Walk in the Light Con't.

With my brand new translation of War and Peace sitting on my desk, I really want to finish up these short stories. Anna Karenina was written after War and Peace, so it would totally make sense that I reread War and Peace.

Of course, before actually rereading war and peace, I'd like to rewatch the BBC 13 hour series. First rate. Anthony Hopkins is in it. Its 13 hours long. Its made by the BBC.

I think watching it as a marathon would be a great idea. You can come over and we'll watch and we'll be smarter. Just to be really pretentious we can watch it on superbowl sunday.

One of the fascinating aspects of the Walk in the Light Story is Tolstoy's belief that we can see society's basic problems as never being solved because we use society's methods to try and stop them. Someone said that Society is where we accept other people so we may be accepted. I think for Tolstoy, when someone deviates from society, society's only weapon is to kick them out, or lower their status.

But Tolstoy suggests there is an alternative. Treat everyone like family.

Its like he tries to reverse the oedipal complex. To show that the basically problem is that we don’t want to treat everyone as sister and mother.

Tolstoy seems to think that the Ideal Political Family is emboddied by the Olive Garden. When you are here you are family.

Ebay

I tried to win a Jappanese Style Hanging Scroll of Tolstoy. Alas, somewhat ought there loves tolstoy more than I do.

Nay. They merely have more money than I do. Sigh.

Uh Oh

The good news is that the new translation of War and Peace has shipped. The bad news. I didn't get nearly as far in his earlier works as I had wanted.

Tolstoy on the Creative Process

Tolsto writes about his creative process:
‘along with serious philosophical thoughts, I often caught myself suddenly thinking: ‘I hope someone will not take and eat my orange’

A lot of people are wondering why my storm of genius simmered down on this blog.

I was thinking about the well being of my oranges.

But be not afraid. As you can see from Leo, this is perfectly natural.

The profundities will resume.

A Talk Among Leisured People/Walk in the Light While There is Light

A Talk Among Leisured People is subtitled, 'An Introduction to the Story that Follows'

That's great. Stories introducing stories. A Talk Among Leisured People is a 3 page Blah. Everyone at the dinner table realizes that they have failed as Christians. The End.

But a talk is an interesting prelude to Walk in the Light. It provides a justification for going back in history.

Walk in the Light is astory about the Early Christian Church. (Or how Tolstoy revises early church history)
He shows how a community of people are able to make the world a better place by doing things like, for starters renouncing property. I think Tolstoy is absolutely right about this. And what really impresses me is how Tolstoy is able to experiment with different ethical and philosophical positions.

Having said that, I would like to address a few comments towards my roommate Curtis:

Yes, I spend a lot of money on the little Frappucino's but it really isn't just about the $$$ and I think you know that. I mean the whole point is that like you pay for the convenience. That you can be in your fifth hour of grading GRE's and you can just grab a Frap, and it totally revives you. But you don't want to have to worry about like, what if Curtis drinks the last one.

Anyway, the bulk of Walk in the Light is this kind of contrast beteween those who believe property is absolutely necessary to life, as in it couldn't be any other way, and those who believe that property can be renounced. I find this to be compelling fiction, though I know it is a violation of some kind of rule in fiction.

Maybe, I have a weakness for this kind of dialouge because I started in philosophy. I feel like Tolstoy is doing something which rivals Plato’s dialogues.

That's all for now. I am going to go have a Frappuciuno. If any are left.

Francoise

Hmmmph. You know that song by David Gray about how girls become mothers become sisters. So this story is kind of like that. Only the song is better.

The Empty Drum

This morning, I read Tolstoy instead of writing. This was an unprecdented act for me. I did it because I was so very hurt, that the one time I reached out and tried to contact a local eharmony match, I was turned down.

(I exaggerate this to you so I can talk about Tolstoy; I exaggerate to myself to justify reading Tolstoy in the first place.)

So at Carribou 6:30 a.m., I crack open The Collected Short Stories and read the Empty Drum. Two things struck me from the outset:
1) This opening does not use the kind of realistic set up he employs in other stories to focus in on the moral/aesthetic/spiritual problems that he usual wants to get to. He uses a kind of magical opening. Emelyan is a poor labourer walking across the fields when

2) A Girl just magically appears. This was obviously very painful for me because
2a) I, like Emelyan, am a poor labourer.
2b) I would totally want a girl to appear just like this, and even with my $99.00/3 month Crazy .com dating scheme, it still ain't happening.

Now it was very painful to read this, but the voice of the girl in the story was terribly captivating. When she asks Emelyan to take her as a wife, he says he is worried about how they would live. This is what she says:
"One only has to work more and sleep less, and one can clothe and fee onself anywhere."

Once again I have two observations:

A. That is a way better pick up line than mine:
Wanna read my blog? I update it, like everyday.

B. Tolstoy gives all the best lines to the girl. I mean, it doesn't seem typical of Tolstoy to have sage characters let alone a female sage.

This post is dedicated to 19th century Russian peasants named StephAn.

Father Sergius

LET'S JUST FACE IT: MOST OF THESE POSTS WILL HAVE SPOILERS.
The crazy thing about Father Sergius is that I didn't even read it while at a coffee shop.

Quick Synopsis: A man moves up in society--up--up--up, until he reaches the top and out of vanity becomes a monk, so as to show how superior he is to even the highest circles of society.

There are some other unique things about Father Sergius.

For example one of the things which is most memorable about the story isn't actually the climax of the story.

The last time I read the story, the thing that most stuck out is a scene where Father Serigus is serving as a hermit. He is still struggling with 1)Doubts & 2)The Flesh. One night a lady shows up, claiming to be lost and ill, begging for entry into the hermitage. He tries to ignore her, but she is persistent.

Once admitted he allows her in to the room next door. He returns to his cell to pray. She repeatedly calls him over. He has heard her slipping off her dress to expose a boobie. Except Tolstoy doesn't call it that because he has a lots more class.

So Father Sergius in order to answer her call, but risk neither of their immortal souls, He frickin Cuts off the tip of his finger with an ax!

In this way he can enter her room without worrying about his flesh's desires consuming him.

What a scene. Even Nabokov's remark that Ol' Father Sergius cut off the wrong appendage doesn't minimize the power of this scene for me.

But what struck me in this reading is how, this scene comes about half way through the story.

I mean this centerpiece really inspired me and I'm going to take Tolstoy's Methods to heart in the next booger joke I write.


JUSTIN KAHN IS MOST LIKELY NOT A PROFESSIONAL LITERARY CRITIC

The Devil Continued (Contains Spoilers)

Synopsis
The Devil starts with an inheretance. This allows for a young man to arranges his affairs, in such a way that he can concentrate not on shallow externals like food and clothes, but deeply meaningful issues like getting laid.

And that is exactly what he devotes himself to. But soon he runs into money problems. His Mom has the idea that he should marry for money. So he does.

(On a personal note, allow me to just say that I'm so glad that my mom is like...a hippy, kind of person.--She would never suggest I marry for money. She always suggests that I marry for power.--I feel that way when reading Tolstoy, and I feel that way when reading most 18th, 19th century novels.)

Marrying for money is a pretty good plan, until the women he had an affair with comes back to the estate.

Dramatically, this feels like practice for Anna Karenina. Using affairs to provide tense scenes that challenge the character's basic values.

I'm not going to give away any of the two endings he wrote.

But maybe after I reread Anna K. I will chart out the development of these two stories. Or maybe I'll just rewatch Airplane! What a great movie.

Questions for Discussion
1)Why is the Story called 'The Devil'?
2) A Related Question is what does the epigram have to do with the story?


Justin Kahn is not a Professional Literary Critic

Reading Tolstoy's The Devil: Establishing Context

As indicated in my post for 01-06-05, I planned to read more Tolstoy on same date.

I did exactly that last night. Here are the details. To begin with in order to make sense of any kind of work of art, it is best to understand context.

At this point, I'd like to remind you that Justin Kahn is Not a Professional Literary Critic. Having said that let's jump in.

Location: Carribou
Music: 1)David bowie's Heathens (Get it b/c the story is called The Devil? I was developin a whole them.) Not one of his best albums.
2)Sympathy for the Devil. This is sad, but I didn't listen to the original cut, but the fatboy slim remix.
3) Harry Chapin's People Stay the Same. I played this song when I read this passage from the Start of the Devil:

It is generally supposed that conservatives are usually old people, and that those in favour of change are the young. That is not quite correct. Usually conservatives are young people: those who want to live, and have not time to think, and therefore take as a model for themeselves a way of life that they have seen.

The similiarities between Tolsty's observations and Chapin's song are striking. Though, Chapin is a bit stronger on the Guitar.

I know. You think that's a lot of music, to be listening to but for a short story, the story is long (fifty pages in my edition.)

I would have stuck around Carribou longer, but it soon became obvious that no women were going to show and sweep me off my feet.

More on the story to follow.


P.S. Seriously. Who did Kill the Kennedy's. Contra the stone's it wasn't me. Was it you?

Volume 2 of Tolstoy's Short Stories

In December, I decided I would read the two volumes of Tolstoy's Short Fiction, and Anna Karenina.

Why would I engage in such Bibliophilia?

Because I was making preparations for the release of Anthony Brigg's new translation of War and Peace.

So, I wanted to read the major works to give me the artistic context of the great war and peace. Also, b/c I hate working.

Now, I am quarter way through Volume 2. Volume 1 has some good stories but Volume 2 is intense. Almost consecutively, I read 'The Death of Ivan Ilych'; 'How Much Land Does a Man Need?' & 'Kreutzer Sonata.'

So after that I had put the book down. But now I'm read to jump in and read a few stories. The intensity is good. Plus, I'd feel bad about shelling out $30.00 for the new Anthony Brigg's tranlsation when I hadn't really gotten my money's worth from thosee Tolstoy purchases.

Babel on Tolstoy

Isaac Babel said that Tolstoy, “was able to describe what happened to him minute by minute, he remembered it all, whereas I evidently, only have it in me to describe the most interesting five minutes I’ve experienced in twenty-four hours. Hence the short-story form.”

Nothing against Babel. All I got going for me is my blog.