Some of them call it (the service of knowledge), and some of them call it (the compulsory service), but the truest name for it is the name given to it by the public: (compulsory). Compulsory, no matter how much they cover it with national cellophane, will remain one of the heaviest experiences that a person goes through. He will live a long time and die, and the heavy feeling that there is a gun on his shoulder will never disappear.
Using diminutive names, such as: “Soso” or “Koba,” Arrabal addresses the leader Joseph Stalin through a long, sarcastic and indignant message, dropping from him the qualities of greatness and deification, so that he returns to a child who deserves rebuke.
Employing his huge and diverse intellectual reserve, Arrabal delves into the details of Stalin’s life, starting from his famous mustache, passing through the women in his life, the spies and henchmen who worked for him, and the poets who immortalized him in weak verses, all the way to his victims, who were many, inside and outside the Soviet Union, and with Therefore, Arrabal does not reveal the sources of his information, nor does he differentiate between facts and fabricated details. He does not seek to present a truly historical document as much as he is interested in formulating a dialectical and moral argument.
Unlike his letter to General Franco, which he sent to the latter while he was alive, writing to a dead dictator may seem like an absurd and useless act, but Arrabal is in fact directing his letter to the living who lived with Stalin, or were influenced by him later, and he is trying in his letter, which seems Closer to a plea in a court; To say: History is unforgettable and cannot be erased.
... لم يسبق لأي شخص أن وصل إلى طموحه. يمكن للقارئ العارض الذي يوشك أن يشرع في رحلة عبر هذا الكتاب أن يفعل ما هو أسوأ بكثير من أن يتعرف على الملاحظات القص
أنا خطيئتُكَ التي لن تُغتفر، وأنا الذنب الذي بينكَ وبين دعواتكَ التي لن تُستجاب. سأظلُ أدعو عليكَ بصلواتي الخمس، وفي كلِّ سجدة، سأطلبُ من عظمته التي يهتزُ لها الكون
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