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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Just finished Alexander Solzhenitsyn's first novel, One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich. http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2018/0...iterature.html

hey dude i read your review and it’s a good one.

but i’d take it a step further, see...

it’s not just that one can adapt to “horrific” circumstances imposed by political imprisonment under totalitarian systems

sometimes the horrific prison comes from something else—illness, poverty, depression, etc.

the larger, practical meaning for me is that one can manage to score small victories that keep us going or give our life meaning when every other option is closed.

yes, building a good wall for your captors is a minimal victory— but the satisfaction of doing a good job is something, and it’s meaningful in that small restricted world.

and that is how one survives when in chains. whether the chains are a siberian gulag or an oppressive job or a country gone mad or a struggle with mental illness.

the same kind of effort, the squeezing a victory out of whatever our circumstances, helps us survive all kinds of difficulties too. more than just a story... it’s a demonstration of a technique.