wordsworth and other issues

"strangeness in my mind, / A feeling that I was not for that hour, / Nor for that place."

“Their characters, habits and physiques are different … You cannot place a mother breastfeeding her baby on an equal footing with men. You cannot make women work in the same jobs as men do, as in communist regimes. You cannot give them a shovel and tell them to do their work. This is against their delicate nature,” he said to a summit in Istanbul on justice for women.

“Our politicians make thoughtless statements on this point as if they want to start a fight,” Pamuk told Hurriyet this week. “The worst thing is that there’s a fear. I find that everyone is afraid; it’s not normal … Freedom of expression has fallen to a very low level … Lots of my friends tell me that such and such a journalist has lost his job. Now, even journalists who are very close to the government are getting harassed.”



Tolstoi Dostoyevsky Thomas Mann Marcel Proust...

Nabokov. ............

Gin and tonic?

moral e ética

Tolstoi é claro, as suas ideias sólidas e limpas, o bem e o mal definidos, o corpo e a mente, a simplicidade e a empatia, a terra e a honra, a alegria de celebrar a vida. em Guerra e Paz, muitos são os episódios memoráveis e que vibrarão pelo futuro, vivos para sempre em obras alheias e nos arquétipos da cultura comum. Andrei olhando para as nuvens, Anatol caindo do cavalo, Denisov roubando víveres para o seu pelotão, a alcoviteira. há também a shakespeariana varanda de Natasha. e Anna Karenina está lá no corpo de Ellen, Lévin e Kitty em Andrei e Natasha. das mais impressionantes 'cenas': Andrei atravessando o hospital militar. esta cena então perde-se na contagem de réplicas. aqui, este movimento que acompanha o andar do personagem é mais frequente, ou o olhar de quem está de lado a ver. em Karenina, o olhar começa no meio do grupo de pessoas e depois eleva-se para uma vista panorâmica de toda a sala, outro lugar entretanto comum do cinema.

não me admira que Nabokov tenha dedicado a vida à literatura russa: entre Gogol, Tolstoi, Dostoiesvky e Chekhov está na verdade quase tudo.  (não esquecendo o pai, Turgenev e ele próprio, Nabokov, o último ? nesse breve período genial) --que século glorioso ("One century, the nineteenth, had been sufficient for a country with practically no literary tradition of its own to create a literature which in artistic worth, in wide-spread influence, in everything except bulk, equals the glorious output of England or France, although their production of permanent masterpieces had begun so much earlier. This miraculous flow of esthetic values in so young a civilization could not have taken place unless in all other ramifications of spiritual growth nineteenth-century Russia had not attained with the same abnormal speed a degree of culture which again matched that of the oldest Western countries. I am aware that the recognition of this past culture of Russia is not an integral part of a foreigner's notion of Russian history. The question of the evolution of liberal thought in Russia before the Revolution has been completely obscured and distorted abroad by astute Communist propaganda in the twenties and thirties of this century. They usurped the honor of having civilized Russia.", diz o mestre.)

e continua:

"For an artist one consolation is that in a free country he is not actually forced to produce guidebooks. Now, from this limited point of view, nineteenth-century Russia was oddly enough a free country: books and writers might be banned and banished, censors might be rogues and fools, be-whiskered Tsars might stamp and storm; but that wonderful discovery of Soviet times, the method of making the entire literary corporation write what the state deems fit — this method was unknown in old Russia, although no doubt many a reactionary statesman hoped to find such a tool. A staunch determinist might argue that between a magazine in a democratic country applying financial pressure to its contributors to make them exude what is required by the so-called reading public — between this and the more direct pressure which a police state brings to bear in order to make the author round out his novel with a suitable political message, it may be argued that between the two pressures there is only a difference of degree; but this is not so for the simple reason that there are many different periodicals and philosophies in a free country but only one government in a dictatorship. It is a difference in quality. If I, an American writer, decide to write an unconventional novel about, say, a happy atheist, an independent Bostonian, who marries a beautiful Negro girl, also an atheist, has lots of children, cute little agnostics, and lives a happy, good, and gentle life to the age of 106, when he blissfully dies in his sleep — it is quite possible that despite your brilliant talent, Mr. Nabokov, we feel [in such cases we don't think, we feel] that no American publisher could risk bringing out such a book simply because no bookseller would want to handle it. This is a publisher's opinion, and everybody has the right to have an opinion. Nobody would exile me to the wilds of Alaska for having my happy atheist published after all by some shady experimental firm; and on the other hand, authors in America are never ordered by the government to produce magnificent novels about the joys of free enterprise and of morning prayers."

sem dúvida, mr. nabokov. poucas coisas foram tão assassinas como o comunismo russo.

karénina é muito mais do que karénina

ler a cena do baile, uma das mais marcantes de toda a história literária - julgo, tive a mesma sensação que tive ouvindo Beethoven em Hamburgo.

o detalhe do guarda-roupa: em primeiro lugar olho para Tolstoi, um homem austero com barba e imagino-o a escrever a descrição do vestido de kitti, as organzas, os tufos, as flores e os laços cor de rosa e a imagem é simplesmente engraçada. a aparência rosada da rapariga demora mais de uma página, 672 palavras give or take. para Anna uma frase é suficiente: "Now she understood that Anna could not have been in lilac, and that her charm was just that she always stood out against her attire, that her dress could never be noticeable on her." o carácter natural vs. o esforço da aparência é algo que li em Dostoievsky neste último caderno de impressões, a alma russa contra quem toda a europa se encontrava em relação de amor-ódio: Paris. por outro lado, um método semelhante à cena do comboio: entramos na sala dentro de kitti para a meio tempo lhe sairmos do corpo e ficarmos numa galeria, suspensos no alto a ver e a saber tudo.

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seis coreografias: 

 The first was choreographed by Maya Plisetskaya for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Plisetskaya herself danced the role of Anna Karenina in costumes designed for her by Pierre Cardin, 1972.

Belgrade in 1973, choreographed by Dimitrije Parlic.

Melbourne in 1979 with André Prokovsky.

Boris Eifman’s version followed in 2005.

Alexei Ratmansky’s in 2011.

So, that makes Sidi Larbi the sixth choreographer who has created a dance interpretation of Tolstoy’s story. Sidi Larbi,

algo une a primeira década de 2000 aos anos 70.

thomas struth ('as easy to find in that crowd as a wild rose among nettles', similes and metaphor)

and more here. Parkview Apartments, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Do. na Coreia do Sul, em 2007 por Thomas Struth, um dos meus fotógrafos favoritos depois de S. Paulo que me demorei a ver em Bruxelas no museu que fica ao lado do novíssimo (então) museu Magritte. lembro-me da sala, em que tínhamos de descer alguns degraus, e da guarda, em pé a um canto provavelmente a pensar porque ficaria eu a olhar uma avenida degradada e alguns candeeiros de iluminação pública durante uns quinze minutos. a cada um, neste caso uma, as suas donzelas.

o milagre capitalista. se antes de morrer tivesse de escolher um livro para ler, provavelmente escolheria Anna Karénina. também, e como uma espécie de bónus adicional, vejo que o livro da memória é filho dela e que os traços do seu rosto se lhe assemelham tanto que negar a maternidade seria loucura. o fim de ambas é semelhante, o princípio é que não. cada 'cena' vale por si e são tantas. espero nunca ver um filme com esta história: os placards, as revistas e os trailers são já ameaçadores. consegui um certo silêncio de ruídos, o controlo do eflúvio sonoro. sinto-me tentada a fazer o mesmo no mar visual e deixar as exteriores no exterior durante algum tempo.

a diferença está nos objectos.

a cena do comboio é vertiginosa: entra-se com Vronski e é a sua sensação que nos invade. mas saímos da estação já do lado de fora, pairando sobre a cena. como se se entrasse na pessoa e se saísse com a facilidade de um espírito. reparei na vida que um carácter obscuro tem um momento de glória vingativa quando um fio de luz o ilumina, e esse seria um momento de crime e castigo. não misturemos autores, ou antes, misturemos mais ainda:

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IMAGERY

Imagery may be defined as the evocation, by means of words, of something that is meant to appeal to the reader's sense of color, or sense of outline, or sense of sound, or sense of movement, or any other sense of perception, in such a way as to impress upon his mind a picture of fictitious life that becomes to him as living as any personal recollection. For producing these vivid images the writer has a wide range of devices from the brief expressive epithet to elaborate word pictures and complex metaphors.

1) Epithets. Among these to be noted and admired are the "limply plopping" and "scabrous" as applied so magnificently to the slippery insides and rough outsides of the choice oysters Oblonski enjoys during his restaurant meal with Lyovin. Mrs. Garnett omitted to translate these beautiful shlyupayushchie and  bershavye; we must restore them. Adjectives used in the scene of the ball to express Kitty's adolescent loveliness and Anna's dangerous charm should also be collected by the reader. Of special interest is the fantastic compound adjective, literally meaning "gauzily-ribbonly-lacily-iridescent" (tyulevo-lento-kruzhevno-tsvetnoy), used to describe the feminine throng at the ball. The old Prince Shcherbatski calls a flabby type of elderly clubman, shlyupik, pulpy thing, a child's word for a hard boiled egg that has become quite pulpy and
spongy from too much rolling in a Russian Easter game where eggs are rolled and knocked at each other.

2) Gestures. Oblonski, while his upper lip is being shaved, answering his valet's question (Is Anna coming with her husband or alone) by lifting one finger; or Anna, in her talk with Dolly, illustrating Steve's spells of moral oblivion by making a charming blurred gesture of obliteration before her brow.

3) Details Of Irrational Perception. Many examples in the account of Anna's half dream on the train.

4) Colorful Comedy Traits. As when the old Prince thinks he is mimicking his wife as he grotesquely simpers and curtseys when speaking of matchmaking.

5) Word Pictures. These are innumerable: Dolly miserably sitting at her dressing table and the rapid deep-chested voice in which, disguising her distress, she asks her husband what he wants; Grinevich's convexedly-tipped fingernails; the old sleepy blissful hound's sticky lips — are all delightful and unforgettable images.

6) Poetical Comparisons. Seldom used by Tolstoy, appealing to the senses, such as the charming allusions to diffuse sunlight and a butterfly, when Kitty is described on the skating rink and at the ball.

7) Utilitarian Comparisons. Appealing to the mind rather than to the eye, to the ethical sense rather than to the esthetical one. When Kitty's feelings before the ball are compared to those of a young man before a battle, it would be ridiculous to visualize Kitty in a lieutenant's uniform; but as a rational black-and-white verbal scheme the comparison works nicely and has the parable note that Tolstoy cultivates so assiduously in certain later chapters.

Not all is direct imagery in Tolstoy's text. The parable comparison grades insensibly into the didactic intonations with their meaningful repetitions that characterize Tolstoy's accounts of situations and states of mind. In this respect, the direct statements of chapter openings should be especially marked: "Oblonski had learned easily at school" or "Vronski had never had any real home life."


8) Similes And Metaphors.

The old curly birches of the gardens, with all their branches weighed down by snow, seemed decked in new festive vestments (Part one, chapter 9).

But for Lyovin she was as easy to find in that crowd as a wild rose among nettles. Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light on all around her. The place where she stood seemed to him a holy shrine He walked down, for a long while avoiding looking at her as at the sun, but seeing her, as one does the sun, without looking.

Nabokov, who else, daqui.

'HAPPY families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' ('a worn-out woman no longer young or good-looking')

frase usada para gáudio dos deprimentes deprimidos que julgam a sua unhappiness diferente de todas as outras, desprezando a felicidade. o desprezo da felicidade esteve muito em voga e continua a ser praticado por aves tardias. o desprezo da infelicidade é também, infelizmente, muito comum.

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"He could not at this date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible man of thirty-four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five living and two dead children, and only a year younger than himself. All he repented of was that he had not succeeded better in hiding it from his wife. But he felt all the difficulty of his position and was sorry for his wife, his children, and himself. Possibly he might have managed to conceal his sins better from his wife is he had anticipated that the knowledge of them would have had such an effect on her. He had never clearly thought out the subject, but he had vaguely conceived that his wife must long ago have suspected him of being unfaithful to her, and shut her eyes to the fact. He had even supposed that she, a worn-out woman no longer young or good-looking, and in no way remarkable or interesting, merely a good mother, ought from a sense of fairness to take an indulgent view."

tens de ler a Anna Karenina. sou boa filha. emprestou-me o livro, mas também o estou a ler na net, em parte porque o livro é muito grande, em parte porque desconfio das traduções portuguesas. esta edição tem tradução de António Pescada - do russo - e um posfácio de Nabokov, que começa- Tolstoi é o maior escritor russo de ficção em prosa, deixando de lado os seus precursores Púchkin e Lermontov, talvez se possam ordenar os grandes artistas russos da prosa da seguinte forma: em primeiro Tolstoi; em segundo Gogol; em terceiro Tchékhov; e em quarto Turgueniev. É como dar notas aos trabalhos dos alunos, e não há dúvida de que Dostoievski e Saltykov estão lá fora à porta do meu gabinete para discutir a má nota que tiveram. -O veneno ideológico, a mensagem - começou a afectar o romance russo a meio do século passado e matou-o em meados deste século. (...) digo eu que talvez Gorki também quisesse discutir a nota, mas isso são devaneios de Nabokov com os quais concordo em parte, quem sou eu. ele próprio se pode incluir neste rol de chamada.

a mulher enganada, de trinta e três anos, cinco filhos vivos e dois mortos, já não era nem nova nem bonita.
não há bebés por causa da crise? não era bem isso......

'whose name is Fifty Million'

"'Good heavens,' I kept thinking as I sat in the railway carriage, 'how can we be called Russians? Are we really Russians in fact? Why does Europe make such a powerful and magic impression on all of us whoever we are? Why does it appeal to us so much?' I don't mean to those Russians who stay at home, those ordinary Russians whose name is Fifty Million, on whom we, all the one hundred thousand of us, look with disdain and whom our profound satirical journals make fun of, because they do not shave their beards. No, I mean our priviledged and patented little group."

Dostoyevsky em Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.

year in books

o goodreads enviou-me uma mensagem de parabéns porque este ano li 36 livros: como se precisasse de parabéns e como se o ano já tivesse acabado.

a propósito de winter notes: pode bem vir a ser um inverno russo. este livro precisa de estar procurável.

'Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'

para além de ter lugar mais que marcado no casablanca, chegou-me finalmente às mãos Winter Notes on Summer Impressions. (ainda em expansão radiante a partir daquele primeiro parágrafo de The Black Book e com vontade de lhe agradecer)

"For months now, my friends, you have been urging me to give you a description of my impressions while travelling in foreign lands, never suspecting that you are thereby placing me in a quandary. What shall I tell you? What shall I say that is new, that has not been told before? Who of us Russians (those, at least, that read periodicals) does not know Europe twice as well as he knows Russia? I have put down “twice” merely out of politeness, I should probably have said “ten times better”.
Dostoyevsky em Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.

agenda (quotes)

"Their agenda is out there. It is very clear. The whole country is being sold to corporations by the government, for the construction of malls, luxury condominiums, freeways, dams and nuclear plants."
não fosse o nuclear e podia ter sido cá. mudam as moscas, mas a m* é a mesma.

dizia André Dias com humor negro: "Vejo finalmente a Turquia a cumprir com os requisitos para a entrada na União Europeia."

dizia Dostoyevsky: "Well, then, eliminate the people, curtail them, force them to be silent. Because the European Enlightenment is more important than people."

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