Talk:Sven Hassel
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I removed this fragment from the critics section:
"All of this information is published on his personal website, which is also full of lurid racist right-winger cartoons which seem to have been drawn by the illustrators of Julius Streicher's Der Sturmer."
That is incorrect - the information about Haaest's father is not on his website. Nore is it "full" of racist right-winger cartoons. Johan77 19:02, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
I find Sven Hassel's books fascinating in their open portrayal of war's hypocracies, horrors and blatant stupidity. I think this generation and those yet to come should read and learn!
I removed the reference to "Caucasian fever," which doesn't appear to be a real illness. | Keithlaw 15:48, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Anyone else think this is sufficiently wikified to remove the wikify tag? Avocado 15:22, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)
I do. --Ben davison 22:34, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] Minor changes
Added Italy, Greece and the Balkans to the war theater described in the books. Also some minor spelling changes in the original book titles.
[edit] Legion Of The Damned vs later books
I only got to read Legion of the Damned (LotD) after reading several of Hassel's later books, and came away with the impression that later books were expanded and fictionalized by comparison, and written as "genre" novels. LotD, by comparison, covered the whole of Hassel's (reported) military career, ending with his commission as a lieutenant, and seemed to have more of an autobiographical "ring of truth" about it.
I don't have any of his books to hand at the moment, to make a new comparison, but I thought I should ask about it since the article makes no distinction between LotD and the later books. Does anyone else feel the same way? -- Stereoroid 03:00, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
- Legion of the Dammed was by far his best work. Certainly it created a lot more empathy for its central character. Reading some of the other works I actually found myself hating most of its characters. Piercetp 05:58, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
If you have ever read "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Legion of the Damned", then you will note that LotD is basically a re-hash of "All Quiet on the Western Front", even down to the oldest member of the unit being killed by artillery fire whilst out on a walk in the country.
Furthermore the style of 'Legion of the Damned' is totally different to the other books.
JRE 25 July 2007
[edit] Who is telling the truth?
The opening paragraph states "Sven Hassel (born April 19, 1917) is a Danish-born soldier and writer who has written pseudo-autobiographical novels based on his experiences in World War II." According to his own biography at http://www.svenhassel.net/ he states that
and the following year, due to the great unemplyment in Denmark, he joined the German army as a volunteer. Initially he served in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and furthermore in the 11th and 27th "Panzerregiment". He fought in all the frontlines except in the North of Africa. Consequentialy Sven was wounded eight times. From 1945 to 1949 he was POW and was subject to Russian, American, French and Danish prisoner camps.
But according to Eric Haaest (http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Texts/English/00table.htm) this is all not true. It seems that the article here tends to take the latter's point of view. Maybe this article should take on a more neutral tone. Just a thought. Piercetp 06:54, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
Does it matter who is in fact telling the truth? It is fairly obvious that the books are fiction.. For instance Julius Heide is portrayed as some sort of weakling in some books (Sorry I can remember exactly which ones) and then as a super soldier in others. The books are also full of weird stuff. For instance I remember reading that Porta wanted to photocopy a pornographic picture so that he could sell it. Where they even invented in WWII? But the point im trying to make is that they should just be taken as good books. I dont thinks Svens history is of great importance although I do tend to naturally lean towards rejecting some of the claims that have been made against him because I am a fan. - Antony
- I generally agree with what you say, and think it's not as bad as you say. e.g. "photocopy" used to mean to copy photographically i.e. using a camera, not necessarily using a photocopying machine! Also, I read Heide as a character who bought in to the Nazi ideology hook, line and sinker, bending his personality out of shape. Capable of being a super-soldier, but with human weaknesses that appeared at odd times. Something of a "tin soldier" whom the others could wind up and send in to battle for them! Stereoroid 22:40, 4 November 2006 (UTC).
- I have to say i find it a bit disappointing that more effort seems to have been made inputting the "critics" section of the entry than to the actual books and the author - the article seems to be very anti Hassel now rather than a neutral summing up of his works. Wether true or not the books should be described here for their writing content / stories and not historical facts - after all they are designed to be one mans view of the war and not an overview of what happened across the entire campaigns or areas (wether or not they are an auto biography etc is irrelevent).SiHudson 00:12, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] German
Were his books ever published in German? Bastie 18:29, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] ISBNs
How about some ISBNs?
- Die Galgenvögel. Roman. (Broschiert)
- Verlag: Goldmann Wilhelm GmbH (1987)
- ISBN-10: 3442088771
- ISBN-13: 978-3442088775
amazon.de Radu er (talk) 16:41, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Significance?
From the current article:
"It is significant that some Hassel fans believe Eric Haaest's version of who Sven Hassel really is, while continuing to enjoy Hassel's books."
What is so significant about that? There are probably other fans who like the books and don't care either way about the author. If your saying something is significant then you really should say why its significant.
- I agree. For many readers it doesn't matter if the author states "I did all that" and is lying (as Karl May) or "Of course I didn't do that" (as Asimov). What matters is the fun the reader's getting. Radu er (talk) 16:45, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
