tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5942218971241396591.post7550219854628351882..comments2022-07-07T02:28:03.410-05:00Comments on RXTT's Book Journey: My first dive into Russian literature pays offUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5942218971241396591.post-90477121491160250362018-07-26T21:44:12.231-05:002018-07-26T21:44:12.231-05:00Hey Roberto,
Yes to what you say—the human animal...Hey Roberto,<br /><br />Yes to what you say—the human animal can grow accustomed to all sort of horrors (horrors that should not be) and consider them normal. And we should try to prevent such historical horrors from recurring<br /><br />But there’s at least another possible perspective for this book. You can read it as a historical document, but you can also read it as a survival manual.<br /><br />Sooner or later all of us find ourselves in adverse circumstances. There’s financial difficulty, there’s illness and old age, there’s loss and grief and defeat, there are wars, there are hurricanes that wipe out whole islands, there are famines and epidemics, there are wrongful convictions, an there are Great Depressions and clinical depressions. In spite of optimistic delusions, it’s not always possible to escape such things.<br /><br />In these situations we are all prisoners, we’re all stuck with our circumstances, we’re all oppressed against our will, just like Ivan.<br /><br />Denisovich is a simple man, facing a hopeless situation, but he squeezes whatever victory he can out of his imprisonment. A little sustenance here, a little pleasure there. Building a good wall for his captors gives meaning in his absurd life. Like Leopold Bloom before him, he’s a hero of everyday life— and yes, his life is particularly bleak, but pain and suffering are universal after all.<br /><br />I think we all can learn from Ivan—to resist and endure great hardship by scoring little victories wherever we can, by finding sustenance wherever we can, by creating meaning whenever we can. <br /><br />A life of imprisonment is an impossible challenge, but if we can break it into single days, and a day into small moments and elementary struggles, maybe we can have a chance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com