Louise by William Somerset Maugham – author of The Poet – a note on that short story is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-poet-by-william-somerset-maugham.html where there are dozens of other ‘reviews’ - 10 out of 10

 

Louise by William Somerset Maugham – author of The Poet – a note on that short story is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-poet-by-william-somerset-maugham.html where there are dozens of other ‘reviews’

 

10 out of 10

 

Louise ‘was a frail, delicate girl with large and melancholy eyes’ before she married, her parents had taken special care of her, because she had had scarlet fever, and that left her with a weak heart, or maybe the wrong diagnosis

 

It could be a case of self-fulfilling prophecies, mentioned by Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/choose-life-you-want-by-tal-ben-shahar.html in his lectures of positive psychology

Incidentally, those are the most popular in the history of Harvard, one in five students enrolled, and you can find them on YouTube, available and extremely accessible, funny, and with the potential to change your life

 

The case of Roger Bannister is mentioned, a doctor who was also an athlete, he contested the conclusion that humans could not run faster than four minutes for a mile, and he proved he was right, broke the record

For Louise, she keeps mentioning her weak heart, and maintains that she will die soon, when in fact, with the care she takes of herself – plus the attention and privileges given by others – she seems to be doing splendidly

 

One way to take this is to consider her selfish, but it may not be the case, albeit with her daughter, I thought she passed the limit – narcissism seems to be an epidemic these days, evidenced by the multitude of ‘selfies’

Then there is the phenomenon which preoccupies me, and hence it is so present in my scribblings, the cult of Orange Jesus, the monster who has more chances to become the most powerful man on earth than his opponent

 

We were talking at the sauna – the parody of justice is often a topic, what with immunity for the king of America, his contempt for the rule of law, find me eleven thousand votes and all that – about this incredible phenomenon

I mentioned Glasperlenspiel aka The Glass Beads Game https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-glass-bead-game-by-herman-hesse.html by fabulous Herman Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, a glorious writer

 

Glasperlespiel is such an attractive, noble, luminous concept that I try and start the day with the ritual, remembering some happiness rules, and character strengths, some of which are symbolized by this Stupendous Game

It involves veneration for excellence and beauty, contemplation, love of learning – the latter brings me to reading, with the massive advantages identified by Malcolm Bradbury as ‘Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…’

 

Another note, on To The Hermitage is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html this could work as a litmus test, if Louise, or others satisfy the criteria, we should read the book

There is another side of reading, explained by Penelope Lively, another favorite author of mine, she said that we are ‘as much separated by the books we have read or not, as we are by birth, or status…’ words to that effect I hope

 

She wrote in According to Mark – my note on this grand magnum opus is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html - where the hero has read a lot, the girl not really

Indeed, they are separated by ‘the content of a library in a small town’, something like that, and we see this in the real world, the reference point is that same Cult of Orange Jesus, where most seem illiterate to me

 

Evidently, you have many ghouls that are highly educated, there is Elon Musk and other fools with low EQ, I mean of course, they have high IQ, but on other fronts, they are God damn dumb, morons if they embrace that fraudster

Mea culpa is necessary here, in some form, for I advocated extreme measures – fortunately, maybe, nobody reads this far, one could peruse the first line, maybe the second, but never coming so far, why would you

 

I thought that Jeremy Bentham, utilitarianism, could be used to say that humanity would have been better if Crooks had not missed – Maher made the joke that Orange Jesus has all the luck, and then look at the names associated with him, Crooks, Bragg the prosecutor in Manhattan – because thousands die because of this eejit

Just now, in Ukraine, and in the past months, his cult refused aid, his VP pick has literally said ‘he does not care for that country one way or another’, and because of that, they did not have the means to defend themselves…

 

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.”