|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B000NXOZG4
| 4.67
| 3
| unknown
| Jan 01, 1976
|
it was amazing
|
All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – there are parallels we can make with Orange Jesus and in my view, we have a stark contras
All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – there are parallels we can make with Orange Jesus and in my view, we have a stark contrast between the Nixon resignation and what Trump did 10 out of 10 This is one of the classic, though there is an article in The Economist which looks at what constitutes a classic and how changing the perspective is, the journalist starts with a marvelous ‘the best-known figure after Taylor Swift is the Mona Lisa’ or words to that effect, and then we see what Gioconda is about Before the theft, it had been largely ignored by the hoi polloi, and known by experts, then we have David of Michelangelo, who is held as a ‘classic’ now, but in previous centuries, they were more in awe of his Moses, there is the preference for some painters over others, and ergo paradigms change In the hilarious Vernon God Little https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... winner of the Booker Prize written by DBC Pierre you get the definition of paradigm shift – imagine you enter a room and some stranger has a finger up your grannie’s behind What do you think, Vernon is asked, and the answer is I will kill the bastard, but then the hero is informed that that good Samaritan knew of some death danger, and tried to save the old lady, what is your reaction now, and the main character is grateful and learns what a paradigm shift is in a peculiar manner I dare say that All The President’s Men will stand the test of time, I keep seeing fragments on television, as it is aired on various channels dedicated to films, aside from Amazon and Netflix, we are lucky to have another twelve where we can see masterpieces and for free, except that they have commercials I am looking at what brought Richard Nixon down – there is no need for a spoiler alert, in the sense that this is history and you should be aware of that historic take down, albeit a warning that this will not help you much is in order and here you have it – and then compare the crisis with the present Nixon was a clever, respectable fellow, aside from that gargantuan mistake, and especially when you place him aside this Orange Judas they may elect (again!) in just about a couple of months as the leader of the free world, the descent into immorality, decrepitude, abjection is incredible to me Nixon went to China, in a bold, strategic move, and played his cards marvelously in that big power game, because he brought China closer and then made the Soviet Union aware that it could be squeezed by those two, eventually, it is not such a simple scheme, nevertheless, it was a superb action Which is not to say the fool will be remembered kindly, only who knows what Orange Jesus would do (well, I have a pretty good idea, and so does anyone with a decent brain, thus, if you are outraged, go ahead and complain, I had that happen before, from members of the cult) if he gets power So even if we look at the Nixon nadir, shameful as it was, what with spying on the Democrats, the Watergate scandal, lying and all, this is peanuts in my mind, when you put it in context, and look at the criminal record (not yet, but if America was good enough, this fellow would be in jail) of Orange Loon, you have a clear winner, and the greatest bandit is this loathsome narcissist… I mean he had the key role in the storming of the Capitol Hill, they occupy the seat of power with impunity only in ‘shit hole countries’, to quote one of the many disgusting insults proffered by this scoundrel, so with that he should be disqualified and interned, at a minimum, not cherished And yet, more than seventy million, indeed, perhaps the number needed to elect him, are so dumb in my view – some of them are just corrupt, greedy, thinking the tax cuts would just do for them, without the perspective that his tariffs would raise inflation and then his craziness is such a menace In used to be unacceptable for an official, someone running for high office, especially the highest position to be so immoral, indecent, gruesome, pathetic, pathological liar, and a convicted felon, they were taking on a podcast (The Economist again) about Gary Hart, if that was the name… This was a senator, I think, who was a favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president, and then a journalist found that he had a lover, a relationship outside wedlock and that weas the end of his run…put that in contrast with this serial cheater, I repeat this, I cannot believe he is the favorite to win, when Nixon had to resign, after something which I see as less serious, and Orange Felon has committed so many crimes and misdemeanors! Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 02, 2024
|
Sep 02, 2024
|
Sep 02, 2024
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 9786002291806
| 4.43
| 75
| Oct 01, 2014
| 2014
|
it was amazing
|
The Salesman or Le Client for the French speaking markets aka Forooshande by Asghar Farhadi my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11
The Salesman or Le Client for the French speaking markets aka Forooshande by Asghar Farhadi my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/... 10 out of 10 The Salesman is one of a series of masterpieces directed and written by the glorious Asghar Farhad, I am ecstatic because I have seen this, but also A Separation https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/... and A Hero, divine magnum opera Fantastic Shahab Hosseini is Emad and Taraneh Alidoosti has the role of Rana, his wife, they both act in a play within the movie, the classic Death of A Salesman https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... hence the name of the film This spectacular (only in the good sense, not a Hollywood extravaganza) motion picture is not openly subversive, it could not be filmed in Iran, distributed there, what with the ayatollah in charge the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and other such loathsome entities and ghouls censoring anything that could undermine them However, we have many vignettes, details, aspects that show us the situation, while the big picture is concerned with universal flaws, virtues, the political side is just one side of this tremendous, vast fresco, one interesting element is the fact that they have Death of a Salesman very present in the scenario The actors will be shown repeating, performing in front of the audience, once in a while their own emotions find their way into the representation, Emad is furious and shouts at his friend, Babak, while they are both on stage, because the latter had recommended a flat, and the result was unhappy To start with, Emad and Rana have to find lodgings, or else ‘they will sleep at the small theater’ so Babak recommends this place, they move in, with shoes and things from the former tenant – my daughter, Hannah, remarked correctly that shoes with some heels would be anathema in the Islamic Republic They do not have time to settle in, before a nadir, as he returns home, the hero finds blood on the steps and then his wife is taken to the hospital, she had collapsed and only remembers the hands of this stranger, who had entered in the bathroom, and then she recovered her senses at the emergency room We are in doubt if there was a rape – at least I was pondering the issue – but the fact is the assault was clear, and the intrusion, which is explained gradually, because the former occupant of the flat was alleged to be immoral woman, sex worker, albeit they used prostitute, not the politically correct term Ergo, Le Client entered thinking he is visiting his regular host, for paid coitus – the French version has the accent on this fellow aka The Client, not The Salesman, so they named it in consequence – and things are complicated because he was allowed in from downstairs, and the door was open Rana thought it was her husband, returning, but she now has a concussion, contusions on the face, and a traumatic experience, worse still, her spouse is bent on taking revenge, and would not allow the horrendous incident be forgotten, as always with Asghar Farhadi, we have a complex situation On the one hand, it makes sense for the man to seek retribution, punishment for that villainous act, but on the other, he will go to extremes, and instead of helping, he might be harming, another angle is that, in her traumatized state, Rana is rejecting his approach at night, and the opposite in the daytime She is evidently scared due to her trauma, and wants Emad to shield her during the day, and at the same time, the assault made her vulnerable and over sensitive, so she has an allergy to sex – I presume, she does not say that, not does anybody else, this a chef d’oeuvre of many suggestions, subtleties, hues… In the kerfuffle of the visit, the assailant had ruin away, and he left a small pickup truck, which could offer clues to his identity, thereabouts, they keep it in the parking, until one day there is no place, and it is on the street, and it disappears, the stranger must have waited with his other key, and took off Emad is also a teacher, and loses his grip at one moment, when he is more than harsh to a student, and asks to see his father, only to be told that the parent is dead, then he asks another pupil for help, because he has a relative who can offer the address for the registration number of the truck, just like other masterpieces of Asghar Farhadi, this is also a thriller, and we search for the culprit with the hero, turned detective, who enters this bakery, trying to see who his foe is, and make him pay… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 2024
|
Sep 2024
|
Sep 01, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 4.50
| 4
| unknown
| Dec 07, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
A Hero written and directed by Asghar Farhadi – nominated for the most prestigious film award, in my opinion, The Palme d’Or, The Golden Globe for Bes
A Hero written and directed by Asghar Farhadi – nominated for the most prestigious film award, in my opinion, The Palme d’Or, The Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Non- English Language and winner of many other trophies 10 out of 10 This is one of the best movies I have seen, and Asghar Farhadi is definitely one of the luminaries of our age – and other centuries too – he is the one who gave audiences The Salesman https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/... which for the French is Le Client In the opening chapter of the film, we see Rahim Soltani – played by the fabulous Amir Jadidi – who is The Hero, going to visit his brother-in-law, as he is out for a couple of days from prison, where he was sent because he could not pay a debt, he had taken money from a loan shark, and someone else offered a guarantee It is a rather complex story, but only in the good sense, it is not one of those overwhelming narratives, where personages keep popping up, and you cannot follow the plot, on the contrary, here we have twists that enrich the experience of watching this magnum opera, you see that The Hero is not pure and perfect, he is human Rahim Soltani tries to convince a man named Bahram to accept an advance on the sum he owes and then get monthly payments, once he will be out of jail, he will have a job, so he would be able to give back the money, but his nemesis does not accept this, however, we will see he is not the villain of the story Just as Rahim will show us, he has serious flaws, his opponent is not a ghoul – let me anticipate and say that in fact, the man had guaranteed to help Rahim, and then he lost his daughter dowry as a consequence, and this is serious in fundamentalist, Shia Iran – but this is coming to us gradually, in a masterly way Rahim meets with the woman he wants to marry – he is divorced and has a son who stutters, the latter will play an important role in the script and will make audiences cry for him, I guess – and they enter a jewelry shop to ask the price for seventeen (I think they were 17) coins made of gold, which he wants to use The plan is to convince Bahran to accept the cash mentioned, the total sum is a few thousand euros or dollars, though in tomans, the local currency, they talk of hundreds of millions, and then he will be freed from jail, and work for the rest, only for that to work, there is a question of checks, and let us skip the details What happens is The Hero decides to stop trying with the coins, and give back the purse to the woman who had lost it, because yes, they did not own the coins, they were in a bag that was found, and later our man will explain how the calculator did not work in the jewelry shop and he saw signs that he has to do the right thing He gave the number of the jail, and placed an ad, and then a call comes through and eventually, a woman comes to the house of Rahim’s sister – this is where his son lives too – and claims the purse and the coins, gives a little money to Siavah Soltani – the son, and by the way, the child actor, no older than twelve or so, is wonderful… The warden of the prison finds about the deed, and a television station is interested in filming an interview with The Hero, and the prisoner is instructed to forget he did not find the purse, and stick to some story, which he does, a charity gets involved, money are raised to help him and they try to get him out of jail Bahran insists that this is nonsense, what has The Hero done, except his duty, and then he speaks about his own grievance, the dowry lost for his daughter, and he has more than a point there, besides, stories circulate on the internet – yes, that happens in the Islamic Republic as well – and they will affect our hero The charity got a job for him, but at the state office, they question the truth of the generous act, and they want Rahim Soltani to bring proof, the woman who lost the bag, and more, but how to find the stranger, this becomes an investigation, a thriller if you will, because they have little, to not trace of that elusive female She called on the cell phone, and so they call that number, only they get the taxi driver who brought her, and he will play a key role, but he only knows he stopped at a jewelry shop, they will have the photo, and they try to follow up with this, but no result, so the taxi driver says ‘you bring someone to claim she is the person’ Which is what they do, they bring the would-be wife, and she testifies for the ones who would give the job, and they get stuck, for they want her to bring the coins, and evidently, she has no such stash, she just plays the role, and furthermore, rumors spread that the whole story is manufactured by the prison authorities Angry because he has done the right thing, and he is not about to get his freedom, Rahim confronts his nemesis, Bahran, and that is degenerating into a scuffle, at the shop of his ‘jailer’, where the two trade some insults, and some truths, regarding the dowry, the damage done to Bahram, in the end others intervene Bahram’s daughter, the one whose wedding had been compromised, is there, she films the clash, and then she sends it to the charity, which is very upset, the board meets, and they want to withdraw the support for The Hero… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 29, 2024
|
Aug 29, 2024
|
Aug 29, 2024
|
ebook
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0358093155
| 9780358093152
| 0358093155
| 4.26
| 6,207
| Sep 28, 2018
| Sep 03, 2019
|
it was amazing
|
Animal Farm by George Orwell – one of the greatest books of all time, my previous note on it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/... where I ha
Animal Farm by George Orwell – one of the greatest books of all time, my previous note on it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/... where I have thousands of other reviews 10 out of 10 We lived in the Animal Farm here, under the communist regime, and one of the most vicious despots ever, Nicolae Ceausescu – I am proud to say that I took part in the 1989 Revolution that ended that dark age – I am mentioned in the Newsweek issue that covered the events, and the link is at the end of this note It was just like the fabulous George Orwell wrote here, and in Nineteen Eighty Four https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... we have had a privileged class, the nomenclature and the apparatchiks enjoying a good life, while the hoi polloi were suffering ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’ you could put that everywhere, as the most important slogan, or truth about the communist system, and the portrayal in Animal Farm is perfect, the moves, changes, lies, how the pigs get the power, they stigmatize the ways of the men, and then adopt them How they stab their own in the back, think of the poor horse, who keeps saying ‘I will work harder’, when they assign impossible tasks, breaking his back, while the pigs and their lackeys, the dogs in the narrative, indulge in luxuries and then they send the horse to be killed, so that they can extract more benefits Nonetheless, I am tempted to look at the novel from a different angle, I mean the association between communist and Marxist dogmas and the Animal Farm is clear, only now I tend to see parallels between the pigs and the dogs and the cult of Orange Jesus, who act like some of the dumb animals in Geroge Orwell’s magnum opus I mean those sheep have chosen the ultimate Pig as their leader, who claims he is the Chosen (no less), cares for them, when in reality he is only about himself, a sick narcissist, engaged in a relentless outpouring of bile, venom, insults – the other day, he went on about being better looking than Kamala Harris… Like in a New Animal Farm, an American one – however, this is about the red states, that madness which has infected that party – the dogs try to warn this Orange Pig that he is going off the rails, that senator who is still in the closet, I do not have the name now, but it is irrelevant, said that his boos needs to change tack Only this Sicko does not, he needs to talk about important issues, but then he attacks the governor of…Georgia, he is using bullets on his own side, that is because this is a freak out of control, he has never had self-control, a spoiled ghoul, used to cheat, convicted of fraud and 34 felonies, and standing for ‘law and order’ There is an article in The Economist, in the culture section, about infantilism, ‘Is Western culture stopping people from growing up?”, and the conclusion is that yes, it is somehow creating the climate where you see all sorts of excesses, and the examples given are even funny, when they are not outrageous The idea is that many young people (and a large number of old, Orange Pig and his masses) act as if they are still kids, they talk of their truth, as in one plus one make two, well, for me they make three, and then from here, there are all sorts of habits, things they do which do not bode well for the future of humanity, if they keep at it Orange Pig is just one such example, acting as a spoiled brat – not the good brat which we see has changed meaning, just like Kingsley Amis explains in his https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... The King’s English - A Guide to Modern Usage, words change their meaning They have taken away his toys, and now he is infuriated, screams, has tantrums, it is disgusting, awful, and the whole world will be affected if this infantile and yet old man gets to have the most important job in the world again, what is so revolting is that he does represent so many millions, over seventy in the USA Most of the supporters identify with this orange Felon, and however much they know him, they still approve of his cheating, lying, fornicating (and many of them are evangelicals, they should reject such sinful manner outright) vile temperament, selfish obsessions, the stupid things he did and said are too numerous to fathom As a child, the man was obnoxious, he tells the story when his brother had these pieces which seem to me to be Lego, or the like, and one time, Orange Omen took the pieces, made some building and then glued them all together, so that his sibling could not use them anymore, and yes, kids do that, but here I think it is announcing the future… Aka the present…let me veer off altogether, as if I have not already, and say that we had in the sauna downtown a celebrity, 50 Cent had been performing in town, he stayed in the Radisson and then, as we were sweating there, there walks this guy, fully dressed, with sport shoes on, training pants an all, and then sits down I was going to say something about the rules, when one of our friends says ‘take it easy, this is someday you do not want to mess with’ and indeed, it turned he is the famous rapper, and an assistant came to the door with towels, then a bathrobe, they had four huge men waiting in the locker, his bodyguards, with water kept in ice and it was a sort of a little show, though the celebrity said nothing, no word…oh, wait, he said thank you, when I gave him the shirt he forgot in the sauna… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0099428857
| 5.00
| 1
| unknown
| Feb 07, 2002
|
it was amazing
|
Short Stories by William Somerset Maugham – author of The Vessel of Wrath – my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... together wi
Short Stories by William Somerset Maugham – author of The Vessel of Wrath – my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... together with a hundreds of other reviews 10 out of 10 The pleasure of reading The Stories of Somerset Maugham is nec plus ultra, yes, Marcel Proust is just there https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... but I could not say that there is more, true, it is also a question of gratitude, for these tales may have not saved my life, but they came at a low point It was during the Ceausescu regime, when I had to spend time in a hospital that I had a volume of the Short Stories and Somerset Maugham have helped me make the experience a great one, at least when I had the book in my hands, making me forget the surroundings, it was near the Victory Square, in the place where my aunt worked I am tempted to stay with the memories, but I will move to Neil Macadam https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... one tale that stayed with me, because it is so sophisticated and refers to the Russians that I admire, though Darya is crazy Neil Macadam is one of those numerous characters that appear in the Far Eastern Tales and land somewhere far from the Briskish Isles, where he would work for Angus Munro, another Scot, a man he admires, and would be happy to be devoted to, except he has a wife that will cause a lot of trouble for others, and herself She is very intelligent and erudite, a member of the aristocracy, she had had to flee when the Reds took power in Russia – and not just there, the awful regime I mentioned above was a result of those commies, who brought the plague with them, this country had no interest in Marxism, but those bloody tanks brought it and imposed it Darya ends up with Angus Munro, but she had not been faithful, on the contrary she is infamous for her cheating on her husband – Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... instructs us to avoid infamous, because it became synonymous with famous somehow In one scene, some men talk about her and they’re not just insinuating, but plain state that she had been involved with those working with her spouse, so Neil Macadam punches the fellow who had insulted the woman – that is how he felt, albeit he would change his mind on the matter later – and he tries to defend her honor Macadam is compared with Aliosha https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/... and we could obviously think of Prince Mishkin, the hero of The Idiot, another magnum opus signed by the same glorious Fyodor Dostoevsky, an inspiration, a titanic figure, however much he is criticized today Our fantastic professor of literature has told us the story of Fyodor Dostoevsky and his execution – the writer was facing the firing squad, and his last three minutes on earth, time which he designed to say goodbye to family and friends, pass his life in front of him, and then admire a ray of sunshine on a church nearby Nevertheless, he is pardoned in the last moment, although it could have been a ruse of the czar or some adviser, to convince the thinker to abandon his rebel attitude, and then we read in his magnum opera about the man looking at his last hours alive, and how he would rather live on an empty, small rock in the middle of the ocean, than die Which brings me to ‘Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another’ as in we need to enjoy the time we have, memento mori, carpe diem, as advised by ancient luminaries, and Sonja Lyubomirsky in her marvelous work https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... Seneca wrote millennia ago that ‘life is not short, we have time, it is a question of not wasting it, we have the bad habit of treating time as if it is in endless supply’, which is so wrong, one of the worst things we could do, incidentally, I am ashamed to say that you are probably wasting time if you spend it on these pages ‘One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited’ and in that vein, reading the stories of Somerset Maugham is the right choice You reach Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... with Maugham and other stellar masterpieces, the conditions to get into The Zone are ‘nothing else matters, you are in control, this is an autotelic experience, there are clear goals, constant and instant feedback is provided… Time is fluid and relative – Einstein said “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” – and then we have the skills versus challenges matrix, the former have to match the latter, or else we are overwhelmed We need to be on the line between burnout and boredom, on example from tennis would be if you play with someone who is much better, it is no pleasure, for you just keep running for the ball, and the same is true if the opponent is too weak Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 2024
|
Aug 11, 2024
|
Aug 11, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| unknown
| 3.83
| 100
| Jan 01, 1982
| unknown
|
it was amazing
|
The Colonel’s Lady by William Somerset Maugham - - one of my favorite writers, author of Rain https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and other fabul
The Colonel’s Lady by William Somerset Maugham - - one of my favorite writers, author of Rain https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and other fabulous stories 10 out of 10 The Colonel’s Wife is not just a mesmerizing tale – all the works of Somerset Maugham are for yours truly – but it is also somehow feminist, and let me be ‘the one telling you how it is’, just like Chili Palmer in Get Shorty https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/... and I am joking, evidently Nevertheless, what we have here is a man, the colonel from the title, who is made to look ludicrous, with his retrograde (but almost fully embraced at the time, some one hundred, or maybe one hundred and fifty years ago) views, he is convinced that there are (most, or all) things that men can do, but women are prohibited It all starts when he sees his wife, Eva Peregrine, receiving a package, which contain a number of books, all the same, written by Eva Katherine Hamilton, which was his spouse’s maiden name, for they are her work, and when the colonel asks about the cost of having them made, she says she sent the manuscript to an editor… And he had it published, furthermore, this is a success, it sells as if it were a novel, and not just a collection of poems, most in blank verse, the husband is asked about the book, and he expresses some positive opinion, however, it is not his cup of tea, and has not really looked into it with interest, at least until sometime later… He is the epitome of the country squire – as I saw him, and up to a point, which comes strait out of another favorite magician of mine, Evelyn Waugh https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/... has this character, Lord Copper, who owns a newspaper, The Daily Beast When Lord Copper asks a question, he tends to get two answers, one is definitely, for a truthful reply, and another, ‘up to a point Lord Copper’ is used for what members of the cult of Orange Jesus in America call ‘alternative facts’, or people with common sense see as plain lies – so back to the Colonel now… He hunts, enjoys the perfect home – he will wonder at some stage what would he do without Eve, who keeps the house for him, no trouble with servants or anything – but finds the spouse dull, unattractive, and hence he keeps a mistress, Daphne, and travels to London to have coitus with her, go out for lunch and enjoy his status It is Daphne who asks if ‘his wife is the one everybody talks about, the writer of that acclaimed book’, she knows this critic, who said that it is a wonderful accomplishment, he wrote an elated review, and Eve thanked it for it, and readers are enchanted, so is the man in the book shop that gives the husband some details Even the most prominent aristocrat in their area is thrilled, he asks Geroge Peregrine about his wife not coming to a party they invited her to, and then she will say that they did not invite the husband along, so she refused, however, people are talking about the affair that the poet has had with a much younger man… She will be published in America, and they want her photograph, which is puzzling the colonel, who sees her as passee, she has lost her charm, but wait, she did not have any charm, even years ago, not to him anyway, which brings me to another one of the many flaws and shortcomings of this man, who did not see value where somebody else venerated it And now that few, if any are still on this page, I can make the parallel with myself, in that I have not appreciated my spouse enough (not even now actually) and tend to see that she is not fair, leaves me at home with these two macaws that I have to care for all day long, in about ten days she leaves for Amsterdam… And for three full days I will baby sit these noisy, overwhelming babies…you see, that is what I do, complain, just like that damn colonel, who has an affair (I do not, per se, but I use sex workers instead) but does not see that the woman has the same rights, and that was rather the rule back then, so we have to see him in perspective This brings to mind The Coolidge Effect, named after an anecdote involving the American president of that name, who went to a farm with his wife, and she asked about this rooster, who jumped on hens, how many times does he do that, the answer being maybe some fifty times per day (or maybe hour?) so she said… Tell that to Mr. President, who, upon finding out, asked in his turn if it is the always the same hen, to which the reply was no, it is always a different one, ergo The Effect that has his name, and which explains in part, the attitude of Colonel Peregrine, who saw himself as free to have an extra marital affair, all the same inappropriate for the spouse He even sees the lawyer who is also a friend, and a shooting partner, to consult him over the matter of this love of the wife, asking if he knows who the man was, the friend has no idea, but is of the opinion that there is nothing to do about it, after all, the much younger man is dead now, and what will be the point You only confront Eve with this, if you want her to leave you, because that is what she will do, and the frustrated husband sees that he does not want to do that, indeed, he does not know what he could do without her… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 26, 2024
|
Jun 26, 2024
|
Jun 26, 2024
| |||||||||||||||||
| B01FJ1MZ4S
| 4.33
| 6
| unknown
| unknown
|
it was amazing
|
Rain by William Somerset Maugham – I have read this and other short stories by the wonderful author a couple of times, once in 2012 https://realini.bl
Rain by William Somerset Maugham – I have read this and other short stories by the wonderful author a couple of times, once in 2012 https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/12/... 10 out of 10 Rain is one of the longer short stories, the audio version is only one minute short of two hours, and it is one of the best known, adapted for the big screen, the stage…it is poignant, exquisite, thought provoking, engaging, it has all the attributes of a wonderful read – it is for good reason that Somerset Maugham is one of my three favorite writers This narrative (and most of the other works, indeed, Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/... wrote about the fact that he edits his experiences, but does not invent new ones out of the blue) is based on real life encounters We have passengers on this ship, that include Dr. Macphail and his wife, and Davidson (a missionary) and his wife (the story is told from Macphail's point of view), also Miss Sadie Thompson, she would be the lead in a film adaptation, while the missionary would have the most important male role, to which we have to add…The Rain Because of an epidemic, their ship cannot leave – and we all know what lockdowns look like, we had to stay locked up in homes, only a couple of years ago – and they have rooms with a half caste man and his native wife, where tensions grow, between the religious family and the young woman, who is looking for fun That is one way to put it, there is a contrast between the rigid, absurd attitude of Davidson and his wife, and Sadie Thompson, the latter wants to listen to music, there was a gramophone back then, we are talking about over one hundred years in the past, she is into Carpe Diem, more of the enjoy the moment, than the wait for the other world type The Davidson couple are outraged by dancing, they wish anathema on the poor natives, who wear their traditional lavalava, and they engage in rituals, dances that are obscene to the fundamentalists – on that note, it is outrageous for yours truly to observe how evangelicals say they have these values, and yet, they support this demon Orange Jesus aka Orange Felon has a one two in three chances of being president again, according to The Economist, the issue released today, and that is beyond scary and unbelievable, to say you have these principles, and then worship the devil, this is just disgusting and all I have is Contempt https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/... which is a magnum opus by Alberto Moravia Davidson interferes and asks the governor to expel Sadie Thompson, on the grounds that her morality is dubious, or worse, she offends the ethics of the ‘good Christians’, and the local official obliges, so the poor woman has to leave for San Francisco, where she will be arrested and send to jail, she might have worked as a prostitute When reading – well, listening to some great actor doing it – I was thinking that things, standards have changed, and the realized that have not, not really, and in so many places, not just Uganda, where they are not just retrograde in government, but outright sadists, I am getting back to America, which is not just about to elect, again, a moron… They also have eejits on the Supreme Court, a majority of Republican leaders, and most of their cohorts are plain crazy, stupid or both – Hilary Clinton, who would have made a splendid president, was spot on when she spoke of ‘deplorables’, this is what they are, and the whole world has to deplore the cult that will fuck us up in November Miss Sadie Thompson is aghast at what the missionary, through the governor, has done, but she will accept his visit, and there appears to be an epiphany, redemption or something, at least for a while, the magic could have worked, maybe it was the Hand of God, back to the routine ‘God works in mysterious ways’ Incidentally, that is how these scoundrels explain their votes for Satan, God had chosen him, and this is how they get that loathsome Supreme Court (their side of it), the rulings against abortion, in favor of guns, not when Hunter Biden is involved though, and all that fundamentalist stuff that they so crave, all for the eternal good life For some time, Davidson appears to be inspired, in that his target becomes subdued, she could have been touched by the grace of the Almighty, albeit it is only a brief passing, the man spends time praying with her, somehow boasting about this transformation to the doctor, only it all leads to catastrophe and a gruesome event Spoiler alert – if anyone is still here, that is, which seems so unlikely that to introduce a warning appears preposterous…look, people read these notes so closely, that they do not just leave after the first few words, which is what statistically happens for most of the time – the missionary is found dead, with his throat cut Oh my god, would be the proper reaction, how could this be, did somebody take revenge, was it the young woman, but no, we are not left to speculate – although now I see that we could have a different version on this, why not consider a frame up – it was the deceased who did it, with a razor, in such a terrible manner And it is so very much against their doctrine, if you kill yourself, you are out the game for paradise, right? But then Sadie Thompson says ‘You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you." My interpretation is that repressed Davidson tried to have sex with her Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| B00GV9CTK8
| 5.00
| 1
| unknown
| Jan 01, 2013
|
it was amazing
|
A Circle In The Fire by Flannery O’Connor - I have written another note on this same story eleven years ago, and here it is, at the address: https://r
A Circle In The Fire by Flannery O’Connor - I have written another note on this same story eleven years ago, and here it is, at the address: https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/12/... 10 out of 10 Flannery O’Connor is so venerated by the under signed that he is considering converting, becoming a religious man…actually no, I am kidding, up to a point, it looks as if I am a lost soul, destined for that fire below, only seriously speaking, if this glorious luminary was so sure about God, the holy texts, then there must be something there It works as some kind of proof, and she is not the only one, there is also magnificent CS Lewis https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... who has quite a few books, essays on the subject, convincing the hesitant, also saying that Jesus was either a fraud, or the Son of God… In the same exclusive club, we have our very own Andrei Plesu, the greatest thinker in this part of the world -and one of the most remarkable anywhere – who is not just religious, but talks on the subject, with panache, humor, erudition, persuasion – he explains quite a few passages, such as the one with ‘blessed are the meek’ He is convinced that we are not talking literally there, it is a question of those who do not attach themselves to earthly goodies, it is not decided that the rich will just plunge into hell, as soon as they depart forever, and it makes sense, though many (most in corrupt places) get rich by cheating, not through honest travail Let us just think of two examples – before that, spoiler alert, I have left The Circle In The Fire behind, and I may not return to it…nonetheless, there is that link, up there on this page, and 11 years ago, I really wrote about the tale – one is this Orange Jesus aka first convicted American president, who is an established fraudster He is the proof that you can climb to the very top, the most powerful position in the world, and have little, or nothing to recommend you for it, except the ability to sell anything, convince buyers that shit is genuine gold, he is ‘a very stable genius, has the greatest mind’, and now about seventy million fools are ready to anoint him again Another is next to me, where two ruffians have a pool, luxury cars, and other amenities, collected with a…state wage, well, a couple of pay checks, only it would take over seven hundred years, maybe more, to amass a sum to pay for all this, with the meagre salaries that public employees get…it was all massive corruption Now this type of rich eejit will not reach Eden, if my feeble knowledge of the New Testament and the like is any good, but there is also the problem of the envious rest, those who just want to be like the fat cats, and they just did not have the chance to seal, get bribes, or else they would have done it, hence those disgusting votes “Wealth - any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband…” this is what smart, amusing HL Mencken has said – he was also spot on regarding democracy ‘On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.’ How inspired and prophetic, for the former, we do have an obsession with what others make, in a psychological study, participants in the research have been given two options, one in which they would have about 80k income, while their peers had 60k, and the other scenario would have them get 120k, only the rest would have even more, about 140k (these are from the top of my head, probably inaccurate, but the idea is true) and what do you think humans opt for, they would rather have 60k, but more than their group However, we have ‘Happiness Activity No 3: Avoid Over thinking and Social Comparison- using strategies such as distraction to cut down on how often you dwell on your problems and compare yourself with others’ which is included in The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, if we keep looking at the better car, clothes that others have, we will be miserable Let me just try and say a few words about A Circle In The Fire, now that there is nobody left here to read these lines, Mrs. Cope has this farm, and she has three visitors, boys that will cause a lot of trouble – the spoiler alert has been inserted a long time ago – in what is a very complex situation, which is so specific to magical Flannery O’Connor On the one hand, Mrs. Cope will suffer more than she deserves – only it is for God to decide, and he is omniscient, ergo there is surely some sin there, or more – but then, just as I was speculating, she does seem inhospitable, careful with her possessions, the teenagers could not sleep in the barn, a fire could be expected, the woods are out of the question for the same reason, albeit the visitors are not accepting the idea that she owns the forest They are told to stay away from the animals – well, anything for that matter – and they ride the horses, against the interdiction, they let loose a bull, and that animal could have caused a lot of mischief, and it takes time for the farm hands to get it back…so it all depends on how we see this ‘there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ Hamlet I am not fond of children, on the contrary, it may be in the magnum opera of Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/... that I have read something to the effect of ‘it is only to be expected of these foolish adults, seeing as they had been children…in our gated community we have some fat cats (remember the guy with the pool?) and they raise their brats with the same contempt for the rest of the world Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1443440280
| 9781443440288
| B00QFPVKE4
| 3.47
| 372
| 1953
| Jan 01, 2015
|
it was amazing
|
The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Connor – I have read this marvelous short story eleven years ago, and this is what I thought https://r
The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Connor – I have read this marvelous short story eleven years ago, and this is what I thought https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/12/... 10 out of 10 The Life You Save May Be Your Own is part of the A Good Man Is Hard To find Collection https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which starts with the story that names the compilation, in which we learn about the tragedy of a family, brought in large part by the…grandmother This old lady is first confused over the address which she wants her son to drive to, this being no reason to accuse her of anything as dramatic as the execution of her own, but then, when they meet with The Misfit, a vile gangster, she tells the killer that she recognized him, to the exasperation of her own son, who saw the danger This again can be explained by the age of the woman, her lack of understanding, perhaps a low EQ https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/08/... emotional intelligence is said (maybe even demonstrated) to be twice as important as IQ, and she may not have seen the consequences Nevertheless, once it become clear that The Misfit and his hoodlums start murdering the son, then the wife and children, the grandmother appears to me to be concerned too much with her fate – ‘you wouldn’t shoot an old lady’, and then moaning along these lines, as if she is too concerned with her future… Force Majeure https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/... comes to mind, wherein father, mother and two children are sitting on this terrace in the mountains, where they have come for a skiing vacation, when an avalanche seems to be so near, as to engulf them all, and the father…runs away The Grandmother does not exactly do that, but she does bring the snow ball on the family – just a sick joke – with The Life You Save, we have a different territory, with another mature woman, Lucynell Crater, who is sitting with her daughter, also Lucynell, when a stranger comes walking on the road to their farm, Mr. Shiftlet is his name He is missing an arm, looks like a tramp, and somehow, may be ‘a match’ for the daughter, her mother says that she (the young one) is fifteen, or sixteen, but she is close to thirty, and she cannot speak, until the man teaches her to say ‘bird’…he is invited to stay on, they do not have the money to pay him, but he could work He will get free accommodation, if wants to help with the farm, and the stranger does that, he remarks on the car they have there, an old one, but he says ‘they used to know how to make them, now they have one man, for each screw, and you have to pay them all, that is why they are so expensive’ – words to that effect… Some things never change, we hear this in the present, they do not make cars, phones, anything like in the good old days…I wonder how The Life You Save May Be Your Own connects with the important theme of religion, and the previous story in the collection – The River, wherein we have this small boy and his dramatic end He is taken to see this healer- preacher to The River, which we know is the place for baptism, that can take place in the church, but also wherever there is a body of water – indeed, some denominations would prefer the outdoors to the classic means which they reject…there is a variety of offers now, as we can read… In The Economist, there is a wonderful article on God TM, where we see that the religious outfits have made some 374 billion dollars, more than the revenues of Microsoft and Google combined (one of the two major technology players) they do not pay taxes, and from an economist’s perspective, they work as platforms When Martin Luther came along, a monopoly was broken, customer choice was increased, and prices for services dropped, with the elimination of the indulgences, the pardons that the pope, the Catholic Church had started to offer for money, you could sin, and then offer down payment to go to heaven, putting it bluntly… Yes, I may see some similarity, at least in the way I look at this and The River, for in the latter, the poor boy is not saved, he is drowned in the water, and here, we think that maybe the tramp and the girl who is challenged have found each other, God maybe worked in his mysterious ways and there is bliss for them too ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’, or was it the kingdom of heaven, however, our most brilliant mind, Andrei Plesu, has a different take on these meek, it does not refer to those who literally have little, it is more complex than that https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... The mother wants the stranger to marry her daughter (without hindsight, I would wonder why) only Shiflet is…shifty, perhaps his name is not a ‘coincident’, after all, we find in According To Mark by Penelope Lively that the author is God, he or she decides who lives, what happens and everything else in his domain Eventually, after saying he needs money to marry, for he wants to take his wife (she could be a duchess) to a hotel, for a meal, and he has nothing, so they negotiate, Mrs. Crater offers fifteen dollars – maybe a few thousand in adjusted terms – and then they settle for $ 17.5 and at the restaurant, the groom abandons the bride, takes the car and then there is another unexpected clash with a boy that is taken for a ride… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 29, 2024
|
May 29, 2024
|
May 29, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 0451092511
| 9780451092519
| 0451092511
| 4.21
| 406
| unknown
| Sep 01, 1964
|
it was amazing
|
A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor – this is the best known from the Collection of Short Stories by this another look at this outstanding
A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor – this is the best known from the Collection of Short Stories by this another look at this outstanding writer, winner of The National Book Award…and another look at it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... 10 out of 10 I was so thrilled, elated when I first read The Stories of Flannery O’Connor that here I am, enthused with taking them on again, and what better in memoriam that A Good Man Is Hard To Find, one of the greatest, which the magician novelist reads and you can find at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQT7y... This is not just humorous – the grandmother is a tragic figure, but she is also ludicrous and makes one laugh, until of course, there is no merriment any more, it is all drama, spoiler alert, I will not be able to stay put, ergo I will keep writing what happens, even if it gives in the plot, so you better stop reading now ‘Grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida’ this is the start of the tale, then we see her suggesting destinations, confusing locations, and eventually, getting the whole family into the most terrible trouble – there is that spoiler alert, up there – when she just blurts out that she recognizes one of those diabolical characters Early in the narrative, actually in the second line, grandmother reads from the newspaper and tells Bailey, her only son, she lives with him, his wife and children, about The Misfit, a felon that is on the loose near Florida – she does not want to go there, and therefore she uses this piece of horrible news to have her way The children are rather obnoxious, although, with hindsight, when one knows what is going to happen to them, the punishment is heinous, and they are just too small to know better – they suggest that grandmother should stay home, if she does not want to go…then there is the cat, and this pet should not stay home They can be so cute, I have seven in the garden, not mine, but they come to eat at about six in the evening, and a couple just attack me, even if I am the one feeding them – like in that saying, biting the hand that gives food – they speak about police cars that see when you speed along the highway, maybe about one hundred years ago Harsh words are said about Tennessee and Georgia, the former was a Trump state, while the latter had voted for Biden, in 2020, and has two Democratic senators, albeit we will have to see what happens in November, when Ornge Jesus may get elected, again, and then he may seek another, third term, he said as much This is a problem I have now, if it is a red state, I do not want to have anything to do with it, however clear it is that cities actually vote Democratic, and the less educated, countryside realms are embracing this utter fool, ‘the very stable genius’, the one who said a few days ago that Jimmy Connors was a president of the US While attacking ‘Sleepy Joe’, this buffoon is actually lost, he had called Tim Cook Tim Apple, rigged a map of a hurricane, insisted Nicky Haley is Nancy Pelosi, loves Putin and dictators, a monster, crook, Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... the ultimate crook the family has an accident and then they see this car, with some men with guns, when they come over, grandmother becomes the negative personage, we could argue she was there from the start, and this is such a creative, outré, unique Reversal of Fortune, grannies are always, this could be the only exception, kind, generous This is the one that is selfish, insists on what she wants, she insists they see a touristic spot, but she confuses it, thinks it is in one place, when it is in another state, unless I got this wrong, and when they meet with the gangsters, she could, must at least keep her mouth shut, but what she does is murder, if manslaughter in legal terms No, that is wrong, for legal consequences she would have to drive a car, run the people down, only what she does is just plain stupid, and terminal, when she looks more at the fellow who is in control, she shouts ‘you are The Misfit’, and he replies ‘I wish you had not recognized me’, or words to that effect, with disastrous consequences Bailey expresses the anguish, anger, anxiety with foul words, and who can blame him, The Misfit comments something on the rudeness, then instructs one of his men to take Bailey away, and we hear a shot, and so we know (not absolutely sure, we do not have the killing depicted, but what else could it be happening Besides, we will have the next stages of this execution, and if we had doubts, they will all disappear, grandmother herself is whining and keeps saying that ‘you will not kill an old lady’, which sounds vicious, somewhat vile, I mean, yes, it is human to want to survive, there is the famous, or infamous instinct, but still… Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis has about thirty books that I find exhilarating, one of them is The King’s English https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... and one of the words analyzed there is infamous, which comes from infamy, but these days, or maybe in the time of Amis, it came to mean just famous So, to keep asking for forgiveness, to be allowed to live, while the whole family is shot and killed, appears not just exaggerated, but reprehensible, The Misfit, annoyed with all this talk, takes his revolver and kills the woman… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 24, 2024
|
May 24, 2024
|
May 24, 2024
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0704310988
| 9780704310988
| 0704310988
| 3.78
| 82
| 1967
| Feb 12, 1976
|
it was amazing
|
A Season in Sinji by J.L. Carr – author of the brilliant A Month in The Country https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/... both included on the 1,000 No
A Season in Sinji by J.L. Carr – author of the brilliant A Month in The Country https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/... both included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list 10 out of 10 This marvelous magnum opus is now one of my favorite reads, and I wonder why it is neglected, yes, it is on the aforementioned list, which has another JL Carr fabulous work, I am sure, although I have not opened it yet, The Harpole Report on the 1,000 Novels compilation, but the internet has little about these landmarks Furthermore, even if it has quite a few pages about cricket, and I am absolutely out of the picture on that, ergo there is no radiance to get from it, A Season in Sinji is monumental, seen from this space, a fabulous combination of humor and tragedy, questioning the meaning of life and laughing at almost everything Tom Flanders is the narrator, arguably the hero of the story, he takes himself in jest at times, does not avoid self-deprecating humor, but we find him endearing, hope he will succeed, survive, win, however slim the chances are at times – there is logic to apply, when we see him dying, we find hope protesting ‘but he is the story teller, he could not die, for who is telling us what happened then’, we could get it second hand nonetheless The protagonist signs for the RAF, because we have a war on, and he meets Peter Wakerly, the second most important role in this game of life, on this Season in Sinji – they like each other, and become friends, in spite of the difference in education, and class, they could also clash over their love interest, for the same woman And we find that ‘The whole point of the story stems from Caroline Driffield, they both met her in Budmouth’ – she was out of the hero’s league, class, she was for Wakerly, or as it turns out, for Turton – spoiler alert, you should not be reading further, mainly because this is not really very (Any?) good, I mean my ‘analyses of what is a phenomenal work, and then I will let drop some things about what happens later Caroline has a moment – or maybe it is the whole time – when she invites Tom to walk with her, without Wakerly, and she acts ‘like a cat in heat’, she clearly wants to go further, or ‘all the way, because these were days of here today, gone tomorrow, what with the war, killings’, only our man has no sexual experience Afraid he will look like a fool, he keeps the distance, resisting the pull of the very handsome, alluring woman, claiming he has to be back at the barracks or something like that, and he loses his only chances, as he will realize and share with the readers, maybe there was no real opportunity there, we will see what destiny, or something else has in store This is where Turton comes into the picture, to play the role of the villain- up to, maybe including the end – ‘he thought himself so damn smart, that he despised the rest and saw us as salvage wallahs…Utter confidence is everything when you're playing to win…Everything!’ we read about the love triangle or square… Wakerly may have had his chance, but he took to long to clarify his stand, taking a longer route, while Turton pressed on, with a plan from A to Z, showing off and winning the day, and the girl – Tom sees them naked, in her room, intimate and the woman infatuated (maybe it was love, albeit I doubt it) with the ruffian Wakerly and Tom sail off, and the rumors include Florida, and they end up near the coast of Western Africa, where a torpedo sinks the ship, and soldiers are killed in the catastrophe, both our personages survive and they are stationed in Sinji, a rather sordid place, with no bars, nothing to do in terms of entertainment Some of the descriptions, the tale could be seen as racist – better said, the fictional men, some have relationships with the native women, others refuse, at one point, abominable Turton is on this vehicle, and while he travels with others along the road, he destroys the jars in which poor women carry water, from long distances This when Wakerly takes a noble, courageous, admirable stand and he tells Turton that is he knocks off another jar, he will report him to the higher ranks, which would have been a very damaging action, since superiors do not accept that sort of reporting, and then Turton would have taken revenge anyway, well, he had that, alas A strange coincidence has Turton arriving in Sinji, and worse, he is in a position to order Wakerly and Tom around, abusing this position, ending by humiliating Peter to the point where he gets depressed, is not interested in anything anymore, a disintegration that will happen to corporal Glapthorn, their superior The latter is in charge of the photographic section, where Peter and tom are his subordinates, Turton, vicious, sadistic as he is, is harassing the two, but in the end, he targets the corporal, who is sinking, becomes obsessed with a poor monkey, caught by the soldiers, tied to a tree, then somehow tamed and accustomed with the barracks First, the corporal is furious and wants it destroyed, saying this is vermin, if the doctor reports to headquarters that, in fact, the animal provides some entertainment for the troops, eventually, Glapthorn is attached to the monkey, and it gets so sick, he has to care for it, and then see the poor thing die near his bed Wakerly dies at Sinji, and we find about that half way into the story, at least I kept mum till the end of the note, and it looks for some time that Tom could be in for the big departure, only this could not happen, as I have already said…or could it? I am not really sure actually Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 10, 2024
|
May 17, 2024
|
May 17, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0141187115
| 9780141187112
| 0141187115
| 4.02
| 591
| 1947
| Jan 01, 2002
|
it was amazing
|
Of Love and Hunger by Julian MacLaren Ross is an absolute favorite of mine and one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read 10 out of 10 For me this novel Of Love and Hunger by Julian MacLaren Ross is an absolute favorite of mine and one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read 10 out of 10 For me this novel was glorious, astounding, divine and we could continue up that path, it is the absolute joy that comes every few months – maybe it will happen more often, in between exciting, if not stupendous reads -and all the ingredients, and the ‘je ne sais quoi’ are mixed in to make this a book that I want to read again… Soon, if possible, it is inspired by real life events, we understand that Julian MacLaren Ross has been a travelling salesman, and albeit we have artistic license, and maybe most of what we enjoy is juts made up, still, there is something from reality – in the introduction, the audience is told that the author discussed with his friend… Who will use this material, and it turns out that this phenomenal book is here to enchant forever – mind you, we have to be aware that this is a personal, biased, and what was exalting for me, could well be banal for others, indeed, I am flabbergasted to see the ‘page’ that this magnum opus has, or better said it lacks Julian MacLaren Ross was the inspiration for Francis Xavier Trapnel in another fabulous favorite of mine, A Dance To The Music of Time https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/... by Anthony Powell, who said something like ‘I do not know about in vino veritas, but there is truth in writing’ He spoke about that to another liminary, Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, who has included this in his Memoirs https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/... the idea being that maybe wine makes you genuine, but the writer has to use his own experiences, on every page there is something about him or her Richard Francis Fanshawe is the hero of the novel, the one who experiences Love and Hunger, although we find his Christian name – the two actually – about half way into the story, or at least it felt that way, he is trying to sell vacuum cleaners, travelling around and showing how they work to housewives, soon before World War II starts The massive conflict will ignite, and we are updated on the news, Hitler, the rattle, the preparations, the predictions, and towards the end of the narrative we will have seen it blow out, with the invasion of Poland, mobilization and the dramatic change in the life of the protagonist and…the world, which will never be the same This is a spectacular combination of humor, from the presentations, the arrival of the mean sister, who cancels the prospect of a sale, to the manner in which we are presented with the facts, the dialogue between Francis and the others, the personages, from Heliotrope, a ruffian, to the supervisor Smiler, a crook Derek Roper is another salesman, and he works like Fanshawe trying to sell vacuum cleaners, without much success, and therefore, when he has no way to make money left, Derek would choose to embark on ship sailing to Australia, so that he will be able to send money to his wife, and return some time in summer… Before this dramatic departure, taking months, Francis is introduced to Derek’s wife, Sukie, and they go together for a while, to the point where the former would say one night ‘funny (I told you so, mn) they hadn’t asked me to come upstairs and go to bed with them’, however close this will come to a menage a trois… For Derek asks Fenshawe to look after his spouse, while he is sailing to the end of the world, and the latter refuses, he says this is no good, he is not good company, being morose, but when the parting fellow explains how he will be so worried, leaving his wife all along on shore, and it would mean so much to him, a deal is reached Sukie will lend books to our hero, they meet a few times, exchange some jokes, Francis seems to be if not a misogyn, then afraid of women or something – that is due to some bad experiences, when he went to India, to work as a journalist, his lover would not wait, because Francis played the wrong cards, had the wrong attitude The lonely wife encourages Francis to write, and indeed, he had intended to write about India, though he says ‘I knew I’d never write anything now…why, I hadn’t even the energy to read’, though he does n like The Postman Always Rings Twice, which Sukie was reading, and the intellectual interests seem to be shared To begin with, she appears to be more political, radical even, with not just a penchant for leftist, perhaps Marxist ideas, she insists that Francis, and her husband, when he was on shore, suffer from the lack of a safety net – she did not use that term, and it is just the gist of what I think I remember and then he was not so keen They meet more often, and suddenly, he tells her he loves her, as readers we have had the benefit of knowing this feeling before, the narrator aka Fanshawe had shared it with us, they go to a picnic, when it looks like they will make love – anyway, they used ‘making love’ in a different sense then, it was not they had coitus It looks like a match made in heaven, she does not love Derek, Sukie says she loves Francis, so we (as in just me) expect them to find a way, soothe the poor departed cuckold, and then we get the joy of seeing our favorite couple continue, live happily forever after, only this does not look like a fairy tale, and it is not…it has reminded me of Glengarry Glen Ross https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/05/... Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 12, 2024
|
Apr 20, 2024
|
Apr 20, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| B00F1N5CP4
| 4.06
| 190
| Dec 01, 1922
| Sep 07, 2013
|
it was amazing
|
Before The Party by Somerset Maugham – his master work Of Human Bondage https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... is on The Modern Library’s Best 100 N
Before The Party by Somerset Maugham – his master work Of Human Bondage https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... is on The Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels list 10 out of 10 It was providence, when a few days back I Stumbled Upon Happiness – Stumbling On Happiness is a psychology classic https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/... by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, and you find there some of the myths related to what makes you happy Nonetheless, in the case of Somerset Maugham the delight is unchanged – there have been some instances when a second look at a book that had seemed marvelous, made me wonder what on earth did I find in there to make me so ecstatic – White Man Falling is a case in point https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/... Perhaps a challenge would be to see what happens to The Loved One, if I finish the second read – I did proceed, but somehow it did not look as enchanting as the first – and indeed, the second time, for I had also seen the film adaptation, with Rod Steiger in one of the leading roles, he was Doctor Loveboy, or Killjoy, or something In Before the Party, just before this party from the title, Mrs. Skinner talks about proper mourning clothes and how strange her daughter has been, she notices the missing photo of the late husband, Harold, who has died eight months ago, from fever, while in Borneo – these belong to The Far Eastern Tales Some notes, showing what I thought about them ten years ago, are on my old blog – alas, since I no longer remember password, or email attached to it, it has been dead, and I cannot contribute more there, to the chagrin of my audience – ‘I am a river to my people’ is a line that Anthony Quinn has in Lawrence of Arabia Some of what happens belongs to The Far East https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... but the party will be in Britain, and the family gets ready, they will have the gardener drive them, Kathleen is the sister, and Millicent is at the center of this horror story – it will get terrible When she sees the picture of her dead son-in-law is missing, Mrs. Skinner is curious if there is one in her daughter’s room, but then the conversation brings in some revelations, Kathleen mentions she had heard from people that her brother-in-law had not died of fever, as they had been told, but he had committed suicide So, we get to the start of the tale, Millicent is thirty-six, and at that time, nearly one century ad and a half ago, it looked impossible for her to get married again, and so it had been, to some extent, when she was twenty-seven, and single, and Harold came along, and wanted to marry her, when no one else did, which seemed to settle the matter The reason why the daughter and sister did not mention the real cause of death (spoiler alert, we will be in for another, horrendous surprise, or maybe more) was that she did not want her daughter, Joan, to know about her father – and there is so much to absorb, some time, if ever, about her other parent too, for that matter Harold was forty-four, when he came to England, from the Far East, a tall, heavy man, Millicent was not in love with him, but the idea was that a woman could live well in Borneo, part of the biggest empire the world has ever known, covering a third or so of the land mass, at its height, just about one hundred years ago So, after they marry, they travel to Borneo, and eventually, the new spouse finds the truth abut her husband, who had been a drunkard, and so bad that the resident there offered two choices, you either solve this – and you need to return with a wife, who will help you lose the addiction – or you will be fired and sent home The widow tells her mother – they all listen to the story, and they will grow increasingly terrified – that they needed not go to all that trouble – Mrs. Skinner had indeed thought this a good catch, and was pleased to see the marital vows exchanged – because Harold had come to marry, it did not matter who, or how Fortunately, he seemed to be off that awful habit, and stayed sober…that is until two naturalists visited their home, and they had a dinner, late night, in the middle of which, Harold came stumbling, visibly drunk, and then even worse, started the next day with drink, again, and he was off to his addiction at the office So, it is a disaster, and with no way out, until something extraordinary happens, Millicent is pregnant, tells her alcoholic spouse, and the latter, overwhelmed by the news, promises he will not drink again, and the dramatic change in status, he will be a parent now, and soon has a daughter, Joan, will have to have an impact The daughter is close to him, more attached than to her mother somehow, but then she gets sick, they travel, to the seaside, and the father is left at work for some days, and when they get back, Harold is missing at the station, and he is nowhere at home, until Millicent finds him passed out in bed, with an empty bottle of whisky near him, unshaved for days, bloated, disgusting and loathsome, provoking hatred…there is a parang, a native sword, on the wall, and the next thing the heroine knows is the man is bleeding, the parang is on the bed… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 4.47
| 68
| 1932
| 1932
|
it was amazing
|
The Buried Talent by Somerset Maugham, author of A Casual Affair https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... and other magnum opera 10 out of 10 What a fel The Buried Talent by Somerset Maugham, author of A Casual Affair https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... and other magnum opera 10 out of 10 What a felicitous, wonderful idea it was to start reading Somerset Maugham again, one of my two favorite writers – the other is Marcel Proust https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/... with his divine A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu – and the stories for Far Eastern Tales are exalting One case in point is The Buried Talent, apparently, there is a Bible chapter where we have the parable of the man who took the coin (or maybe there were a few) and buried it, instead of doing something lucrative, useful with it, and we could say that this is the debate here, at the center of the plot, where maybe something was lost Teddy Converse is now a plenipotentiary minister of her majesty the queen, on his way to Bangkok – we hear about what has happened in the Far East – and he is offered hospitality by the resident, only he prefers to stay at the hotel, where he receives a letter, asking if he should be called Sir, as he is such a dignified official Only the person writing this message knows the protagonist very well, and feels like using Teddy, not your excellency or something of that sort – this reminds me of a sketch with John Cleese https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/... and Graham Chapman… The formidable John Cleese is the host of a show and the guest is Graham Chapman, when the latter arrives on the set, the former is polite, and uses Sir Edward, only to ask if he can use Edward, which is agreed upon, but that does not satisfy, we have here a satire of the way things degrade, when people are rude It is also true that the honorable aristocrat – or he could be just be a footballer that was knighted, and hence has the right to use Sir, and the others are obliged to use it, presumably, so we could have a laugh at pompous, self-absorbed brats – appears quite preposterous and somewhat haughty, not enough to justify the follow up The host abruptly goes down to ‘Eddie baby, but the guest is displeased, or worse, and he refuses to accept this, and is ready to go, when Cleese, offers alternatives, just as absurd, hilarious, and provocative, can I call you ‘sugar pup’, or some such nonsense, and then he goes on, until he sees he can lose the star of the show So, he goes back to Sir Edward, only to inflate the problem again, once the man has stopped from the way out, so getting back to our Eddie, from the Far East, he does not recollect who this woman might be, for a while, until he sees that she comes from the distant past, she must be middle aged now, but she was twenty-four… When the two met and they had something of a menage a trois – could have been inspired by Somerset Maugham’s own experience maybe, I wonder, the giant writer was homosexual, at a time when this was illegal, and he had to navigate dangerous waters, like Oscar Wilde and so many others, who have paid dearly In Summing Up https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/... we get some of the autobiographical stories that reveal the life of the luminary – in the first place, Eddie Converse thinks he will refuse the invitation made by Blanche McCadle – these are probably not the names in the tales… I heard the audiobook version, and I am not sure if one is Converse, or some other name, and so on, if you are interested (and still here for some strange reason) the works of Somerset Maugham are in the public domain, you could find many (maybe most, or all) on sites like Gutenberg, Librivox and others and read them Eventually, the minister accepts the invitation, tearing up the initial message, which declined it, and then they speak about Chamien (again, I have no idea if this is the name, the way you write it) the great love, perhaps for both of them, Teddy fell in love at first sight, he thought then that this will be forever and nothing will change Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... is a classic of psychology by Malcolm Gladwell, a marvel that explains Thin Slicing Theory, The Harding Effect, how John Gottman, the ultimate expert on couple therapy works with his subjects Chamien was a talented singer, if Blanche was twice as good, and the former was willing to do anything for a career, and to live life in the French manner of ‘vivre a fond’, intensely, with gusto, ardor and passion, even if that leads to catastrophe…she spent with abandon, ate much, lost her voice eventually and declined A spoiler alert might have even necessary somewhere above, but then I say few, if any, go beyond the first couple of lines, so there you have it – Blanche appears to have had a good life, loved by the doctor she had married, she has comfortable home, she is asked to sing in this part of world, and all is Wine and Roses Only it is not, she regrets having lost the chance to sing, and she says that their friend, with the disintegration of career, life, had had a great fortune, though she would be found in the ocean, with a knife in her back Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 08, 2024
|
Apr 08, 2024
|
Apr 08, 2024
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||||
| unknown
| 3.23
| 13
| unknown
| unknown
|
it was amazing
|
Footprints In The Jungle by Somerset Maugham – author of many wonderful short stories https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/... and acclaimed novels, o
Footprints In The Jungle by Somerset Maugham – author of many wonderful short stories https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/... and acclaimed novels, one of my favorite writers 10 out of 10 Somerset Maugham has been my absolute favorite writer, alongside Marcel Proust, and his soties and novels have brought joy and solace starting some forty years ago, even when I was in hospital for an ulcer, but also because I have had some scheme regarding my studies, during the rule of Ceausescu, someone like Putin This story takes place in Malaya, as it was called then, which probably encompasses Malaysia today, and maybe Singapore, I think I have read that the two have been part of the same colony, and then they separated, with their independence, the latter is much more prosperous, however outré and small, dwarfed by the much bigger Malaya We are taken along by a policeman, who joins the narrator and a couple for game a bridge, the other two are Mrs. Olive Cartright and her husband, Theo, she is very astute, gifted, in control, and she wants to make a pair with her spouse, saying ‘it is no fun to win money from each other’, she has an indefinite age, and is very interesting Somerset Maugham has some very original propositions here ‘it not what the man does, but what he is that matters’, or maybe we should say the policeman in the narrative, who may not share the same perspective with the narrator, albeit we do have a very strong opinion on that, from another fantastic book In According to Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/... by fabulous Penelope Lively, we read that the writer is something of a God, he has the absolute power over the plot, the personages, what is happening to them ‘perhaps novelists are the only people telling the truth’ Cartright seems to be living in the shadow of his wife, and indeed, as we get along with the tale, we see that the first impression is not wrong, and when I say that, I think of the psychology classic Blink the Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... There is the Herding Effect, also the Thin Slicing Theory and Malcolm Gladwell has written an impressive work, and he also has the equally astounding Outliers, where we find about the ten thousand hours of practice, over ten years, which means three hours every day, will get you to the very top, if other ingredients are there The Cartrights have a daughter, Olive, and they are considered an asset to the community, even if some do not agree with too much talking at cards, and the woman is chatting, the policeman then tells the narrator about the past, how Mrs. Cartright had been married to a man named Reggie Bronson, the best looking in the region Theo Cartright had had some very bad luck, and was left without means, so he had to appeal to other men, for a job and support, alas, he did not find anything, and eventually, he also asked Reggie Bronson, and the latter was so generous as to say ‘come to our place, you live here’, words to that effect, and then even gave him an allowance – they had been friends, and then many were left in the cold, even in that tropical climate Spoiler alert, they would even say at some point…but let us get there later – Reggie Bronson was a sweaty man, with the mind of a school boy, he is going with money at one point, through the jungle – hence Footprints in The Jungle – and then he gets killed, and this becomes a sort of psychological, mystery novel They come to the club, where Olive is with Theo Cartright, and then they see that Reggie Bronson is missing, and later, the policeman arrives with the news ‘your husband has been wounded’ and at this news, she is aghast – I cannot help it, it is because she was told the man was wounded that she is so scared When she finds he is in fact dead, she starts crying, but because she is relieved that there is no danger there, the spouse of the doctor tells her to be careful, and not tire herself too much, she is pregnant, but it is not the child of the husband, it could not be, spoiler alert number two – he would know that the infant was not his ‘He had been so kind to them, they could not tell him, so they killed him’, that is what will come to light, but for a long time, the murder is a puzzle, Reggie Bronson is found dead, in the jungle, half his head is shot off, the money, watch are missing, and so it is presumed that he was the victim of a robbery, the killers escaped Only some time later, at a pawn shop, a Chinese man comes with a watch, that is identified and ergo, they think they have their murderer, and take him for interrogation, which leads to the truth, the poor fellow had been walking in the jungle, and so the watch in the foliage, and so they get back there for further investigation They do find the money, and the pieces are placed together, since this was not the motive, it must have been something else, it was a ‘crime of passion, or, as already stated, the lovers could not face Reggie Johnson, with his magnanimity towards them, and tell him that this child will be born, thus revealing the affair and philandering They had to kill in other words, which sounds so absurd, and somewhat amusing, in a funereal way, I mean, the man was better off dead, then alive and a cuckold, really, that was your logic…and then these are such nice people, playing bridge and all that, with the conclusion ‘it is not what they do, but what they are… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 2024
|
Apr 2024
|
Apr 01, 2024
|
Audiobook
| ||||||||||||||||
| 9789735023966
| 9735023962
| 4.12
| 33
| 1994
| 2009
|
it was amazing
|
Limba Pasarilor aka The Language of The Birds by Andrei Plesu – author of Despre Ingeri https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/... and other magnum oper
Limba Pasarilor aka The Language of The Birds by Andrei Plesu – author of Despre Ingeri https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/... and other magnum opera 10 out of 10 Andrei Plesu is perhaps the most admired, poplar and important luminary in this land – he certainly is for yours truly – and furthermore, he should be known and acclaimed across the globe, if you ask me, and presumably others, a titan, brilliant intellectual who is not looking down at the hoi polloi, albeit he can be a splendid critic The demi God has a divine sense of humor, combining it in his writing and speeches with the esoterical, inaccessible really for the common reader (however, I need to add here that the ‘average human’ does not reach for this Magister Ludi, indeed, people read less, and when they do, they opt for rather undemanding material) One of my favorite reads is Comedii La Portile Orientului https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/01/... in which we laugh at the politicians, the absurdity of the communist regime – when he is send to Indonesia, to participate in a conference, and then, due to malfunctions, he is perplexed The organizers have paid for almost all the costs, but even an infinitesimal contribution was refused by the apparatchiks – one ludicrous incident refers to an airplane that landed somewhere in Africa, and it had problems, instead of fixing them there, the officials had it fly back to Bucharest, and then the whole ended up being many times more expensive Many, maybe most of the works of Andrei Plesu are not for the ‘amateur’, the philosopher is not just erudite, he is above the others and with a distance that is hard to envisage, yes, the likes of Comedies at The Gates of The Orient and Obscenitatea Publica are not just easy to get into, but a joy to fly with and then remember Obscenitatea Publica aka The Public Obscenity https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/... is about what we see in the title, in that the man of letters has had the occasion to meet and know some, actually most of the leaders of this realm, and those from other countries… He has been criticized for his participation in government, at a time when we had a neo-communist at the helm, but his presence served to temper some of the hot spirits there, and much more, as Minister of Education, then for Foreign Affairs, and finally adviser to the president, Andrei Plesu has brought a fabulous contribution As he said often, it would have been easier for him to stay away from the task of serving the public, and enjoy the intellectual life, the ivory tower, trips to prestigious universities, La Dolce Vita, but he chose to plunge in, do his duty, only to be insulted, and injured, instead of getting the homage, praise he fully deserves I must admit that I have been hostile for a period, when Basescu was president, and Andrei Plesu joined the team, the former had become in my eyes a sort of Trump (rude, obnoxious, pompous, loud, more than insolent, rudimentary…but he was nonetheless 1,000 times better than the American Orange Jesus, as leaders of his cult call him) The philosopher had in fact tried again to participate in the agora, pay his contribution, the dues for society, only to find that that president was rather (again, like Orange Jesus) too arrogant, sure than he knows better, and if you know Trump, then divide that excessive, narcissistic idiot with 1k and then you get the picture Andrei Plesu has thus tried to be a good citizen, and succeeded magnificently, in all sort of ways, he has books that give the public joy, improved the image of this land when he was the Foreign Affairs Minister, and represented us around the world, where he was several thousand miles above the entourage, we can be sure of that When in charge of Culture, as minister, he took a few decisions that would be landmarks and fundamental again – he was the one responsible, together with the other giant of our culture, Gabriel Liiceanu with the creation of Humanitas https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/... Humanitas is a symbol of liberty, it represents what is better in this country, they published the chefs d’oeuvre of the world, and promoted the local luminaries, it is a beacon, a proof that there is talent here, and the lamentations of those who feel they have to flee, there is no light in these places can be rejected and there is hope Yes, criticism is needed, and Public Obscenity, the essays of Andrei Plesu are on fire, they expose corruption, ineptitude, the inexcusable men (mostly) who aspire to get the power, but they have little, if anything to recommend them for that, except connections, endorsement from other fake talents, members of the gang One of the scorching criticisms is that these ruffians have no ‘profession’, they are not good at something, they just talk a lot, and they are the opposite of…Socrates, who was declared the wisest man of ancient times by the Oracle of Delphi, and that puzzled the decent, bright Athenian, who would not just show off with that He wanted to understand why there had been such a statement and looking around, he saw that most men pretended to know about any subject, horses, anything, while he kept questioning, did not claim he knew what he did not know, so that must be it, he does not claim knowledge he does not have, while here, and especially in America now, you have this foolish clown, Orange Jesus, who is ‘a very stable genius’, in his own, perpetually repeated words… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 11, 2024
|
Mar 23, 2024
|
Mar 23, 2024
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 038549744X
| 9780385497442
| 038549744X
| 4.07
| 7,299
| Mar 14, 2000
| Jan 16, 2001
|
it was amazing
|
English Passengers by Matthew Kneale – shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2000, when the winner was Margaret Atwood, and yes, the latter is acclaimed
English Passengers by Matthew Kneale – shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2000, when the winner was Margaret Atwood, and yes, the latter is acclaimed as one of the greatest authors of our time, but given that this is my (flawed) note, I venture to say that English Passengers is so much more enchanting, on my list anyway 10 out of 10 This was such a magnum opus, I need to express my eternal (just to put in some silly word) gratitude to fabulous Matthew Kneale, who offers such a fantastic gift to readers – indeed, he does fit the description from To The Hermitage https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/... which is quoted at the end of this homage to a glorious book – and has elated the under signed It is not just a treat because we learn about the history of Tasmania, the aborigines that lived, and were killed by the white colonists, based on facts, that are explained at the end of the novel, taken to this small island, cheated, forced to try and adapt to the white man’s ways, tortured, raped, with the result that one of the main characters, Peevay, ‘baptized’ by the settlers with the name Cromwell, is a mix race man We also have humor in abundance, offered by Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors from Peel, who try to smuggle some goods, only to be trapped in a difficult situation, made worse when they accidentally try to get some things from a house that they think belongs to an acquaintance, only to find that they have actually stolen from an admiral and then they face prosecution through the huge British Empire, which covered maybe one third of the world in 1857, we have the story covering some years after that However, it is not just the captain and his crew that are often hilarious, we have the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, ‘ who believes that the Garden of Eden is located in Tasmania and wants to mount an expedition there to find it’, and another key member of the expedition is Dr. Thomas Potter, one of the racists that developed the theory that some races are superior, and destined to win the inevitable war between humans, and this is also based on reality, at that time, one book became very popular, and then we had Nazis, and others, in the next century Because of the theft, printed in a newspaper, Captain Kewley decides to offer his vessel as a charter, thinking initially that they will be able to somehow trick the passengers (those in the title) and leave them somewhere in Jamaica, or even before that, so he takes the Reverend and his party on board…there had been a question over who will lead the expedition, and it was a close call, the clergyman being named leader Nevertheless, the tension and then open conflict between the reverend and the doctor will be inflamed, and furnish many laughs for us, lucky readers, because they both ludicrous, one believes he will find the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, and the other is the vile fellow who sees the Saxon race as superior, and wants to demonstrate this monstrosity by collecting specimens, bones, skulls from the other end of the world Anticipating, after a spoiler alert, he will even steal the corpse of Peevay’s mother from the improvised mortuary, to serve his heinous purpose – Peevay will try to make him, and other white men pay for that desecration- as a child, he learns from his valiant ‘Mother’ that white men are evil, and they must be killed She had been raped and Peevay was born, until near the end of her life, she will show more hatred towards the result of that abuse, and reject his efforts to please her, she wants to punish those thieves, they have come and taken the land, then forced themselves on the women, killed the aborigines, and humiliated them Another figure inspired from historical documents is the priest who claims he will help the natives, gains their trust, only to ship them to a small place, where they die in droves because of the diseases for which they do not have immunity (in the way this had happened in other places, with the Aztecs and others in the Americas) Furthermore, the aborigines had been used through the centuries to live in communion with nature, traveling on their land, hunting, eating the plants they knew so well, and now they are made to wear ‘dead skins’, this is what Peevay calls leather clothes, and they have to worship this ‘God that is called…God’ This religious aspect is also the source of merriment, because the locals question the clergy about this magical being ‘you say that this God is everywhere, within you, also in your ass hole you mean’ and there are other conversations on this topic, and whereas the aborigines had their own faith, they have to abandon it Because the white man says so, in spite of the awful – Peevay uses heinous very often and alas, he has every reason to be disgusted, terrified by those invaders, and one of them was the rapist who is his father, a seal hunter – examples they offer, with vicious punishments, inhumane, monstrous prisons that we visit As readers, we go along with Doctor Potter and Reverend Wilson, when they are invited to see the prison where they put inmates in solitary confinement, to the point where they lose their minds – research has showed that isolation is twice as deadly as smoking, and the atrocities committed there are horrendous, or heinous, to quote Peevay There is an astounding mix of horror and humor, for instance, when they have this party, organized by the governor and his wife, where they want the aborigines to come with ‘local craft’, and they are not just obnoxious to the real owners of those realms, but they are ludicrous, in their condescendence, and foolish attitudes Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 14, 2024
|
Mar 20, 2024
|
Mar 20, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0192835882
| 9780192835888
| 0192835882
| 3.94
| 16,011
| -429
| Sep 17, 1998
|
it was amazing
|
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by Robert Corrigan is included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time list…another look at it is at https://realin
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by Robert Corrigan is included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time list…another look at it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... 10 out 10 Until yesterday, I was under the wrong impression that Oedipus is a character created by Sophocles, and then of course, taken over by Sigmund Freud and voila, we also have the Oedipus Complex, as in the individual who has the urge to have sex with his mother, I think the equivalent is the Electra complex, for females However, the under signed is not a fan of Freud, I have read that most important psychologists no longer hold him to be the Magister Ludi, notwithstanding his stature as a story teller, the insistence on sex, the notion that babies have sexual urges, penis envy, and the concentration of this at such tender ages appears to be flawed Coming back to Oedipus, I have seen a splendid documentary https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... that presents The Grand Myths of the Ancient Greeks and the revelation is that the famous, wretched King had had his legend, before Sophocles The story of Oedipus starts with his father, Laius, born in Thebe, but forced to find refuge with king Pelops, who has a son, Chrysippus, and the king thinks it is a good idea to have Laius instruct the boy, alas, the guest kidnaps the pupil and rapes him, which leads to the suicide of the victim, and the wrath of the father… King Pelops curses the guest he cannot kill because of the law of hospitality, which had been anyway trampled on by the visitor when he assaulted the son, to die without a descendant, to leave the earth with his line ended…after a while, Laius can be a king in Thebe, and this is where he marries Jocasta, but they have no children Like almost every one else we meet in these legends, when they have a query, the ultimate sage is the Oracle of Delphi, who will tell them like ‘the way it is’, like Chili Palmer in Get Shorty https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/... The Oracle had a pronouncement on Socrates The latter was declared the wisest man of antiquity, and he was puzzled by that, looking around for the reason – he noticed that all around act as if they know the answer on horses, agriculture, things that are out of their remit, while the philosopher keeps asking questions, he does not claim to know, what he does not know Which was the simple answer, this is why they anointed him the Sage of Omaha – joking, that is Buffett, of course – as for Laius, the Oracle had some terrible prophecy – the king must not have children, because if he would, then the son will kill him, so he returns to Thebe and stays away from Jocasta, for some time He is philandering with men, only one day, he has intercourse with the spouse, and nine months later, he is faced with the memory of the sinister prophecy, he does not want to kill the baby himself, but is cruel enough to call a shepherd, order him to dispose of the child, so that animals will prey on him, and so disable him The shepherd is told to perforate the ankles, cutting the tendons, so that the poor soul could not move, only the man takes pity, and, instead of murdering him, he gives him to a stranger, and he ends up with King Polybus in Corinth, where Oedipus – the name refers to what they have done to his feet – is raised as a successor Alas, at a party, one of the participants is inebriated and shouts that Oedipus is just a found baby, and when the latter is asking for the truth, he does not get it, travels to the same old Delphi, where the oracle says ‘you will kill your father and marry your mother’, ergo the stigmatized fellow flees from his fate… Tries to anyway, escaping Corinth, so that he does not murder Polybus, but as he comes to a crossroads, an old man with his chariot would not give way, furthermore, he seems to have done something to the younger traveler, enough for the fury to lead to the killing of Laios (should we say good riddance, it is tempting) After this, Thebes will suffer from a plague, sent because an unpunished killer is within the walls of the city – Oedipus has his chance soon, since there is a creature, The Sphynx, part woman, part animal, who is asking questions and then destroys the victims that had been unable to answer, and this is a challenge for the young man The Sphynx asks what has four legs in the morning, two at noon and then three in the evening, and after a pause, Oedipus has the correct solution, this is man, with his ages, as a child, adult and then old, he needs a cane…because he saved Thebes, he is the new king, married with Jocasta, the widow queen, and they have four children Nevertheless, the king has to confront another crisis, and then finds that King Polybus is dead, and puzzled by the Oracle’s prophecy, he finds that he was not the son of the king of Corinth, so he presses Tiresias, the blind prophet, who refuses to reveal the awful truth, which will still come out, when one witness is called out Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... wrote about the elements needed for the success of a tragedy, and one was the need for a revelation and reversal, and in the case of Oedipus King, they come together, it is revealed that the king had killed his father and married his mother, in a stunning reversal… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 02, 2024
|
Mar 02, 2024
|
Mar 02, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0312181108
| 9780312181109
| 0312181108
| 3.99
| 107,661
| 1948
| Mar 15, 1998
|
it was amazing
|
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith – one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, also included on The BBC The Big Read list 10 out of 10 This novel is I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith – one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, also included on The BBC The Big Read list 10 out of 10 This novel is glorious, mesmerizing and has an impact beyond the pleasure that it provides, which was immense for this reader, but it will also encourage readers to hope that they will find other books that satisfy the conditions explained at the bottom of this note, taken from To The Heritage https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/... by Malcolm Bradbury All my gratitude to Dodie Smith, a divine author, who has brought back the certitude that there are books out there which will bring extreme joy, just like I Capture The Castle, with its fabulous heroine, Cassandra Mortmain, her relatives and other characters, that substantiate the quote from Umberto Eco, the late novelist He said that those who ‘do not read live one life, while readers live five thousand’, words to that effect, and while in some fiction we are not exhilarated by the personages – it happened to yours truly a few times lately – Cassandra and the figures that populate the Castle, the novel are magnificent, most of them… James Mortmain has written a successful book, and then found this spectacular, though somewhat ruined castle, moved there his family, his daughters Cassandra and Rose and his son, Thomas, and his wife, only to find that he has no inspiration for another work, and steadily, they become destitute, selling furniture to buy food They rely on Stephen, the son of a former servant, to bring in pay from a farm, so that they have some food on the table, the adolescent is in love with Cassandra, and he is ready to do anything for her, though she does not feel the same towards him, she is kind, generous, she even encourages him to kiss her at one point… Nonetheless, the relationship does not lead anywhere (first, a spoiler alert would be needed here, perhaps, and if there are no slip ups, still, you could find something better to read, second, there may be some wrong opinions, the connection does have some effects, they become platonic friends, which is something) Topaz is the beautiful, if a bit vain, superficial, and theatrical second wife of the blocked author, who tries hard to help him, she is also munificent with her family, to make Rose shine, she even dresses in a modest outfit (not that they have money for lavish dresses, or anything else) so that she does not steal the limelight One day, they find that a car is trapped in the mud outside the castle, and two Americans are coming out to get some help to try and take the vehicle out, and they are impressed with what they see, which is in fact their property, they have become inheritors of a mansion nearby and the castle, which they visit with the hosts Rose is trying hard to seduce Simon, the brother who has the money, Neil will have just have to find a farm in the Californian desert, which is his dream, the only way out of misery appears to be Rose getting a rich husband, and this looks like the perfect chance, only there are some obstacles in the way, as we find out As they leave the hosts, the two brothers talk to each other, and express dismay at the preposterous way in which Rose behaved – she has had no experience and took the lines she had read in novels as the rules of the game, the is exaggerating the moves of the eyelashes and appears to try and capture Simon in an ostentatious manner Cassandra is writing at her diary, in one of the auxiliaries of the property, when she overhears the lamentations of the two Americans and that would cause some outrage, she shares the news with Topaz, and not with Rose, not for a while, however, there is another chance for things to move in the right direction… Simon looks as if he jumps over the first impressions, and gets attracted to Rose, while Neil looks as if he hates the ‘gold digger, and meanwhile Cassandra does all she can to smooth the way – on one night, even if she knows she will freeze, she provokes Neil to swim in the cold waters that defend the castle and he accepts the challenge This is done so that Rose can have privacy, so that the romance develops, even reaches a climax, which it does, just as Cassandra is coming to the room, she hears Simon proposing, and then they get engaged (remember the spoiler alert) and it looks as if they will come close to Eden, all of them, for now they do not starve Notwithstanding that, Cassandra has the chance to talk to Simon, they participate together in some ancient ritual, and she finds that she loves her future brother-in-law, and now readers are in anguish, what will happen to our favorite narrator, the intelligent, munificent, splendid friend that we now have in her? Simon loves Rose, but does she feel the same, or is it just a question of escaping destitution, hunger, and while Cassandra is looking for the answer, we have certitudes – Thomas thinks she does not love Simon, and when confronted, when the sisters have a few moments of intimacy, the truth is revealed and then a paradigm shift is required Cassandra leaves the flat in London, with her superb dog, and when she eats in a restaurant, finds she has no money, not even a few pennies to call Stephen for help, eventually, she is scared she will be taken by the police, but that is just one of the small adventures that we have in his stupendous, extraordinary, magnificent magnum opus Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 18, 2024
|
Feb 25, 2024
|
Feb 25, 2024
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| B00YDJFKAO
| 4.70
| 10
| unknown
| Jan 01, 1974
|
it was amazing
|
All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – another look at this marvelous story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... for
All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – another look at this marvelous story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... for now, the focus might be on the difference between the Nixon age and the decay and fall represented by the current republican nominee, Orange Jesus 10 out of 10 Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward have achieved the status of legends, demi gods of journalism, they are the resilient, brave, intrepid, creative, determined investigators and reporters that have exposed the Watergate scandal that would lead to the resignation of president Richard Nixon, at a time when honor, decency forced one to such an act These days, the world has a big chance (if we can use that word for such a calamity) to see America choosing a Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... again as the leader, which is such a contrast with Nixon, who did only a fraction of what Orange Jesus has been up to Richard Nixon has had a team of former CIA agents, Cuban exiles trying to spy on the opposition, at the Democratic Headquarters located in the Watergate building – ergo the name of the scandal – an outrageous endeavor, but if we look at what Trump has done, it looks like children’s playing and erring slightly Orange Jesus (that is what republican representatives have called the demon) has blackmailed Volodymyr Zelenski, president of the Ukraine, saying if he wants American weapons, then he has to deliver dirt on Hunter Biden, the son of his adversary in the 2020 elections, a gangster move that lead to the first impeachment Then he fired up the mob, and thousands of members of the Orange Jesus cult would occupy the Capitol Hill, with the intention of hanging the Vice President, steal the elections and have their chief moron as tyrant, which could happen next year, in 2025, if elections would take place today, the ghoul would win The story of the making of All The President’s Men was more than interesting, and you can read the details in the glorious Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/... gospel of cinema by William Goldman, who has won two Academy Awards for screenplays The first win was for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, on which he had worked with Robert Redford – who is now a titan of motion pictures – the latter talking Goldman into working together on a project, which the actor would abandon, because his fans have an image of him as a lead in Butch Cassidy and it looks to me he was vain However, Robert Redford does something even worse, he gets the rights for All The President’s Men and has William Goldman sweat over it – we find from Adventures in The Screen Trade how difficult it was to get all this Watergate Scandal adapted for the big screen, with all the twists, the immense amount of talking, false leads Redford would use an intermediary, calling from Utah – where The Sundance Film Festival, launched by him might be – through a secretary, and the script writer could not call the producer directly, it was secretary, she would make this difficult transition between one and the the other, which came to climax Robert Redford calls William Goldman after some months, to meet in his apartment in New York, and when the writer arrives, the host says ‘this is Carl Bernstein, who is working at the screenplay’, or words to that effect, which made the guest say that it ‘was the worst day in his life’ after all that struggle and pain, it is blown up in a second So it was not enough to cancel one project, after Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... opened, but after making life so hard for William Goldman, Redford makes him feel all the trauma had been in vain, and the suffering futile He is not the only one to show such traits, Dustin Hoffman had shown lamentable selfishness on the set of Marathon Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/... script by the same magnificent William Goldman – Dustin Hoffman made his partner in the film, Roy Scheider stand to watch idiosyncrasies Hoffman debated over some insignificant light, just because he wanted his fans to maintain their image of him as tough, strong, while Scheider stood, with the rest of the crew, so that nonsense would end…worse still, they had the divine Laurence Olivier playing the villain, while the Magister Ludi was very ill Perhaps intimated, vainglorious and willing to show he has the leading role, Hoffman would keep Sir Laurence Olivier – William Goldman has all the praise for him, also for Richard Attenborough, the latter was the director for A Bridge Too Far, written by Goldman – walking for too long, when Olivier could hardly stand the pain Intellectuals https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... is a phenomenal master work by Paul Johnson, who exposes some of the greatest minds of humanity – Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway. Jean- Jacques Rousseau, Henrik Ibsen and others are shown with aspects of their lives that were very dark Jean-Jacques Rousseau has abandoned his children at the door of an orphanage, in a period when nine out of ten children in this situation would die…the point being that maybe we should be tolerant with Redford, Hoffman and some other talented humans, they have incredible skills, but lack in some character strengths Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 10, 2024
|
Feb 10, 2024
|
Feb 10, 2024
|
Hardcover
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 4.67
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 02, 2024
|
Sep 02, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.43
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 2024
|
Sep 01, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.50
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 29, 2024
|
Aug 29, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.26
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 5.00
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 11, 2024
|
Aug 11, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.83
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 26, 2024
|
Jun 26, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.33
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 5.00
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
Jun 15, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.47
|
it was amazing
|
May 29, 2024
|
May 29, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.21
|
it was amazing
|
May 24, 2024
|
May 24, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.78
|
it was amazing
|
May 17, 2024
|
May 17, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.02
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 20, 2024
|
Apr 20, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.06
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.47
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 08, 2024
|
Apr 08, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.23
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 2024
|
Apr 01, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.12
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 23, 2024
|
Mar 23, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.07
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 20, 2024
|
Mar 20, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.94
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 02, 2024
|
Mar 02, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.99
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 25, 2024
|
Feb 25, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.70
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 10, 2024
|
Feb 10, 2024
|
Loading...
