I finally gave up on Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” After the first 300 pages I got it — Gulags sucked! And I kept hearing Yakov Smirnoff’s voice: “In America, you have fast food. In Soviet Russia, we have forced labor camps!!” Despite Amnesty International’s recent report on Guantanamo making the term relevant again, it’s pretty hard to get all worked up about the minutae of an injustice that isn’t happening anymore. There are, though, some amazing similarities between the Soviets’ psyops torture techniques and the shit that’s going down right now — Amnesty may not have gaffed as hard as we originally thought. But, like I say, I’m putting the book down and I’m not quite half-way done. Schlepping it around was killing me and the whole thing was bumming me out. Just look at the kisser of this dude from the back flap. Weren’t their public relations departments when this was published in 1973? How could anyone say, yes, I want to cuddle up with this man for 700 pages!???!
