The transformation happened while reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. I was child of the cold war and grew up being continually told how the evil Russians were subhumans and a major threat to my life and happiness. Being a normal young guy, I didn't give it much thought. If that was what they wanted me to believe, so be it. I had sports to play and vandalism to commit, questioning authority wouldn't make me run faster or throw a stone further.
My parents always told me to read books and reading books made my life easier. Spend an hour a day reading and not get hassled, seemed like a fair deal to me. When I started reading Crime and Punishment the thing that stuck out to me was that the evil Russians were just like us. They had commerce, private property and the sons of guns could even read and ponder life's great mysteries, just like us.
This was when I figured out that the authorities were full of shit. It was a propaganda war and we were being fed a bunch of bullshit about the Russians and if they were feeding us bullshit about the Russians, there was good chance that most of the other stuff we were taught was also bullshit. For some funny reason I fell in love with Dostoevsky and took it upon myself to read any books of his that could lay my hands upon. And just like Deadwood, I would read them several times. In the past year I've re-read Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot. I just plain old like Dostoevsky's style.
Then another watershed moment hit me a few years ago. While browsing dvd's at the public library I stumbled upon The Last Station. Aside from falling in love with Helen Miren, I also grew curious about Tolstoy. Like most people, I had read War and Peace and it was a long tough read. Somewhat of an endurance test where the goal was to finish the book rather than enjoy it so Tolstoy was relegated to the dormant part of my mind for about 40 years. I've read several of his books in last few years and I'm just finishing "Resurrection". It's a great book.
I'm finding that Tolstoy is basically a kinder and gentler version of Dostoevsky. I still consider old Fyodor Dostoevsky to be my soul mate and Prince Leo Myshkin remains my hero. Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were highly critical of the Russian system and the injustice suffered by the peasants. Being a dissident in 19th century Russia was a risky proposition. Poor old Fyodor was sent to prison in Siberia and sentenced to death but like myself, someone up there liked him and he was given a reprieve. So it goes.
Give it a try, you might just fall in love with Leo.
Tolstoy was the Daddy of Literature, there's no doubt about it. You might want to get the DVDs for a BBC documentary called 'The Trouble with Tolstoy'.
ReplyDeletethanks for the tip gb. the trouble with tolstoy awaits me at the library. now i just need for the rain to let up.
Deletedora - thank you for your comment. unfortunately, i lost it when editing a mistake i had made in the post. the older i get, the more stuff i lose.
ReplyDeleteI’ve read a fair amount by Tolstoy, and know that he was a good man who had the courage to follow the light further than most of us. As for the Russians, their leaders were evil. The people of other nations are not just like us. Some are better, and some are worse, but differences matter. I grew up in a church that believed that women and blacks were inferior and that everyone who did not belong to our church was going to an eternal fiery hell. I see now that it was an evil church filled with small-minded people, but even there, I found good people, so I try to remember that good people can be found in bad systems, but I also believe that those systems should be opposed, and so it was with Communism.
ReplyDeleteI guess it comes down to the old nature/nurture debate. Are the people of other nations different because it's in their nature or did they start out the same and morph into something due to their surroundings? And how many generations would it take to hard wire the culture into their very being?
DeleteWhen I was reading Tolstoy's views on the clergy I was thinking of you and Joseph and your religious discussions. I would really like to have Joseph's opinion on Tolstoy.
Has anyone told you lately that you're s lunitic? Well concider yourself told NOW!
ReplyDeletethank you for taking the time out of your busy day to set me straight.
DeleteAt least you can spel.
DeleteGo jump in the pond
ReplyDeletethanks for the advice but it's a little chilly today.
DeleteI know the Democratic party has a far left wing , and that some of the people there can get a bit extreme at times, but what they want for America is certainly not extreme when you look at the Far Right and the America they favor...Check out the differences....
ReplyDeleteThe Progressive Left believes in freedom with opportunity for all, responsibility to all, and cooperation among all. We believe that the purpose of government is to advance the common good, to secure and protect our rights, and to help to create a high quality of life and community well-being. We want decent paying jobs and benefits for workers and sustainable economic growth. We want growing businesses producing the world’s best products and services. We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the few. We want all nations to uphold universal human rights and to work together to solve common challenges. This is what a progressive America looks like.
Now for the Far Right, ...The Tea Party....Th Party of Idiots and Brsinless Zombies...Far-right politics commonly includes authoritarianism, anti-communism, and nativism. Often, the term "far right" is applied to fascists and neo-Nazis, and major elements of fascism have been deemed clearly far-right, such as its belief that supposedly superior people have the right to dominate society while purging allegedly inferior elements, and — in the case of Nazism — genocide of people deemed to be inferior. Claims that superior people should proportionally have greater rights than inferior people are sometimes associated with the far right. The far right has historically favored an elitist society based on belief of the legitimacy of the rule of a supposed superior minority over the inferior masses. Far-right politics usually involves anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are deemed inferior and undesirable. Concerning the sociocultural dimension (nationality, culture and migration), one far-right position could be the view that certain ethnic, racial or religious groups should stay separate, and that the interests of one’s own group should be prioritized. We see this for example in the writings of that per-brained halfwit Lisa, and her followers who have even less brains that she does.
Take some time and look at legislation the Tea Party proposes in states and in Washington. Extremism including murder of abortion doctors encouraged, dismantling programs for the poor, privatizing Social Security and Medicare which really means get rid of them they cost too much, ZERO abortion even if the Mothers life is at risk, guns in the hands of all Americans so they can defend themselves against government, a hate for public education, a hate for science, no regards to our environment, bloated military, ....
I think the far right are just plain old mean spirited. They are unhappy and bitter, and they resent happiness in others. And they hate to share.
DeleteI often say that the far left don't understand mathematics and the far right don't understand science.
Hi, greetings and good wishes.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I come to your blog I am amazed at your header photo.
I have read Crime and punishment and Idiot.
I have also read War and Peace and Anna Kerenina.
Now my biggest problem is to sit and read. As you said I should be able to at least spend one hour a day reading. Whatsapp takes up a lot of time.
I have even loaded books on my mobile but somehow at the end of the day I find I have not read anything. I am now trying to read Around the World in Eighty days by Jules Verne. I don't know when I will finish this interesting book. Anyway you have given me motivation.
Best wishes
joseph, it's a testament to the human spirit that a man in canada and a man in india can both enjoy and appreciate the literary efforts of man from russia.
Deletei'll be reading indoors for the next 6 months as we enter the winter season and looking forward to spring where i can sit in the sun and recharge my batteries while enjoying a good book. (i don't like meat and have a hard selecting good quality vegetables so i'm solar powered)
thank you for your kind words.
Whenever I come to your blog I feel like I have to take s shit
ReplyDeleteOh you poor thing. Those anal warts can be such a nuisance.
DeletePosts like this make me want to make Big Hole work...
ReplyDeleteWho is the new voice, besides our new friend Joseph?
it seems that i've attracted a few critics and lost the king.
Deletethe king's latent femininity has been aroused on facebook.
The mean-spirited of some of these comments is breathtaking unless you know these people, and this is their version of "locker room banter."
DeleteI don't know the authors of the mean-spirited comments but I'm guessing they took umbrage with my Trump observations at a few political sites. As Sol Star would say, I've been called worse by better.
ReplyDelete“I'm guessing they took umbrage with my Trump observations”
DeleteOh, so that was it! I kept going back over your post trying to figure out what you could have possibly said to set these people off. Trump people are a special breed, I suppose. Just the meanness of his fans alone would be enough to give me pause. And to think that, according to Billy, you consider little ole me intimidating!
Sounds like a plan. I have had good luck reading stuff by guys named Leo.
ReplyDeleteFor the life of me, I can't figure out why people support Trump. Not liking Clinton is no reason to shoot yourself in the foot.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any Tolstoy for years...I need to fix that!
ReplyDeleteresurrection was excellent! in fact so excellent that i just pedaled up to the library and picked up the death of ivan ilyich.
DeleteHappy Friday to you, Mr. Rosewater. Hope all is well.
ReplyDelete