Quote:
Originally posted by ltl/fb
Is Gulag Archipelago a good book? I think I must have read it at some point.
Yeah, the THIRD definition cited by the guy in the comment is not entirely off point, but really gulag involves intense physical labor. I'd think they could have come up with something more on-point that would have highlighted the Soviet-esque condemnation and imprisonment without any real evidence, rather than using some work-camp word.
|
I associate the word more with the sense from the title of Solzhenitsyn's book, referring to a chain of islands. It was the isolation that made the gulags profoundly different from other forced-labor camps, no? And I thought that was what Amnesty was getting at. Places like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Diego Garcia are completely isolated (setting apart the occasional mortar attack at Abu Ghraib) and are beyond any normal judicial system.
