Straight Is The Gate by Andre Gide, author of Les Caves du Vatican, my note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/les-caves-du-vatican-by-andre-gide.html where I have a few thousand other reviews - 8 out of 10

 

Straight Is The Gate by Andre Gide, author of Les Caves du Vatican, my note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/les-caves-du-vatican-by-andre-gide.html where I have a few thousand other reviews

 

8 out of 10

 

Andre Gide was ‘judged the greatest French writer of this century by the literary cognoscenti’ a statement that I reject, for what about Marcel Proust or Albert Camus, the former is my absolute favorite, and not that it matters, Gide is so far one that I do not get, albeit La Porte Etroite was better than the Caves

 

I have also tried The Immoralist https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-immoralist-by-andre-gide-winner-of.html and the experience was disappointing, whereas Straight Is The Gate at least has started much better and I could read through about half of it, after which I tried to jump through the lines and then finished…

Well, in a manner of speaking, his own life inspired the narrative, wherein Jerome is the narrator and main character, although he is supposed to have a crash (I wonder if that was love, infatuation, sexual attraction, or some combination of two ingredients) on a female, Gide was a self-proclaimed ‘pederast’…and so we have to consider that

 

Marcel Proust was infinitely ‘better’ than Gide, if you ask me, Proust is divine and Gide is rather simple when set against the former, they share their sexual orientation, and in A La Recherche du Temps Perdu we have the hero in love with Gilberte, Albertine and other young girls https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/albertine-disparue-by-marcel-proust.html

The hero is not yet twelve when he lost his father, and then his mother will soon follow, but before she dies, they spend time with his uncle and his two daughters, the elder Alissa, and Juliette, and their brother, Robert, in what seems to be a very erotic atmosphere, ‘pregnant with emotions, desire and awakenings’

 

At one point, his aunt is in a room with this young man, in uniform, who says that if he had sheep, he would call them Bucolin, which is the name of the uncle and his family, and then the pretender falls on his knees and this is all happening with the children present, it seems as perverse as possible, or just the peak of carelessness

Alissa is in her room, crying, and eventually, her mother would run away, and if we were facetious, cruel, working with cliches, we would say what do you expect the French have this way, they brought ménage a trois to the world and they had this ennui, relaxed attitude towards sexual shenanigans, including those of their leaders

I remember how Francois Hollande was having an affair with an actress -what did she see in him is the question, you would normally have it the other way, the powerful president of one of the most advanced countries might seem enticing, well, he was not, however much ‘power is the ultimate aphrodisiac’

 

He was seeing her and eloping from the Elysee Palace on a…scooter, and it looked so ludicrous, yes, love conquers all, but the man had the appearance of a clown – in the background, there is Jimmy Kimmel and the show in which he exposes the Orange Clown and Vampire, who said his opponent is mentally impaired’…

In other words, Hollande is so much better, and for that matter, a monkey is a better choice than that Orange Vampire, but let us get back to the Straight Is The Gate – the name comes from the Bible ‘Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able’ and I struggle to see the meaning…

 

I mean, yes, we have to live without sin and all that, repent at least when we make mistakes – and first respect the commandments, do not lie, covet the wife of the neighbor, worship god and not idols, look at Orange Vampire, he is the model for evangelicals that vote for him, so he must be a role model and expert on The Ten Commandments

Or maybe not, but the point was I do not get how the love triangles and complications in the short novel apply, is it to say that those adolescents would pay and not push thought the Straight Gate, it could be and now I mention The Psychological Effects of Religion https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religion-by.html

 

This is a very good book by Nathaniel Branden, who is a classic in psychology, well known for his The Six Pillars of Self Esteem, but he also looked at religion and what it does to the faithful, coming to the conclusion that it is damaging, however much others would disagree, and come with opposing arguments

To apply one of his analyses to our case, he looks at what happens to teenagers, who may masturbate and then the Almighty, Omniscient Colorist and Sculptor knows this (and everything else) and he makes them pay later, say when they are forty, and that is vicious, and there is more, perhaps one most important criticism

 

That connects to this notion that there is eternal life, when in fact we have our one, and only chance and need to enjoy life to the full, whereas believers would often say this is not really the ‘real thing’, it is just a passage on the way to heaven, and they just waste so much, in wait for something that will never arrive

Jerome falls in love with Alissa, or maybe he just thinks so, mind you, they are adolescents and do not know very well, Thomas Mann argues in a story that we keep talking about love, but it is not a true feeling, there is also Juliette, and she may be infatuated with the hero, and it is all confusing at from one stage on, not really satisfying for this very demanding reader, who is alas biased against Gide, after two misfires, a third was expected and it came

 

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.”