IT IS I, KENNY! AND I AM HERE! BASK IN MY GLORY

[Bocaj Claw]

You're the bestest Uncle Spiffy.

[Tom Flapwell]

Incidentally, I saw Dr. Zhivago last night. I didn't learn much new about Russian Communism, but I hadn't realized that they frowned upon men pursuing personal lives. Makes sense, tho.

What makes you say they frowned upon that?

I studied Zhivago as part of my first degree, so I am curious.

The protagonist kept getting reminders that him settling down with his lover in a quiet life was obstructive to the party's utilitarianism. Furthermore, his old poems were considered too "personal" -- essentially too humanitarian.

[_SeHT]

The protagonist kept getting reminders that him settling down with his lover in a quiet life was obstructive to the party's utilitarianism. Furthermore, his old poems were considered too "personal" -- essentially too humanitarian.

Ah, right, yes... I can see how you reached your conclusions.

'Humanitarian' isn't quite the word I would use; perhaps simply 'human', or even the first word you used - personal - is better. The Party, controlling as it did practically everything, brought in something called "Soviet Realism", the concept that all art should further the Soviet cause. Zhivago's poetry did nothing of the sort, although it's difficult to tell because very little is in fact recited in the film itself, if memory serves.

Similarly, the idea of taking yourself off to live in a small house with your lover was not exactly conforming to the Soviet concept of 'all a man's good for the good of all men'. The fact that the proponent of this concept, Karl Marx himself, described it as an unattainable Utopia didn't stop Lenin and his fellow revolutionaries - but then the Tsar of the time, Nikolai II, did himself no favours... But this is not the place for a historical discussion.

It is a fascinating book, Doctor Zhivago. I recommend it to you, although much is, of course, lost in translation.

[Comrade K]

I wasn't aware of this Secret Society of Mysteries, It sounds intriguing. And sorry about the noise. You know, I keep telling my minions not to drop the pieces of steel when they're welding armour plates onto my hovering tanks.
Don't worry, you didn't get my brain! I just threw a spare in at the last second and saved myself. Cryogenics, what can't they do?

[Muninn]

]Good, you follow the Marx, not the Stalinists.

I am a Marxist of the Groucho tendency.