They could easily die up there in the mountains but instead they’re playing cards to make light of their plight. Meanwhile two ropes await their rescue if they would just climb them and not stand on dignity.
Daily Archives: April 4, 2016
page 106 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
This determination of Angustina to keep pace even though his boots are killing his feet is typical of the military, too press and kill yourself for no reason more than to not complain about how you made a mistake.
page 96 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
Fillmore could feel that tugging to go along with the prevailing passion that war was upon them even though he was sure it wasn’t. He was wise to not rush to judgment, but it was mostly out of a lack of self confidence because he thought something as glorious as a battle could never happen to him. He’s lost the fire of youth
page 94 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
Colonel Fillmore thinks if he acknowledges the thing he wants exists then if will dissppear. The older we get the less able we are to reach out for something we’re not sure we can grasp, we tend to become conservative, play it safe and not get hurt, or leave our comfort.
page 84 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
There really is something awful in the image of Lazzari laying face down with enough light to just reflect off the white of his half opened eyes. Tronk seems thrown off by this, has he changed? And now to reward the shooter, Moretto. Crazy.
page 81 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
They were all trying to convince themselves it was nothing, but it was a horse. And now they’re all on edge and Lazzari dies needlessly because of orders and military strictness.
page 71 of 198 of The Tartar Steppe
You get the feeling the Tarters are winning the war just by letting these people man their forts in Solitude. While the Tarters roam free, Drogo is tied to eternal watch, to fantasize about a battle that will never come. There is a war and he’s losing badly.
Reminds me of the SpongeBob gif of the fish in his car, at his window, and at the office. Over and over the same.
89% done with War and Peace
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“What a lot of men he’s ruined!”
Tolstoy does a nice job of recreating the banter of the soldiers, but though this was from a different era, I have no doubt it’s been edited heavily. Funny to say I think the best to catch military “grunts” talking was the film Aliens – the banter felt genuin. Here the men are quick to forgive the French, and maybe that’s how they wanted to remember it- not as being crass
89% done with War and Peace
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I had to look up what a wattle fence is. Pretty obvious now that I see it would be great for campfires.
Of course there is always that one guy who, though the mood doesn’t call for it, has to “remind” everyone of decorum because “There are gentry here; the general himself is in that hut…”. As if even they care that the men are being crass and merry. But there always has to be that “one guy”.
88% done with War and Peace
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“… but now we may even pity them. They are human beings too. Isn’t it so, lads?” I imagine Woodrow Wilson was aware of this sentiment when settling peace after WW1 (he might have even read this novel), but things turned out much worse for everyone.
88% done with War and Peace
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“To a lackey no man can be great, for a lackey has his own conception of greatness.” Yeah, the lackey believes only himself is truly great.
Tolstoy can get on with it, we get the point, we really, really, really do. We’re not leaning anything new here, the story is not moving forward, the points have all been made. Even on my 4th reading of this I get tired of these sections.
88% done with War and Peace
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I know Tolstoy wants to celebrate Kutuzov more than historians are willing to give credit to him, but Kutuzov didn’t really do anything, he just didn’t do anything to get in the way of the inevitable. Then again you could say he was like Belichick not wanting to call a time out in the Super Bowl because he knew his opponent, Pete Carroll would throw the ball and so he Belichick let Carroll make his mistake