I checked the reading plan today, worried that I was falling behind. To my pleasant surprise I saw that I was actually right on track to reach the start of volume three by June. Because of this, I don't feel bad posting about all the other books I've read so far in 2011:
Lireal
Blindsight
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Zoo City
The Chrysalids
Ordinary Decent Criminal
Moxyland
A Feast for Crows
Breakfast of Champions
And also a ton of short stories. So basically my reading intake goes something like sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, War and Peace. What have you been reading (when you should have been reading War and Peace)?
This blog follows a group of friends as they read 'War and Peace' over the course of a year. It is more exciting than it sounds, but don't take our word for it: pick up a copy and join in.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
In Defence of Tolstoy’s Treatment of Woman
So not only have I fallen behind in my reading, I haven't been posting on the blog! Oh-no! Let me make it up to the world with a lengthy post on Tolstoy's treatment of women, in which I finally get too put all those hours watching 'Mad Men' to use.
I don’t think Tolstoy treats his female characters as badly as my co-readers do. Sure the women in W&P are for the most part flighty and shallow, but it’s not as if the men come off any better. Pierre’s easily manipulated, Andrei has a stick up in his ass, Rostov is the biggest idiot this side of the Napoleonic war. Even my favourite character, my man Dolokhov, is a bastard who will gorge money out of his best friend in a game of cards (and not even because he needs the money, or because he hates the friend. He just does it out of spite because the guy’s sister turned him down.). Sure the women in the book aren’t portrayed all that great, but the men are shown to be, on the whole, pretty stupid. I wouldn’t say Tolstoy is misogynistic as much as misanthropic (though I think even that would be too strong a word).
I do take issue with the fact that the male characters get to do more. Despite having a large cast populated by both men and women, most of the book is told from the point of view of the male characters. While this was obviously a choice on Tolstoy’s part, I also think the time and setting of W&P needs to be taken into account. When you’re writing in a world with very set gender roles that restrict what kind of things men and women can do, it’s far too easy to give into temptation and write from the point of view of the gender that gets to go off and fight wars and become diplomats and fight duels vs. the gender that gets to throw parties and have babies (Tolstoy does give us some of the later, but nowhere near as much as the former).
But just because the society your story is set in has strict gender roles, it doesn’t mean you have to follow them to the letter. Or, you could reinforce those roles and, by showing how hard a time of it your characters have trying to navigate them, show how silly they are. For example, the show 'Mad Men' is set in the world of New York advertising agencies in the early 1960s. A major theme of the show is how women try survive in a system that marginalizes them: some go along with it only to feel depressed and neglected, others use their femininity to get ahead, while others go against the grain completely. While there are a lot more Betty Drapers in W&P then there are Peggy Olsons, I still think that Tolstoy does at certain points use the novel to critique a system that gives woman very little power. When Andrei’s wife complains about being abandoned and left with strangers while her husband goes off to war, she’s not just complaining about that one particular incident but of how little control she has over her own destiny. This is driven home brutally hard with her death and her reaction to it (“What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?”).
That said, I don’t think that Tolstoy is a feminist or that W&P is a feminist text. It has its moments though, like when Helen reveals to Pierre that she’s just as unhappy in their loveless marriage as he is. Or when Marie decides for herself that she never wants to get married and would rather look after her father. That scene in particular is a favourite of mine, as it’s one of the few moments in the book when a female character takes her life into her own hands and makes a decision for herself. That alone is enough to make Marie one of my favourite characters (but only second favourite though: I just love that crazy bastard Dolokhov far too much).
I don’t think Tolstoy treats his female characters as badly as my co-readers do. Sure the women in W&P are for the most part flighty and shallow, but it’s not as if the men come off any better. Pierre’s easily manipulated, Andrei has a stick up in his ass, Rostov is the biggest idiot this side of the Napoleonic war. Even my favourite character, my man Dolokhov, is a bastard who will gorge money out of his best friend in a game of cards (and not even because he needs the money, or because he hates the friend. He just does it out of spite because the guy’s sister turned him down.). Sure the women in the book aren’t portrayed all that great, but the men are shown to be, on the whole, pretty stupid. I wouldn’t say Tolstoy is misogynistic as much as misanthropic (though I think even that would be too strong a word).
I do take issue with the fact that the male characters get to do more. Despite having a large cast populated by both men and women, most of the book is told from the point of view of the male characters. While this was obviously a choice on Tolstoy’s part, I also think the time and setting of W&P needs to be taken into account. When you’re writing in a world with very set gender roles that restrict what kind of things men and women can do, it’s far too easy to give into temptation and write from the point of view of the gender that gets to go off and fight wars and become diplomats and fight duels vs. the gender that gets to throw parties and have babies (Tolstoy does give us some of the later, but nowhere near as much as the former).
But just because the society your story is set in has strict gender roles, it doesn’t mean you have to follow them to the letter. Or, you could reinforce those roles and, by showing how hard a time of it your characters have trying to navigate them, show how silly they are. For example, the show 'Mad Men' is set in the world of New York advertising agencies in the early 1960s. A major theme of the show is how women try survive in a system that marginalizes them: some go along with it only to feel depressed and neglected, others use their femininity to get ahead, while others go against the grain completely. While there are a lot more Betty Drapers in W&P then there are Peggy Olsons, I still think that Tolstoy does at certain points use the novel to critique a system that gives woman very little power. When Andrei’s wife complains about being abandoned and left with strangers while her husband goes off to war, she’s not just complaining about that one particular incident but of how little control she has over her own destiny. This is driven home brutally hard with her death and her reaction to it (“What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?”).
That said, I don’t think that Tolstoy is a feminist or that W&P is a feminist text. It has its moments though, like when Helen reveals to Pierre that she’s just as unhappy in their loveless marriage as he is. Or when Marie decides for herself that she never wants to get married and would rather look after her father. That scene in particular is a favourite of mine, as it’s one of the few moments in the book when a female character takes her life into her own hands and makes a decision for herself. That alone is enough to make Marie one of my favourite characters (but only second favourite though: I just love that crazy bastard Dolokhov far too much).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A night off!!!
Hello,
I just took a night off from doing stuff for school and decided to kick back and relax by reading W&P. But I also had a friend reading with me...Duffy. He did not seem to enjoy reading W&P as much as I did he just laid there. But it was nice to have his company!!!
Sonja
I just took a night off from doing stuff for school and decided to kick back and relax by reading W&P. But I also had a friend reading with me...Duffy. He did not seem to enjoy reading W&P as much as I did he just laid there. But it was nice to have his company!!!
Sonja
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Eur-Opa!
I loved Part Three! The battle scenes were involving and still had many social and emotional elements to them, so a big improvement over the scenes in War, 'Scene 1'.
Also, I concur with Shannon: Rostov's homo-erotic thing for Emperor Alexander made my day. All he thought about was his physical beauty, his nobility, and how he longed to die in front of him. Not for any cause, mind you, no, just so that he would get noticed by Alexander. And then Rostov goes back into Moscow society on leave and dates girls. I was disappointed by this.
Prince Andrei is my new favourite character. At first I didn't like him because of the cold and almost hostile way he treated the people closest to him, much less people he did not particularly like. He made his opinions on society clear, and although I didn't fault him for not wanting to be involved in parlour room gossip and drama, the way he was so distainful of the mere mortals around did not endear him to me. In this chapter he plainly admits to loving success and professional accomplishments and glory more than anyone or anything else, but in the way he talks about it the read knows that HE knows that this is wack. His musings, or dare I say epiphany, on the beauty of the sky and what is truely important in life after his brush with death on the battlefield made me fall in love. He does finally meet Napoleon B. (who he has admired and spoke of respectfully) after being rescued by French medics, and finds that this "small, insignificant man" compares in no way to the "distant, lofty, and eternal sky". Ahhh, so dreamy.
So, I got a short burst of misplaced patriotism during the most recent battle of Austerlitz (in Moravia). According to Wikipedia, this was Napoleon's "greatest victory, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalation". And it took place not far from where my mommy was born and partially raised! Czechs represent! This battle caused the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and they also got to defeat and basically bankrupt the celebrity Hapsburgs. Every time Tolstoy mentioned soldiers speaking Czech, or talked about Moravian villagers or Bohemian mountains, I got excited. I know that there was was no Czech nation at the time, as so much of Europe was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but still, for this tiny lingusitic group (with a population of no more than 10 million today) to get recognition is always cool.
Shannon: Are you pleased that the footnotes have returned?
And finally, a big shout-out to fellow blogeuse Sonja, home from Bermuda and newly turned 24. Welcome to the club!
Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Duh duh duh duh
It was my birthday too, yeah
Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Happy birthday to you!
I know of no better way than to celebrate your birthday reading some good old W&P.
Also, thanks for setting the title-creativity bar Shannon. Without you I'd be labeling my posts 'Part n, Volume n' until the end of the book.
I am now officially recommending W&P to all readers of this blog who are into reading good novels. I know its size makes it scary, but the language is pretty accessible and it is a PAGE TURNER. Did you note my use of caps? It was completely deserving. Now I'm getting back in that terrible rut I always did in grade school of reading the book and then not wanting to do the book report. Replace 'book report' with blog, and consider that I'm reading Volume 2, Part 2, and blogging on Volume 1. Part 3. I'll try not to give away any plot points to my fellow blogeuses... and for now I won't except to say that Tolstoy is a goddamned genius of epic proportions. Yes, there is a reason why this book has been translated into 20+ languages and still being read today... and its not to inflict suffering on Russian lit majors. Oh, the plot twists. He plays with my emotions by pretending to kill off characters, then for realz kills off unexpected ones. And the characters are constantly growing and morphing. I can't say I like or dislike the same ones that I did when I started reading their stories. Take home message: This book is awesome. If you're not already reading it, I would highly you to.
Also, I concur with Shannon: Rostov's homo-erotic thing for Emperor Alexander made my day. All he thought about was his physical beauty, his nobility, and how he longed to die in front of him. Not for any cause, mind you, no, just so that he would get noticed by Alexander. And then Rostov goes back into Moscow society on leave and dates girls. I was disappointed by this.
Prince Andrei is my new favourite character. At first I didn't like him because of the cold and almost hostile way he treated the people closest to him, much less people he did not particularly like. He made his opinions on society clear, and although I didn't fault him for not wanting to be involved in parlour room gossip and drama, the way he was so distainful of the mere mortals around did not endear him to me. In this chapter he plainly admits to loving success and professional accomplishments and glory more than anyone or anything else, but in the way he talks about it the read knows that HE knows that this is wack. His musings, or dare I say epiphany, on the beauty of the sky and what is truely important in life after his brush with death on the battlefield made me fall in love. He does finally meet Napoleon B. (who he has admired and spoke of respectfully) after being rescued by French medics, and finds that this "small, insignificant man" compares in no way to the "distant, lofty, and eternal sky". Ahhh, so dreamy.
So, I got a short burst of misplaced patriotism during the most recent battle of Austerlitz (in Moravia). According to Wikipedia, this was Napoleon's "greatest victory, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalation". And it took place not far from where my mommy was born and partially raised! Czechs represent! This battle caused the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and they also got to defeat and basically bankrupt the celebrity Hapsburgs. Every time Tolstoy mentioned soldiers speaking Czech, or talked about Moravian villagers or Bohemian mountains, I got excited. I know that there was was no Czech nation at the time, as so much of Europe was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but still, for this tiny lingusitic group (with a population of no more than 10 million today) to get recognition is always cool.
Shannon: Are you pleased that the footnotes have returned?
And finally, a big shout-out to fellow blogeuse Sonja, home from Bermuda and newly turned 24. Welcome to the club!
Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Duh duh duh duh
It was my birthday too, yeah
Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Happy birthday to you!
I know of no better way than to celebrate your birthday reading some good old W&P.
Also, thanks for setting the title-creativity bar Shannon. Without you I'd be labeling my posts 'Part n, Volume n' until the end of the book.
I am now officially recommending W&P to all readers of this blog who are into reading good novels. I know its size makes it scary, but the language is pretty accessible and it is a PAGE TURNER. Did you note my use of caps? It was completely deserving. Now I'm getting back in that terrible rut I always did in grade school of reading the book and then not wanting to do the book report. Replace 'book report' with blog, and consider that I'm reading Volume 2, Part 2, and blogging on Volume 1. Part 3. I'll try not to give away any plot points to my fellow blogeuses... and for now I won't except to say that Tolstoy is a goddamned genius of epic proportions. Yes, there is a reason why this book has been translated into 20+ languages and still being read today... and its not to inflict suffering on Russian lit majors. Oh, the plot twists. He plays with my emotions by pretending to kill off characters, then for realz kills off unexpected ones. And the characters are constantly growing and morphing. I can't say I like or dislike the same ones that I did when I started reading their stories. Take home message: This book is awesome. If you're not already reading it, I would highly you to.
Monday, February 28, 2011
War sucks
Hello,
I made this deadline just like Shannon, the first time this year. (See Tanya I told I would not give up on.)
Well I must the book has been moving along at a good pace.
But I think the war parts are just playing boring. Yuck unlike my fellow friends I simple do not about the battle scenes. That being said I due care about the characters and I don't want them to get hurt but the strategy parts bore me.
So reading Miss Shannon and Miss Tanya post's scare me. I have nothing nearly as deep or interesting to say. I guse one thing that I have been thinking about is how Tolstoy focus so much on looks. With Prince Andrei's sister Tolstoy focus on who un-pretty she is and with Andrei's wife he focus' on her moustache. I feel like these characters lack anything but there psychical false. I have loved the book, the descriptions of place and scenes are amazing , however with these two charters he needs to flush them out and make them more then just their looks.
I made this deadline just like Shannon, the first time this year. (See Tanya I told I would not give up on.)
Well I must the book has been moving along at a good pace.
But I think the war parts are just playing boring. Yuck unlike my fellow friends I simple do not about the battle scenes. That being said I due care about the characters and I don't want them to get hurt but the strategy parts bore me.
So reading Miss Shannon and Miss Tanya post's scare me. I have nothing nearly as deep or interesting to say. I guse one thing that I have been thinking about is how Tolstoy focus so much on looks. With Prince Andrei's sister Tolstoy focus on who un-pretty she is and with Andrei's wife he focus' on her moustache. I feel like these characters lack anything but there psychical false. I have loved the book, the descriptions of place and scenes are amazing , however with these two charters he needs to flush them out and make them more then just their looks.
I wonder what is going to come next for our charters? On to the next Volume!!
Bye for now,
Sonja
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Winning the war, keeping the peace
Yes! So for the first time this year I've actually met one of the reading deadlines! I'm all caught up now.
I felt like a lot happened in this section, especially concerning the character's love lives. I liked all the different ways that the characters perceptions of themselves and each other changed, from Pierre falling in 'love' with Helene and getting engaged through no real effort on his part to Rostov's over-the-top worship of 'the sovereign.' The last one is nicely mirrored by Prince Andrei's own feelings towards Napoleon. When he first went off to war, his feelings toward old Boney were similar to Rostov's crush on the Alexander (only a lot more toned down and a lot less hilarious). Even though Bonaparte was the leader of the enemy, Andrei still revered him as a great military strategist and held him in high (if grudging) respect. But then Andrei actually goes to war and sees all kinds of horrible stuff, so much that everything that seemed important before seems small and insignificant, including his admiration for Napoleon. When we last left Andrei, he was going through a major mental break down. Unfortunately for the poor guy, he was also going through a major physical break down at the same time, having been severely wounded while acting all brave and stuff. C'mon Andrei, according to the character sheet your wife is going to have a baby boy! You have to pull through to meet little (checks sheet) Nikolai!
I like the parallels between Rostov/Alexander and Andrei/Napoleon because I think it's part of the many ways Tolstoy contrasts the two characters. While Rostov is blindly, madly in love with his leader, Andrei's admiration for Napoleon fades once he actually experiences war. To me this is a way of showing how Andrei is a much more level headed character than Rostov, who is an idiot. Another fine example of this is when the two of them have their little face-off in the bar, in which Andrei acts coolly while Rostov is once again, an idiot.
Also, speaking of relationships, did anyone else breath a sigh of relief when Marya didn't marry whatshisface? God, what a douche! Still, it was a troubling chapter in that none of the woman seemed to catch on to what a jackass the guy was: they were all just giddy just to have a man around. Blargh.
I feel like the book is really gearing up now. I'm curious to see if the book can keep up this kind of twistyness for the next thousand pages.
I felt like a lot happened in this section, especially concerning the character's love lives. I liked all the different ways that the characters perceptions of themselves and each other changed, from Pierre falling in 'love' with Helene and getting engaged through no real effort on his part to Rostov's over-the-top worship of 'the sovereign.' The last one is nicely mirrored by Prince Andrei's own feelings towards Napoleon. When he first went off to war, his feelings toward old Boney were similar to Rostov's crush on the Alexander (only a lot more toned down and a lot less hilarious). Even though Bonaparte was the leader of the enemy, Andrei still revered him as a great military strategist and held him in high (if grudging) respect. But then Andrei actually goes to war and sees all kinds of horrible stuff, so much that everything that seemed important before seems small and insignificant, including his admiration for Napoleon. When we last left Andrei, he was going through a major mental break down. Unfortunately for the poor guy, he was also going through a major physical break down at the same time, having been severely wounded while acting all brave and stuff. C'mon Andrei, according to the character sheet your wife is going to have a baby boy! You have to pull through to meet little (checks sheet) Nikolai!
I like the parallels between Rostov/Alexander and Andrei/Napoleon because I think it's part of the many ways Tolstoy contrasts the two characters. While Rostov is blindly, madly in love with his leader, Andrei's admiration for Napoleon fades once he actually experiences war. To me this is a way of showing how Andrei is a much more level headed character than Rostov, who is an idiot. Another fine example of this is when the two of them have their little face-off in the bar, in which Andrei acts coolly while Rostov is once again, an idiot.
Also, speaking of relationships, did anyone else breath a sigh of relief when Marya didn't marry whatshisface? God, what a douche! Still, it was a troubling chapter in that none of the woman seemed to catch on to what a jackass the guy was: they were all just giddy just to have a man around. Blargh.
I feel like the book is really gearing up now. I'm curious to see if the book can keep up this kind of twistyness for the next thousand pages.
Monday, February 14, 2011
No Pierre
Hello,
Ok so as miss Tanya made a point I have not posted or committed on the blog in while. Sorry!!!
I'm a bad blogger.
Well I'm still being the turtle and I have not finished the second part of volume one. Though I'm almost done it. I have to say though that I'm not enjoying the war part of the story as much. I want to go back to Russian society and Pierre, I miss Pierre. I miss Pierre and all of hist stupid antics, like the police officer and the bear. So funny.
Though not matter what the writing still amazes me. I was sitting at school today and reading. I could almost smell gun powered and hear the sounds of horse hooves as the Russian army was retreating.
Ok well this is all for now, I have to go to work.
I will be taking it with me on my trip to Bermuda.
{{{HUG}}}
Sonja
Ok so as miss Tanya made a point I have not posted or committed on the blog in while. Sorry!!!
I'm a bad blogger.
Well I'm still being the turtle and I have not finished the second part of volume one. Though I'm almost done it. I have to say though that I'm not enjoying the war part of the story as much. I want to go back to Russian society and Pierre, I miss Pierre. I miss Pierre and all of hist stupid antics, like the police officer and the bear. So funny.
Though not matter what the writing still amazes me. I was sitting at school today and reading. I could almost smell gun powered and hear the sounds of horse hooves as the Russian army was retreating.
Ok well this is all for now, I have to go to work.
I will be taking it with me on my trip to Bermuda.
{{{HUG}}}
Sonja
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