Where Has the Time Gone?: My Summer Alone on an Island of Perspective

"When I doubted, it was hard for me, but easier than now. When I doubted, there was hope; but now there is no hope and even so I doubt everything."

- Alexei Karenin (IV.xii)

Anna K Day Count: 43

Anna K Page Count: 405 
Total Tolstoy Day Count: 192

Total Tolstoy Page Count: 1629

(The title of this blog is dedicated with a nod and a wink to my good friend and brother-in-literacy, David Trujillo.)

Two months after finishing War and Peace. A month and some days since I started Anna Karenina. Life continues to charge steadily onward. As it turns out, there is life after War and Peace and not only is it busy, it is filled with all manner of responsibilities, demands, obligations, and diversions. I am still reading Anna Karenina, though I feel I've read far less of it at this point than I had really intended to. In honesty, I'm about halfway through the novel when, according to my lofty hopes posited at the beginning of reading, I expected to be done (or darn close to it) by this point.

Here are some things that are keeping me from that goal:

• Summer is one of the few times in my life where I get 'me-time' - that is to say, time for Stephen to do the things he desperately enjoys and wants to do. While this certainly does include reading Tolstoy (nerd that I am), it also includes being a part of theatrical productions. Before the school year had even ended, I got a chance to be a part of a great two-man show called Greater Tuna at Spotlight Players, a local community theater. The show was very well-received (read a review of it from a local community theatre goer/reviewer/actor/director here) and may be one of the best productions I've ever been a part of to date. After that show wrapped, I headed down south of Indy to Martinsville, IN to do the third part of a trilogy (I had been involved in the other two parts as well and wanted to complete my character's arc). That show will wrap after school is already started, so - needless to say - my summer has been theatre-packed.
• Summer is also a time where I try to supplement my income by picking up a part-time job. Before I taught, I worked as a head cashier at a local Barnes & Noble, and over the last couple of years, they've been kind enough to let me come back and take on the role of a bookseller during those long summer months. It's a good gig and I love the people I work with, but it is often time-consuming when you're working four-to-five days a week.
• A [now] former co-worker's interest in the new Battlestar Galactica prompted me to start rewatching the series. This just in: It is [still] pretty awesome!
• Not that this has been especially time-consuming, but many of you contacted me after my last post, so I thought it would be worth a mention - I found a new job teaching here in Indy! God has been good and I'm glad to be able to do what I feel He's called me to do.

All that being said, I've still managed to get about halfway through Anna K. I realized early on that my projected hope of getting through fifteen pages everyday was an unrealistic pipe dream, but I read when I could and noticed a few similarities and differences between War and Peace and Anna K.

To start, it took me longer to engage with Anna Karenina than it did with War and Peace. W&P drops you right into the middle of a crowded party, enabling you to meet several characters at once and see how they interact within society as a whole, giving you instant insight into their various characters. With Anna K, we are dropped into the middle of some action - the impending division of the Oblonsky family due to infidelity - but we are not introduced to multiple characters all at once. Rather, we are slowly introduced to the various characters one by one: first Stephan Oblonsky, then his wife Dolly, then his friend Levin, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, nearly a hundred pages (or so it seems - it's actually just a page or two over sixty) have gone by before we are even introduced to the titular character.

And speaking of Anna's introduction - allow me to take a sidebar to say that it is, quite possibly, one of the best character introductions that I have ever read in all of literature. Tolstoy draws us into the lure of Anna Karenina through the eyes of the young Count Alexei Vronsky, who is captivated by her instantly. His captivation is ours as Tolstoy begins to describe the most alluring, enchanting woman. So enthralled are we (and Vronsky) by her that it is only after a page of description of this sort (which I absolutely devoured, by the way) that we realize that we don't even know who this woman is! Tolstoy has yet to tell us her name; in fact, so ensconced in her beauty and presence are we that it is only when Tolstoy tells us that this woman - yes, she - is the titular character we have been waiting for the entire novel thus far. That realization, I daresay, captivates us all the more. From that moment, we - like Vronsky - are flies in her web, pawns in her chess game.

One device that kept War and Peace consistently interesting and engaging was Tolstoy's constant jumping around between his various characters and plot points. One minute we would be in a salon at a society party hosted by Helene Bezukhov or Anna Pavlovna, the next we would be whisked off to some battlefield alongside Andrei Bolkonsky or Nikolai Rostov. After that, we might be taken out of the narrative altogether and treated to a dissertation by Tolstoy on his theory of history or war. Not knowing what was coming was part of the fun - we were on our toes and ready for anything.

Anna K follows a similar track in some ways as Tolstoy is constantly leaping between his characters - most notably Anna, Vronsky, Karenin, and Levin. However, unlike War and Peace, Tolstoy does not leave the narrative to wax philosophical. Rather, he places his own words, thoughts, and rather obvious attacks on the intelligentsia of his time into the words of his characters. Most of the time (if not all the time), this happens with Konstantin Levin, a character many scholars believe to be the closest character Tolstoy ever wrote to himself. (Levin does, even to the casual observer, share much in common with War and Peace's Pierre Bezukhov - a character that many scholars view as the closest character to Tolstoy in that book.) While these philosophic and politic 'breaks' are written into the narrative, it often becomes tiresome (at least, it does to this reader) in that they take away from the action of the narrative and, in many cases, can bring it to a grinding halt. While, yes, they do serve to tell us something of certain characters (most notably Levin, Oblonsky, or Karenin), they seem to do very little for the overall story.

One of the things about Anna K that struck me very early on was the similarity between many of the characters there and in War and Peace. Indeed, in his introduction, Richard Pevear takes note that many of the characters in Anna K (with the exception of Vronsky and Anna) were based on people that Tolstoy himself knew (he, of course, was Levin while his wife, Sophia, was Kitty). Still, I found some interesting connections between characters in War and Peace and in Anna K:

• Konstantin Levin (Anna K) = Pierre Bezukhov (W&P)
• Kitty Shcherbatskaya (Anna K) = Lize Bolkonskaya + Natasha Rostova (both W&P)
• Prince Alexander Shcherbatsky (Anna K) = Count Ilya Rostov (W&P)
• Alexei Karenin (Anna K) = Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky (W&P)
• Alexei Vronsky (Anna K) = Anatole Karagin + Nikolai Rostov + Boris Drubretskoy (all W&P)
• Stepan Oblonsky (Anna K) = Vassily Denisov (W&P)
• Dolly Oblonsky + Varenka (both Anna K) = Marya Bolkonskaya (W&P)
• Betsy Tverskaya (Anna K) = Helene Bezukhov (W&P)
• Yashvin (Anna K) = Fyodor Dolokhov (W&P)
• Nikolai Levin (Anna K) = Platon Karataev (W&P)

It stands to reason that a writer writes what he knows. It makes sense that if Tolstoy were looking for interesting characters, he wouldn't look much further than the ones right around him. And it makes sense that if his base characters are the same, there are bound to be similarities. I'm not saying that these characters are by any means identical. Far from it. But there are certain similarities of habit and character that I find too glaring (at least in my mind) to overlook.

Of course, these are only my observations from having read the first half of the book. There is certainly more coming that may do much to change my perceptions of these characters and they may end up being very different people by the end. Who's to say? (At this point, not me.) I just thought the similarities between these characters were interesting.

That being said, the Anna K reading group (which has withered down to only a few of the mighty group who started out) is planning to meet within the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes (I hope).

Until next time, true believers...

Looks Like We Made It...! ...or.... Reminiscings Upon the Completion of "War and Peace"

"There was always a provocative side to Tolstoy's genius, and it was most often what spurred him to write."

- Richard Pevear, from his Introduction to Anna Karenina

Day Count: 147

Page Count: 12--

Last week, on Monday, May 16, 2010, at about 6:00am - 136 days after I started my journey through War and Peace - I read the final sentences of Tolstoy's epic and joined the ranks of the people I consider to be among the "literary elite." I feel very accomplished - like I can (and very likely will) read anything and everything I set my mind to. No book is 'off-limits' or 'too difficult'... because I have waded into the sparkling waters of Tolstoy's Russia and emerged glistening from the other side.

In the weeks preceding my finishing of the book, my pace began to slow considerably as the stresses on my life became more and more demanding. Since my last post on April 17 (and even in the days preceding that), a lot has happened that kept me away both from this blog and War and Peace. In the last month, I've lost my job, started looking for a new one, attempted to finalize my end-of-the-school year things, auditioned for a play, gotten cast in said play, and begun attending three-a-week rehearsals.

While some of this has been great (play stuff) and some has been most unnerving (job/school situation), I felt myself drifting from Tolstoy with only a scant 120 pages to go. Determined, I rallied my resolve and managed to plow through over a hundred pages in a single weekend (besting even my most impressive early reading schedule of 100 pages in a week) and finished that morning while waking up to get ready for my last two weeks of school.

Some reflections on my time spent in War and Peace:

• Tolstoy's prose is absolutely captivating. He inspires your imagination and pulls you into his confidences as he invites you into his world. In many ways, you are his guest - a fellow traveler on the road of life who he welcomes into his home and, as he feeds you with a peasant meal of hearty kasha and strong vodka, regales you with a story that is at once timeless and universal, while still very much a product of its own time and place. When you finish, he sends you on your way, sated, fulfilled, and ready for the journey ahead.
  
• To call Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, and Andrei and Marya Bolkonsky some of my favorite literary characters seems like a disservice both to them and to Tolstoy. They have, over the course of these last few months, become closer than that to me.
  
  Pierre has become a good friend and stalwart companion, in many ways a mirror in which I see myself, and an inspiration and hope for my own future. In Natasha, I see a feminine ideal - joyful, encouraging, so full of life and energy that it is contagious and all who encounter her, from the most virtuous to the most vile and debased, love her instantly. Andrei is a close friend and something of a hero, but a tragic hero whose longing for something more fills me at once with sadness for his plight and guilt for my knowing that I have often felt the same. Marya is a rock, a woman whose piety and grace have led her to become so much stronger than she might have been without her faith. Because she is moored in the steadfastness of Christ's love, she remains an anchor for her father, for Andrei, and for Nikolai.
  
  To call Tolstoy's characters 'characters' demeans them. They are people. They age and grow and mature and gain wisdom and understanding and break right in front of you. You see them at their best and at their worst. Even the best of Tolstoy's characters is deeply flawed. Even the worst of Tolstoy's characters is made to have redemption, even if in some small way. By the end of the book, they are no longer vague, fledgling caricatures, such as those that emerge from most novels I've read, but fully-formed people with thoughts and hearts and lives all their own.
  
  And you relate to them! When they mourn, you find yourself in tears. When they are jubilant, you cannot help but grin from ear to ear. When they are heroic, you heart begins to pound in your chest as you begin to read of their exploits, swelling with every action they take. When they are peaceful and content, you suddenly forget that the world around you is falling to pieces and rest in their serenity.
  
• Even after spending four-and-a-half months inside the world of War and Peace, I'd be hard-pressed to tell you exactly what the book is about. I know that some would answer briefly with "the Napoleonic Wars" or "life in Russia in the early 1800s" or (perhaps more ironically and with a healthy dose of sarcasm) "war and peace," but I don't think those answers are adequate enough. While, on some level, this book is certainly about both of those things, it is so much bigger than just those minute descriptions.
  
  War and Peace is an epic - perhaps one of the greatest epics ever written. It is certainly about war, but it is also about heroism, violence, depravity, redemption, loss, consequences, and coping. It is absolutely about peace, but it is also about life, brokenness, love, longing, growing up, forgiveness, joy, and mistakes. And it is about so much more than just that! This book speaks to the subject of life, touching on every aspect of the human experience and expressing it in the most genuine and honest terms. Tolstoy very rarely tells; he shows! And it is that fact that separates War and Peace from other books - his ability and willingness to show you just how human you are by showing you just how human he is by showing you just how human they [his characters] are.

It has been a difficult transition to make after stepping out of the world of War and Peace. Life just seems a bit less adventurous, a bit paler, and a bit more dull without the joyous smile of Natasha, the brilliance of Marya's glance, or the resolute objectivity of Andrei. To attempt to recapture some of that, I have read one of the short stories in The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories, 'The Prisoner of Caucasus,' which was written in the period of time between his writing of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Written as a part of a children's reader for a group of students Tolstoy had been teaching, 'The Prisoner of Caucasus' tells the (semi-autobiographical) story of a young hussar officer taken prisoner by the Tartars during the Crimean Wars. While in captivity, he plots his escape as he befriends a young girl and attempts to gain the trust and acceptance of his captors.

What interested me most about the piece is Tolstoy's treatment of the relationship between Zhilin (the titular 'Prisoner') and Dina (the thirteen-year-old girl he befriends). Despite the fact that Zhilin is imprisoned by the Tartars, never once does his relationship with Dina seem disingenuous or false. Never once during the course of the story does Tolstoy suggest that Zhilin is using Dina to gain the upper-hand over his captors, to use the girl as leverage, or - perhaps most horrifyingly of all - beginning some sort of romantic relationship with her. The audience can feasibly see any of these outcomes if he is reading the story with honesty and earnest.

However, Tolstoy not only never even breaches the possibility of these outcomes, he makes the relationship between the two - a relationship of good nature and good humor, in which Zhilin makes the girl laugh by fashioning dolls for her out of old rags and Dina providing the prisoner with extra food whenever possible - seem like the only plausible relationship these two can have. Herein lies the magic of Tolstoy - he does not go in the direction you would expect, but instead takes you in one that is better just for the way he tells it.

This weekend, I'll be beginning my reading of Anna Karenina and am looking forward to it immensely. I read Richard Pevear's introduction last night before bed and it managed to fill me with the same level of profound excitement I experienced before reading War and Peace! This time, I am thrilled to be joined on my Tolstoy adventure by two of my colleagues - my department head whose reading of War and Peace inspired me to begin my literary journey and the first place, and a new friend and fellow-teacher who has been meaning to read Anna K for a while now. I am excited to share this literary journey with the two of them (and, of course, with you, gentle reader)!

Keep checking my Twitter feed (@TweetingTolstoy), as I will be updating it as I begin reading through Anna K with great quotes and my own brand of insight! ;)

"So... What's Next?" ...or... Inching Toward the Finish Line

"He had to remain in Moscow, concealing his name, meet Napoleon, and kill him, so as either to perish, or to put an end to the misfortunes of all Europe, which proceeded, in Pierre's opinion, solely from Napoleon."

- Leo Tolstoy (III.3.xvii)

Day Count: 107

Page Count: 901

Yes, I am still reading War and Peace! No, I have not finished it yet (though I am getting closer every day)! No, I have not given up blogging (even though my posts have been non-existent for the better part of this month)!

Reading War and Peace has been like a marathon, pacing myself so as not to try to do too much too quickly. I'm certain that I could have tried to sprint right through it, but there is so much going on - so many amazing characters, so much history recounted through such floral prose - that to take it any faster would mean to miss so much more than I'm sure I'm missing now on my first read. (In my experience, most nuance can't really be sussed out until later readings.)

Still, my initial goal of reading War and Peace in a year should be met relatively easily. In fact, it's my hope that I'll have the book finished by the end of next month... which brings to mind the question of what I'll do next. After all, did I not say in my very first post that I was devoting all of 2011 to the reading of War and Peace? (I went back and checked just to make sure - I did say that.) What am I going to do when I close the book - literally - on War and Peace and am left with nothing to read (particularly at the beginning of the busy "summer reading" season)?!

Fret not, faithful readers (all few of you)! The end of War and Peace will not be the end of my readings in Tolstoy! In fact, I've decided to keep this blog going for a while longer and devote it not just to War and Peace, but to the writings of Tolstoy in general. I will be "Tackling Tolstoy" on a much larger scale than originally planned.

After War and Peace, I'm planning on picking up the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina (which I do own: a gift from my department head):

Again, I've chosen the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation (which won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award and, perhaps less impressively, was chosen as an official Oprah's Book Club selection) because of the level of enjoyment I've gotten out of reading their translation of War and Peace. Now, Anna K has far fewer pages than War and Peace (which is a 1215 page book, while Anna K sports only 864 pages), which means I'm not anticipating another 5 month ordeal for reading that one. Maybe four. So, what then? Those are the two most important of Tolstoy's works!

While researching that, I noticed that there was a recent translation (by the Dynamic Duo of Russian Lit themselves) of Tolstoy's short story collection The Death of Ivan Ilyich:

Again, shorter than the previous two books, my hope is to have the three major works of Tolstoy read before the end of 2011, truly making this the Year of Tolstoy! (Plus, if I have some time at the end of the year - a week or two free, perhaps - I'd love to check out some of Tolstoy's religious essays like "The Kingdom of God is Within You" or Isaiah Berlin's essay on Tolstoy's view of history, "The Hedgehog and the Fox" as a way of rounding out my year.)

To that end (that is, the end of finishing War and Peace), it is my hope that by this time tomorrow, I will be over three-quarters of the way through Tolstoy's epic - another colossal milestone! - which is, at present count, a scant ten pages away (though math was never a strong suit of mine). I feel confident that my projection goals of finishing by May are both attainable and reasonable and I look forward to sharing my thoughts as I begin the last quarter of this adventure!

Coming soon (though, in reality, who can say when?): Part Three of the War and Peace and Religion series - featuring the Rostovs and the Bezukhovs!