Deleted member 4436
>character is described as having a egglike "plump, well-cared-for body"
>his name is Oblong-sky
heh
>his name is Oblong-sky
heh
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I am here to stan for TEAM LEVIN. The rural peasantry (in their bark shoes) know a simple path to satisfying life through exhausting, fulfilling physical labor and commune with nature. The gentry debase themselves by wasting their time with balls and horseraces while the real rulers of the physical economy bother over improving cattle genetics. Urban fools with their platitudes of country living have little power in the physical world, despite their influence in the psycho-social realm of the aristocrats. I hope to see Levin made emperor, with a Dune-style ride into power aboard a great red ox.So who are we rooting for?
Il ne faut jamais rien outrer.I do not understand how this is considered some of the greatest literature of all time.
I like the novel, dont get me wrong, and I would agree with it being superior to both Farenheit 451 and BNW. It doesn't hold a candle to BM, or really any McCarthy I have read though. Neither does it compare well to any Hemingway IMO. At first glance I could attribute that to my having to read this in English and not Russian, which is fair, but besides this I am not getting the sense of character depth you seem to be keyed in on that I do from my favorite authors. Not in the whole of the first part do any of the characters seem interesting beyond superficialities, at least to me. In addition its awfully verbose in places that it seems unnecessary. Perhaps a bit is foreshadowing but I really do not need to know, nor am I interested in, the details of how Annas curls fall around her neck. It creates a bland atmosphere that reminds me of watching soap operas mid day with my mother on a day home sick from school. Im sure by personal resentment of gentility also contributes to my general feeling as well.Il ne faut jamais rien outrer.
Well, compared to Fahrenheit 451 (also considered great) I'd say it's the depth of the characters. Compared to Blood Meridian, I'd say it's the clarity and compactness of prose. Compared to Brave New World, it's the depth and logic of the fictional world. I just read the Conrad novella "Youth" before I read this one, and do believe it is the Conrad-tier excellence in all aspects that make Tolstoy great. I am flying through this book and loving it! I love the expectation of some intelligence on the part of the reader. It is demanding in that way, the same as Lovecraft. I like the bits of French a lot. I like that actions have long term consequences. I like how the characters just keep getting more complex. I like how relatable every character is. I also like the setting a lot, and the way it keeps setting up urban versus rural thinking and priorities. I am particularly identifying with Levin, and his struggle to shape his purpose in life, despite his flaws. Kitty also has some transformative moments that are a recapitulation of things I went through myself while growing up. What makes it great is an engaging plot/characters coupled with memorable prose. I consider myself an advanced tier reader of American late 19th/early 20th century literature, and this has been a fascinating departure from my usual reading. When I saw the cover image of a lady sleeping on a couch, I thought "Oh boy, this is going to put me to sleep", but in fact the opposite is true. Thank you to @L. Rhodes for suggesting this book because I never would have read it otherwise.
Ha! That's how I felt about BM except replace "romance" with "ultraviolent horrorshow". Blood meridian just made me feel dirty and trashy. This is a lot more clearly written than blood meridian in my opinion. Also, I like the extremely detailed descriptions of the women characters because I am a bit of a simp, as @Remember_Summer_Days pointed out earlier. There's one segment describing a peasant woman's bosom heaving within her pinafore that had me like "be still, my beating heart".Again I want to reiterate that I am enjoying it, and will finish, but really feel like I am enjoying it in the manner of a romance novel except I feel like I've got something wrong by having reading it feel trashy asf
There's a meme in /lit/ that Blood Meridian is a shitty self-insert story and that The Judge is a huge Gary Stue. From what I've read, Levin is a self-insert of Tolstoy...Ha! That's how I felt about BM except replace "romance" with "ultraviolent horrorshow". Blood meridian just made me feel dirty and trashy. This is a lot more clearly written than blood meridian in my opinion. Also, I like the extremely detailed descriptions of the women characters because I am a bit of a simp, as @Remember_Summer_Days pointed out earlier. There's one segment describing a peasant woman's bosom heaving within her pinafore that had me like "be still, my beating heart".
I like the novel, dont get me wrong, and I would agree with it being superior to both Farenheit 451 and BNW. It doesn't hold a candle to BM, or really any McCarthy I have read though. Neither does it compare well to any Hemingway IMO. At first glance I could attribute that to my having to read this in English and not Russian, which is fair, but besides this I am not getting the sense of character depth you seem to be keyed in on that I do from my favorite authors. Not in the whole of the first part do any of the characters seem interesting beyond superficialities, at least to me. In addition its awfully verbose in places that it seems unnecessary. Perhaps a bit is foreshadowing but I really do not need to know, nor am I interested in, the details of how Annas curls fall around her neck. It creates a bland atmosphere that reminds me of watching soap operas mid day with my mother on a day home sick from school. Im sure by personal resentment of gentility also contributes to my general feeling as well.
Again I want to reiterate that I am enjoying it, and will finish, but really feel like I am enjoying it in the manner of a romance novel except I feel like I've got something wrong by having reading it feel trashy asf
I loved Myagkaya. Tolstoy calls her simple, but I got the sense that he was using her lack of tact to point out how disingenuous everyone else at the party was being. She always says exactly what she means and the people around her love her for it, not because they approve of her sincerity but because they think it's hilarious. Yet another character in this book I feel like I've met in real life.Tolstoy's way of calling out a basic bitch:
"This was the princess Myagkaya, notorious for her simplicity and the roughness of her manners, and nicknamed l'enfant terrible"
I don't mind the length of the book or Tolstoy's verbosity but the way he keeps putting chapter breaks in the middle of a scene is really weird. For example, chapters 1-3 of Part 2 would make way more sense as one long chapter about the doctor's visit to the Scherbatsky house. At first I thought the abnormally short chapters were a result of Tolstoy having space limits due to writing a serialized novel, but AK was actually divided up into 13 long multiple-chapter installments and published in a book-length journal instead of a newspaper or magazine. Maybe it's just a 19th century thing. I don't mind it too much because it makes the book easy to read on the train.you often feel like several chapters could've been lumped together into one
I've always found the way old russian novels like those from Tolstoy and Dosto were published really interesting. We really don't see that format of publication nowadays I don't think. Imagine if Infinite Jest was published monthly over the internet lmao. Funnily enough, the closest thing we might have to how AK or C&P were published might be light novels....I loved Myagkaya. Tolstoy calls her simple, but I got the sense that he was using her lack of tact to point out how disingenuous everyone else at the party was being. She always says exactly what she means and the people around her love her for it, not because they approve of her sincerity but because they think it's hilarious. Yet another character in this book I feel like I've met in real life.
I don't mind the length of the book or Tolstoy's verbosity but the way he keeps putting chapter breaks in the middle of a scene is really weird. For example, chapters 1-3 of Part 2 would make way more sense as one long chapter about the doctor's visit to the Scherbatsky house. At first I thought the abnormally short chapters were a result of Tolstoy having space limits due to writing a serialized novel, but AK was actually divided up into 13 long multiple-chapter installments and published in a book-length journal instead of a newspaper or magazine. Maybe it's just a 19th century thing. I don't mind it too much because it makes the book easy to read on the train.
Speaking of serialization, this site has a list of the original 13 installments. They don't entirely correspond with the final 8 parts, but looking back over what I've read already I can see where there are stopping and starting points in the text left over from the original divisions. Following the original release schedule and reading one installment a month could be a fun book club idea. I also found this article about a Russian prince who read AK as it was being published and recorded his reactions to the novel in his diary. I haven't read it yet, but am planning on coming back to it once I've finished the book to see how his response compares to mine.
Finished part 2 today. Still enjoying it a lot, but the fact that every single character is running away from their problems or trying to ignore how they feel in some way is starting to get to me. The situation with Anna and her husband is just depressing. Kitty is the only character who's had a real moment of self-realization so far, everyone else is either deluding themselves or just "going with the flow" and not really thinking about what they're doing. The train imagery you mentioned in one of your previous posts absolutely fits - "Though Vronksy's whole inner life was absorbed by his passion, his external life ran unalterably and inevitably along its former customary rails of social and regimental connections and interests." Vronsky (like everyone else) is absorbed by feelings he doesn't want to acknowledge. He simultaneously wants to take responsibility for Anna's pregnancy and for everything to continue like normal without there being any consequences for his actions. The result is a disaster - he's distracted during the steeplechase and makes a stupid mistake that costs him both the race and the life of his favorite horse (fittingly a mare.) Same goes for Levin, who wants everything to go back to normal at his estate despite the fact that he's still upset at being rejected by Kitty. Or Anna herself, who wants to be married to both Karenin and Vronsky at the same time and puts off telling her husband about the affair until it's too late to be ignored.Anna Karenina bros... How are we holding up? Reading something like this is dense lol. I have yet to read this weeks pages, mostly cause I keep getting distracted with other novels, and I haven't written my notes down for last week's pages. Tomorrow I'll try doing a write up.