"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, July 29, 2013

Demons (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1872)

I find that I like Dostoevsky more and more.  There is so much going on in this particular novel - I won't try to summarize the plot or characters - all that's available on wikipedia and elsewhere.  Characters are interesting, nuanced, surprising.  Might be my favorite work of his.

Mostly in this work, it seems Dostoevsky was looking around at a rapidly-changing Russia - behind the West in many ways and grappling with a raft of ideas originating from the West - and was able to see that utopia (or even simply "here's the path to fundamental change and improvement") is often promised by folks who turn out to be the most dangerous type of charlatan.  The pitch - as offered today but typically in a more disguised fashion - is that the promiser knows what is good for all, better than the "all" could ever figure out on their own.  Dostoevsky also saw that these proclaimers of extreme change, nihilism and the like can so easily end up as "demons" in the society.  All of this might sound obvious now - but certainly mustn't have seemed that way for change-promisers and their hearers in the 1860s and early 70s.

He also observed the futility of the responses of the conservative ruling classes and government authorities in dealing with the new ideas.  

I loved how he started with an epigraph (from St. Luke's Gospel) and then brought the 700-page novel back around to it via a glimmer of sad understanding by Stepan Trofimovich ("Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these.  So he gave them leave.  Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.")

Stepan's son is a key character - trying to organize a revolutionary cell.  Nikolai Stavrogin - enigmatic, cold, ultimately capable of experiencing guilt.

The discussions (most interesting) among the cell members and others go over many of the political philosophy ideas of the day.  And typically sound incredibly modern.  

With hindsight knowledge of how things turned out in Russia, it's pretty easy to call Dostoevsky more-than-prescient in this book.

A few others thoughts:

1.  Behaviors by some characters reminiscent of Turgenev's Bazarov.  I learned Dostoevsky thought very little of Turgenev, even caricatured him in this novel (via the writer Karmazinov).

2.  Stepan Trofimovich is perceptive:  "why is it that all these desperate socialists and communists are at the same time such incredible misers, acquirers, property-lovers, so much so that the more socialist a man is, the further he goes, the more he loves property?"

3.  His son is honest about these so-called people's revolutions:  "No, this democratic scum with its fivesomes [the cells were divided into groups of five] is a poor support; what we need is one splendid, monumental, despotic will, supported by something external and not accidental . . . then the fivesomes will also put their tails of obedience between their legs, and their obsequiousness will occasionally come in handy."  Lenin, Stalin, Castro et al would heartily concur.

4.  Very touching moment when Shatov's wife returned, and he borrows tea from Kirillov.

5.  The overriding mindset of too many of these social engineering types (who profess that goal while simply seeking power):  "We alone will remain, having destined ourselves beforehand to assume power:  we shall rally the smart ones to ourselves, and ride on the backs of the fools . . . This generation must be re-educated to make it worthy of freedom."  Exactly the discussion from this Communist-era novel.  

Birthday gift from Nedda and Paul Jr.  A good one.


Friday, July 26, 2013

Between Man and Beast - An Unlikely Explorer, The Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm (Monte Reel, 2013)


Easy read, not terribly enlightening.  Biographical regarding Paul du Chaillu - something of an outsider with West African/French roots, then spent some time in the U.S.  Got the idea of forming an expedition into west Africa - his old stomping grounds in Gabon - with primary purpose (if undisclosed) of bringing back gorilla skins.  Gorilla largely unknown at this time - 1856 - (author says du Chaillu encountered "lowland" gorillas; the "mountain" gorillas of Diane Fossey fame weren't known to whites until around 1900).

His timing overlapped precisely with the finalization and publication of  Darwin's "Origin of Species" and accompanying debates.  He was an amateur explorer - though apparently brave and effective - with a gift for recounting tales.  And tales about gorillas couldn't have fit better with the debates about evolution, man compared to apes, etc.  He was accepted and sponsored by some of the big names in the Royal Geographical Society (England) - panned by plenty of others.

The "Gorilla Quadrille" - oh wow.

One of my main reasons for reading this is a desire to get a better handle on Victorian England - it had some value in this regard.  For example, it explained Charles Mudie's lending library and its effect on novelists - even the big names modified their approach to fit his demands.

I've read plenty of other books about African exploration that were more interesting, however.  Not particularly recommended.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Winter of our Discontent (John Steinbeck, 1961)

This was a recommendation from CPG, who has been going through various Steinbeck novels.  I liked it - it's one of Steinbeck's later works, and I think it was rather complicated and interesting.  Definitely worth reading.

I had gotten a bit tired of Steinbeck - found him a bit preachy, negative - but need to re-think that.  East of Eden certainly was a good work.

This book included a taste of Steinbeck's judgmental side - looking askance at American society entering the '60s with a streak of materialism; and Steinbeck does love to find bad behavior in business persons.  I think he, like plenty of others, mistakenly believes in some mythical time when we were free of materialism (whatever that means).  The way I wrote that sentence makes it obvious how I feel - every modern society has its pressures.

And I recognize there are plenty of instances where business persons cut corners - for all sorts of reasons.  But I do not think it's rampant, certainly not in my experience.

Anyway - the protagonist resides in a New England village; has a dual heritage (Pilgrim/pirate); lost the family money and is struggling as a grocery clerk; sees opportunity to improve his financial lot.  But this involves a series of unpleasant decisions involving his employer, his childhood friend, his buddy who works at the bank, etc.  And his high school aged son turns out to be a corner-cutter.

The book is titled after the opening line in Richard III, so that's pretty neat.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler, 1940)

I liked this quite a bit.  Koestler was Hungarian but lived in various countries; this was published in English while he lived in England.  He was familiar with the Soviet system and had spent some time in a Franco prison in Spain in the 1930s.

The novel is set in an unnamed country, but it's obviously Russia - with reference to 1930s show trials.  Protagonist is Rubashov - a hero of the early Bolshevik days.  But now "No. 1" - meaning Stalin - is purging the old guard, the military, the intellectuals, etc. - welcome to 1930s USSR.

Rubashov communicates with the next-door prisoner (a Czarist officer) via a tapping system known to all the prisoners.  Brief communication with other prisoners on occasional walks in the yard.  Rubashov is interrogated by an old comrade from the early days; then later by a young, cold, Stalin-raised officer.

Very interesting discussions about power, Communism, the endless tropes about "the ends justify the means" and the fiction of the supposedly well-intentioned smart folk looking out for the masses who don't know what they really want.  Like a big progressive state in so many ways, only somewhat cruder.  Same fawning press, however.  Ugh.

Rubashov discusses Crime and Punishment with the second interrogator; needless to say, Dosteovsky fell out of favor with the Communists (Raskelnikov was on the right track, but wavered).  Part of the discussion here reminded me much of Demons, which I happened to be reading concurrently.

Much worth reading but - maybe because I read those other works earlier - it didn't seem to have quite as much punch as the Solzhenitsyn works (such as this).