"Candle in the Wind", by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

I finished reading Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's play "Candle in the Wind", which I found in a nice little bookshop in Newport.

The story is basically about the professional and personal lives of scientists and mathematicians working at a biocybernetics institute and how they differ in their reactions to the amorality of their work. But essentially, the meaning of the work is to examine movements of materialism divorced from the spiritual, particularly the purposes and uses of science by the state, and how such socialistic statism suppresses the human soul.

These themes of materialism and the dehumanizing effects of socialism are all common to Solzhenitsyn. Indeed, Solzhenitsyn, as the last great Russian writer of modernity, is the successor of Tolstoy in his focus on the simplicity of the individual soul seeking maturation (specifically the spiritual) amidst the forces of modernity, particularly materialism and socialism.

Naturally, being a Russian from the Soviet period, Solzhenitsyn's stories are located within Russia and explore spiritual themes in the context of a socialist society (much like Pasternak, Akhmatova, and Bulgakov). However, in "Candle in the Wind", Solzhenitsyn intentionally places his story in a nameless state devoid of identifying cultural markers in order to create a more international feel and universal quality. How effective he is with this technique is open for criticism. Personally, I think the universal quality of his theme itself would lift the story out of a Soviet context and unto a broader, international stage.

I was quite reminded of the plays of Tom Stoppard, particularly the critique of socialism, the analogies of science, mixed with wit and the personal lives of the characters. I particularly loved the first few lines:

Maurice: One of the main criteria for judging people's taste is cheese. What cheese do you prefer, Alex?

Alex: I'm no connoisseur, Uncle, they're all the same to me.

Maurice: All the same? You really are a savage, then!

"Candle in the Wind" is a minor work by a major writer. It's a quick read and a good primer for his more expansive works.