Classics Considered

*Page cuts will be added, should any posts in this series involve major spoilers. Previously: Book I Oh, yes, I am still reading this book.  It's a quick read; I simply haven't been reading very frequently. Case in point: book II is almost entirely the dialogue that takes place when the Karamazov family comes together at (of all places) the monastery.  Dialogue is to Dostoyevsky what narrative is to Kafka.  Characters talk on for paragraphs, and it starts out sensibly enough, only to end in a vastly different topic.  That's the beauty of it, though: it sets the cogwheels of your mind turning so you're never quite bored. By the way, I am loving this translation (Pevear/Volokhonsky).  Translation is such a wildly disputed topic, too much so, perhaps.  I enjoyed the Alan Myers translation of The Idiot , and Constance Garnett's Notes from Underground was quite good.  What really shines in Pevear/Volokhonsky is the emotional subtext.  That is, the nar...

Never mind a post title - that ought to be the blog title! I came into this year so sanguine about my reading list, and here it is a few hours away from March, with little to show for such ambitions.  School and work are keeping me on my toes, literally all week long.  As for reading, I've fallen asleep to The Works of Josephus and after a page of Nostromo .  I'm still reading The Brothers Karamazov , but very slowly.  Pretty sad. Spring quarter might give me more time to read, since I will only have two classes.  It's just that step of making time to read which is daunting.  I'm going to keep trying and hopefully have something to share with you here, before long.

Here we are at the final part of the read-along!  It feels like it's gone so fast!  Truth be told, I still have to read chapters 5 & 6, so if you're not up to chapter 7 yet, rest assured you're not alone.  The last week has been hectic for me, and I know the next week will also be.  I had some laptop issues and lost quite a few files, hence my unpreparedness for this concluding part.  Nevertheless, keep submitting your links - for any of the chapters - and I will certainly be reading them soon and writing a second post.  Lastly, thanks to you all for your participation!!  It's been fascinating to read your different insights, and really given us all new ways to perceive the characters, their motives, and the story.  Honestly, I could go on for hours dissecting the character of Onegin alone.  Perhaps some future year we could have this read-along again.  :)

I hit the ground running when I started George Pólya 's How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method .  Somewhere in the middle, the momentum disappeared, and months later, I feel so relieved to have finished it.  For all that, I give it 5 out of 5 stars...yes, indeed, why?? This is a math/logic/philosophy classic from 1945, dealing with heuristic, "the study of the methods and rules of discovery and invention."  More particularly, it is a comprehensive guide to problem-solving.   The first 40 pages or so are strictly about "How to Solve It" and classroom strategies, while the rest of the book elaborates on these themes in the "Short Dictionary of Heurstic."  The back of the book has some sample problems/solutions, which, if I had more time and energy, I wouldn't mind trying. Hopefully the word "math" does not turn you away!  That is the one weakness of the book - most of the examples are in algebra and geometry, which, even for ...

Last fall, at long last, I got a copy of Kafka's Complete Short Stories .  (That would be most everything except The Trial , The Castle , and Amerika .)  It's a book to be savored slowly, piece by piece, while imagining it to be twice its length (~ 450 p.).  I quickly found the best way to read it is jumping back and forth between the longer stories in the front and the micro fiction in the back. Franz Kafka - most people love his books or despise them.  That's pretty understandable.  He's not the most accessible of authors.  On my part, I fell for his writing after listening to The Metamorphosis ; since then, I keep coming back to his books.  Back to their chilling simplicity, back to their gloomy, frequently vulgar depiction of society.  Back to the endless plots that lead nowhere good! But of course, there's more to it than that.  There is a lot of truth in Kafka's world.  Absurdity, isolation, irony, and confusion.  The real wor...

{Summary of previous part + new questions below the cut.} In chapter 4, Tatyana's impulsive - and, for the era, improper - love letter was rejected by a polite but upfront Onegin.  While Lensky and Olga are living out the fairytale romance leading up to a wedding, Onegin refuses to take part in fulfilling the neighborhood's gossip about him and Tatyana.  His attitude towards her, in his own words, is that of a friendly acquaintance, scarcely more than brotherly love.  He warns her to be more careful with her feelings, as other people will not treat her with understanding as he has.  Heartbroken, Tatyana must go on as if nothing happened, while still having to face the opinions of her family and inquisitive neighbors. Chapters 5 & 6 Questions - One of my favorite scenes is Tatyana's dream.  How do you interpret it?  Any ideas as to why it is usually omitted from major adaptations (including Tchaikovsky's opera and the 1999 film)? - Chapter 6 finds us in ...

(c) Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera First off - I'm feeling quite sheepish and sorry for my absence during this read-along!  This weekend I am, at last, finally writing my first post and catching up on all of your interesting insights! Second apology: for my not-so subtle promotion of the 2013 Met Opera production, now on DVD .  I promise I'm not affiliated with the Met in any way - this is just my favorite adaptation of the story!  If you like opera at all, it's worth checking out. Back to the topic at hand.  This is my fourth year reading Onegin.  How it could possibly be the fourth, I don't know; it's just a tradition I started freshman year of college.  Each translation reads like a new book, and this time it's Charles Johnston. So far, I have mixed feelings about Johnston's.  It might be the easiest to read yet, whether because of accuracies or liberties, I don't know, though I suspect the latter.  It certainly rhymes better than the Mitchell t...