The End of The Flight by Somerset Maugham, author of The Buried Talent https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-buried-talent-by-somerset-maugham.html and other marvelous works - 10 out of 10

 

The End of The Flight by Somerset Maugham, author of The Buried Talent https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-buried-talent-by-somerset-maugham.html and other marvelous works

 

10 out of 10

 

 

Somerset Maugham is my absolute favorite writer, along with Marcel Proust, who wrote the greatest novel, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html both luminaries have enchanted my youth, and now, taking their magnum opera again, they will shine on my maturity

 

The End of The Flight is a short story, as in it only has a few pages, maybe five, and comes after another piece from Far Eastern Tales, Neil Macadam, that was close to being a short novel, including a detective plot, love, innocence, and a reference to The Idiot https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-idiot-by-fyodor-dostoevsky-one-of.html

Neil Macadam is a virgin, traveling to work at the other end of the world, where he meets Angus Munro and his Russian wife, Darya, in a community that feels pity for the man, and contempt for the spouse, who had been cheating on him with various visitors, something the Scot does not believe and he punches the one telling him about it

 

It ends tragically, for Darya falls in love with the handsome, young man, or at least this is what she claims, it could be infatuation, sexual desire, boredom with her husband (she does criticize him, and his way of killing animals, which he has to, insects and all, for he is the custodian of the Natural Museum) and she is rejected

There is a sense of imminent catastrophe in many, if not most of The Far Eastern Tales, another one that comes to mind when reading The End of The Flight is P&O https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/p-by-somerset-maugham-his-of-human.html in which the main character has the same fate

 

Gallagher is a planation manager in P&O, sailing back to Ireland, after finishing his career in The Far East, a massive man, beaming with good health and joie de vivre, but that is just up to the point where the magic works its effect – he had lived with a native woman, on the Eastern plantation, up to the time of his departure

The local woman had said nothing about the imminent separation, coming after years of cohabitation, but she clearly felt strongly about it, the evidence being that, just as Galagher is about to embark on the ship, she tells him he will not reach land, she has used magic, and that will prevent him from getting off the vessel

 

At least not alive, he falls sick in a strange manner, so that it would be clear we do not have some flu, sea sickness turned bad, it is hinted and then I guess we come to be convinced that the huge human being is just taken down by magic, black, or evil, whatever it would be called, that is if we choose to believe it, convincing as it is

The spectacular Regeneration https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/regeneration-by-pat-barker-nominated.html by Par Barker appears before me, because the doctor had been in the Pacific, and tells the readers (the author through him, evidently) about the experience, how he asked the locals about their ways

 

If they have some money, they will share it, who will benefit, then they ask him, and he sees that the things are so different, we have two different worlds, there is no way that we share the same standards, limits, they could not comprehend, just as the opposite is true, the rituals, habits are coming from other planets

In the End of The Flight, a Dutchman insults a native of the Far East, and we have a matrix, situation where the woman from P&O is now a man, and if the partner of the Irishman uses a curse, and eventually, the planation manager has hiccups, cannot eat, and dies, in this other tale, the native man is looking for revenge in a different way

 

The Dutchman tries to escape the punishment, eloping to a different island, using various stratagems, because wherever he goes, the shadow of his foe is around the corner, so he tries getting near the ship, looking as if he will not embark, leaving luggage ashore, but just jumping at the very last moment, to confuse

Then, as they sail, he takes a last second decision, to use a small boat, to get to one of those multitudes of islands, but in the end (spoiler alert) there is no evading these situations, the only ‘rational’ conclusion would be that the explanation is ‘supernatural’, for the man is found dead, in a room where nothing, nobody intruded…

 

At least that is what we are led to believe, it could be, I do not believe in God, hence the spirits, ghosts, demons that would execute the revenge required by the furious local do not look ‘real’ to me, however strange some situations are – this morning, I found that the end of one of those ear plugs got stuck in my ear

So much bad luck, aggravated by the fact that I could not find a clipper, something, at the reception of the Downtown Club, with the women using the gym, pool there, not even at the next-door hairdresser – for the latter, a friend, Lucky, suggested that they had it, but did not want to give it, so that I put the thing in my ear

All Is Well That Ends Well, so in the end, I was reckless or brave, jumped around a bit, and then placed a small stick inside, and took it out…Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html insisted on the Golden Mean, virtue is in the middle, silliness and cowardice would be on the left and right of courage

 

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.”