The Book Bag by Somerset Maugham – he is one of my favorite writers, author of The Ant and The Grasshopper https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-ant-and-grasshopper-by-somerset.html and other mesmerizing tales - 10 out of 10

 

The Book Bag by Somerset Maugham – he is one of my favorite writers, author of The Ant and The Grasshopper https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-ant-and-grasshopper-by-somerset.html and other mesmerizing tales

 

10 out of 10

 

There is a warning sign in this short story, The Book Bag has in fact one rather incestuous – probably platonic, but still, quite bizarre – relationship, and the one aspect that interests me more, would refer to reading and books, putting the Umberto Eco quote in perspective “The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” But Maugham brings something else to the game

 

"Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent or praiseworthy…’ the narrator is of the latter category, and I presume that there is a habit that I have formed as well, and here we have the Talmud:

“Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” And that would make a good habit, helping character, immortality (according to Eco), if reading the magnum opera

 

As for The Book Bag, the introduction gives readers the background, the narrator who has found himself in some places where he had nothing to read with him, ergo he found entertainment in something like the phone book (not really, but an item equally lackluster) and since, he started carrying this Book Bag along

In Tengarrah, on the island of Java, the host borrows the biography of Lord Byron, and that sparks a dialogue about the connection that the poet had with his half-sister, the one he seems to have loved most, and then we move on to Tim Hardy, they have played cards with him, and he has a story we need to hear

 

He lived in seclusion, except for his sister, Olive Hardy, and the two of them were so happy with their own company that it seemed strange – and with the hindsight readers have and a spoiler alert, it was more than just bizarre and awkward – and Mark Featherstone, the one telling our narrator the story, was a visitor there

So, we have a narrator for the narrator, Featherstone becomes infatuated with Olive, but she in turn is in love with someone else – we have to stop and ponder this, measuring it against the standard that I have been using for about forty years, one discovered in a short story by another favorite of mine, Thomas Mann

 

This mesmerizing writer https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/little-herr-friedmann-by-thomas-mann.html has a character that is aghast at the way people keep saying ‘they love so much, there are no words to describe it’, when the fact is that we have words that cover way more territory than humans can feel

Indeed, love has long been one of those words that have lost their significance, being so much abused, love is used for anything from color to this drink, but in the case of Olive Hardy, we may be on to something, albeit a very strange situation, where she is so attached to her brother, that this can be love, sick, but near the real thing

 

For at one point, Tim Hardy leaves Java and sails to Britain, to get some machinery and for other reasons, and whereas he was expected after some time, he does not return, sending instead a telegram saying a letter will follow, sending his sister into a frenzy, she talks to Mark Featherstone, who loves her, maybe he fits the description

What could this mean, she is frantic, worried, the friend is soothing, think that the one who travels loses the sense of distance and time – words to that effect, or maybe I am making this up, thinking I remember what was said – and eventually, the news arrives and the brother has married, stating he had to…

 

Olive Hardy is devastated – again, spoiler alert, seeing what she will do, this is somehow unquestionable, she had to be at her lowest, to take that ghastly action, which I may, or may not reveal – and Mark sees an opportunity, if this is not still part of this game of smoke and mirrors, best described by the Zen Master story

It is told at the end of the fabulous Charlie Wilson’s War https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/charlie-wilsons-war-written-by-aaron.html by the CIA agent played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, to the senator from the title, portrayed by Tom Hanks and it has to do with this Master, whose horse has run away, and the villagers express their compassion

 

We shall see, says the Zen Master, and when the horse returns with other, wild horses, the community rejoices, but the Master still says we shall see, and indeed, his son breaks a leg, when he tries to tame a wild animal, so we have sympathy, and the same, unchangeable we shall see, which is validated, when the recruiters come, and the son is spared from going to be killed for the emperor – this will reflect the fate of the Taliban and Afghanistan

For our story, it looks as if Olive will be more mailable, agreeable towards Mark, who asks her to marry him, and she accepts, probably in part because of a need for revenge, jealous, trying to show she will have spouse too, it is a complex, if weird situation, waiting for catastrophe, we could say, when we know what will happen…the brother comes to Java, with the bride, they are not welcome by Olive, who wants them to have breakfast with Mark, at his home, and this is what they do, before coming into a nightmare, a tragic ending

 

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.”