h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So... any feelings?

The fact that a 17 year old Grass joined the SS is neither here nor there in my book (we have had the "how do you think you'd behave" conversation elsewhere)

But can he really hold up his head as a kind of moral compass, commenting on what other people do (or don't do) now he has exposed his past.

Or is it really just another publicity stunt by the very media savvy (and brilliant writer) Herr Grass.

I do wonder why he felt the need to announce it just before publishing his autobiography. But without knowing more about what he actually did while in the SS, I don´t want to comment on the rest.

From what I've heard, he announced it shortly before the 'Stasi files' will be released

any links?

only in German
so I won't post them, but if you use a search engine with Gunther Grass in the SS you can see them

Part of me feels he was trying to head off bad publicity at the pass, because when the Stasi files come out he would have had an awful lot of (deserved) criticism

However, I also think that he has an extremely savvy eye out on the media and he knew that his book would sell by the shedload.

But then, he is such a fine writer that I wonder why he needs that?

Personally I find his "pronouncements" far to condescending half the time, I admire his writing but he is patronising and although I agree with a lot of what he says, you'll never get me to admit that out loud...

oh and as an aside, is it totally necessary for every thread and every conversation and every comment to be backed up with a flippin' link?

there's a bloomin' huge search engine up there ^^ and I don't believe that Gunther Grass and/or the SS are so obscure as to need links served up on a silver salver.

Surely someone who's visited all points of the morality compass is well-placed to provide a commentary on moral issues.

Well, I've found a site saying that the office wasn't allowed to publish the files, but that Grass has given his assent with hindsight

Oh, and here's a link :
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1226380,00.html

Good point, SWL, but there are ways and ways.

B'Elana - I am 100% convinced that this has everythig to do with the biography.

As you know, nobody here is going to criticise the 78 year old Grass for joining the SS in the dying days of the war as a 17 year old.

It's the double standard in someone who isn't a politician that's gripping us all!

to be honest, I'm not that bothered. I thought it would be to have a German-Centric thread

To be honest, I haven't followed all this in detail, I really couldn't care less, he's only one year older than my dad, so my dad was only 16 when they got him and put him someplace to fight, it was during the last year of the war. I've read that near the end, the Waffen SS was merely a name, and no organisation any longer, it just was intended to make people feel better when fighting for their country.

It's so odd seeing (German Centric). I thought Germany was just a barracks for our army and a venue for football games. Maybe we should have a thread on "What do you know about Germany?"

B'Elana - i don't think it's the fact of the SS that worries people (insofar as they are worried) it's the lying

or, rather, the absence of candour

SWL - start the thread, it might be interesting!

Just done it - but I expanded the theme a bit

where?

I guess it only worries few people, most of them older than us. Go and ask my colleagues, or anybody who's younger, and you're lucky if they know who Grass is. And all people take in when reading the Bild, is the word SS - although there was a huge duifference between the police and the military SS, but not many people know.

do you think we need more general info about the SS or is it time to let it all die a death?

Does it really matter?

Or is it a moral issue? (his silence)

Well, when somebody mentions the SS, I think people imagine those people from the films, with the runes on their coats and all. But the Waffen SS was another kettle of fish, at least later, so yes, I think it should be differentiated.
And I don't know if it's a moral issue, I guess it is, because he's so well known, but then: what would have been the right time to tell the public ?

it's generally not Germans who are undereducated in these things but the rest of the world. But how to do it? it's a difficult one.

As for the right time to tell it? round about the time he got the Nobel Prize would have been good - or even before then.

I'm sure most of us did things aged 17 that we're not proud of. And he's a writer. I mean, it's not as if Gunther Grass is the Pope or anything like that