The Immoralist by Andre Gide, winner of The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, the book was published in 1902 - 8 out of 10

 

The Immoralist by Andre Gide, winner of The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, the book was published in 1902

8 out of 10

 

 

Compared with Les Caves du Vatican https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/les-caves-du-vatican-by-andre-gide.html the Immoralist was so much better for the under signed, surely due in large part to coming with lower expectations, it is all finished quite soon, for the novel has only one hundred and forty four pages

 

This is also a narrative that can be quite merry at times, the protagonist, Michel, seems to experience periods of elation, that are followed by misery, even tragedy at some stage, so we can talk of what is called a ‘roller coaster ride’, Michel marries Marceline, when she was twenty and he was four years older…

This is a union that was not based on love, it happened because Michel’s father was dying and this was an opportunity to bring some solace to the soon to be departed relative, indeed, the main character will show a penchant for men, he falls for the young Arabs – some them of a tender, we would say illegal age – he meets

 

I now think of Girl, Woman, Other https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/girl-woman-other-by-bernardine-evaristo.html The Co-Winner of The 2019 Booker Prize by Bernardine Evaristo, in which we read about ‘gender being the big lie of civilization’, the Two-Spirits tradition, the notion that gender can change from one minute to the next

After exchanging marital vows, the newly married couple travel to Tunis, where he finds ‘nothing attractive, except Carthage, the Amphitheatre at El Djem, and some more – speaking of which, you should probably stop reading here, if you reached this far, because the essence is already spilled out, this is a good, if not radiant read

 

From here on, recollections, thoughts that came to mind while reading would be mentioned, without relevance to The Immoralist, which could be immoral, why talk about another subject you wonder, or object, well, a spoiler is up there, and then this is what the book generated, it was not a Flow experience in short

You find the conditions for Being in The Zone in the classic of psychology Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html by the co-founder of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, research has concentrated on what brings people to Optimum Experience

 

These are the elements – it is autotelic, which means you do it because you enjoy it, nothing else matters (which we could maybe explain as focused, high concentration is the key), you are in control, there are clear goals, feedback is constant and immediate, challenges are equal to skills and abilities, examples make this clear

 

If one is playing tennis with Roger Federer, there is no Flow or pleasure, because there are infinitesimal chances that one could return any of the balls sent by the multiple champion, but the opposite can happen, when the opponent is so weak, that he or she does not return what we send across the net, and that is also disappointing

The perfect situation is when we have a challenge that keeps us focused, alert, making efforts to reply, only we are not overwhelmed, just stretched in a way that is beneficial, felicitous…finally, there is the time factor, which becomes relative, like Albert Einstein has explained in his comparison with the stove and the beautiful companion

 

“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours…That’s relativity” – if we apply this to a novel, we could say that the test of Flow would be if the reading makes time fly, in a mirthful way, then it is a triumph, if the opposite is true, well, it flopped

Michel becomes very sick, the diagnosis appears to be tuberculosis, and the outcome is not to be positive, only this is when Marceline shows her strength, qualities, loyalty, resilience, she is the savior, albeit she attributes the miracle of the recovery – the patient does survive – to prayer, she is a fervent believer

 

Michel dismisses that, he rejects the idea that it was God, even if he does experience daylight radiance, zest for life that have a trace of the supernatural, he reminds me of Fyodor Dostoevsky https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor.html and his near death experience

The divine author was sent in front of the firing squad, with the last three minutes to pass, he reserves one to pass his life in front of him, another to say goodbye to family and friends, and the last to admire a ray of sunshine falling on a steeple nearby, only he is pardoned in the last moments and he writes about this

 

The message is that we need to Memento mori, Carpe Diem, enjoy the moments we have, live with intensity, something we also get from The Immoralist, in the passages that speak of the miracle of life, je ne sais quoi, the rest is interesting, but not overwhelming, the connection with the young things could be worse than immoral

Lastly, I was reminded of the marvelous Hideous Kinky https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/hideous-kinky-by-esther-freud-10-out-of.html by Esther Freud, daughter of Lucien Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud – in Hideous Kinky we have another saga that takes place in North Africa, and it is a personal favorite

 

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with 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

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

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.”