The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for the Summer 2022 Group Read An Enemy of the People in the category Gutenberg Classic. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

FWIW, Audible has a full cast recording of An Enemy of the People for free if you are a member (in the UK at least) in their "Audible Theatre Collection" line (link to the UK site: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Audible-...)

I read this book. I found it really interesting. Ibsen really seems to tackle some modern issues for being written in the 1800s. I couldn't help but connect the tainted waters in the play to the real life poisoning of the water in Flint, MI. What is the cost point at which we value human life more than the money it takes to fix mistakes like tainting water?
It is sad that in trying to protect his fellow human beings, Stockmann gets vilified as does anyone who tries to help him. It is not human's best quality that we often do turn on people who try to upset our status quo even when the staus quo is not really good for us!

Nick KY

I read An Enemy of the People immediately after reading Ibsen's Ghosts for another task. Both are plays which feature a major supporting character who has a civic leadership position and uses it for personal gain -- complete hypocrisy.

The major characters of the story suffer at the hands of the civic hypocrits, and the human foibles of our major characters are brought to the front. In "Enemy" Dr. Stockman and his famiy are ostricized by the community for not playing along with the hypocritical viewpoint and, instead, they do the right thing. Stockman is branded "An Enemy of the People" for it. His own human weaknesses are brought out into the public eye and ridiculed. But the equally human characteristics of the oppressors, the true crooks and their greed, are never brought to rights. Such is life, even as we witness such egrigiously corrupt behaviour by the civic leaders in today's world.

I enjoyed this. Both as consideration of the clashes between personal and public ethics, the value of free press v media in the service of political ideals and of the impact of stubbornness and pride on a person and their family.

I understand that this was a play, I feel that the doctor would have done better to spell things out for the townspeople, rather than go off on multiple tangents that complement no one.

The ethics and moral portion, very relevant. People have a hard time looking at the big picture and look for what is easy. In a few years, when more and more people get sick/sicker, it would have been more economical to have fixed the problem when it came to light.

Dlmrose

I used this Group Reads opportunity to try out my Norwegian translations skills and read En Folkefiende, the 1882 edition. I did need to go slow and read with my Norwegian-English dictionary at-hand for some new vocabulary. It did feel quite modern, with many still-relevant issues. I did think the last 2 acts were overblown, it was hard for me to tell if it was sarcasm. But I might have literally lost something in translation.

I was really stunned by how relevant much of this seemed - oh, we can't shut down the Baths because we'll lose too much money from tourism, and we can't fix the pollution in the water because it's just too expensive. So, instead of dealing with it, we'll just lie and pretend it isn't happening, because that's really more convenient. And that man over there, who won't just shut up and pretend everything is fine, we'll throw rocks at his windows and call him an enemy of the people! It's easier and cheaper to just pretend there's no problem.

The other thing that really seemed modern was the reference to the bad effects of "party over country" that came up several times. Don't think for yourself, do what the party tells you to do.

Overall, though, I think I would have preferred to see this play in action - I think it lost something by reading it. I think that it would have seemed less overblown toward the end if we were seeing it in action, rather than reading it.

This play is yet another illustration of "the more things change, the more they stay the same". Political corruption, media corruption, canceling those who don't fall in with the "accepted" thought. It was a fitting read at this time.

I first became aware of this work via the film version that starred Steve McQueen. I agree with Sandy's comment that it is better in performance than just a straight read.

Of course plays are better seen than read. That's why they are plays. One thing I've noticed is that they're also better read together aloud - not maybe quite acting, but the text comes properly to life when there's some back and forth between actual people. Doctor Stockmann looks like such a juicy role, something that allows the actor to really let rip.

It is a fascinating work, especially in the Nordic context, since it is in part expressing what would later be known as the Law of Jante. Indeed, I just noticed on Wikipedia a mention that the recent Norwegian cop show Wisting had the line "The newspaper sales numbers and the Law of Jante are merging."

There is something timeless about it. Of course, today we don't stone people's windows, we at them on Twitter. That'd be an interesting way to present the final two acts, really, if a director could come up with a good way of presenting social media on stage.