understood.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Curious, do you have a higher resolution of IMG_5265.JPG so it's legible?
Anonymous said…
oh this is nothing compared to 1991 when there were garbage piles of portraits of Enver and all party books out in the streets. My family threw our party books as well, but inside me i didn't like it. Now i'm trying to buy them back.

Ok, I understand that they don't want to deal with the past anymore, but throwing away any book is a sin. Afterall, it's a part of our past and history and we should learn from our mistakes not be in denial. At least keep them in a library from reference.
ITS said…
Oh, snap!

It's tragicomic. I don't think that throwing away "any book" is a sin. There are plenty of books that are pure garbage. And most of Enver's repetitive propaganda fit that description.

Take the book Alwyn has photographed. "Historia e Partise Punes se Shqiperise". That book is not the true history, but it's what Enver wanted people to be perceived as history, hence it's pure garbage, and deserves to rot away.

nice catch Alwyn!

When are you leaving the land of eagles anyway?
Selfmaderadio said…
Actually, I would like to read it again now. I wonder, how am I going to react to it.
Hahah

Ohh you should have seen my fathers bookcase a few years back.

He had volumes of them, I think there are about 12 volumes (Works) in total. Turned out a bit useful (the actual pages, not the content) in the end because I perfected the "art" of paper plane making.

Even now at 23 I'm a true expert on paper planes!
olli said…
Two months to go ITS.

Anon If you click on 5265 (now 5265-1) you'll see the original. I've played with contrast and sharpness a bit. It's 3.4 MB so it might take a few moments to load.
Anonymous said…
Alwyn you're leaving?! I didn't know that. How come?
Gjergji Cumani said…
My grandfather had the same and my grandma put them on the bathroom, not to read..but... Anyways, IMO , i would say let them be, they explain our mentality, and where we came from, even if it was a lie, that's what everybody took for granted as true, so as above stated, for reference it would be good. I mean it was 50 years of our history.
Anonymous said…
"That book is not the true history, but it's what Enver wanted people to be perceived as history, hence it's pure garbage, and deserves to rot away."

I think we should preserve all points of view. You can analyze and study Enver's technique so that we won't be fooled again.
Anonymous said…
You know some of those volumes were the same...i.e. what was printed on volume 5, was reprinted on volume 8 and so on, simply because they couldnt come up with anything new to say...same old stuff.

THese books are certainly kept at the reference library...I think what Alwyn has photographed was the throw-away collection of some family/person.

It is actually interesting to read a few passages from some of them (especially the ones bearing the name "Enver Hoxha" as the author). When reading them, if you can get past the obvious propaganda, one can sort of disect the passages to find some historical trueth. Not that anything printed in them was true, but only saying one can find out how the party perceived certain individulas and how they reacted after each split with each superpower etc etc. Whats always amazed me is that Hoxha himself was credited with 100 books, most of them coming after 1978-79. Sadly as most people know, he was so inadequate after that time, that he could barely attend party meetings, let alone write books. No doubt most if not all of them were shadow-written, and I think a few of them by good writers too. For example "Titistet", or the "Titoists" in English, is full of historical passages and half-trueths. I doubt Hoxha himself could have written a 400 page book so elequently all the while being in charge of the party and state!
eni said…
yep I'd like to read them too:)
Anonymous said…
someone sold his house to a constructur and did not take away those books.

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