The Luncheon by William Somerset Maugham one of my favorite writers, author of The Book Bag https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-book-bag-by-somerset-maugham-he-is.html and other magnum opera - 10 out of 10

The Luncheon by William Somerset Maugham one of my favorite writers, author of The Book Bag https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-book-bag-by-somerset-maugham-he-is.html and other magnum opera

 

10 out of 10

 

The Luncheon is an amusing, short story that is relevant, and a pleasure to read today, as the world is facing an obesity epidemic, high percentages of people are overweight, many morbidly so, in more and more countries, it used to be a plague of the advanced economies, but with junk food everywhere, this is spreading fast

 

The narrative is simple -some may say simplistic, but I disagree – it moves around this meal, where two people take part, one is this domineering female, we do not find her name, and the other the narrator, ‘too young to say no a woman’ when he receives a letter from the former, speaking about The Luncheon from the title

Now that I look back, she reminds me of Orange Jesus, just a little bit, in that she keeps pretending ‘she does not eat for lunch’, then that she will only want a morsel, or unless there is no caviar, then she is not interested, words to that effect, but in reality, she will jump on a huge order, that will set back the student quite a lot

 

The similarity is in the exaggerations, in the character’s case it is talking small, diminishing the proportions of what she will indulge in, while Orange Jesus (this is what his cult called him, and it is appropriate, for he is as close to Jesus as the color was for the son of God, and then of course, he might have been just a fraud, no son of a deity)

This fool that has more than two chances in three to become the future (and past) is for the under signed an obsession, he keeps popping up in my notes, I was going to say almost every day, but it is more like a few times per day, whether there is any connection, or without one, just like in the big debate they have had

 

Orange Jesus is the symbol of decay, lack of progress, for yes, humanity has reached fabulous levels of advancement in technology, science, but on the political level, you have the tyrants dominating so many realms, and now, the once greatest democracy in the world is just about to fall prey to a strong man and his clan of goons

Just like poor Biden, who is clearly a good man, and a president that is ten thousand times better than the Orange Felon, I will digress, alas, Joe Biden went from talking about abortion to ‘we have beaten covid’, something like that, he did not make sense, lost the confrontation and had the worst performance in the history of these clashes

Notwithstanding that, he still deserves to win – for that matter, a monkey or a rock would be better that the fool, who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder – Orange Jesus lied again in the most disgusting, vile way, claiming Pelosi was responsible for January 6^th, indeed, there is an article in The Economist about that

 

The gruesome would-be dictator is now praising the ‘hostages’ aka insurrectionists that have occupied Congress in 2021, for some time, he tried to push the blame, only now he has come full circle, and he says those were patriots, he will pardon them, loves the song they had recorded in prison, proving such a disgusting liar and traitor

Let us abandon this tangent, and return to The Luncheon, the poor narrator has to take the cheapest dish on the menu, lamb, because his guest is bent on excess, while protesting her spartan, austere habits, she is such an ascetic figure, east nothing, except if there is salmon, and even if it is not available yet, they will find some

 

The same for caviar, champagne, all the exquisite, exorbitant, unavailable, and hence ever pricier, because they are not on the list, so our story teller is facing weeks and weeks of water and what, bread, because this appalling little Trump will just concern herself with only her own ego and body, eating as if there is no tomorrow

You can read this at https://englishliterature.net/william-somerset-maugham/the-luncheon and you generally find the glorious works of Soemerset Maugham online, at free sites, because they have entered the public domain, for other books, there is the archive.org place, where you can borrow them

 

Another splendid short story that I admire and read recently is The Colonel’s Lady https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-colonels-lady-by-william-somerset.html where the roles are reversed, in that The Luncheon has a woman that is ghastly -eventually, she will weigh 133 kilograms, with all the food she does not eat…

While The Colonel’s Lady is a fabulous character, ignored and not appreciated by her spouse, until she becomes a phenomenal success, her book of poetry is not just published, but it becomes a massive success, everybody is talking about it, to the dismay of the husband, who needs to finally read it, and be shocked

 

He had learned that it is about a love affair and he is flabbergasted that the women he dismissed as not attractive has found a younger lover, and the passion is overwhelming, and recounted in this volume, so that friends and all know that he is a cuckold (an old term, but he feels cheated) which he cannot bear, contemplates divorce

Admittedly, he has kept his own extramarital affair, but these were the days when being a man meant different things, they were ‘allowed’ to, but it was inconceivable (well, rarely thought of) for women and thus he wants a divorce…

 

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.”