Alana’s Comments (group member since Apr 19, 2013)

Alana’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Lol, I didn't even notice that Michelle! That's funny!

Actually I think in the translation I listened to, she was referred to at least half the time as Anna Oblonskya. So confusing!

Cecily wrote: "some use the corpses of dead books..."

Lol! I thought the same thing, but not in nearly such colorful terms.

I agree, several I would be afraid to leave on as the paper looks like it would catch fire.

Is it called Anna Karenina in the original Russian title? Or is it that way in the English version because traditionally women have taken their husband's last name, and it would have been confusing to English readers? I don't know the answer, I'm just curious.

Are you looking for shorter poems, or epics like Beowulf or the Iliad? I assume you're going for something more like "The Raven" or "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," which are longer poems considered "classics," but not necessarily the epics which are treated more like books.

If I made a list of "must-reads" it would be way too long...

I read lots of books that I highly enjoy and recommend to others, but the one that absolutely blew me out of the water, is the best book I've read in several years and is in my top 5 of all time, is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It was so incredible, and if it were a work of fiction instead of a thoroughly researched biography, I would blast it for being so outrageously unrealistic for all of those things to have happened to just one person. I listened to it on audio and while most books of that length take me several days to get through on audio, I blew through this one in under two days. The story was so riveting I could not stop. Highly recommended to anyone, whether you love history or adventure stories or biographies or just reading a book at all.

Heather wrote: "Alana,

I didn't really think about it like that. Your comment does bring to light the fact that shame and guilt are terrible emotions and can be easily projected in a way to justify them.

I also ..."

Lol, that's a great image!

Where is the "like" button? :)

Lots of good thoughts in this section :)

@ Heather - I totally understand her contempt for her husband at this point, because often the perpetrating person feels contempt for the person they are wronging because they are projecting their own guilt or trying to justify themselves. Trust me, I'm watching my husband do this right now. It's bizarre and makes no logical sense, but people do it. We have weird psychology in our brains sometimes.

@ C - I like your thoughts on all the characters as individuals and how deep or shallow they are. I like that you were also stunned at his shooting himself: not because you're horrified, but because, like me, you felt "huh? really? REALLY? get over it."

@Jessica - While I don't know that I think that Alexey is so much of a butterfly, I do like this view because I know many people (and often tend to be one myself) that are quiet introverts that are just not outwardly expressive and it can come across as being stoic and lack of emotion. Most introverts experience very powerful emotions, even more so than a lot of people who express them more freely, but those emotions mostly play out on the inside and are not shown to the world at large. Do I really think Karenin falls into this category? Not really, based on the book as a whole, but certainly many people do, and we do see a much more tender side of him at certain points as you mentioned.

Mohamed wrote: "Thank you Laura ! It is a great idea especially for non native speakers of English like me ! By the way, this is my first comment in your group as I only joined this morning ! Excited to activate n..."

Non just for non-native speakers: there are plenty of words in this book that I don't know and I have a VERY extensive vocabulary. It's always fun to learn new words, though!

I hadn't noticed about the colors, other than Anna's black dress, Courtney. I hadn't thought about the lilac... what is lilac supposed to represent? Does it depend which culture you're from? Does he mention other colors frequently like that?

I'm about 1/6 into Team of Rivals and I'm really enjoying it. Did you like it, Pete?

Ryan wrote: "P.S. The above 'comment' from Susan appears to be pretty blatant spam...
"

Agreed

Honestly, I don't think she thinks it through that fully. She just has a general feeling of unhappiness, someone comes along who has all the right words and charm, something that has faded from early in her marriage (if it ever existed) and she just allows herself to be swept off her feet. She doesn't think it through at all, just enjoys the experience. It's only afterwards, when the consequences are beginning to hit her in the face, that she really begins to think about her place in society and why she's continuing to do this at all.

Obviously both of them are to blame to some extent for their situation. Karenin did influence his wife's decision to seek another relationship. However, Anna chose to cheat on her husband which is absolutely without excuse. No one, including Karenin, MADE her do anything.

I like your analysis Jessica. I know Karenin is not a likeable guy which makes it hard to see from his perspective, even though he is the wronged party in this case. It shows that both parties in a marriage go into making it work, or fall apart, and each can be equally culpable, in many ways. He is not blameless, but nor should we place ALL the blame on his shoulders. It was, after all, Anna who "did the deed."

Those are all good insights Lawson and I would comment on them except a lot of those will develop throughout the rest of the novel. That's one of the things that is so compelling about this novel...it's not so much the actions of two people and the consequences, but the emotional and social development of many of the characters as they grow or fall as people in their society.

That's a good point, Anil. I know when I visited Mexico a lot of people would make jokes in English phrases a lot like Americans do in Spanish and they would have English nicknames occasionally, so that makes sense.

I thought it was very compelling that the actual consummation of the relationship is literally just a sentence. You blink, you'd miss it! I think this does a lot to point out that it's not the specific actions that Tolstoy is dealing with, but more the ensuing consequences.

I gave in and decided to check out the whole Dr. Who craze. Watched two episodes....and as much as I like sci-fi, so far I don't really see the point. But I'll give it a few more episodes.