The Buried Talent by Somerset Maugham, author of A Casual Affair https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-casual-affair-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera - 10 out of 10

 

The Buried Talent by Somerset Maugham, author of A Casual Affair https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-casual-affair-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera

 

10 out of 10

 

 

What a felicitous, wonderful idea it was to start reading Somerset Maugham again, one of my two favorite writers – the other is Marcel Proust https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html with his divine A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu – and the stories for Far Eastern Tales are exalting

 

One case in point is The Buried Talent, apparently, there is a Bible chapter where we have the parable of the man who took the coin (or maybe there were a few) and buried it, instead of doing something lucrative, useful with it, and we could say that this is the debate here, at the center of the plot, where maybe something was lost

Teddy Converse is now a plenipotentiary minister of her majesty the queen, on his way to Bangkok – we hear about what has happened in the Far East – and he is offered hospitality by the resident, only he prefers to stay at the hotel, where he receives a letter, asking if he should be called Sir, as he is such a dignified official

 

Only the person writing this message knows the protagonist very well, and feels like using Teddy, not your excellency or something of that sort – this reminds me of a sketch with John Cleese https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-to-irritate-people-by-john-cleese.html and Graham Chapman…

The formidable John Cleese is the host of a show and the guest is Graham Chapman, when the latter arrives on the set, the former is polite, and uses Sir Edward, only to ask if he can use Edward, which is agreed upon, but that does not satisfy, we have here a satire of the way things degrade, when people are rude

 

It is also true that the honorable aristocrat – or he could be just be a footballer that was knighted, and hence has the right to use Sir, and the others are obliged to use it, presumably, so we could have a laugh at pompous, self-absorbed brats – appears quite preposterous and somewhat haughty, not enough to justify the follow up

The host abruptly goes down to ‘Eddie baby, but the guest is displeased, or worse, and he refuses to accept this, and is ready to go, when Cleese, offers alternatives, just as absurd, hilarious, and provocative, can I call you ‘sugar pup’, or some such nonsense, and then he goes on, until he sees he can lose the star of the show

 

So, he goes back to Sir Edward, only to inflate the problem again, once the man has stopped from the way out, so getting back to our Eddie, from the Far East, he does not recollect who this woman might be, for a while, until he sees that she comes from the distant past, she must be middle aged now, but she was twenty-four…

When the two met and they had something of a menage a trois – could have been inspired by Somerset Maugham’s own experience maybe, I wonder, the giant writer was homosexual, at a time when this was illegal, and he had to navigate dangerous waters, like Oscar Wilde and so many others, who have paid dearly

 

In Summing Up https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-summing-up-by-william-somerset.html we get some of the autobiographical stories that reveal the life of the luminary – in the first place, Eddie Converse thinks he will refuse the invitation made by Blanche McCadle – these are probably not the names in the tales…

I heard the audiobook version, and I am not sure if one is Converse, or some other name, and so on, if you are interested (and still here for some strange reason) the works of Somerset Maugham are in the public domain, you could find many (maybe most, or all) on sites like Gutenberg, Librivox and others and read them

 

Eventually, the minister accepts the invitation, tearing up the initial message, which declined it, and then they speak about Chamien (again, I have no idea if this is the name, the way you write it) the great love, perhaps for both of them, Teddy fell in love at first sight, he thought then that this will be forever and nothing will change

Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html is a classic of psychology by Malcolm Gladwell, a marvel that explains Thin Slicing Theory, The Harding Effect, how John Gottman, the ultimate expert on couple therapy works with his subjects

 

Chamien was a talented singer, if Blanche was twice as good, and the former was willing to do anything for a career, and to live life in the French manner of ‘vivre a fond’, intensely, with gusto, ardor and passion, even if that leads to catastrophe…she spent with abandon, ate much, lost her voice eventually and declined

A spoiler alert might have even necessary somewhere above, but then I say few, if any, go beyond the first couple of lines, so there you have it – Blanche appears to have had a good life, loved by the doctor she had married, she has comfortable home, she is asked to sing in this part of world, and all is Wine and Roses

Only it is not, she regrets having lost the chance to sing, and she says that their friend, with the disintegration of career, life, had had a great fortune, though she would be found in the ocean, with a knife in her back

 

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.”