"Faster, much faster..."
There are those of you who would have me update this blog more than I do (okay, well, there's at least one of you...) but I have nothing of note to relate, nothing funny to pass on. Classes are good; I'm ridiculously busy. I've been back for a week and a half and for most of that time I was studying for 8 courses because I didn't know which ones I would end up in. I've settled down in 5, the ones I wanted, natch, which is great, only now I've done all this work I didn't need to do, and am behind in at least one of the courses - the most intellectually challenging, of course. Anyone read Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and want to elucidate for me?
In other news: due to the 8-class extravaganza, I have left the neighborhood exactly once in ten days, to buy coffee and have a drink in Carroll Gardens. At least I've got my priorities straight.
A quote for y'all, from Saul Bellow's Seize the Day:
"On Broadway it was still bright afternoon and the gassy air was almost motionless under the leaden spokes of sunlight, and sawdust footprints lay about the doorways of butcher shops and fruit stores. And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors for every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally. The sidewalks were wider than any casuseway; the street itself was immense, and it quaked and gleamed and it seemed to Wilhelm to throb at the last limit of endurance. And although the sunlight appeared like a broad tissue, its actual weight made him feel like a drunkard."
In other news: due to the 8-class extravaganza, I have left the neighborhood exactly once in ten days, to buy coffee and have a drink in Carroll Gardens. At least I've got my priorities straight.
A quote for y'all, from Saul Bellow's Seize the Day:
"On Broadway it was still bright afternoon and the gassy air was almost motionless under the leaden spokes of sunlight, and sawdust footprints lay about the doorways of butcher shops and fruit stores. And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors for every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally. The sidewalks were wider than any casuseway; the street itself was immense, and it quaked and gleamed and it seemed to Wilhelm to throb at the last limit of endurance. And although the sunlight appeared like a broad tissue, its actual weight made him feel like a drunkard."
posted by j | 5:24 PM
3 Comments:
i just FUCKING READ ivan ilyich for class. (sorry for swearing, j's parents) so yeah. calla me.
first of all, i read it in a first-year course (what are you doing?) so i think my and your university should get their syllabi right.
"the death" was actually his life. and at his actually moment of death, when he realizes that his priorities are all screwy, that's when he really starts to live. gerasim as mary magdalene - the whole thing's an allegory for the passion, (according to my prof), with the *3* days of screaming, the 'resurrection', with the idea that ivan = jesus. because what comes after the pain is worth so much more than what was before.
i can explain this so much better in person. calla me.
Your parents read this? The people demand more bloggerific missives! Damnit! Why do I keep using exclamation marks?!
I loooove The Death of Ivan Ilych... Tolstoy's terror of death emerging at its finest. I suspect you may have already had your class discussion for this, though? If you haven't, lemme know, I'd love to discuss :-) Would write more but my wrists are about to give out so I'm trying to spare them the extra typing :-)
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