Lost Horizon by James Hamilton – another look at this impressive book is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/09/lost-horizon-by-james-hilton.html together with a few thousand other notes - 9 out of 10

 

Lost Horizon by James Hamilton – another look at this impressive book is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/09/lost-horizon-by-james-hilton.html together with a few thousand other notes

 

9 out of 10

 

Nine out of ten as a rating for what I would call the narrative, the idea of immortality deserves much more than that, obviously, but there is also the fact that I have read this once, then had the chance to listen to what I think were two radio adaptations, one for the BBC, and the other with our own legend, Geroge Constantin

 

The latter was a thespian as grand as Jack Nicholson https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/uncle-vanya-by-anton-chekhov-from.html indeed, they even share a sort of story, both have impressed in unlikely situations, in similar circumstances, for George Constantin, it was The Bolshoi visiting from Moscow, and they saw his spiritual stature

About Jack Nicholson, we find stories in The Kid Stays in The Picture https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-kid-stays-in-picture-by-robert.html by Robert Evans, who was an actor, producer and head of Paramount, he claims to have discovered ‘Jack’, while he was auditioning somebody else

 

Just as George Constantin did not have much, if anything to do on stage, when the Russians noticed him and his grandeur, Jack Nicholson was present without any role to get, the studio was looking at some other actor, only Evans was awed and insisted on getting him, while the crew kept asking about the one auditioning

Nonetheless, I was taking about something else, the incredible saga of the Lost Horizon, a group of people take the plane, under duress, they have to escape fast, they crash land, then they have to travel into the high mountains of The Himalayas (was it, or I am just making this up, I wonder) the important thing is that they are found

 

Ergo, they arrive at Shangri La, supposedly a place that exists, high up there – now I think that altitude could have played a role, made the incredible elements somewhat less fantastic, after all, we know that there are aspects that change, as we get higher, breathing is more difficult, then impossible and you reach the death zone

Orbital https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/12/orbital-by-samantha-harvey-winner-of.html is the latest, 2024 Booker Prize Winner by Samantha Harvey, and it describes life in orbit, astronauts living at the Space Station (or in it) and how they have to struggle with challenges there, the human body is under a lot of pressure

This lamasery where the lost airplane passengers arrive is a strange place, but much better than what those lost in the Andes, some decades ago, that Uruguayan rugby team https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/society-of-snow-aka-la-sociedad-de-la.html have had to endure

 

At this heavenly place, readers and the guests slowly discover that life is different, something we also have access to, “The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” This is from regretted Umberto Eco, and if we read only good books, as Schopenhauer insisted…

 

-          I came to the conclusion that the Reader might not be God, the author is one, but readers are still kings or queens

 

‘The novelist has an infinity of choices, He chooses what is to happen, to whom it happens, and in what way he will relate what happens, the picture he constructs is complete on its own terms…when he says this is the story and the whole story, we must accept it…perhaps novelists are the only people telling the truth ‘Concluding hence that the writer is god’

This is from According to Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html an astounding novel by Penelope Lively, and the possible interpretation, in fact the use of the formula, to draw another, maybe the opposite idea – which is alright, if we think about Niels Bohr, who said that the opposite of a fundamental truth may be another fundamental truth – regarding the reader and his powers

 

We decide what books to read – Schopenhauer says it must be only good books – and thus what figures enter our world, the writer had given them potential, but if we reject them, as I have done so much lately, then they cease to exist in some way, we make them extant, some become favorites like the memorable

Lucky Jim https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis-author-of.html is one example of a chef d’oeuvre, included by TIME on its list of 100 All-TIME Novels, which made Kingsley Amis famous, acclaimed, and more importantly, my favorite author now, together with Marcel Proust and Maugham

 

Trying to be sardonic and funny – which I stop and think it is an oxymoron – what would be the point in living in the company of those monks, erudite, talented as they are in Lost Horizon, when you can stay down here, away from the Himalayas, and enjoy great books, reach Flow aka Nirvana, a higher state of consciousness

The Secret History of The World as Laid Down by The Secret Societies is the book I have finished, but which is so special that I do not want to put down (stop listening to, it is an audiobook) because it is so enticing, let me hope it is not like Peterson, who charmed me, only to find that he is rather bizarre, to say the least…

 

 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.”