Big in Finland

 

Dunno why. Not too many Finland references in my blog.

But hey, Kiitos paljon.

DDR: The Eternal Husband and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

In the Preface, Richard Pevear (who, with Larissa Volokhonsky translated this collection) *, makes reference to the idea that Dostoyevsky discovered The Underground when he wrote Notes From Underground , and that this was the turning point for his fiction, where it went from good to Great. ** Pevear refers to this discovery / shift as a peripeteia... which I had to look up.

peripeteia

noun

peri·​pe·​teia ˌper-ə-pə-ˈtē-ə  -ˈtī- 

: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peripeteia

So there's that.

* This duo also translated Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1990), Crime and Punishment (1992), Notes from Underground (1993), Demons (1994), The Idiot (2002), The Adolescent (2003), The Double (2005), The Gambler (2005), and Notes from a Dead House (2015). They're the new Constance Garnett.

**  (1864) Notes from Underground, (1866) Crime and Punishment, (1867) The Gambler, (1869) The Idiot, (1870) The Eternal Husband, (1872) Demons (also titled: The Possessed, The Devils), (1875) The Adolescent, and (1880) The Brothers Karamazov.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,219) November 28, 2023

Read to page 66. Which was the end of the first story.

But I actually started reading the Preface on Sunday (DDRD 2,217).  And btw,  XXVI + 349 = 375 pages long. Walk in the park, man.

Speaking of said Preface...this one was actually quite good. Instead of summarizing the stories (as most Prefaces do, which irritates the hell out of me), this one takes A View From a Height, and it was very interesting.

Story the First: "A Nasty Anecdote " 

At one point in this story, the main character (Ivan Ilyich) steps into a "galantine." 🤷‍♂️

Oh, look, it's Wikipedia to the rescue:

"In French cuisine, galantine (French: [galɑ̃tin]) is a dish of boned stuffed meat, most commonly poultry or fish, that is usually poached and served cold, often coated with aspic. Galantines are often stuffed with forcemeat, and pressed into a cylindrical shape. Since boning poultry can be difficult and time-consuming for the novice, this is a rather elaborate dish, which is often lavishly decorated, hence its name, connoting a presentation at table that is galant, or urbane and sophisticated. In the later nineteenth century the technique's origin was already attributed to the chef of the marquis de Brancas." 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantine

No Public Domain pictures available, but it looks exactly like olive leaf to me. 🤮 

Strange thing at the end (pp. 65-66) of this story:

"Akim Petrovich obviously wanted to skip away quickly. decided to speak himself out definitively. Apparently inspiration had come over him again."

Huh?

So I checked in with Constance. She said:

"Akim Petrovitch evidently wanted to slip away as quickly as he could. But in a rush of generous feeling Ivan Ilyitch determined to speak out. Apparently some inspiration had come to him again."

So clearly a line (the underlined one) got dropped between pages 65 and 66. Sloppy work, Bantam.

BTW, I didn't really mean to read so much today. Part of it was that I took Jacqueline to choir practice this evening, and thus had an extra hour and a half on my hands. But once I got going, I was really drawn along by this story. It wasn't great, but it was intriguing.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,220) November 29, 2023

Read to page 103.

Story the Second: "The Eternal Husband"

178 page story...so half of this book, and pretty close to being novel length.

The first line of Chapter III reads, "The man as if froze on the spot." (88)

Say what? 

So I went to Project Gutenberg, where I found a translation (entitled "The Permanent Husband," which seems a bit awkward) by one Fred Whishaw. Fred had the line as the much mire sensible "The crape-man stood rooted to the spot dumb with astonishment."

I'm starting to get a bit suspicious of these Richard and Larissa folks. Not to mention Bantam Books, which clearly needs a good editor. (I'm available, by the way. Just sayin', sir.)

Also: I stopped by the library today and happened to see Constance's translation of these lines, which go like this:

I'm starting to sing, "C is for Constance, that's good enough for me. "

Meanwhile...

On pages 103 to 104, Dostoevsky defines eternal husband:

"The essence of such husbands lay in their being, so to speak, "eternal husbands," or, better to say, in being only husbands in life and nothing else. "Such a man is born and develops solely in order to get married, and having married, to turn immediately into an appendage of his wife, even if it so happens that he happens to have his own indisputable character. The main feature of such a husband is--a well-known adornment. It is as impossible for him not to wear horns, as it is for the sun not to shine; but he not only never knows it, but even can never find it out by the very laws of nature."

Day 3 (DDRD 2,221) November 30, 2023

Read to page 139.

Sometimes the wording in this version is so awkward that I have to stop and check it against another translation. Case in point:

R&L say, "Going up the narrow, slopped, and very filthy stone stairway of the wing to the second floor, where those rooms were, he suddenly heard weeping." (108)

Did R&L really mean "slopped"--as in washed, possibly with less than clean liquids? Or was this another Bantam cock-up, and " sloped" was meant? I was pretty sure it was the latter, but I slipped over to see what Fred Whishaw had to say.

"Mounting the dirty and narrow stairs indicated, as far as the third storey, he suddenly became aware of someone crying."

Well. They're on different floors, for one thing. But other things, too. And no slope or slop for Fred. I'm thinking that I'm going to avoid R&L in my future Dostyevsky readings...assuming there are any.

Less than a page after the bit quoted above, R&L have this to say: "'See what fun he has!' she bassed in a half voice and went past him to the stairs." (109)

What the fuck does "bassed" mean? Neither Merriam- Webster nor I know of bass as a verb. Fred?

"'He appears to be amusing himself in there!' she said, and proceeded downstairs."

Hmm. No bassed. And it seems to me that every time I check an awkward bit in R&L against another translation, the other one is clearer and not awkward. 

Fuck these guys, man. I want my $3 back. But I'm halfway in now, so I'll continue to read this book...with appropriate bitching along the way.

Another:

R&L: "Besides, Liza is also waiting for you very much."

Who the hell says that? Not Fred: "“Besides Liza expects you anxiously—I promised her.” Which is actually how human beings talk.

P.S. Read a bit more while waiting for Joe to get off work--to page 163. Pretty close to the halfway point.

This bit when Velchaninov was thinking about his child hit me hard:

"No one has had or ever could have a higher purpose! …If there are other purposes, none can be holier than this one! ...my whole stinking and useless life would have been purified and redeemed; instead of myself, idle, depraved, and obsolete -- I would have cherished for life a pure and beautiful being, and for this being everything would have been forgiven me, and I would have forgiven myself everything."  (162)

This feels very vivid and real to me.

For one thing, because I love my kids so much and would do pretty much anything for them. And have done many things for them that I didn't want to do. Like go to New York City 6 times. Like go to see The Nutcracker 12 times. Like drive to Gravel Switch, Kentucky. Like stay subscribed to DIRECTV when I really want YouTube TV. Etcetera.

But more than that. I am pretty sure that all of my major romantic relationships have ended because of my children. Because I have refused to neglect them. Because they take a lot of time and work. And more than that, I've even had a hard time keeping up with friendships because there's just. So. Little. Time.

And that's fine with me. The way I see it, I inflicted life on these three, and I owe them. Life is harsh and even horrible sometimes, and it's my sacred duty to see them through it for as long as I'm able to do it. Does loving them "purify" me? I don't know. Sheer plod makes plow down sillon shine, after all.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,222) December 1, 2023

Read to page 204.

Here's a little something to go with the Preface comments on Dostoyevsky's Underground:

So Underground is grouped with Depraved and Vile. But why? Maybe it's kind of like the idea of Original Sin, the belief that we are all essentially damned creatures, so immersed in sin, so selfish, so unconcerned with the welfare of others, that we are essentially mere animals. Or worse, since animals are not vile or depraved. Hmmm. 

Day 5 (DDRD 2,223) December 2, 2023

Read to page 244.

B&L: "You'll get tired, I suppose, Mr. Velchaninov, that you may not have to go." (206)

Cue the Fred: "Very well, but you'll soon get tired. You need not go away, I think, Mr. Velchaninoff.”

Any questions?

I hit my tipping point, had to write a Goodreads review of this thing.

The Pevear / Volokhonsky translation...or, at least, this printing of it...is just wretched. There are nonsensical lines which I had to check against other translations in order to understand, there are missing lines, and there is an overall awkwardness which is not present in, for instance, Constance Garnett or Fred Whishaw's versions of these stories. For some specifics, see https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2023/11/ddr-eternal-husband-and-other-stories.html 

but the short version is AVOID THIS TRANSLATION. If you already love Dostoyevsky, this will be a disappointment. If you don't yet love Dostoyevsky, this will only discourage you from finding that love.

Just sayin', sir.

So...98 pages to go...said pages divvied up between three stories (22, 41, & 35 pages, respectively). So three more days ought to do it.

"The Eternal Husband" had some miments, but either it or I pooped out at the end, as I felt like it kind of flats lined after The Stabbing. In part because I didn't understand what was behind the whole 🗡 bit. Maybe ill go back and gave another look at it tomorrow. That's it for now, though. 😪

Day 6 (DDRD 2,224) December 3, 2023

Read to page 268--all of the third story. Which was pretty interesting. It mainly consists of dead people in a cemetery talking, so a bit more "fantastic" than the other Dostoyevsky stuff I've read. I liked it. However...

From "Bobok": R&L say, " And a stupid man even cannot respect."

C says: "And indeed a stupid man is incapable of feeling respect."

Makes you wonder if English was the first language for R&L. There's an unnatural stiffness to their diction and syntax that really throws sand into the gears when you're trying to ride a story. Lets see what Wikipedia has to say about heir origins.

"Richard Pevear was born in Waltham, Massachusetts .... Larissa Volokhonsky (Russian: Лариса Волохонская) was born into a Jewish family in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg...."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pevear_and_Larissa_Volokhonsky

So you'd think R would be there to smooth things over...but maybe he's the non-confrontational sort. At any rate, even if it is L's probkem, I still blame the Bantam cock.

Meanwhile... since "Bobok" was only 24 pages, I decided to nibble at the next story, "The Meek One."

P.S. Read to 279.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,225) December 4, 2023

Read to page 317--the end of "Кроткая." 

So...in "The Meek One" (Кроткая), the girl is 16 and the pawn broker she marries is 41. Hmmm. When she was 18, my soon to be second wife (and soon to be second ex-wife) came after me. And I was 43. 25 years difference in both cases. So I have some experience of this kind of thing. But the pawn broker is not nearly as nice to his young wife as I was, I hasten to note. And there is at least some difference between 16 years old and 18. Still, I found this story discomfiting pretty much from the get go. 

"But in bringing her into my house, I thought I was bringing a friend, and I needed a friend so very much." (300) 

That REALLY stung. The innocence, the naiveté of it... so much like me, and it makes me feel ashamed of myself. It's Samson at the pillars, and my whole house comes crashing down as I think of all the times I've suffered small and large humiliations at the hands of women, all the times I've compromised or sacrificed, and realize that it was all foolhardiness, that I was the rube guessing which shell the pea was under.

Day 8 (DDRD 2,226) December 5, 2023

Read to page 349, aka The End.

"I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of people." (341)

And that's pretty much the whole shebang, isn't it?

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

And as a matter if fact, I'm NOT ready to stop reading Dostoyevsky yet. Though I am finished with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky...which might be a problem, since they seem to be the soup du jour when it comes to Dostoyevsky these days.

Пока мы не встретимся снова

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages

(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages

Time to Stock Up on Fruit Loops

Just read a story entitled "Froot Loops Is in Hot Water" on Newsweek.com. The first line of it reads, "Kellogg's cereal brand Froot Loops is facing boycott calls for offering consumers a digital library of children's books that promote equality, diversity, and inclusion...." (You can read the rest of the lines here: https://www.newsweek.com/froot-loops-hot-water-diversity-digital-library-1845175 .)

To which I say

 .

Isaac Asimov and The Caves of MAGA

As a matter of fact, I am reading another Isaac Asimov book. 

Actually two at the moment, as Joe and I are reading Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids (having finished David Starr, Space Ranger), and I am 29 pages into The Caves of Steel. I read this one a long time ago (talking 50 years plus) and actually wasn't intending to re-read it, but I'd just finished The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, and I decided that I needed a little more R. Daneel Olivaw. 

And yes, The Naked Sun will follow.

Anyway...here's a bit that caught my eye:

    "...the Medievalist movement expanded along with the declassification process. Men grew desperate and the border between bitter frustration and wild destruction is sometimes easily crossed.

    "At this moment, minutes could be separating the pent-up hostility of the crowd from a flashing orgy of blood and smash."

Asimov's Medievalists are people who object to the use of robots in the service sector, and who see them as a threat to their own livelihood. Kind of like white folks who are afraid that non-white folks are going to "replace" them, ennit? 

Toilet Humor

Michael: Well, where I work we only have one editorial rule. You can't write anything longer than it takes your average person to take an average crap. I'm getting tired of everything I write being read in the can.
Harold: You can read Dostoyevsky in the can.
Michael: Yes, but they can't finish it.
#TheBigChill, written by Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek

DDR: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

I've been thinking about rereading The Brothers Karamazov for awhile now. My desire to do so was exacerbated when I bought a Folio Edition for my friend C.  a month or so ago, and that exacerbated desire was amplified when my friend Pat told me that after I'd talked about the book she had started reading it. And since I've decided to crap out on Kafka, I thought this would be the time for some Dostoyevsky.

This version is xx + 796 = 816 pages, so it will probably be a month long commitment.

And now to business. 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,195) November 4, 2023

Read to page 10. Don't know if I can catch up to Friend 1 and / or Friend 2 at my 30 page a day rate, but we'll see how it goes.

"In most cases, oeople, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes." (9)

Day 2 (DDRD 2,196) November 5, 2023

Read to page 52. So that's a bit better. And although it's slow going, it is not a chore. There's just no comparison between this book and Amerika. Where Kafka's was tedious and shallow and foolish, Dostoyevsky is weighty and deep and wise. I'm glad I made the leap away from Kafka, and gladder that I leaped onto Dostoyevsky.

BTW, I was puzzled when I read this interchange between Miusov and Papa Karamazov:

    "He looks like von Sohn," Fyodor Pavlovich declared suddenly.
    "Is that all you can think of . . . ? Why should he look like von Sohn? Have you ever see von Sohn?"
    "I've seen his photograph. It's not his features, but something inexplicable. He's the spit and image of von Sohn. I can always tell just by the physiognomy." (36)

Was "spit and image" an error on the translators' part, or was it a malapropism used to show Papa Karamazov's ignorance? Or something else? Well, I let Google do its magic, and lo and behold, "spit and image" is a variant of "spitting image" which has pretty much fallen off the usage cart now. 

Learn something new every day.

For comparison's sake, Constance Garnett puts it this way:

So no spit, no image.

Anyway...going to watch some football. And then I might even read a bit more.

A.F. (After Football): read to page 58.

"For people are created for happiness, and he who is completely happy can at once be deemed worthy of saying to himself: 'I have fulfilled God's commandment on this earth.' All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were happy." (55)

Day 3 (DDRD 2,197) November 6, 2023

Read to page 100.

"You eat gudgeons, one gudgeon a day, and you think you can buy God with gudgeons!" (74)

Public Domain Gudgeon

"Assiduous reading in 'the divine' certainly added to the pomposity of his physiognomy." (96)

Day 4 (DDRD 2,198) November 7, 2023

Read to page 126. Busy day.

"Here the devil is struggling with God, and the battlefield is the human heart." (108)

Day 5 (DDRD 2,199) November 8, 2023

Read to page 160. Which was the end of Part I (of IV).

Just in case you ever need to know, this

is a portière, which is "a hanging curtain placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the word for door in French: porte." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porti%C3%A8re)

Furthermore (same source), "A rising portière is a simple but effective mechanism. It is fastened to both the door and to the wall near the hinge, such that the rail raises itself when the door is opened. This allows the curtain to be long enough to seal against the floor and contain draughts, but not drag on the floor or catch under the door when the door is opened. Rising portières come in different configurations to seal the curtain against different door surrounds."

"Then she wept, and now…now 'a dagger in the heart.' That's how it is with women." (156)

Yep.

Let's see how Constance did this.

"Then she cried, but now ‘the dagger in the heart’! That’s how women are.”

So not much difference at all on that one.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,200) November 9, 2023

Read to page 190. And I've got some sitting in the car waiting time this afternoon, so I might get a few more pages in. The reading is going well. Its not a Dorset read, but I've found it interesting every step of the way. Maybe time to check in with P. and C. to see where they are in their reading.

Here's a bit which I struggled to grasp:

Father Paissy says to Alyosha, "Even in the movements of the souls of those same all-destroying atheists, it lives, as before, immovably! For those who renounce Christianity and rebel against it are in their essence of the same image of the same Christ, and such they remain, for until now neither their wisdom nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create another, higher image of man and his dignity than the image shown of old by Christ." (171)

So I turned to Constance G. to see how she'd put it.

"For even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old."

Hmmm. That seems a lot clearer, doesn't it?

P.S. Read to page 202.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,201) November 10, 2023

Read to page 230. 

Alyosha to Ivan
"I think that everyone should love life before everything else in the world."
"Love life more than its meaning?"

"Certainly, love it before logic...." (231)

Interesting. It makes me think of the line from the Anglo-Saxon poem (whose title I can't remember, but hell, there's not that many out there, so...), "The soul stripped of its flesh knows nothing." Not to mention Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

This life thing. Just when you think you've got it figured out, you realize that that isn't what it was about at all.

Day 8 (DDRD 2,202) November 11, 2023

Read to page 260.

Gained a new word: fanfaronade. According to Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fanfaronade), it's a noun which sounds like this: 

fan·​far·​o·​nade ˌfan-ˌfer-ə-ˈnād  -ˌfa-rə-, -ˈnäd 

and it means empty boasting : BLUSTER

In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan asks Alyosha,

"Do you think it's all fanfaronade?" (232)

Constance translates this line as "Do you think I am boasting?”

But in this case, I think the words throw different shadows. Using a less common word like fanfaronade shows Ivan to be something other than "common folk," I think...and maybe hints at a bit of pretentiousness, as he is simply talking to his brother in someone else's backyard, so there's no need to choose the high faultin' word over the common one. Maybe.

Another thing: while talking to Alyosha, there are several times when Ivan conflates things or just plain gets them wrong. Is this to show that "the Intellectual" is not only a blusterer, but doesn't even have the Great Knowledge he seems to be so proud of? Also, in these pages, Ivan seems very much like his father. And quite different from Alyosha.

And speaking of the youngest Karamazov, in the space of one half of a page, he is referred to as Alexei Fyodorovich, Alyosha, & Alyoshka. No wonder people find the names in this book so confusing. This is my third time through this book...I think...at LEAST my third time through this book...and I've read Crime and Punishment at least a dozen times, so I'm not really thrown by the whole name thing anymore, but for someone who's having a first go at it, this could be quite off-putting. In fact, when I talked with P. awhile back, she told me that that was something she was struggling with. Probably the best thing to do would be to make a little cheat sheet with the major character names and variations of those names, and just give it a glance when you come upon a name you're not yet familiar with.

Constance says: "For any one to love a man, he must be hidden, for as soon as he shows his face, love is gone.”

Richard & Larissa say: "If we're to come to love a man, the man himself should stay hidden, because as soon as he shows his face--love vanishes.” (237)

Got to give it to R & L on this one. Vanishes is much better than " is gone."

Also have to laugh at this variation on the "I love mankind; it's people I hate" shtick.

"Beggars, especially noble beggars, should never show themselves in the street; they should ask for alms through the newspapers. It's still possible to love one’s neighbor abstractly, and even occasionally from a distance, but hardly ever up close." (237)

Sad and funny and bitter and true...and I think maybe at the heart of my second divorce. I think she loved an abstraction of me, and that when I "showed my face" she was no longer interested. Which is pretty hard to live with. To realize that the person you loved most in all the world decided that you were not good enough for her...well. Sometimes I wonder how I survived that one. Sometimes I wonder if I did. 

Meanwhile....

The aforementioned Anglo-Saxon poem was "The Seafarer," by the way, which you can read HERE.

Day 9 (DDRD 2,203) November 12, 2023

Read to page 301.

"...do not weep, life is paradise, and we are all in paradise , but we do not want to know it, and if we did, want to know it, tomorrow there would be paradise the world over." (288)

New word for me: analogion. And since I was in church when I read it (before the service began), I took a picture of it. (It's the lecturn on which the Bible is placed for the readings.)

Another word: cense. 

cense

verb

ˈsen(t)s 

censed; censing

transitive verb

: to perfume especially with a censer

censing the area around the altar

There was also this:

"Read to them...on how Jacob went to Laban,and wrestled with the Lord in his dream, and said, 'How dreadful is this place!'"

A footnote follows this line. It suggests that Father Zosimov is mistaken here, as the phrase "How dreadful is this place!" actually refers to the story of Jacob's ladder, not the wrestling story. I find it more than a bit unlikely that Zosimov would make such an error, and wonder why the translator(s) / editor didn't ascribe the error to Alyosha, who isn't even a novice monk yet, and who is writing down this story...or even to the narrator, who is telling the whole story...or to Dostoyevsky himself. Boxes in boxes here, eh?

Day 10 (DDRD 2,204) November 13, 2023

Read to page 330.

Dostoyevsky anticipates quantum entanglement theory: "...all is like an ocean, all flows and connects; touch it in one place and it echoes at the other end of the world." (319)

Day 11 (DDRD 2,205) November 14, 2023

Read to page 360.

Day 12 (DDRD 2,206) November 15, 2023

Read to page 390.

There's a description of Samsonov's rooms which includes a reference to "sullen mirrors" (368-369) Constance says "gloomy mirrors." Sullen seems like a better choice to me, as it captures not only the darkness and sadness of gloomy, but adds a bit of attitude via implicit personification.

And check out these descriptions of Samsonov: 

CONSTANCE: "His lower lip, which had always been thick, hung down now, looking like a bun."

RICHARD & LARISSA: "...his lower lip, which had always been thick, now looked like a kind of drooping pancake." (369)

I'm giving this one to the pancake.

Day 13 (DDRD 2,207) November 16, 2023

Read to page 431. And now well past the halfway mark.

Day 14 (DDRD 2,208) November 17, 2023

Read to page 460. 

Day 15 (DDRD 2,209) November 18, 2023

Read to page 490.

I thought that R&L's "I'm struck to the epidermis myself...." (461) sounded off, so I checked in with C. again. She had this to say: "I’m struck all of a heap myself...." As bad as epidermis sounded, heap is defininitely worse. But why epidermis, the topmost Mayer of skin? "I'm struck to the hypodermis" would have been much better. Maybe this is Dostoyevsky's way of showing us that Mitya is not well educated. Or R&L's way.

R&L: "sconce" (478) for head.

C: "brain."

Is sconce a better word here? It's "fancier"...and has the advantage of three meanings (head, candle holder, defensive work). Yeah, I think it is better...and gives a certain lilt to Dimitri's personality.

Day 16 (DDRD 2,210) November 19, 2023

Read to page 525.

Day 17 (DDRD 2,211) November 20, 2023

Read to page 550. 

Day 18 (DDRD 2,212) November 21, 2023

Read to page 570. So only 20 pages today, but not for lack of interest. Lack of sleep, lack of time, and excess of Delta 9. Maybe mañana. 

Day 19 (DDRD 2,213) November 22, 2023

Read to page 610. Thus balancing out to 30 ppd with yesterday's 20. 😃

Starting to think about What Comes Next. Like maybe the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. That's something I've been meaning to get to for a few years now.

Meanwhile...

R&L: "Lord, let man dissolve in prayer!" (592)

C: "Ah, man should be dissolved in prayer!"

Tie goes to the winner.

Day 20 (DDRD 2,214) November 23, 2023

🦃🝰 so cooking, cleaning, watching foofball...and I STILL read to page 640. Because that's the kind of 🐕 I am. 

Talked to P. today reference her reading of TBK, and she said she had started over with a new translation. (By David McDuff, first published February 27th, 2003.) She said she liked this version better than the Constance Garnett one shed started on. Hmm. Just looked at some reviews of this version on Amazon, and one person ("Kenobi") said this of McDuff:  "An example of McDuff's translation: when he translates how a poor couple has been putting aside money for savings he says, 'They had a pathetic little nest egg.' There's a sense of empathy, irony and depth to that voice. In Pevear the same passage as I recall is something like 'They had a small savings.' The narrative voice McDuff brings out is just richer." A bit later, this reviewer also says, "I just couldn't get through the drier Pevear translation for Karamazov." Hmpf. 

🍲4💭

Day 21 (DDRD 2,215) November 24, 2023

Read to page 676. That makes it an even 100 pages to go.

Meanwhile...I was thinking about digging up my VHS copy of The Brothers Karamazov...

...but on a whim I checked the library, and lo and behold, they have it on dvd. 3 copies! So all be checking that out soon. Quite soon, as I now have only a touch over 100 pages to read, so we're talking three cattle at the most.

I'm not really ready to slip out if Dostoyevsky mode, so I was thinking maybe I should read at least one mire by him, something I've not read previously. Hmm....

P.S. Yes, that is a young William Shatner, who portrays Alyosha. Oh yeah.

Day 22 (DDRD 2,216) November 25, 2023

Read to page 710.

Speaking of friends who are also reading The Brothers Karamazov, I had coffee with C. today and he told me that he was still on page 76...which is where he was when I saw him 3 or 4 weeks ago. This is why I don't often read with someone else. Both of my TBK friends started reading this book before I did, and now I'm 630 pages ahead of them. At least I didn't make the mistake 🐂 of telling them I was reading "along" with them.

Day 23 (DDRD 2,217) November 26, 2023

Read to page 744. Which means tomorrow is it. And after that? Well, I did pick this up at Half Price Books:

"The Eternal Husband"

"A Nasty Anecdote"

"Bobok"

"The Meek One"

"The Dream of A Ridiculous Man"

Less than 400 pages, so that shouldn't take long--especially with those little paperback pages.

Day 24 (DDRD 2,218) November 27, 2023

Read to page 776 (+ 20 pages of Notes) = The End.

Constance's Version: "Work and grammar—that’s how we’ll spend three years. And by that time we shall speak English like any Englishman. And as soon as we’ve learnt it—good‐by to America!"

Richard and Larissa's version: "Work and grammar--about three years like that. In three years we'll learn Engullish as well as any downright Englishman. And as soon as we've learned it--good-bye America!" (765)

Not much difference, but it was that "Engullish" that caught my eye. It puts a bit if a twist to the whole thing, dredged up some attitude on the market of Dmitry. 

And now...Please, Sir, may I have some more Dostoyevsky?"

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages