Charlie Rose Science Series
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07/02/2007
Günter Grass
A conversation with Günter Grass
Keywords:
A conversation with German author Günter Grass. Grass is the 1999 Nobel Laureate for Literature.
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Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
ho seguito una sua intervista fatta in un programma televisivo, questo signore Gunter Grass da la vaga impressione che si stia facendo propaganda solo per il semplice fatto di vendere più copie per più incassi dei suoi ricordi ( suoi), sono molto scettic...ce ne sono altri in circolazione come lui, ma ha veramente 80 anni... ma dov'era oppure si può dire dov'è stato approfondiamo
I am surprised by so many responses that are critical of Charlie Rose here for asking Grass about his past. As I see it Rose is his usual considerate, informed and courteous self. Rose is to be commended for underlining the basic point regarding Grass' hypocrisy and double- dealing. The great German moral voice after the War hid his own past deliberately, covered up and lied. It is the lying and the cover up above all which is inexcusable. Grass evades Rose's question about the implications of Grass' having published this book twenty years ago. As for Grass' knee- jerk anti- Americanism. It is contemptible. The United States bailed out Germany and Europe after the war with the Marshall Plan instead of burying it as it well could have.
It is hilarious to watch the whole Western charade of the demonization of Nazi Germany, as though the rest of Europe and America did not engage in the same barbaric behavior at other stages in our world's history. It is always amusing to watch, and always enraging. Equally as amusing is the valorization of Jewish victims and the dismissal of "others." Grass is a literary giant and I am surprised Mr. Rose attacked him as he did. I think a lot of it has to do with envy, with the fact that the Western World has always envied the Germans, for they are clearly superior in many respects to other Westerners.
Very interesting conversation with Gunter Grass. His admission to being a member of the Waffen SS is not shocking at all, to anyone who knows the history of the war. He was Hitler Youth, and the desperate Nazis were losing the war, replacing the millions of men killed with teenagers and old men. He's still a great writer, worth of the Nobel. His honesty and candor should be respected, no less so than Alexander Solzhenitsyn's. Solzhenitsyn admitted with great shame and sorrow that as a Russian soldier conquering Germany, he had raped a German woman. No one called for him to give back the Nobel. Ernest Hemingway admitted to shooting an SS man in the head because he didn't like his attitude. Hemingway had no legal right to do that and so this could be called a crime. So let's respect Gunter Grass for being such a great writer and an honest man. By the way, my father was a POW in a German prison camp for 4 years. I know all about Nazis, and Grass is just another German who was caught up in the madness of the time.
Dear Charlie, I am Persian/American, and I am proud to be an American citizen, but I absolutely disagree war with Iran, because does not solve anything expect give the Iranian dictator regime more legitimacy and create a chaos in Iran like Iraq. Lately, your interviews with your gusts mostly are about Iran, and you cleverly conducted your questions and conversations toward nuclear issue of Iran. I sense that you like Iran be attack by our country; please stop doing so Charlie, do not carry out conversation to convince your gust attack to Iran is a good thing to do. Please stop that, because do not solve any problems and the only people benefited by our attack is Iranian dictator regime and the only people would suffer are Persian which majority of the educated and young people are the most pro American people in Islamic world. Please be ambassador of PEACE and humanity; war does not solve anything except will create more animosity, hatred, and hostility. Persian have not forgotten the democratically elected Prime Minister Dr. Mosagh was removed by our help in 1952. We need to keep the positive view of Persian toward us and be supportive of to those young university students which times to times express their dislike of the regime and request for more freedom. Please promote peace and dialogue and use your tribune for the humanity and conduct a constructive dialogue not WAR. Thank you. By the way Charlie, I am watching your show for quite sometime and consider myself as your fan. Your fellow American
I saw the interview and was very impressed with Mr Grass as he wrestled with, and examined, his and other Germans' inability to, and perhaps fear of, questioning why Jews were being taken away and where they were being taken to. However, I am disappointed that he was able to unburden himself about his involvement in the Hitler youth only after he had achieved great renown and had won the Nobel prize. I suppose the confession was "better late than never". For the remainder of his life we can look forward to his further examinations of his individual, as well as Germany's collective, involvement. For this I am grateful.
Gunther Grass was not a Nazi. Where do people come up with these absurd generalizations? Gunther said he was drafted into the army and was chosen for the SS. It's like being drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam war and being chosen for the Marines if comparisons are at all possible. Using this form of logic one supposes we are all Republicans now because George Bush is a Republican.
p. Scully You should be embarrassed. It's as if you are stating - How dare anyone question a Nazis' past. Grass made his own bed. He is a mature intellectual who has spent decades pondering and commenting on issues of this nature - I think he can handle an interview with Charlie Rose. I'm assuming most of these comments are from Germans who can't handle their past or don't want to apologize for it. I get that many Germans feared actively resisting Hitler's regime - but actively participating? then covering it up for years while criticizing others. Seems he deserves some scrutiny.
Actually, didn't see the interview. Now I'm sniffing around for a transcript or a replay. I was interested in Grass's article in the New Yorker, esp. when he described the narrative tape snapping and having to be respliced -- obviously something was lost in that resplicing. I wonder what it was. P.S. A German friend of mine, my age (50) once said, I don't have a hard time believing the Germans could do those things; I just wonder what kind of people they turned into because of them."
While I am younger (and remember things in Germany during WW2 a little different), I loved listening to Mr.Grass. How easy it is to manipulate the public. That is why I passionately believe in a free press (that it should not be under the control of a few, (and so I fear Mr. Merdoc /Fox News etc. ). We are all so busy with trying to survive in this world. What do we really know about our governments? The press must be free.
I, too, felt you were bullying and accusatory. I was 7 yrs old in 1942 when I became aware of the war. I look back now and see how everyone's emotions were manipulated by propaganda.
I remember being against the invasion of Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq and wondered why no one here asked the questions as Guenter Grass asked himself many years later of himself about his involvement in his early years. Maybe we should also fault the print and electronic media in this country for not asking the right questions. Those questions should be directed to the immoral nature of capitalism which rewards efficiency and compensates the rich more than others in a society that produces needed services. I laud Charlie Rose for having Chomsky on this program at least twice now in that regard. It's time we have more critics of the media and the Iraq war and the conflicts in the Middle East and throws the capitalists out of our public temples as Jesus did so many years ago. Where is the shame ?
Whenever Charlie interviews giants such as Grass the inevitable comments tend to carry the weight of giant expectations and tender sensitivities. My comment is to the commenters: Please get a grip. Charlie Rose is not you. His style seems indelible, but can hardly be deemed confrontational, it's merely Texas American. You can hardly interview the likes of who his guests are without eventually imagining yourself to be their peer, hence his perennial suggestion of several possible answers to every question he asks, while his guest, (usually very patiently) waits so he can answer the way he intended to in the first place. Charlie Rose is not a hyper-intellectual interviewer (sometimes thankfully - sometimes not), but he is a classic American, and his simpler style does seem to keep his guests answering in ways that more viewers can ultimately understand.
I liked the interview & i felt that Charlie Rose was doing his job. I did not find him bullying or accusing but more like asking challenging questions. "An ugly American" did not cross my mind & i did not find him judgemental but more curious about what brought the German writer to finally open up & write about his past after 60 years. Gunter Grass is helping me understand the US today with its constant need to control us & lie to us, both countries have a lot of similarities but a different approach. Hitler was loud about invading the world but Bush is sneaky & quiet about it. Gunter Grass exposed colonialisation of Europe & America's involvement in Chile & Iraq. Countries worldwide have done terrible things & it is still happening. I liked how Gunter Grass answered Charlie Rose regarding" his dislike of the US", saying that" having different views than the US ideology has nothing to do with disliking the US. I strongly agreed with the answer & will also say that Charly Rose was not bullying him.
Your interview with Gunter Gross was the worst I have seen. I am no supporter of Nazis. You did not have to torment this 80 year old man. I do not remember the name of the English Journalist who appears in a 'night program' in Britain. He was trying to impress you how much he forced the issue by repeated questioning. It may work in Britain. not in the US. Please go back to being yourself, a well reputed journalist with acute techniques. Enjoy your program now that I can view this everyday after retirement. DS
The waffen SS was not the overriding issue and taking into account his age at the time, was not of import. That it takes six decades to confront this is also understandable, due to psychol. suppression if nothing else. I've observed Grass on German television many times. Grass is a knee-jerk antiamerican, the experience of greece and chile which he alludes to is sincere enough, but this form of hatred and fear of the US runs much deeper, and grass probably needs another few decades to unpeel this aspect of his personality (which he shares to a large extent, even profound extent, with his countrymen). What is so baffling is that this loathing is often accompanied by admiration. The Germans distrust almost all things military because they are afraid of distant echoes in their past. Natural as this is in itself, it may be the root of their fear of the US. The West Germans like Grass harbor romantic notions about communism, the community well being vs the individual or so-called capitalistic ethos. Many in the States share this romantic view. The eastern Europeans on the other hand experienced the so-called workers' state first hand, and are less critical of the United States, I think more objectively, and consequently sympathetically.
I was enraged by Mr. Rose's inquisitory manner by the end of the interview and am not sure if I'll be able to watch his program again. It was pure ugly American in my view, especially when Mr. Grass tried to point out that all nations have darkness in their pasts to which Mr. Rose could only think to point the finger at Japan! I think Mr. Rose needs not only a lesson in German history, but American history as well. He'll find lots of events from Manifest Destiny through Vietnam (arguably Iraq as well) that we can't or shouldn't be very proud of as a "civilized" people.
Grass gave an honest answer about why he joined the SS as a teenager toward the end of the war. He was swept away by Hitler's ideology. But what is difficult to understand is why he hid his past for six decades. For that, he gave no credible answer -- only a feeble one that it took time to acknowledge his past publicly. Charlie Rose should have pressed Grass on this issue even harder than he did because this is a pivotal subject matter dealing with truth, honesty and humanity.
I admit I was deeply disappointed in Mr. Rose's interview--really confrontation--with Gunter Grass. This was not the Rose who probes and seeks deeper understanding. I approve of sharp, even confrontational questioning, but the questions should be honest efforts to achieve clarity or necessary information in order to seek the truth. In this case, Rose's questions had the rhetorical tone of prior judgments--the manner implied that judgment had already been passed and the interviewee was being offered opportunities to validate the negative judgments, not to illuminate the issues. I was more reminded of the tiresome John McLaughlin than of the Rose whose interviews have been so often valuable. I also found it difficult to believe that he had read more than a few snippets of Grass's book; if he had, he could not have asked the questions he asked, in the tone of asking, that he did.
Charlie, your interview of Gunter Grass was painful to watchâ??your questions, that is, and delivery of same. Perhaps you'll play it back and actually listen to Mr. Grass, and learn (or remember) that certain sensibility and depth of understanding we viewers expect, yes? from you.
Your attitude and demeanor during the interview with gunter Grass was shameful.You were bullying, rude,accusatory and skeptical. The man has a fascinating story to tell, experiences and memories and impressions from over 60 years ago !!! He is not a reporter giving us a factual account of the last days of the Nazis', he is (or was) a very scared boy in a very threatening and foggy madhouse. You should be embarassed.