RussellinVT’s Comments (group member since Apr 11, 2024)

RussellinVT’s comments from the Ersatz TLS group.

scarletnoir wrote: "So just to clarify - you are saying that FD intended a chapter detailing a child rape by Stavrogin, but that it wasn't published as his editor refused? He wanted it in? Or did he accept the editor's view and reconciled himself to the revision? (Or - we don't know?)..."

I think the evidence is that he did intend a chapter detailing a child rape and that it wasn't published because the editor of RM refused. As to whether it should be treated as a part of the finished work, I think it’s a case of no one really knows. In addition to what I said before, I’ve learned that after the serialization the book went through several editions in Russia during Dostoyevsky’s lifetime, and none of them includes “Stavrogin’s Confession”, which strongly suggests that, at the least, he acquiesced in the judgment of the RM editor. It’s of course quite normal for an author to be persuaded to accept changes proposed by a strong editor wishing to improve a text, though usually of a less substantial nature. Dost may have concluded that this editor was right. Also, apparently, much of the material from the omitted chapter reappears in The Raw Youth, where it is spoken by Versilov, which suggests that in the end Dost didn’t regard it as integral to Stavrogin’s character. Most critics are silent on the issue. The longest discussion I’ve found is in George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky (page 281), and his view is that there are “substantial grounds” for not including the chapter.

Who would have thought thatEmma needed to be re-written by Alexander McCall Smith? And that it needed to be re-set in the early 21st century? (We start with Emma’s father being born during the Cuban missile crisis.) While I’ve enjoyed several of AMS’s detective stories set in Botswana, I’m now a hundred pages in and haven’t yet been startled by a sharp observation, or made to crack an ironic smile. Emma, having had a Scottish governess, Miss Taylor, is now a day girl at Gresham’s in Holt. She shows a disturbing habit of wishing to organize and control people, like the figures in her dolls house when she was younger – to make them happier, she says. There’s a handsome George Knightley living on a nearby estate who raises bees and rare-breed sheep and applies efficiently for EU agriculture grants. The book was given to me, and I’m not sure I can take much more it.

But wait, I’ve just got to an extended passage about James Weston. In his grief after his wife died, he asked her relatives the Churchills to look after baby Frank, who grows up with them, and when they inherit a vineyard on the Margaret River they all leave for Australia. It’s now twenty years later and James’s sorrow and guilt have come back in force. I don’t remember Jane dealing with this in anything like the same detail, and I must say it is surprisingly affecting. AMS has found a different angle and does a fine job. I’m carrying on.

Gpfr wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "The Memoir by Anna Dost is a wonderful read, recommended by Berkley, iirc...."

It was me :)"

And this may be the second time I've said it was Berkley and not you!

scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "The Devils - Finished this after reading it slowly over many weeks.

It’s no revelation to say that Stavrogin is an enigma..."

... Unlike Ivan (Karamazov) and Raskolnikov, I never felt that I completely got inside Stavrogin's head. .."

In the David Magarshack 1950s Penguin version there's no mention of a rape as such, only a hint of something like a seduction, a hint so tangential that I had trouble understanding what Dost was getting at. In the Introduction, which I've now read, DM talks about the serialization in The Russian Messenger. It seems that the editor of the RM refused to publish a long chapter dealing with Stavrogin's "disreputable past". DM says this must to a certain extent be held responsible for the obscurity of Stavrogin's characterization. Exploring a bit further, there's a bit in Marc Slonim, The Epic of Russian Literature, saying that the chapter was omitted from the final version of the book as published, and didn't appear in print until 50 years later. So is that chapter part of the book or not? I would say not. But if included it would have radically altered one's view of Stavrogin, because it wasn't just a question of a disreputable past. The girl who was raped was a child who then killed herself.

The Memoir by Anna Dost is a wonderful read, recommended by Berkley, iirc. (And yes, he = Dost, should have been clearer.)

The Devils - Finished this after reading it slowly over many weeks.

It’s no revelation to say that Stavrogin is an enigma – a regular and imperturbable duellist, a figure of cold malice in the eyes of some, prideful to others, a noble character to his mother, a person who is courteous in company and who looks tenderly on semi-deranged Mary Lubyatkin, even if he took her on only for a bet, a man who imparts little of his own thoughts, until the end. I rather liked him.

What I had forgotten was how far the insinuating, manipulating, dissembling younger Verkhovensky is the absolute villain. He is near mad with the intensity of his passion to command and enslave and destroy. Nothing that is done for The Cause – reducing society to rubble, so as to build it anew - can be wrong, or even questionable. It’s a convincing demonstration of the revolutionary mindset. (I remember from the Memoir of Anna Dostoyevsky that he gained his understanding of revolutionary sentiment among students from long talks with her brother.)

The story itself is a slow burn, and yet it’s impressive that Dostoyevsky’s relation of the whole monstrous chain of events somehow never loses direction or momentum.

AB76 wrote: "I watched Casablanca last night for the first time and was amazed this is considered one of the best films ever..."

Maybe it depends on the circumstances, and it also probably helps to have no expectations. I have a very special memory of going with a girl to see it at The Everyman in Hampstead, part of a Bogey season, and getting the last two seats, right in the middle. The audience were cheering en masse during the Marseillaise, and collectively gripped by the Dooley Wilson and Bogey/Bergman moments. The biggest roar was for Claude Rains himself at the end when he pauses and pauses and finally says, “Round up the usual suspects!”. But I think you’re right in the sense that all the cast apparently regarded it as a piece of hokum, and were as surprised as anyone at its success. I don’t think anyone could say it is one of the greatest in purely cinematic terms, but as a piece of war-time melodrama pulling at your heart strings, it’s up there.

scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "a dead body was found floating in a swimming pool..."

A classic trope, given a brilliant new twist by Billy Wilder and his team in Sunset Boulevard..."

Great clip! In light of giveus’ review I’ve ordered The Rockpool Murder from the library.

giveusaclue wrote: "... he is found floating in his swimming pool...."

As so many are! I was listening to a literary quiz once and one of the questions was along the lines of: which of the following is the odd one out? All were novels in which a dead body was found floating in a swimming pool. Was it the one where the body was floating face up? No. Or face down? No. The answer, iirc, was The Great Gatsby – because the body was found floating not in the water but on a blow-up mattress.

Tam wrote: "I'm a fan of Spinoza, so I would back it, as a philosophical take on the world https://i.postimg.cc/fbG7YJJ6/IMG-149... This is a memorial to him which I came across, with a friend, on a trip to Amsterdam, in 2017...."

That's something I never saw before. How clever and characteristic to add those birds.

Gpfr wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "Then my eye was caught by a button that said “Figaro in English”. ..."

The Le Monde site also has a choice between French and English."

So it does, and on a quick look the English again looks faultless - though somehow they both have a French air about them.

And the Parisians voted yes.

I look occasionally at the websites of Le Figaro and Le Monde. Today I was scouting through Le Figaro to see if I could find out more about today’s referendum in Paris on whether to pedestrianize a further 500 streets. (A limited traffic policy has already been in effect in the four central arrondissements since November.) Then my eye was caught by a button that said “Figaro in English”. Couldn’t resist taking a look, and by Jove the English has no detectable errors. They can’t have a whole staff doing translations, so have they turned it all over to AI?

Also, the intro to one article, on how to breathe joy into work and life, said: “What if Spinoza was right?” Only in a Parisian newspaper! I suppose some familiarity with Spinoza can be assumed when philosophy is compulsory in high school.

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Coward began one letter to him: 'Dear 338171, (May I call you 338?)"

That's a very good joke.

Tam wrote: "I have visited his house, Clouds Hill, in Dorset, which is a NT property these days,..."

Excellent photos on the NT page, thanks for mentioning that. And Clouds Hill is such an evocative name.

AB76 wrote: "how far is your nearest town of any size then Russ? You will be breathing in much healthier air than most of us in the backwoods though!..."

Well, there’s Albany NY an hour and a half west, but there’s nothing to go there for except the malls (ugh). Otherwise it’s Burlington VT three hours north – magnificent location on Lake Champlain, lots to do, no gallery – or Boston MA four hours east. We do have one gallery not too far away, The Clarke in beautiful Williamstown MA, which has a fair collection, including two excellent small Sargents, very black in Venetian back alleys, and a vast sensual Bouguereau with acres of well-painted flesh, worth a detour. It’s also the place where you can catch live simulcasts from The Met and the RNT – so it’s not all bad! Glorious sunshine and fresh air today, after overnight snow.
...
There’s a story which I now can’t track down of Lawrence being invited by Churchill to dinner in Downing Street and being questioned by a reluctant policeman who had difficulty accepting that an Aircraftman Shaw arriving on a motorcycle could be a genuine guest. They worked together when Churchill was at the Colonial Office, but this must have been after, when Churchill was Chancellor.

scarletnoir wrote: "...the highlight was the Goya to Impressionism exhibition at the Courtauld (possibly our favourite gallery anywhere)..."

You make me feel envious. There are drawbacks to living back in the woods in a rural state, and one of them is the remoteness from art galleries. Leaving aside the great museums in Paris, is there anywhere in the world with more stunning Impressionists than the Courtauld?

The White Devil starts with a two-page advice To The Reader in which Webster unloads a number of forthright opinions, including that most of the people who come to the playhouse resemble “those ignorant asses” visiting stationers’ shops whose “use is not to inquire for good books, but new books.” So there!

AB76 wrote: "Having enjoyed the 1965 selection of Nadine Gordimer short stories, i'm now on to the 1972 selection and Africa is changing ..."

I'll have to give her another try, and maybe the short stories are the way in. I read one of her novels (A World of Strangers) and while the writing was good I didn't feel gripped by the story.

I’ve been re-reading some Elizabethan drama:

The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd, 1580s?) – the prototype of all revenge tragedies, with most of the cast slaughtered. Raw but effective, and in many passages more lyrical than I remembered. Strangely addicted to repetition as a rhetorical device:

Both…/Both…/Both…/Both…/Both…
Ay…/Yet…/Ay…/Yet…/Ay…/Yet…
Glad, that I…/Sad, that I…/ Glad, that I…/ Sad, that…, etc,

all of it meant for dramatic effect but, it seems, much parodied.

Dr Faustus (Marlowe, 1592) – magnificent poetry in the first and fifth acts, the middle passages less impressive, marred by a lot of supernatural tomfoolery

And then some Jacobean:

The Revenger’s Tragedy (Tourneur, 1607) – a carnival of villainy and lust that becomes almost ludicrous, but is still very readable for the inventiveness of the lurid verse.

Starting on The White Devil (Webster, 1612) and anticipating much melodrama…

These later plays were popular and clearly appealed to the temper of the times, and yet seem a world away from the stately court masques by Jonson and “poetlings” like Davenant which followed only a few years later and which are examined at undue length in Stubbs’ Reprobates. It’s a relief to arrive finally at the campaigning of the two Bishops Wars and now the arrival of the Earl of Strafford. Also finding much pleasure dipping into OUP’s Selections from Clarendon.

In that context it gives you a start to read of a Bill of Attainder as a contemporary issue. Article 1, Section 9, of the US Constitution, dealing with the powers of Congress, says that no such Bill, meaning condemnation without trial, shall be passed. In a recent Executive Order the President imposed certain measures on three well-known law firms (removal of security clearances, prohibition on entry into federal buildings…), and in a law suit challenging the Order, the judge, unprompted, raised the question whether that was a Bill of Attainder and a contravention of Article 1. The government lawyers said that provision applies only to Congress, not the President. The judge disagreed. Clearly heading to the appeal courts. We can't find ourselves back with Bills of Attainder, can we?

Niall Ferguson the historian is very much not to everyone’s taste, but he had an interesting essay in the WSJ recently arguing that empires expand when they can afford their military expenditure, and get into serious trouble when finally they borrow so much that the interest they have to pay on the national debt exceeds the military spending needed to sustain the empire they have built. The instances he gives of that critical cross-over point are Spain in the mid-17th century (debt service over 50% of revenue in 1667, 87% in 1687), France in the 1780s (over 50% of revenue), Britain every year after WW1 until 1937 and again after WW2 (but this time escaping the worst, courtesy of inflation) - and now the US, with the cross-over having already arrived in 2024 and the interest obligation on official figures projected to soar away in the coming decades until in 25 years it will be double likely defence expenditure. Of course this all reads like a gloss on Paul Kennedy, tying imperial over-reach to a particular economic marker, but still he might be onto something. He says the only way out for the US is either entitlement reform or a productivity miracle.

Tam wrote: "I have again abandoned my current book. 80 or so pages in this time, and that is Elif Shafak's 'The Island of Missing Trees'...."

Happy birthday, Tam.

Judging by the title, it sounds as though by the end something drastic might happen to the talkative fig tree.