Thoughts Mindesque - Gareth - Literature

Interesting Old Books: Taras Bulba By Nikolai Gogol (1835)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:39:05 -0700

Reading a book like Taras Bulba today is like taking a wild roller-coaster ride back through a time when roller-coasters didn't exist, but the ride of life was every bit as hair-raising and far more dangerous.

This story is an elegantly flambuoyant tale of legendary heroic deeds done by legendary fighting Cossacks for whom death in battle was the only honourable death. These were men who would die willingly alongside a wounded comrade in a vain attempt to save his life, but also men who would slaughter women and children along with men and priests who offended their haughty pride in themselves or their orthodox faith.

Gogol brought his sixteenth century characters to life so vividly that you can almost visualise the arrogant self-worship in their eyes, excited into action by extreme hatred of their enemies. You can almost feel the brave strength and fearless ferocity of these warriors with their sabres and musket-balls flying on the battlefields of the Ukrainian steppes.

The story paints pictures, parhaps larger than life ones, of men living life of thrilling adventure in a time and place when victory in battle decided everything. It is also a clever psychological study of people living at life's extremes.

We are brought to realise that life for the women of these men was far less thrilling and adventuresome . Their cruel lot was to remain at home breeding little warriors, raising them with extreme love and devotion, only to have them slaughtered in combat during early manhood.

The modern reader being more educated in gentle arts cannot help but judge the scenario from the standpoint of today's understanding and be immediately struck by the enormous waste of lives, creative strength and energy these wars amounted to. Granted, we also know that such a judgment is invalid. The people described here could live only according to their time and culture just as we must. It is probable that humans five hundred years from now will arrive at the similar judgements about many of our own passionate struggles and activites.

Racist sentiments spill off the pages giving readers interesting food for thought. On one hand it is not difficult to see why the Cossacks would judge negatively the Jewish usurers and merchants, at least as they are portrayed in this book. The Cossacks hadn't the skills to avoid needing the services of the Jews and might have found themselves at disadvantage. On the other hand, sympathisers with anti-Jewish sentiments would be disinclined to acknowledege or even consider that the Jews being a tiny minority in that society were simply doing what the Cossacks themselves were doing - they made good use of whatever skills they possessed in order to survive. Who can blame them? The cauldron awarded itself the right to call the kettle black on the strength of the fact alone that it was bigger and took might as being right.

The story starts slowly and tentatively much like warriors milling together gathering courage before the start of a battle. It then accelerates and pitches headlong into an exciting drama of roistering and war-craft, reaching it's zenith when Taras Bulba confronts his son who has deserted bith his Cossack heritage and his countrymen after falling in love with the daughter of an enemy chief.

The version of the story I possess was printed in Russia, translated by O A Gorchakov, date unknown.

Taras Bulba is a genuine piece of literary artwork. It is an exciting and highly emotive tale beautifully told.

I rated it 9.4 out of ten.

"The Fire Next Time" By James Baldwin (1963)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:44:13 -0700

From an old slave song - "God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time."

I very much enjoy reading a book that can point to areas of blindness in our minds, causing a leap of enlightenment that forever changes our perceptions of people and things.

James Baldwin's book "The Fire Next Time" may date back to 1963 but the message it delivered to the world is just as current today as it was then. It begins as an autobiographical ramble about his early life and growing up in Harlem written so magnetically that the reader is willing to go wherever the ramble takes them. He divulges with forceful clarity the contents of the hearts and minds of Negroes, their fears, their hopes, their love for each other and their attempts to somehow reconcile the disastrous position that God has placed them in with the wholesome values of Christianity. Baldwin was disinclined to condemn white people but rather to pity them as morally inferior fools. He saw his fellow Negroes as being rendered morally superior for the suffering they have endured.

James Baldwin opened the eyes of white people not only to the suffering of Negroes but also to their own blindness. It is easy to see someone suffer from a distance and agree that they are suffering. But after being invited to intimately share someone's innermost thoughts you come to realise just how much of the humanism of other people your mind is blanking out, almost to the point of seeing them as mere pictures.

It is a strange quirk of human nature that although a great many people can tell the world a particular thing, only a few individuals have the special gift of being able to tell it in a such way that it blasts through the complacency of the masses to touch people's consciences gently enough to stir their sympathies without alienating them in the process.

This author had that gift. His narrations enabled white people to mentally experience for themselves the horrors of prejudice against the American Negroes and truly understand their attitudes and actions in attempting to survive against the odds. It is, for example, easy to mock the religious fervor of black congregations until your mind is fully awakened to the desperation for hope that propels the worshipers. The author's description of his interview with Elijah Muhammad is similarly enlightening as to the beliefs and ideals that drove the rise of Islam among sections of the black population.

"Deep and powerful understanding" would be the catch-phrase of this book. That is what the author possessed. That is what he passes with amazing ease to the reader, who is given a unique opportunity to actually live for themselves the life of Negroes in Harlem. That is the sort of experience that meaningful change is born from.

Some quotes from the book:

"You know, and I know, that this country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon."

"In spite of the Puritan-Yankee equation of virtue with well-being, Negroes had excellent reasons for doubting that money was made or kept by any striking adherence to the Christian virtues; it certainly didn’t work that way for black Christians."

Gareth's Favourite Literature: Damon Runyon

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:05:31 -0700

If you like to read about guys and dolls with colourful names and sinful habits who deftly remain (most of the time) just beyond the reach of the law, Damon Runyon's humorous short stories are a very good bet. They are a sheer delight to read.

Most people have heard of the musical "Guys and Dolls" based on some of these stories, in particular "The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Pick The Winner". The characters in them are often "on the lam" (fleeing justice), without ready scratch, "puffing at an old stinkaroo", "cooling off" with a couple of "plugs" in them, pulling a job or generally just trying to con each other. Runyon is famous for cramming his writing with vernacular that was equally as colourful as his characters.

Hot Horse Harry, Big False Face, Little Isadore, Spanish John and Miss Cutie Singlelton are just a few among gamblers and gangsters galore dwelling in New York during the era of depression and prohibition. Their antics are described in a light-hearted series of comedies in which the line of demarcation between good guys and bad guys becomes so blurred as to be almost non-existent. Since Runyon was a journalist of the time that's probably how he saw it. He was probably right.
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Book: Holy Deadlock By A.P. Herbert (1934)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:58:00 -0700

This novel has a historical significance transcending the insights into the past that we gain from it. The author first published it in 1934. In 1936, as a member of the British Parliament he introduced a divorce law reform bill which became the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937. The book was written to highlight the absurdities of existing divorce laws in preparation for reform. It succeeded marvelously.

A.P. Herbert is best know to the world for his Misleading Cases series of books, an hilarious lampooning of the British legal system through fictional court cases. Ten volumes of these were written between 1928 and 1966. They are well worth reading.
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Interesting Old Books: Cat's Cradle By Kurt Vonnegut (1963)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:08:09 -0700

Reading this book in the 2000's you gain a different perspective of the author's meanings that the reader of the 1960's would have had. At that time the fear was current in almost everybody's mind that the atomic bomb would soon wipe us out. By now our thoughts about that have relaxed somewhat, firstly because it hasn't happened, and secondly because we are aware that other threats to humanity's continued existence might well finish us before a nuclear holocaust gets the chance. In that respect, Kurt Vonnegut was a true visionary. He asked the insightful question "What else are the scientists who created the bomb capable of inventing?"
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F J Thwaites - The Mad Doctor: An Interesting Read

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:29:55 -0700

Desperate for a good read, I leafed through a dozen old books from my stockpile of hundreds, each patiently awaiting it's turn, without finding inspiration in a single one. Near the end of my own patience, I discovered an old hardback copy of F J Thwaites' 1935 novel 'The Mad Doctor'.

I vaguely recalled hearing of this Australian author, but had certainly never tasted his literary pie. However, a quick check of his credentials on the Internet suggested that I may have been remiss. His books apparently sold over four million copies. A couple of pages into this novel, I had a fair idea why. It was eminently readable.
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Gareth's Favourite Books - King Rat

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:29:00 -0700

I just love a good psychological study. James Clavell's 1962 novel 'King Rat' is every bit just that.
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The Cruel Sea By Nicholas Monsarrat (1951)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:42:00 -0700

This is not an ideal book to be read by the mother of a young man who has just joined the navy. She may not sleep well for quite a while. It is a truly shocking account of a real life.

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The Good Earth By Pearl S Buck

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:30:00 -0700

A light and breezy, powerfully penetrating, thoroughly charming depiction of social travesty, abuse and injustice among good and decent people seems like a highly contradictory description, but when the book is Pearl S Buck's classic The Good Earth, it's accurate.

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She (who Must Be Obeyed) By H Rider Haggard (1886)

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:26:00 -0700

Henry Rider Haggard's rollicking romance of perilous high adventure relates the discovery of a lost tribe inhabiting a lost city in the heart of Africa, ruled for more than a thousand years by Ayesha, an omnipotent and apparently immortal queen who inflicts terrifying tortures and/or sudden, horrible death upon those who displease her. The original 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' was a nasty piece of work, driven by an omnipotent desire to somehow effect the reincarnation of her (very) long-dead lover.
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We The Accused By Ernest Raymond

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:04:00 -0700

This 1935 novel would not be widely read nowadays, being hard to find, anyway. The world is familiar with the story mainly through the 1980 BBC telemovie of the same name.

It is, in fact, a delightful book that I have loaned to a number of people (risky!) who found it equally as rewarding to read as I did.

A middle-class Englishman Peter Inglewood murders by poison the wife he is unhappily married to. He is found out. He flees, knowing that he must face the prospect of a trial and being hung if he is found guilty. Most readers know that from the outset. The story is related in such a fashion that it examines the thoughts, attitudes and motives that inspired him to commit the crime believing that he could get away with it.

The reader's interest is embraced by pure curiosity and the satisfaction of it as the author skillfully reveals an amazing progression of facts detailing how the murder was carried out, how suspicion of Inglewood became aroused and how the police identified the crime. That first half of the book is relatively slow-moving. The second half, detailing the manhunt, capture and trial becomes rather more blistering. A somewhat laborious tale turns into a fantastic thriller.

The story has two key strengths. One is the enormous interest of the facts divulged as the plot develops. The other is the amazingly reality of it's content. Is it a fiction? apparently so, but one so faultlessly realistic that it could well be a documentary.

I rated this book 9.5 out of ten.