Honolulu by Somerset Maugham – one of my favorite writers, author of Gigolo and Gigolette https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/05/gigolo-and-gigolette-by-somerset.html and other marvelous stories - 10 out of 10

 

Honolulu by Somerset Maugham – one of my favorite writers, author of Gigolo and Gigolette https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/05/gigolo-and-gigolette-by-somerset.html and other marvelous stories

 

10 out of 10

 

Honolulu reminds me of P&O https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/p-by-somerset-maugham-his-of-human.html another Tale From The South Seas, in which we can read about superstitions, the mythology of these exotic places, and the way they can spill into reality, that is if we assume the dramas took place

 

In P&O, we meet this character, Gallagher, on board a ship sailing back to Britain, he had been a planter in the Far East, Indonesia or some island nearby, I remember well, and this is where he had a native woman as partner, for many years, up to the time when he decides to go ‘home’, and packs his bags and prepares to depart

The white man has no intention to take the local mistress with him – indeed, throughout the magic stories with which Somerset Maugham enchants readers the theme of the white colonist taking in his house the native women is recuring, and there are various forms of abuse, I remember one particular case, of cowardice

 

There has been an attack, and the British representative does not travel to the house of the white settler, he feels the force of the enemy is superior, and furthermore, he ‘does not want to bother for the local woman and her half caste children’…he will be fired by the governor, for his lack of courage and disgraceful behavior

When this scared personage protests that the risk was high, the governor tells him that without taking chances, that would not be a colony of her majesty, and the image of her representative has been so much compromised that he will be of no use in the future, so either he resigns, or he will be humiliated further, by getting the sack

 

Back to Gallagher, and then presumably to Honolulu, though there is a warning here, I never know where I end up, hence it would be better for you to just abandon this page, move to better reading material, the planter is just abandoning what would be for practical and I suppose legal purposes today his wife

Only she will not take this lightly, and I am thinking karma now, and this caricature I have seen recently, wherein we have like that office premises with cubicles, and from one, this guy is throwing his trash over into the next, and from the next, a colleague is doing it to the next, until it gets back to the first, which is karma for you

The local woman says nothing, up to the moment when Gallagher is ready to embark on this P&O ship, and then she states that ‘he will not step on lang again’, and lo and behold, the fellow falls sick, he cannot stop his hiccups, the doctor is worried, and to cut a long story short, the cursed planter does not reach land, he is dead on board the vessel

 

Ergo Honolulu has similarities, in that we have this captain, who is infatuated – I will explain my position on love presto – with a local girl, she is much younger, they have as cook one of the ugliest men you can find anywhere, a Chinese, and this is because of the story we will hear, and what another employee has done in the past

‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds…’  first a few words about love from the sage Thomas Mann https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html who has overwhelmed me when I was a teenager, reading a short story in which  love, friendship are the main themes, along with genuine talk

 

This character is irritated to hear most humans boast ‘my love is so great, there are no words to express it’, when in fact, words like love, friend, mean too much, you only find them in art, literature, in real life, when the true measure of the feeling is tested, it is proved that the lovers, friends are not ready for the acts required by genuine adoration, or friendship

Malcolm Bradbury wrote the perfect passage when he explained how characters in books are deeper, fuller, more interesting that the real people, the plots in great novels are also ‘more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound’ https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html

 

You should read To The Hermitage, a wonderful novel, with so much extraordinary advice on reading, how we get access to this wonderful, better world of spectacular novels, without leaving home, indeed, from our bed…now back to Honolulu, where the captain had this other Chinese man, excellent in navigation

Nevertheless, he is attracted by the local woman that lives with the captain – we also have the background, how he practically bought the girl from her father, first the captain did not have the whole sum, but because he desired her so much, he eventually made every effort and thus she came on board the ship with him

 

The native girl does not respond to the desires of the Chinese man, she rejects him, at one stage, when the captain returns, he sees that his employee was surely trying to rape the victim that would not cease fighting, and hence the captain, smaller than the foe, but well in charge, beats the would-be rapist severely

It could have been the end of the business, but, like in the aforementioned P&O, magic, a curse is involved, and the captain falls sick, clearly because the rejected sailor has used the supernatural powers to have his rival dead…I stop before I say what happens eventually

 

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.”