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Read 4/33 essays:

The post enjoyable so far is Mark Singer's essay 1997 "Trump Solo". I had to laugh at one quote from Trump:
"Whatever complicates the world more, I do,”
Aint' that the truth!

Series of poems while Milosz was in his 20s-30s (1934-1944): (The Poor Poet) "I am a poor poet, I have no words." Yet Milosz demanded that we be a moral witness (WWII) ...must see and remember. Milosz warns us of indifference and forgetfulness.

Read: 2/33 essays and am impressed by Larissa Macfarqyhar! Staff writer at the New Yorker since 1998 and is known for her sharp, insightful profiles. She interviewed Jason Calcanis (Internet entrepreneur. I'd like to find her essays on Hilary Mantel and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the magazine's archive. NETFLIX docs (2025) New Yorker 100 years is excellent!

Poem: "And the City Stood in its Brightness"
It is impossible to recapture the past.. for example visiting your home town again.
The "CITY" preserves, stands "BRIGHT"
...BUT also obliterates b/c human lives
...run their course and fade away.

Poem "Mittelbergheim"
Places carry the weight of the past...visible (buildings) and invisible (suffering).
The church is empty....but the light (faith, hope) is still there.

Excellent essay writings from this Nobel Prize winner!

What have I put off reading this novel for years...no decades? All of the characters want something intensely—love, money, revenge, or social recognition...and now we see who is successful and who ends up in the gutter!

Everyone wants good reviews: actresses submit to journalists....journalists submit to publishers and the public never reads the truth just comments paid for by interested parties who will make money!
Lucien feels poetry is being dragged through the mire his friend says: "...you still have your illusions." (part 2, pg 286) - No time to read the book? Watch the movie (2021) on streaming.

Book starts with a detailed look at fashions, furnishings, finances, and class hierarchies in French provincial society.
Lucien is headed for a shock in
part 2: Paris is ready to crush this wannabe poet!

The Christmas Carol was a wonderful read
....but The Chimes was not as enchanting!
The writing is confusing b/c Dickens repeats
phrases over and over again. You can listen to the audio book
on Spotify...that was much better!

Powerful prologue....

MB = MAÇON, OUVRIER
RD = ÉMPLOYÉ, CHAUFFEUR
HC = JOURNALISTE, POÈTE

ALL IN A IMAGINARY CELL (ROOM) CREATED BY THE AUTHOR….AS PAYBACK, REVENGE

…BUT FOR WHAT?

Pg 140/250 (finished 56 %)

Part 2 was like watching moving pieces of a chessboard. Triple Alliance, Entente Cordiale with the tension that countries felt wondering if a "friend" would remain a friend in case of a Balken Conflict! What was the Linman Affair 1913? Well, I know now! Pushing hard to finish this book b/c it will not be easy to pick it up if I stop for a while.

Eyes are closing, I can't process any more Serbs, Bulgaria, Russia, Ottoman (Turkey) shenanigans in 1912.

Chapter 3-4 (pg 122-240) explained polarisation in Europe and I wanted to move on to the Balkan Wars in ch 5. There were fun facts a/b monarchs Tsar Nicolas II, Edward VII, George V and Wilhelm II). Kaiser W II completely unable function as his high office demanded. Staff went out of their way to keep him FAR AWAY from government policy making. "...he spoke not like a monarch, but like an over-excited teenager..."

Part 1, ch 2-3-4 This is explains the groundwork for the 1st (1912-1913) and 2nd (1913, last just 6 weeks) Balkan Wars. WW I was actually the 3rd Balken war until it officially became the First World War. I watched on You Tube "TheTerrorByte" channel It has clear mini videos explaining what was happening in all the battlefields. Very helpful...if not essential to watch!

Part 1 , chapter 1:
I finally learned what exactly started WW I...it was not just a bullet shot on 28 June 1914. The Balkans was already in a situation that was highly volatile and could erupt into conflict or chaos at any moment: a powder keg ready to blow! Excellent text by C. Clark that is easily digested!

IReading a biography about Hesse now by Gunnar Decker. It is a miracle he survived such childhood smothered in his parent’s religious rigidity! Faith and religion,,,finding one’s soul…were topics Hesse often wrote about.

Slow, slow going with very long look at Hesse's family life, the religious rigidity of his parents and his schooling....often being expelled b/c he was uncontrollable!

What a coincidence...reading in Ferrer's book how US tried to take over Cuba at the end of Spanish-American war 1898...now this headline:
US's real aim is to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government and then, by cutting off the flow of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, fulfill the Republican right’s decades-long dream of collapsing the Cuban government. #Déja vu

I'm glad I did not give up ... In chapter 9-10-11-12 I finally understand what Hesse is trying to say. He wrote it in neutral Switzerland in the 1930s...and was concerned with the rise of fascisim all around him. Hesse's plea to leaders was NOT to isolate yourselves in thoughts and theories (...as did the scholars in Castilia) ...but go out into the world of reality and confront the evils at your border!

I managed 2 more chapters today. I want to finish this book asap b/c after that I will start reading a biography about Hesse by Gunnar Decker. There must be a lot to learn about Hesse's books....once I know more about the man.

Ch 1-5
These chapters are 1 hour of listening each with my audio book.
I don't know if I could keep reading the paperback version b/c my mind would wander. Why? Each chapter can be summed up in 3 sentences!
Where is the beauty in his book....where? My poor leisure-reading brain is suffering to this interminable, meandering mess of endless verbiage.