Racine, Nuremberg

I am reading a book on the Nuremberg trials by Bradley Smith, but I have already read Werner Maser's account of the procedural problems at the trial, as well as its analysis (along with other Holocaust trials) by Lawrence Douglas. Each book is radically different from the other. Maser, a German, catalogues the many indignities and injustices suffered by the prisoners and witnesses for the defense, in a way that makes those trials a caricature of justice. My sense of justice was offended, as those who know me will expect, in many ways that aren't even mentioned by Maser. But I also saw that the necessity for justice on a broader scale that couldn't be provided by any legal system as we know them. Douglas' book also covered the Eichmann, Barbie, Demjanjuk and Zundel trials, and I learned a lot about all of those trials as well, as political theatre, as collective expression of grief and sorrow, as part of various national discourse on the Holocaust. Wow. The poet who dramatically collapses and cannot testify, the judge reluctant to interrupt the witness, the whole country of Israel riveted by radio testimony. Incredible, even though I was very well informed on the Holocaust for a lay person and a Gentile, having read extensively on the subject.

I have also read several books on Jean Racine, the great French dramatist -- something of an essay on the life of Racine by Francois Mauriac, an essay on Racine as dramatist by Lucien Goldmann. I have two or three on my bedside table.

Finally I also read a book on the idea of monarchy, by William Spellmann. It was a quick easy read, a survey of monarchy on the five continents in the last millennium -- quite an overview.

I also read the New Scientist, the New Yorker, and the Vanity Fair cover to cover.

All in all the last few days have been a pleasant re acquaintance of reading as escapism, and I confess I jumped in with both feet. I have a large stack of books to return to the library now.