Subject: Re: the undisputed & the contenders
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Fri Mar 10 2000 - 14:04:20 EST
The synergies snake around our camfire, Scottie.
Only yesterday, in response to something you said in your reaction to
Tiffany's Holdenesque review of Moby Dick, I'd intended to insert one of my
characteristic irrelevancies into our collective conversation.
I've tried to read War & Peace at least 25 times, and can never manage to
make my way more than a few chapters in. (For what it's worth, I had the
same reaction to the Russian cinematic marathon that was so popular within
ever-earnest film circles in the early seventies. I was snoring LONG before
the big battle at Waterloo.... Give me Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer
anyday! But I digress.)
Anna Karenina, oh my god! That scene at the train station.... I made the
pilgrimmage myself when I was in Russia last year--just to stand where she'd
stood.... (I made a similar pilgrimmage to the Finland Station in St.
Petersburg, to stand where the guy who once upon a time gave his name to
that deeply tragic city once also stood; or, more accurately orated....
These days, Lenin seems somehow more "fictional" than Anna.... But once
again, I digress. And digressions bring a look of palour to the faces of
bananafish--especially political digressions....)
Some of the stories... The Death of Ivan Illyich.... The man had such a
MASSIVE soul. But still, I've never been able to penetrate Tolstoy's
apparently greatest masterpiece. You're three hundred pages in, you say.
Is THAT critical mass? (And what translation are you reading? I'm sure
I've got a Penguin at my cabin the the woods, where I intend to while away
the next ten days, watching the snow melt, and waiting for the loons to come
to Otter Lake....)
Is it relevant to mention that I once interviewed a very famous author of
children's books--although the book trade markets this particular branch of
literature as 'young adult fiction'? When the tape wasn't running, I asked
him why he was successful as a writer. He said it was because he wasn't
good in school. He didn't like reading--so he never got to graduate school
where students learned to literally worship at the shrines of writers like
Tolstoy, or Shakespeare, or Homer or whomever.... When those same students
tried to write themselves, they were utterly intimidated by the tradition.
Something about it seemed to ring true.
Jerry's obviously not in (quite) the same league as Leo. But maybe one of
the most refreshing (if indefineable) aspects of his particular genius is
that he seems to somehow encourage young people not only to keep on reading,
but in many cases to start or continue writing too. For the which no
civilized person could ever fault him.
Cheers,
Paul
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat Apr 01 2000 - 10:11:39 EST