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Posted by Michael Sympson on 30/11/2001, 17:53:27
We all have our little touchstones. James Joyce for instance, during his time at Berlitz in Triest, after rushing his language students through the basics, made it a point to read Boswell's "Life of Johnson" with them. (Good choice btw.)
As for me, going through Amazon's reviews of, I don't say which book, I read "Hallucinatory and wholy original?" "Full of soul??" "A book to change the way you look at humanity???" "Best book of the last 2000 years????" Good Grief!!
So I suggest a little test: take a few minutes and read the brief chapter 13 of book 9 from Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Just this, not the whole book, at least for now. (My edition is the Louise and Maude translation.) Then tell me, or rather yourselves, what you think of it. (Don't tell you what I think .)
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Posted by Andres Natal on 30/11/2001, 19:27:20, in reply to "Touchstones & Tests"
Two points: For those of you who have read Boswell's "Life of Johnson" and John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces," doesn't the protagonist from the latter--Ignatius J. Reilly--with his pompous, sententious manner and obese figure call to mind a latterday Samuel Johnson cast in Twentieth Century New Orleans?
Second point: I loved "War and Peace"! [I read it in a lovely three-volume set. At roughly 500-pages a piece, it was less intimidating to read it in this fashion . . . as three novels. Most memorable things about the book for me: Denisov's characterization with his lisp and the last fifty pages of so when Tolstoy holds forth on his theory of Free Will versus Predetermination. Fascinating!
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Posted by Lale on 11/12/2001, 21:23:54, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
Michael, I did not take this test for two reasons:
1. I am worried that it might ruin the book for me (although I do not think that you would tell us to read a chapter that had major plot twists, I still couldn't help worrying that it might somehow effect my future enjoyment of the book).
2. The copy I have is "Wordsworth Classics" that I had bought for one pound while in London. After I attempted to read the book, I realized that one pound was way too much for this particular edition. Its font is size 3 and it has tissue paper pages. Since this realization, I have looked for a more userfriendly copy but couldn't find it. Penguin Classics is better but not by much. I want something like what Andres talks about, "a lovely 3 volume set", something that won't break my arms when I try to hold it up in bed.
Tell me that you insist. Then I'll read it tonight ;-)
Posted by Michael Sympson on 12/12/2001, 6:18:23, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
I do ; it's a brief chapter, nothing complicated, in fact it could stand alone as a very brief short story. So get yourself a good magnifying glass - it won't take more than 10 minutes, I promise.
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Posted by Lale on 13/12/2001, 1:23:57, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
Posted by Lale on 13/12/2001, 1:38:35, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
Husband (going to bed): You are not going to bed yet?
Lale: I am taking this W&P test?
Lale: Can you read this, it is very short, just two pages. From here to here.
Lale: Did you read what Michael has said?
Lale: He said that it could have been a short story.
Husband: That's what I said, a story in itself. Brilliantly written.
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 13/12/2001, 2:20:31, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
How does it strike you? (Not a trick question, nor an attempt to be "deep.")
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 13/12/2001, 7:42:53, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
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Posted by Lale on 13/12/2001, 10:55:15, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
I am not that bad of a catch either ;-)
We talked about this a little more this morning. He says that he felt that he was in the room with those people that night. He could see them and smell the damp, the tea, the clothes. All this in just two pages, that's what impressed Suat the most. He says that he found the characters and the room alive and breathing.
I also thought in such small space the mood of the night was delivered impeccably. I was more focused on the situation Mary Hendrikhovna was in. Her delight in the flatters, her bashful flirtation, her fear of her husband waking up and ruining it all for her, her frown when it all ended... A lot of story by so few words.
However, knowing that there is a book around it, that the characters (most likely) existed before and after this story, and that I was reading two pages in the middle of a huge book did not allow me to enjoy it all that much.
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 13/12/2001, 16:09:31, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
Oh, nothing special - just wondering who is actually paying attention. It is easy to fall for the Tolstoian soapbox rhetorics and simply to ignore such gems like IX:13 if you are this kind of tone deaf reader.
Personally I think, Tolstoy (with Shakespeare) is in a league of his own, despite of all his numerous flaws. Besides you guessed wrong - most of the characters in this little scene appear only once in the entire book. The leading heroine Mary Hendrikhovna is mentioned nowhere else. Peace & War is like an ocean - people and characters surrounding the lead-cast go and come in waves. But the godlike artist in Tolstoy bestows on each and everyone the same care and attention. (If only he would get down from his damn soapbox more often.)
Posted by Michael Sympson on 13/12/2001, 16:17:40, in reply to "Re: Touchstones & Tests"
Actually, I do respect Dr. Johnson a great deal ... .
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