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)
For comparison's sake, Constance Garnett puts it this way:
So no spit, no image.
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?"
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.)
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.
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:
 |
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?"
(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
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 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
(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
(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
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
No comments:
Post a Comment