What are you reading now?

[Bakerlite]

Ploughing my way through "War and Peace" at the moment. Every detail is there, Tolstoy misses nothing, and yet this came become exasperating at times.

[Peter]

Ploughing my way through "War and Peace" at the moment. Every detail is there, Tolstoy misses nothing, and yet this came become exasperating at times.

Yes marvellous as it is, I found myself irritated by the frequent interruption of the main story for a history lesson - I made it through though!

[Enrique]

It is difficult to say something new about everyday things. These words from Plato testify to it, I think.

Our music was once divided into its proper forms... It was not permitted to exchange the melodic styles of these established forms and others. Knowledge and informed judgment penalized disobedience. There were no whistles, unmusical mob-noises, or clapping for applause. The rule was to listen silently and learn; boys, teachers, and the crowd were kept in order by threat of the stick. . . .

But later, an unmusical anarchy was led by poets who had natural talent, but were ignorant of the laws of music...Through foolishness they deceived themselves into thinking that there was no right or wrong way in music, that it was to be judged good or bad by the pleasure it gave. By their works and their theories they infected the masses with the presumption to think themselves adequate judges. So our theatres, once silent, grew vocal, and aristocracy of music gave way to a pernicious theatrocracy... the criterion was not music, but a reputation for promiscuous cleverness and a spirit of law-breaking.

Yes, the quote should be put into the proper context, understand what music meant to the Greeks, et cetera. But it's impossible not to smile seeing how many times this same tune has been sung in all ages. Which does not mean these lines do not encompass a lesson that should be learned by many.

[Sorrano]

That is an interesting thought, Enrique. I do not think that we are very far removed from the ancients, as far as personality and emotion goes. Thank you for sharing that.

[Megan]

Marie Antoinette
By Antonia Fraser.






Marie Antoinette was one of Gluck's music pupils.

[Peter]

Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov.

[Enrique]

Marie Antoinette
By Antonia Fraser.


Marie Antoinette was one of Gluck's music pupils.

I would never have the guts to read a biography of Marie Antoinette. I would be too deeply moved by the indignities committed against her person (a that of her husband, who was a good man) by those scoundrels that played to be God. The invasion of the Tuileries by the mob, the removal from her son and the days at the Conciergerie must have been Hell in Earth for her. And then the last humiliation, the way to the guillotine, before the populace, stripped of all her finery. Who can see the sketch made by David, the Revolution painter, without shedding tears? I understand she never lost hope she would eventually be freed.

[AeolianHarp]

Whilst I deplore violence Enrique and think the Revolution got out of hand, one need to remember the indignities the poor faced every day. Have you any idea of the hell they were living?

[Peter]

Whilst I deplore violence Enrique and think the Revolution got out of hand, one need to remember the indignities the poor faced every day. Have you any idea of the hell they were living?

I'm not sure things improved for the poor much after the revolution. It was the same with the Russian revolution.

[AeolianHarp]

I'm not sure things improved for the poor much after the revolution. It was the same with the Russian revolution.

Yeahhhhhh....as I am wont to tell my activist friends- nothing is going to change dears.

[Sorrano]

I'm not sure things improved for the poor much after the revolution. It was the same with the Russian revolution.

Currently reading Les Miserables. This book paints a pretty bleak picture, as well, of life after the revolution.

[Peter]

Currently reading Les Miserables. This book paints a pretty bleak picture, as well, of life after the revolution.

Yes wonderful book, the only annoying thing I found was the lengthy historical interjections in the story, even though valid, they break the continuity.

[Enrique]

The money spent by Louis XVI and his court was a trifle compared with that spent during the costly wars waged by Louis XIV, which left France financially in ruins and the way of life the king imposed on his court, which made the nobility residing at Versailles dilapidate huge fortunes until, bankrupt, they had to live on the royal favour. And what good did the Revolution do to France? From that moment on the French lived going from one extreme to the other, from monarchy to republic and from republic to monarchy and back to republic. Is not the present one the Third Republic?

Just read Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Powerful. He certainly was a genius.

[Sorrano]

Yes wonderful book, the only annoying thing I found was the lengthy historical interjections in the story, even though valid, they break the continuity.

These incursions, though lengthy, I think provided a lot of the meat to what Victor Hugo was trying to tell. The story and the actors supplant these accounts and give us a picture of France and humanity through Hugo's eyes.

[Sorrano]

The money spent by Louis XVI and his court was a trifle compared with that spent during the costly wars waged by Louis XIV, which left France financially in ruins and the way of life the king imposed on his court, which made the nobility residing at Versailles dilapidate huge fortunes until, bankrupt, they had to live on the royal favour. And what good did the Revolution do to France? From that moment on the French lived going from one extreme to the other, from monarchy to republic and from republic to monarchy and back to republic. Is not the present one the Third Republic?

Just read Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Powerful. He certainly was a genius.

Have you read Les Miserables? This is much of what I get from that book.