(version française)

I first heard of Édouard Limonov through Adam Curtis’ most recent series Can’t Get You Out of my Head. I went back and watched the scenes that feature Limonov after finishing this book and was startled by the difference in tone between the way Carrere depicts him vis a vis Curtis. In this book we are presented with a Limonov who early in his life was cast as the iconoclastic rebel, the anti-elitist punk turned fascist and violent nationalist. Carrere is clearly disturbed and confused by this supposed change undertaken by Limonov in the later part of his life. However, he goes through pains to make us understand that he is unusually sympathetic towards Limonov’s actions in comparison to the liberal milieu of Parisian writers and intellectuals he lives amongst; people who wanted nothing to do with the Russian writer after he was shown in Pawel Pawilowski’s documentary firing a machine gun towards the besieged Sarajevo in the early 90s. Throughout the book, Carrere seems to be searching for a way to explain the fascination he feels for Limonov to himself and to the reader. Despite valiant efforts, he never quite succeeds, evinced by the books closing pages. I wonder if Carrere had written this book now if he would feel differently. The world of the 00s and early 10s feels light years away from the present we currently inhabit, and I think every passing year brings Limonov’s sentiments into clearer focus. (I deliberately use the word sentiment, because going by this book, Limonov never codified his intuitive beliefs about the world into any kind of philosophy or -ism, for better or worse) Limonov knew that with the fall of the Soviet Union Russia was entering into a profoundly dark period of history that has played out just as he expected. This in combination with the systemic rot he inhabited while living in the west certainly played into forming his pessimistic perspective on how the world was progressing, a perspective that seems more and more vindicated. What made Limonov a compelling figure was his willingness to face reality as it truly was. He pulling back the shroud of neoliberal class apartheid as it existed in the West, and he scorned the sacrifice of all tradition and collective identity for the sake of material gain in the post-Communist states. Anyone who faces the world as it truly is, without the protection of platitudes and propaganda, will, even should, be radicalized. Was Limonov toying with dangerous ideas? Absolutely. Was he fraternizing with evil people? It seems so. But I think he was attracted to strains of thought potent enough to abnegate the rising tide of the destructive world order we are now living with, and through this attraction pursued ideas beyond what most of us would feel comfortable with. But I think it’s important to the consider the fact that, just as Carrere is searching for a lens through which to view this complicated man, Limonov was perhaps also searching. We are unfortunately only given brief glimpses into his inner psychology, he who was so opaque. When any kind of inner dilemma is reveal, it sticks out for the incongruity. Limonov typically came off so self-assured that he was on the moral high ground, but It does, after all, take supreme self-confidence (fabricated as it may be) to make any kind of impact on the scale that he pined for.

Curtis, in contrast with Carrere, shows Limonov as a kind of pure provocateur, someone who knew that he had to bring out the “big guns” in order to fight against the ascendant powers of neoliberalism and global capital that were taking over the world. These “big guns” were namely the most demonized credos of the last century, Bolshevism and fascism. In Curtis’ telling, Limonov wanted to reclaim these ideas, so demonized by those he set himself in opposition against, because they were the last mass movement that truly allowed for the subsuming of the individual, and therefore made change a possibility. Limonov and his enemies both knew that this kind of mass movement was the only thing that could stop their winning streak. The fact that both parts of the National Bolshevik namesake were responsible for the widest scale human rights abuses in history was, to Limonov, beside the point. In his conception, if we lose sight of the factors that made them both so successful in the first place, something even more important than human life may be at stake.

I think Curtis’ depiction will be shown as more in line with how history will see Limonov. We are after all, still developing the vocabulary and intellectual framework to understand the current shitshow we find ourselves in. Do I think Limonov was correct in everything or even most of what did and believed? No, I don’t. But I think people like him are essential to finding new ways to make the world a better place and fighting against the cynical, nihilist apparatus that has installed itself at the head of world affairs. ( )

Ciertas hojas valen la pena. Inferior a El Adversario. ( )

Eduard Limonov is one of those people who are far more interesting, the LESS you know about them. I have given the book three stars because its deficiencies cannot be blamed upon the writer, or translator, as much as the subject.

Upon a brief acquaintance, Limonov comes across as an intriguing character: on further inspection, he becomes a narcissistic creature. I couldn't begin to guess as to whether he believes ANY of his 'principles'; they are certainly easily shed when a new chance to gurn in front of the media appears.

My advice about this book: don't bother, there are much more exciting people about whom to read. ( )

Non è facile rendermi simpatico un fascista.
Con questa biografia dello scrittore e militante politico russo Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko, in arte Limonov, forse Emmanuel Carrère è quello che più ci è andato vicino.
Certo, Eduard Limonov non è esattamente un fascista classico, gli mancano i tratti dei stereotipi dei fascisti che siamo abituati a vedere in giro e ad odiare: razzismo, antisemitismo, omofobia. Ne mantiene però altri, come il forte sentimento nazionalista, una smisurata stima di se e una sfrontatezza che spesso sconfina nell'arroganza.
Eppure Carrère ci fa capire che la vicenda umana di Limonov non può certamente essere ridotta al suo solo fascismo: la faccenda è più complicata di così, come non si stanca mai di ripetere lo scrittore francese per tutto l'arco della narrazione.
Dall'Ucraina a New York, Parigi, la Jugoslavia devastata dalla guerra, la Mosca Post Sovietica, l'Asia Centrale con i suoi paesaggi mozzafiato, Eduard Limonov non rimane mai fermo, la sua mente brillante sembra non accontentarsi mai di ciò che riesce a ottenere, non può accontentarsi mai.
Un ego strabordante, geniale e controverso che di sicuro non lascia indifferenti, complice anche la splendida scrittura di Emmanuel Carrère che ogni tanto compare in questa biografia con le sue considerazioni, le sue opinioni che impreziosiscono il racconto di una vicenda umana già ricca di avvenimenti.
Da leggere.
( )

Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia
by Emmanuel Carrère,

Well that pretty much sums it up on one foul swoop except that it doesn't, at all, in any way shape or form.

The book begins with this quote:
"Whoever wants the Soviet Union back has no brain. Whoever doesn't miss it has no heart". - Vladimir Putin

One of things I witness almost daily is the vilification of Vladimir Putin in the Western media. Don't get me going! It distresses me much because this is what the West does again and again. Like the passion for regime change and the goddamn fucking awful consequences that always ensue. Look what has happened since the deposing of Saddam Hussein (good guy one day, bad guy the next), Taliban, Al Qaieda and now Isis. Well fucking done Blair and Bush.

I see the daily vilification of Isis too, though that doesn't distress me as much. The problem we have is that the West doesn’t cope with complexity so everything has to be simplified to moronic fundamentalist christian levels. Valdimir Putin is a fucking hero in Russia and yet our dimwit fucking masters here would have us believe that he is a bad person. I'm sure they have already told you that he doesn't brush his teeth every day nor say his prayers. Well Tony Fucking Blair is now a Catholic and I bet he prays every fucking day, as well he should given how much blood is on his hands, that bastard. Don't get me started!

People want to know who is radicalising the Muslims? Is that a fucking joke? You don't for a moment think it could have the slightest thing to do with 15 years of illegal war with the good guys "lighting them up", the endless drone killings, their towns and cities a mass of rubble, not to mention the centuries of our meddling in their politics and economies and did I mention regime change? What, you thought it was Muslim clerics? Now that is a fucking joke.

The problem with all this simplification or vilification is that we haven't a fucking clue what is really going on in the world around us and why they are shooting us in the streets of Paris? Oh yeah, they are evil guys, bad guys, a death cult you say? Well where do they get the guns? Who is selling them weapons? I see them riding in convoys of brand new Toyota Landcruisers, who is selling them the vehicles? Do those vehicles have a warranty? Well, do they? Who underwrites that?

What's that? you can read all my fucking emails and text messages and see everything that I look at on the Internet and yet you cannot tell us who is selling them the guns they are using to kill us? What's that? it's complicated you say? I might find it hard to understand the complexities of the situation. Don't get me fucking started!

Liminov, who the fuck is Limonov? Limonov was a thief, drug addict, wife beater, queer, bum boy, liar, convict, traitor and did I say thief? Well, that is who Limonov is and that's probably all the West can cope with. Remember the polonium poisoning and the journalist assassinations (you know all that bad shit that Putin ordered). Well, all that is in there too. The simple fact is that Limonov is a hero and an artist and all those other things too.

It is not a slot that we have in the West, you know how it is, you are either George Clooney or a mass murderer or a nobody. That's about as complicated as we get. Hence the current obsession with comic book heroes who may occasionally consider a moral conundrum for about 3 seconds before hitting somebody. Don't get me fucking started!

I hate to tell you this now, but nothing is straightforward, just like everything on the Internet is a lie, so everything about Russia or Russians is just too fucking complicated to even begin to understand. If you want to know about Liminov you'd have to read this book.

Don't get me started!

Footnote: Read this first:
http://williamblum.org/aer/read/128
(It's a bit like drinking water to clear your palate before tasting something sublime. If the water tastes off you should just go straight to bed and not bother with the book, have a little lie down until you feel better) ( )