К вопросу о продаже вдохновенья

[scholar_vit]

NPR-овская передача о Вернере фон Брауне напомнила старую песню Лерера:

А вот слова песни:


Tom Lehrer

Wernher von Braun

Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
"Ha, Nazi, Schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.

Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.

You too may be a big hero,
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero.
"In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.

1965

Comments

[prof-yura.livejournal.com]

Кажется, с него списан Dr Strangelove в известном фильме Стэнли Кубрика.

Там целая компания собралась

[scholar-vit.livejournal.com]

The title character, Dr Strangelove, serves as President Muffley's scientific advisor in the War Room, presumably making use of prior expertise as a Nazi physicist: upon becoming an American citizen, he translated his German surname "Merkwürdigliebe" to the English equivalent. Twice in the film, he accidentally addresses the President as "Mein Führer".

The character is an amalgamation of RAND Corporation strategist Herman Kahn, Nazi SS officer-turned-NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and Edward Teller, the "father of the hydrogen bomb". The character was also compared to the later US Secretary of State and controversial Nobel Peace Prize laureate Henry Kissinger. However, it is unlikely that he served as a basis for Dr. Strangelove as, at the time the film was made, Kissinger was only a Harvard professor who wrote some books on nuclear war strategy, being relatively unknown to the public. At one point, Strangelove refers to a study which he had commissioned from the "BLAND Corporation" (see above; a parody of RAND Corporation, a US military think tank). In his interpretation of Dr. Strangelove, Sellers' accent was influenced by that of Austrian-American photographer Weegee (the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig), who was hired by Kubrick as a special effects consultant.

[ygam.livejournal.com]

У Стрэнджлава было много возможных прототипов - Теллер, фон Нейман, фон Браун...

[oder_k]

за песню - спасибо, не знал. действительно, очень к месту. меня тоже неприятно поразил неумеренно апологетический тон передачи.

[guest-informant.livejournal.com]

Лерер — это наше все.

[mbla.livejournal.com]

Кайф! Мы никогда не слышали!

[nikysia.livejournal.com]

Хм, мой ребенок регулярно поет эту песенку на пару со своим лучшем другом немецкого происхождения. Деткам по 13 лет, и оба в курсе того, кто такой фон Браун.

[kondybas.livejournal.com]

Прикольно. А про Эйнштейна нету такой же песенки?

[scholar-vit.livejournal.com]

There's a wonderful family named Stein,
There's Ep, there's Gert, and there's Ein.
Ep's statues are junk,
Gert's poems are bunk,
And nobody understands Ein.

[kondybas.livejournal.com]

Гы! А так, чтобы и про Эйнштейна, и про бомбу? Мол, наше дело выдумать, а остальное - не наша компетенция?

[scholar-vit.livejournal.com]

Вообще-то Эйнштеин думал несколько иначе...

[kondybas.livejournal.com]

Он думал, что несколько лет грандиозного по стоимости военного проекта в военное время не закончатся боевым применением? Ему ли не знать было, какова ожидаемая mc²?

Разница между фон Брауном и Эйнштейном очень-очень мала. Творения одного падали в правильных городах, а другого - в неправильных.