The Force of Circumstance by Somerset Maugham – author of The Painted Veil https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-painted-veil-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera - 10 out of 10

 

The Force of Circumstance by Somerset Maugham – author of The Painted Veil https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-painted-veil-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera

 

10 out of 10

 

The force of Circumstance is the last, but not least, from The Far Eastern Tales https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-door-of-opportunity-by-somerset.html and the collection ends with a bang, we could say, or just as well insist that they are all magical, enchanting, superb…

 

Somerset Maugham is my favorite author, along with Marcel Proust https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/le-temps-retrouve-by-marcel-proust.html and his divine A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, and this story is yet another piece of evidence to close the case, which will re-open soon

Given the extasy that these tales provide, the plan is to continue and read others, again, starting with The Three Fat Women of Antibes https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-three-fat-women-of-antibes-by.html perhaps from tomorrow, there will be notes on this and more, as expected by multitudes…a feeble joke, obviously

 

Coming back to The Force of Circumstance, Guy and Doris are married, he is a colonizer in a small outpost in the Malay Archipelago, and not the type of man that the woman likes, only there is a charm, something that had made her accept the proposal, and now they arrive at this remote location, where he is in charge

This takes place at the time when the British Empire dominated the world, and was as vast as one third of the land mass, or thereabouts, and the moeurs, standards, expectations were different – racism was not just rampant, it was the rule of the game, albeit there were exceptions, as we have seen in The Door of Opportunity https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-door-of-opportunity-by-somerset.html with its drama

 

Doris is happy with this young husband, but soon there are clouds on the horizon, metaphorically, when he is taking a bath, Doris hears an argument, there is a woman that wants something, and her spouse is annoyed, and when she asks about it, Doris is told this is someone from the village, a native with some problem

However, the same person is present again, with a baby at her arm, and Guy mentions the fact that colonizers took as partners local women, and when his wife asks about the children, he insists that they are well provided for, they go to school, and his wife is pleased he is so young and he had not had the time to get bad

 

She insists that she would not tolerate the idea of him leaving with a local, and now we have a challenge ahead, for she is revolted, but to me, at least, it is clear that she is a racist, she feels this would be such a degrading of Guy that it would taint him, or something like that, so there are qualms about the empathy…

On the one hand, with a feminist perspective, we should support her side, but what if she is such a discriminator, where do we stand then…let us proceed nonetheless, and see that the woman comes again, and one of the boys, servants, has a clash with the intruder and he is violent, to send her off from the property

 

She brings this up with Guy, but we are getting close to a revelation – hence the spoiler alert – the man tells how he was born in this part of the world, he is fond of it, and was sent to this outpost, where he was alone, in the middle of nowhere, a white man, with natives in the vicinity – so he felt so alone, but again, why alone?

It feels again as if he is white, and hence even if there are natives, he is still lonely, because they do not belong together – such damn, rotten racists these people, why the hell do I read about them, and even enjoy the tales, well, it could be a question for self-analysis, or psychoanalysis, or just to conclude that it is not nice of me

 

So, anyway, the poor chap lamented his solitude, and then says that a man came with the offer of ending this, and having a woman from the neighborhood, see if you like her, if not, you send her away, you only have to give a pittance to the family, if you keep her, which he does, and talks about it to his wife, a confession

Guy never loved the local woman, the girl was his daughter, and he had other children, two sons, and this is not pleasing Doris, on the contrary, the defense presented by her husband does not stand, he says that he told the native he is getting married – this is also strange, for he had decided to marry a white woman…

 

Before meeting Doris, who is shocked that Guy had lived with this stranger for ten years – and now, a comment from this reader, he just kicks the poor partner out, offering money, but still, this is so outrageous and horrendous, even if we must keep in mind that they had a completely different outlook back then

Which brings to mind P&O https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/p-by-somerset-maugham-his-of-human.html in which another white fella abandons the native partner, once he decides to return to Ireland, and though the woman says nothing, up to the point of departure, when he is getting on the boat, Gallagher finds that ‘he will not set foot on land again’, because he is cursed by the one he had so much offended, and indeed, with hiccups, that sound so little threatening, he cannot take food, and then he loses his mighty weight, and then he is on the edge of death, and dies, because what that woman said, stands…

 

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.”