Mabel by Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite writers, author of The Razor’s Edge https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-razors-edge-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera - 10 out of 10

 

 

Mabel by Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite writers, author of The Razor’s Edge https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-razors-edge-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera

 

10 out of 10

 

 

I was in the hospital, with ulcer, in the communist days, under the Ceausescu regime, when I had the chance to take from the library, the works, short stories and more, of glorious Somerset Maugham and the time spent locked up, you could not just leave, in a room with what, ten other patients maybe, became joyful

 

Evidently, when reading Somerset Maugham, otherwise it was no pleasant experience, however much I needed the minimum spent in medical care – this will be a detour from the ‘subject’ of the note, and it is hard to know if I ever come back to Mabel, so you might, should actually think of leaving this space now, rather than later

I had started geophysics, in fact, it is geology, in the first few years, and then one specializes, geophysics was for the crème de la crème, and entered in second place, as in there was just this girl (and we had a short fling) that had done better in admission exams, physics, algebra and trigonometry, and then yours truly…

 

Yes, with the initial enthusiasm, I had great acceleration from the second pole position – I had even taken a student from Jordan to tutor, he was no good, he did not have the elementary theorems and notions, a plus b, and so on, but later became a…doctor in geology, either through corruption, most likely, or there has been a miracle

This lad, Rawhi, almost cost me the math exam, and thus the admission into the second year, because he had no idea, in spite of my lessons, and asked me for my paper, so that he could cheat, and copy the results, operations, and, at the end of the allocated time, I asked him to give me back my papers, and he did not have them!

 

What the fool did was pass them along, and they reached the other corner of the class, and I was this close from not having anything to hand over, luckily for us, and unfortunate for him, the math professor was already suffering from some condition that made him sleepy, and thus not able to see all that was happening…

Alas, after the first year, it became clear that geology and geophysics, like so much more under Ceausescu, had no good future – indeed, I would take part in the 1989 Revolution, and the link is included in the standard paragraph, which ends all my notes lately – and therefore I had to consider other avenues

 

At nineteen, or thereabouts, I started the guide school, and then became one for the National Tourist Office, and learning the tricks – changing some money in the grey market, that is between the official, and the black-market rate, offering some parallel tours, in one I got to meet one of our richest men, now, he was my apprentice in 1989

So, I have decided that geology, geophysics will not offer me much, if anything, upon graduation and hence I have to delay that end for as long as possible – in the commie days, one had to work, if ‘unemployed’, one would be labeled, and punished as a ‘vagrant’, so you had to take the job they gave you, no matter what

 

Eventually, I would be given a post, in 1990, once the revolution would have toppled and killed Ceausescu, in the town of Drobeta Turnu Severin, but I have not worked a day in my life in that place, or in the domain I was trained…but back to the hospital, where I was reading and loving Somerset Maugham…

In order to delay getting the degree in geophysics, and the mandatory job that went with it, I had to postpone studying, and one had to have justification, as in my father had died, so I had to work, but also, there was the request to show that I was sick, I had had a duodenal ulcer from the extraordinarily tender age of nine

 

Furthermore, one had to be hospitalized for a minimum of, I could not remember, but probably three months or so, and here I was, some weeks in the Student Hospital, then in Grivita, and could not tell you where else – in the Student place, it was something of an adventure, for we had one floor for men, and another for women

We mingled, to the point where I nearly had sex with one of the female students, in another room, over the weekend, when some of the patients would have ‘leave’, they could get to their homes, and return on Mondays, and in the next room, there was nobody left, and we chose one bed, but I think we still got interrupted and had to postpone

 

With that girlfriend (we had some weeks, maybe over a month or two together) there was a rather exiting period, she was a bit (or a lot) nymphomaniac (or it just feels that way, maybe memory is playing tricks, and then if she wants more, one says oh, it is a lot, just because one is not really capable, up to the challenge)

One day, I decided we should have a prank, and said to her that I was actually a secret agent, and was in fact assigned the task to see if she wants to join, there was no feeling emotion, it was just a job (later I would see documentaries, and they called this Operation Romeo in East Germany, where they did send operatives to seduce women, and vice versa, to enroll them in Stasi) and wanted to have fun, see what she says abut the various propositions, would she accept, is she upset that I do not really feel much, or anything for her…

 

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 Hermitage 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.”