What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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AlberichUndHagen

Quote from: Brian on July 09, 2020, 05:38:01 AM
(AK would be so great without Levin...)

I admit I haven't read Anna Karenina completely but judging by what I did read, I actually found Levin one of the most enjoyable characters, funny, witty etc. I remember laughing my head off about his story about simple minded Alyosha (ironic since I couldn't stand Alyosha in Dostoyevsky's Karamazov). I never finished Anna Karenina because the constant train imagery (my other older sister committed suicide by jumping under one) was a bit too much. And at that point I didn't even know what was going to be certain character's final destiny! I might read it soon enough provided the currently on-going family conflict I have right now doesn't escalate into an all-out war.

Brian

Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 11, 2020, 06:11:00 AM
I admit I haven't read Anna Karenina completely but judging by what I did read, I actually found Levin one of the most enjoyable characters, funny, witty etc. I remember laughing my head off about his story about simple minded Alyosha (ironic since I couldn't stand Alyosha in Dostoyevsky's Karamazov). I never finished Anna Karenina because the constant train imagery (my other older sister committed suicide by jumping under one) was a bit too much. And at that point I didn't even know what was going to be certain character's final destiny! I might read it soon enough provided the currently on-going family conflict I have right now doesn't escalate into an all-out war.
Ah, ok. You also never got to the part about Levin which I didn't like, which is that at the end he ceases to be witty, becomes preachy, and gives up his power to become a farmer with the peasants, and then there's a whole long section about how to operate a farm which is rather boring. We are meant to take the moral that rich people should give up their wealth and return to the earth, but Tolstoy doesn't really consider whether this idea actually makes the world better, or whether it simply allows people like Levin to escape their own guilt feelings.

Also, I'm sorry to hear about your family conflict consuming so much time.

aligreto

Amis: Lucky Jim





This is a very well written account of the exploits, thinking and philosophy of the main character. I found it to be a very entertaining and amusing read. The main character is a very human and believable entity particularly with all of his flaws along with his [very] few good points. Human nature does not really change that much over the decades it seems.

Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 02:32:20 AM
Human nature does not really change that much over the decades millennia it seems.

FTFY.  :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 04:41:26 AM
FTFY.  :D

Yes, more true perhaps. You must be far less tolerant that I am  ;D

Thom

Heat of Autumn by Andrew wareham.
I love this Author, all his books


Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 04:44:42 AM
Yes, more true perhaps. You must be far less tolerant that I am  ;D

I don't know how tolerant you are, but I am very much so --- precisely because I think that human nature hasn't changed much over the millennia.  ;)

What I am indeed intolerant about, is grand, universal and rational schemes and plans for making the world a paradise on earth --- they invariably end up turning it into hell.  ;D

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on July 11, 2020, 06:53:10 AM
Ah, ok. You also never got to the part about Levin which I didn't like, which is that at the end he ceases to be witty, becomes preachy, and gives up his power to become a farmer with the peasants, and then there's a whole long section about how to operate a farm which is rather boring. We are meant to take the moral that rich people should give up their wealth and return to the earth, but Tolstoy doesn't really consider whether this idea actually makes the world better, or whether it simply allows people like Levin to escape their own guilt feelings.

I think Levin and Kitty are the most humane, likeable and interesting characters of the novel, far more so than the main ones. I mean, really: a shallow, womanizing officer seducing and abandoning the bored wife of a bore? They are both a dime a dozen, but how many Kittys and Levins do you know?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:15:42 AM
I don't know how tolerant you are, but I am very much so --- precisely because I think that human nature hasn't changed much over the millennia.  ;)

What I am indeed intolerant about, is grand, universal and rational schemes and plans for making the world a paradise on earth --- they invariably end up turning it into hell.  ;D


I would like to think that I have mellowed with age but you would really have to ask my wife about that  ;D

AlberichUndHagen

Didn't Tolstoy base the character of Levin on himself?

Another character I really enjoyed was Stiva Oblonsky. I know that he's not particularly a good man (he's a faithless womanizer after all) but somehow his joviality kind of wins me over.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 05:36:48 AM

I would like to think that I have mellowed with age but you would really have to ask my wife about that ;D

Never a good move that, deferring one's appreciation, or lack thereof, to one's wife.  ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Now that I think of it, I associate Tchaikovsky with Turgenev and Chekhov, Mussorgsky with Dostoyevsky and Balakirev with Tolstoy. What do you guys think?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:54:01 AM
Never a good move that, deferring one's appreciation, or lack thereof, to one's wife.  ;D

Too true, my friend. A bad move really. One does not know the level of retort that one will receive  ;D

Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 07:29:20 AM
Too true, my friend. A bad move really. One does not know the level of retort that one will receive  ;D

There's a Romanian joke.

Two old friends who had not met for a very long time meet in a bar. After a few drinks, one of them says:

"You know, my friend, I got married! I tell you, my wife is an angel!"

To which the other one replies:

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from! My wife is no human being either!"


;D ;D ;D

(I'm being unfair here, my wife is really a wonderful human being.  ;) )
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 07:36:01 AM
There's a Romanian joke.

Two old friends who had not met for a very long time meet in a bar. After a few drinks, one of them says:

"You know, my friend, I got married! I tell you, my wife is an angel!"

To which the other one replies:

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from! My wife is no human being either!"


;D ;D ;D

(I'm being unfair here, my wife is really a wonderful human being.  ;) )

Wonderful; I enjoyed the subtlety of that.  ;D

I would also unreservedly publicly confess that my wife is definitely the better half.  ;)

Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 09:18:21 AM
Wonderful; I enjoyed the subtlety of that.  ;D

I would also unreservedly publicly confess that my wife is definitely the better half.  ;)

Given that the Celts inhabited a good part of present day Romania back then, there's no wonder!  ;)

b'fhéidir gur deartháireacha muid:-*
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Brian

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:22:20 AMThey are both a dime a dozen, but how many Kittys and Levins do you know?
The American educated left (of which I am a member lol) has a great many Levins, rich people who think they know how to help the poor, and develop elaborate theories to do so, without actually asking the poor themselves about it.

Florestan

#9998
Quote from: Brian on July 12, 2020, 10:04:49 AM
The American educated left (of which I am a member lol) has a great many Levins, rich people who think they know how to help the poor, and develop elaborate theories to do so, without actually asking the poor themselves about it.

Oh, I am absolutely sure about it and I take your word for it, but they are no Levin at all, at all! --- how many of them really do quit their well paid jobs as professors, journalists, psychologists, government clerks etc etc etc whatever, and take to the fields as mere farmers? You see, Tolstoy / Levin was sincere, he eventually practiced what he preached and died in the process. The American educated left on the contrary is as insincere as it gets, not a single one of them would take the Tolstoy/ Levin route; they talk the talk ad nauseam but they never walk the walk. They are all a bunch of hypocrites. If you, Brian, are any different, then kudos to you and my apologies.  ;D

I am reminded of Solzhenitsyn's commentary upon Chekhov's Three Sisters: We want to work, work, work! --- okay, just go working, damn you, who the hell  hinders you from working, damn you?  ;D ;D ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 09:38:30 AM

b'fhéidir gur deartháireacha muid:-*

b'fhéidir gur bhfuil sin ceart, a chara  ;)