The Poet by William Somerset Maugham - author of The Happy Man https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-happy-man-by-william-somerset.html and other magisterial tales - 10 out of 10

 

The Poet by William Somerset Maugham - author of The Happy Man https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-happy-man-by-william-somerset.html and other magisterial tales

 

10 out of 10

 

I keep saying that Somerset Maugham is one of my favorite authors, and this Long Hot Summer https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-long-hot-summer-by-rhea-rene.html has been rewarding in that this could be the twentieth short story by Maugham that I read again, enjoy and share with you the bliss

 

The last part is not actually so accurate, for I need to advise you to abandon this space, because I will mention The Poet in passing, but I am too tempted by events, furious with things that happen to keep on topic, and the likelihood is that I will soon, or immediately venture into the wild and talk about JD Vance, the next Satan

‘Calisto de Santa Aña was the last descendant of the Grand School; in a world unsympathetic to Byronism, he had led a Byronic existence and he had narrated his hazardous life in a series of poems that had brought him a fame unknown to his contemporaries…’ it sounds enticing, quixotic, but purely fictional…

 

‘He was a rebel and sometimes an outlaw, daring and adventurous; but above all he was a lover…We knew all about his passion for this great actress or that divine singer--had we not read till we knew them by heart the burning sonnets in which he described his love, his anguish and his wrath?--and we were aware that an infanta of Spain, the proudest descendant of the Bourbons, having yielded to his entreaties, had taken the veil when he ceased to love her…’ there are at least two ways to look at this, at least for this reader

One would be to take the positive, just like we are encouraged by Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-pursuit-of-perfect-by-tal-ben-shahar.html ‘be a merit finder, not a fault finder’, ergo The Poet was a marvelous man, in some ways, loved women, he wrote acclaimed poems

 

The other, tempting possibility is to extract this fellow, look at some of the aspects, compare with celebrities, influencers, and eventually, some of the men in the news today, and one is this Vance fella, the nominee to be the deputy for Orange Jesus, which is in itself something described by qed aka quod erat demonstrandum

This is moving way off subject, some would be annoyed, if only they were still here – I have had some infuriated laments, when somebody thought that I am too much against Orange Jesus, well, you are warned if you love the fella

 

So, the Orange Felon has announced the pick, and it is another fraudster, once a never trump guy, no less, who said a couple of months ago that ‘he does not care about Ukraine, one way or the other and then went on to ‘rationalize all this’, by adding that the US cannot help both Israel and those other unlucky people’

We could insist that they will keep their other promises, right, but this is not happening, this is still fresh, albeit Orange Jesus has been saying these things for so long, only those on the moon do not know it, and could vote for him, otherwise, his worshipers are either stupid or vile for me, so here is what the next and past most powerful figure said…

 

‘He will only protect Taiwan if they pay for it’, as if he is Tony Soprano, or The Godfather https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-godfather-part-ii-based-on-novel-by.html?q=godfather and as the capo di tutti capi, he decides who gets cover, the cost and all the rest, showing he has learned nothing

The sob should realize what Taiwan means for the world (sorry, I forgot he does not care for that, he is the ultimate sick victim of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and so much more) the importance of the chips, semiconductors, and further still, the idea that a democracy, independent, friendly ally would be destroyed

 

I did it again, what does a monster care about that, this is the archetypal psychopath, and we have seen this so often it is nauseating, unless of course, one is part of the cult, when all that bragging, grabbing women by the pussy, bringing lunatics to occupy Congress, taking secret documents home, revealing plans of war is just spectacular…

The republican party used to be tough on crime, and now they anointed as the new Messiah, king, saint and all, a guy who is convicted of 34 felonies, he wanted to end democracy, for he cannot lose, he is a ‘very stable genius, the best president of all’, and he makes an exception, perhaps, for Lincoln, but even that is just for show

 

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, he has something to do with the choice of deputy, this repellant Vance has facial hair, and Orange Jesus is not into that – indeed, he is so fussy, coiffed, with make up and all, you could say he is a drag queen, only that is anathema in that large group of morons – but when he was asked, he found something

Orange Jesus said that this Vance looks like a younger Lincoln, and voila, what it takes to get propelled to the very top, we may speak of president awful Vance, in some years, if we survive, of course, and it could also be a question of using Russian, over here, these bustards abandon not just Ukraine, they want protection money from everybody, they said that they will have tariffs for each and all, and it is so good I have reached the end, because this is an exercise of masochism, and it has to stop, BDSM with a nice partner, maybe, but not with those pigs, and pigs are smart and nice, so let me correct that and say, what, velociraptors…

 

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.”