R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 120

Walking: 12/23/18

Tolstoy's "Ivan Ilyich": Clips

The progress of his disease was so gradual that he could deceive himself when comparing one day with another-the difference was so slight. But when he consulted the doctors it seemed to him that he was getting worse, and even very rapidly. Yet despite this he was continually consulting them. That month he went to see another celebrity, who told him almost the same as the first had done but put his questions rather differently, and the interview with this celebrity only increased Ivan Ilych's doubts and fears. A friend of a friend of his, a very good doctor, diagnosed his illness again quite differently from the others, and though he predicted recovery, his questions and suppositions bewildered Ivan Ilych still more and increased his doubts. A homeopathist diagnosed the disease in yet another way, and prescribed medicine which Ivan Ilych took secretly for a week. But after a week, not feeling any improvement and having lost confidence both in the former doctor's treatment and in this one's, he became still more despondent. One day a lady acquaintance mentioned a cure effected by a wonder-working icon. Ivan Ilych caught himself listening attentively and beginning to believe that it had occurred. This incident alarmed him. "Has my mind really weakened to such an extent?" he asked himself. "Nonsense! It's all rubbish. I mustn't give way to nervous fears but having chosen a doctor must keep strictly to his treatment. That is what I will do. Now it's all settled. I won't think about it, but will follow the treatment seriously till summer, and then we shall see. From now there must be no more of this wavering!" this was easy to say but impossible to carry out.

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Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair. In the depth of his heart he knew he was dying, but not only was he not accustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it. The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter's Logic: "Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal," had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself.

 

Eaton Canyon Hike: Mt. Wilson

Just returned from a hike in Eaton Canyon. Again no pics. Colder than last time. I didn't see this view (it was fogged in): I took it last May. Being a Flatlander, it was a bit of a challenge. My friend was very patient with me. Still, I did over 8 miles. I will probably feel it tomorrow.

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Guido Reni's "St. Cecilia"

Here's the pic I failed to get. In person the blacks were blacker and the exterior lights (real lights supplied by the museum) made her "headpiece" much more luminous and 3D.

I want to say, at least in retrospect, she reminded me a bit of Bernini's St. Teresa. Not saying that Reni was going after the same thing: religious ecstasy. But it's a possibility.

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From Wikimedia Commons

Walking: 12/21/18

Portrait of a Lady in White @ Norton Simon in Pasadena

Third time, so I took few pics. Took some friends. They enjoyed. The big Sam Francis still alluring. How exactly did they "chop up" the Basel Murals and why can't t they display them collectively in one space? And why advertise that there's something underneath Van Gogh's Winter (The Vicarage Garden under Snow), and then not?

Anyway, a beautiful day. We came up Orange Grove and saw all the grandstand seats (for a price) for the Rose Parade. Holidays California style.

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All the way from Dresden: Titian's Portrait of a Lady in White.

I think (over time) I became more intrigued with Guido Reni's St. Cecelia (nearby), but I didn't take her pic. And I was also pleased (for a few) with Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and Eve (two separate pics).

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Walking: 12/20/18

Caught a great sunrise @ Lagoon. Tried out the new PHILZ on 2nd Street for coffee. Great coffee but a bit pricey. Finished the Thistle = Hadji Murad and have moved on to Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich. Walked to the Belmont Pier and along the beach. Passed Danny on the walking path.

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R L Swihart's Free E-Book Promotion @ Amazon: Dec 19 to Dec 23

Walking: 12/18/18

From Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad"

`What should I do? Trust Shamil and go back to him? He is a fox and would play me false. And even if he did not, I could still not submit to this ginger-haired double-dealer. I could not because, now that I have been with the Russians, he will never trust me again,' thought Hadji Murad. And he recalled the Tavlistan folk-tale about the falcon which was caught, lived among people and then returned to his home in the mountains. The falcon returned wearing jesses on his legs and there were bells still on them. And the falcons spurned him. `Fly back to the place where they put silver bells on you,' they said. ' we have no bells, nor do we have jesses.' The falcon did not want to leave his homeland and stayed. But the other falcons would not have him and tore him to death. Just as they will tear me to death, thought Hadji Murad.