The Human Stain by Philip Roth author of Portnoy’s Complaint http://realini.blogspot.com/2012/08/portnoys-complaint-by-philip-roth.html and a few other remarkable novels - 9 out of 10

 

The Human Stain by Philip Roth author of Portnoy’s Complaint http://realini.blogspot.com/2012/08/portnoys-complaint-by-philip-roth.html and a few other remarkable novels

9 out of 10

 

 

The Human Stain is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, has been acclaimed as the most important of the author’s masterpieces, and it is a work that the under signed has enjoyed, some passages have been exhilarating, the background, the passages on the intense life, sexual and otherwise, of a seventy-one years old are especially encouraging, and they are a change from American Pastoral http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/03/american-pastoral-by-philip-roth.html which I did not get

 

Coleman Silk is the hero of the story, however complicated he could be, we could not say he is the anti-hero, and not even diminish his powerful, memorable persona, he has been a professor and dean at a fictional college, where he teaches some very interesting concepts – ‘literature begins with…a quarrel, the one involving Agamemnon, the siege of Troy that we know of, but presented in a different, original view’

Which reminds me of Contempt http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/contempt-aka-le-mepris-by-alberto.html the magnum opus by Alberto Moravia, which purports that Ulysses has spent so many years on his famous voyage, because he did not want to go home…Professor Coleman Silk anticipates some of the scandals of the present, when he is accused of racism, for calling two students spooks, considered a slur

 

What has happened was that the professor has asked about two absentees ‘if they are real or are they spooks’, without having had the chance to see them, and thus to know that they are black, and then he explained that ‘spook’, refers to a ghost, primarily, and that is clearly what he meant, from the context, considering he had known nothing of the absent people, besides, we would learn a secret that further explains everything

Since I do not know how much (if at all or in detail) I will delve into the secret, let us have our spoiler alert, which is also meant to reveal that these lines have little, or no value and hence you would be better off avoiding the following – Coleman Silk is not what he pretends to be, and we get that part of the narrative

 

We have psychological insight into the characters, the connection between two men is stronger when they talk about intimacies, without fearing the other will betray the trust, or give reason for jealousy (words to some of that effect) then sex is analyzed from so many angles, Coleman is seventy one and has sex with a woman, Fauna Farley, who is thirty four, he takes Viagra, which should have been called Zeus, seeing that we have the adventures of the head-god, who fathered so many gods and demi-gods

 

There is the injunction to concentrate on the ugly women, for these are the ones that ‘will do anything’ for the ones that do not select the usual queens of beauty at a gathering – the connection between Coleman and Fauna Farley is purely sexual, she says, albeit he may be more involved, at one point he may think he loves her, and anyway feels like sharing his well-kept secret with her, only to find that she had guessed, nay, known it for a long time…they are in danger, because she had been married to a mad man, Lester Farley

The latter is a veteran of the Vietnam War, of which he tells the story where they went to save two pilots, which has caused him to suffer from PTSD, he has been trained to be an effective killing machine, and now he may be about to use his skills against his former spouse and her Jewish lover, this is what we have to find about, although quite early, the fate of the professor and the janitor (Fauna) would be known

 

In the background, we have the impeachment of Bill Clinton (with hindsight, and seeing the Orange Jesus blackmailing Ukraine, causing a rebellion against the US, having his men occupy the Capitol, now promising to pardon them, declaring he will be a dictator – claiming that it will be just on day one, but with his DNA, profile and record, dictator, yes, only for the day, no, definitely not – that old story looks like a storm in a teacup) the felatio, profile of Monica Lewinsky and the innuendo from the Oval Office

Seen from the pages of the book, the suggestion is that they place a banner ‘a human being lives here’ on the White House, to be replaced with ‘A Monster aka Orange Jesus lives here’ if Trump comes back after next year’s elections…what a contrast between an affair, and the calamity we are facing now, a possible alien ready to fuck all the world, not just some young, gossipy intern that talked too much

 

There are some aggressive lines in there, paced so that we can see the views of a lunatic, murderous Lester Farley and others…one insists that Clinton should have ‘fucked Monica Lewinsky in the ass’, then she would not have shared her story with anyone, and they would have been safe from the investigation and the rest of the saga…again, when set against what this Komodo Dragon has been and will be doing, the Clinton affair is just a ludicrous, misadventure, however explosive it seemed at the time

Now for the secret that Professor Coleman has, it invites the readers to think about the implications, it is about race, how black men and women were subjected to discrimination, even after some barriers have been lifted, and how, in the words of the sister, well, approximately – ‘in the past, black people would have to hide their identity, to get access into good schools, out of which they had been kept for such a long time, while in the present, it makes sense to use that race card’ – this looks like changing yet again, Orange Jesus has named three justices, and they will vote in this and other matters…the other day, they have used their majority for the advantage of their man, refusing the request of the prosecutor who wants them to fast track and say if the guy, the president is immune from prosecution…and to think of what America used to represent, now with a Supreme Court with four clowns, and another who votes alongside with them

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”