tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post3980802667220317804..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Diaries of one who would be goodDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-66467634011187972522011-08-04T04:48:19.470+01:002011-08-04T04:48:19.470+01:00Yes, it was. I don't remember the "oo, Pi...Yes, it was. I don't remember the "oo, Pierre" aspect to the scene you refer to, though I'll confess I wouldn't have been attuned to the patronymics issue. (You can be sure, should I revisit the serialization, I'll be on the lookout for that!)Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-92024018761256916512011-08-03T15:46:09.039+01:002011-08-03T15:46:09.039+01:00David, I thought the quote from 1894 "Materia...David, I thought the quote from 1894 "Material good is only acquired at the expense of other people. Spiritual good - always though the good of other people" worth underlining, and the second sentence especially falls into the 'hmmm discuss' category as well.wandererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08196036534397389760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-91924907241000449722011-08-03T10:46:28.118+01:002011-08-03T10:46:28.118+01:00That sounds even scarier, the way you put it, Wand...That sounds even scarier, the way you put it, Wanderer. Might be me being slow again, but why was 1894 a good year? And Sue, would that be the same radio serialisation that featured Simon Russell Beale as Pierre? I remember listening to the delicate scene between him and the betrayed Natasha, and gnashing my teeth because they sounded so familiar with one another going 'oo, Pierre' and 'ooh, Natasha' when they should have been using each other's patronymics. It felt so wrong.<br /><br />I also thought we'd revisit the BBC TV serialisation. We gave up half way. Anthony Hopkins is marvellous, but Morag Hood looks like the Infant Phenomenon as Natasha and it all looks a bit cheap and nasty. And aren't 1970s hairdos a giveaway? Best Natasha ever: Yelena Prokina in the Vick Kirov production of Prokofiev's masterly selection of operatic scenes.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-5087910752664991192011-08-03T00:07:05.148+01:002011-08-03T00:07:05.148+01:001896 (Hmmm. Discuss) - If one considers that nothi...1896 (Hmmm. Discuss) - If one considers that nothing has any meaning except that ascribed to it, a belief consequent on the proposition that nothing exists except the perceptions of one's own projections, then there is no difference between the perception of good or evil, but only a difference in the way one is thinking. Or, on a more concrete level, an act of evil is an opportunity for forgiveness (as understanding as opposed to condescension). I remember a startling conversation between two of my sisters about rape in which the younger said she thought it the worst crime of all to which the elder countered she could think of no greater opportunity (actually the word she used was gift I think) for forgiveness.<br /><br />1894 was a good year.wandererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08196036534397389760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-61984669602377635992011-08-02T19:47:20.788+01:002011-08-02T19:47:20.788+01:00Such a treasure-trove of a post. I leapt on it at...Such a treasure-trove of a post. I leapt on it at once! The Repin portraits are splendid; they bring us so close to the man (or at least part of him, for, as you note, he had more than his share of complexities).<br /><br />I so agree with you, "that we (or I, at any rate) love Prince Andrey and Pierre Bezukhov for trying to reach out for the meaning of life, thinking they've found it and then losing it again. Isn't the search what matters?"<br /><br />Do you know the BBC full-cast audio of War and Peace (unabridged)? Dear old Rumpole (Leo McKern) is General Kutuzov. Such magical company it made for us driving up and back from Maine a couple years ago. We despair that we haven’t found anything like it to accompany us on this trip. <br /><br />I love also the thought of your little black book. Your insatiable intellectual curiosity is a marvel (in my own little way, I recognize this, as I go through numerous little black books, not to mention page flags in books, and then wonder what I am going to do with all of that). I can well imagine how you may have been jotting so much down that your hand grew tired. This quote alone, the first you offer, is magnificent: "Truth repels, because it is fragmented and incomprehensible, while delusion is coherent and logical."Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-54993719579548981902011-08-02T17:15:08.300+01:002011-08-02T17:15:08.300+01:00Yes - I have the complete Montaigne sitting here a...Yes - I have the complete Montaigne sitting here as yet unread, to my shame. And then there's Pascal and Rousseau and...and... <br /><br />One of Tolstoy's most powerful passages is about 'serious, true, necessary knowledge...the thoughts of the greatest thinkers who have stood out from milliards and milliards of people in the course of thousands of years...sifted through the sieve of time.'<br /><br />Trouble is, one can't live on that exalted plane all the time. But too much life does go by with too much wisdom unread or unabsorbed. And Tolstoy is definitely in that select company.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-54635879103811707882011-08-02T17:02:56.606+01:002011-08-02T17:02:56.606+01:00Hello David:
What a wonderful post which is filled...Hello David:<br />What a wonderful post which is filled not just with the occasional wise thought but with ideas and philosophies which require time to appreciate fully.<br /><br />We have neither of us read, nor even dipped into, Tolstoy's diaries so that what you write here is both of interest and, at the same time, hugely tempting.<br /><br />It is wonderful when one makes this kind of discovery. Only recently we were introduced into the world of Montaigne [about which we touched on in a post] in such a way as to excite an interest which, previously, had remained untapped. We shall now look at Tolstoy in a completely new light.Jane and Lance Hattatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16831890261259302647noreply@blogger.com