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The Brothers Karamazov
p253 “Poetry is rubbish!” said Smerdyakov curtly.
“Oh, no! I am very fond of poetry.” [Maria who he is playing the guitar and singing to, though we don’t know why.]
“So far as it’s poetry, it’s rubbish. Consider, who ever talks in rhyme? And if we were all to talk in rhyme, even though it were decreed by the government, we wouldn’t say much would we? Poetry is no good, Maria.” [On the other hand it would put an end to a lot of vapid small talk. And if you stretch this to include rap...]
“How clever you art! How is it you’ve gone so deep into everything?”...
“I could have done better than that. I could have known more than that, if it had not been for the circumstances of my birth. I would have been capable of shooting a man in a duel if he called me names because I am descended from a stinking beggar and have no father... Gregory blames me for rebelling against my birth, but I would have welcomed their killing me before I was born so that I might not have come into the world at all... Can a Russian peasant be said to feel, in comparison with an educated man? He can’t be said to have feelings at all, in his ignorance. From my childhood up when I hear ‘a wee bit,’ I am ready to burst with rage. I hate all Russia, Maria.”
So much here. On the one hand, it’s nonsense because Dmitri (just to grab hold of the example provided by the book) has the “advantage” of birth but gains nothing by it in an intellectual sense. Pavel, as we will see, even has an intellectual advantage over Ivan who has both birth and education.
But in so far as Pavel represents the freed Russian serf, the man set free from the blinders of religion and class -- who questions the assumptions of Russian society and the natural superiority of the gentry -- he shows the psychological dangers of that kind of liberation. In a society of Merit, Pavel would be free to rise to a higher level -- rather like Rakitin who also lacks all nobility but is clever enough.
To digress, I think today the problem is not so much the Pavels and Rakitins as the dimwitted peasants (and Dmitris) who have a hard time making their way in such an anti-Tory world (in Ford Madox Ford’s sense of Tory.)
“...In 1812 there was a great invasion of Russia by Napoleon, first Emperor of the French, father of the present one, and it would have been a good thing if they had conquered us. A clever nation would have conquered a very stupid one and annexed it. We would have had quite different institutions.”
Dostoyevsky is full of interesting ideas here. What strikes one when thinking about the various invasions of Russia (from the west) is the futility of it all. But what if Napoleon had been successful? Even if only for a few years. What if the Napoleonic Code had been introduced in a large section of Russia after 1812? ]
p254 “Are the French so much better than we are? I wouldn’t change someone I know for three young Frenchmen,” observed Maria tenderly... [One of these two has designs. But only one.]
...“But you are just like a foreigner -- just like a most gentlemanly foreigner. I tell you that, though it makes me blush.”
“If you care to know, the folks there and ours here are just alike in their vices. They are swindlers, only abroad the scoundrel wears polished boots and here he grovels in filth and sees no harm in it. The Russian people need beating, as Fyodor Karamazov said very truly yesterday, though he is mad, and all his sons, too.”
So Pavel’s fondness for clothes and hair care products marks him as the representative of bourgeois values... I wondered what that was about. This actually plays well with Christopher Tietjens tendency to wear crude clothing -- the distinction between what one “is” and how one wishes to “appear.”
“You said you had such respect for Ivan!”
“But he said I was a stinking lackey. [Dostoyevsky describes Pavel’s singing at the start of this section as follows, “It was a lackey’s tenor and a lackey’s song.” I wonder about the Russian word translated here as “lackey.” I suspect this is the same attitude Christopher Tietjens had about MacMasters. “Subservient” might be the better term] He thinks that I might get out of hand. But he is mistaken there. If I had a certain sum of money in my pocket, I would have left long ago. . . . Dmitri is lower than any lackey in his behavior, in his mind, and in his poverty. He doesn’t know how to do anything, and yet he is respected by everyone. I may only be a soup maker, but with luck I could open a cafe in Moscow. My cooking is something special. And there’s no one in Moscow except foreigners, whose cooking is anything special. Dmitri is nothing but a beggar, but if he were to challenge the son of the first count in the country, that nobleman’s son would fight him. Though in what way is he better than I am? He is more stupid than I am. Look at the money he has wasted!”
I love the way Dostoyevsky has the “least” of his characters speak the truth, Pavel here, but also Madame H. and Fyodor K. as well.
“It must be lovely, a duel,” Maria observed suddenly.
...
“It must be so dreadful and so brave, especially when young officers with pistols in their hands pop at one another for the sake of some lady. A perfect picture! Ah, if only girls were allowed to look on, I’d give anything to see one!”
“It’s all right when you are firing at someone, but when he is firing straight at you, you must feel pretty silly. You’d be glad to run away, Maria.”...
True confession
I'm going to latch on to that incidental bit of music at the beginning of this chapter to talk about music myself. I tend to think that everyone in my music loving age cohort (those fucking Boomers) is as fond of Pop music as I am, but occasionally I’m reminded that this is, in fact, far from true.
Most of us started listening to Pop and then at some point -- for me it was in 11th grade with Cream -- moved on to “Rock” and assumed a dismissive attitude toward our previous, childish, loves. I, too, fell hard for Rock (and notice that I’m not including the Beatles, who I’d been listening to since 7th grade, as Rock) but I never... well, maybe I did stop listening to Pop for a while, but that didn’t prevent me from enjoying The Bangles in the ‘80s -- and that was even before I had seen Susanna Hoffs.
Amy Grant was even a Christian-crossover-to-Pop sensation (for five minutes) but I still love her voice. I honestly don’t know if there’s ever been a better time for Pop than the present with Christina Perri, Lady Gaga, Sara Bareilles, No Doubt, and Adele. (I do listen to male vocalists, but I’m trying to keep this focused. #rationalization)
There are three obvious Pop recording artists I left off that list because at least two of them are very controversial and I want to talk about them separately. Kelly Clarkson was discovered on American Idol, for Goat’s sake. How can you take her seriously? Yet she has turned out hit after hit since 2002. Yes, I think Clive Davis played a role in this -- the production of some of her early songs is remarkable in itself -- yet few artists have turned out so many great songs. This summer I “greened” a free concert, put on by a local radio station, and she was the headliner. I made sure I was working an area in the center of the crowd while she was on stage so as to get the best sound. She played a short set, but she sounded great.
Taylor Swift is another artist it’s hard to take seriously. She’s still too young and cute and she’s been turning out hits since 2008 (and Country hits since 2006!). She has a real knack for turning out ear-worms... songs you just can’t get out of your head. “Style” may be the best example. Her voice lacks what I would call definition -- something characteristic that lets you know immediately who’s singing. Adele and Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries and even Christina Perri have great definition in this coinage. But then Gwen Stefani of No Doubt lacks definition and she’s one of my favorite vocalists of the past 20 years.
The final controversial artist is Katy Perry. When she came out with “I Kissed a Girl,” like everyone else, I assumed she would be a One Hit Wonder. She famously said that it took a village to produce the “look” you see in photos, videos, and on stage, and I suspect that what she left unsaid was that it also took a village to produce her music, but what a lot of great tunes she is, to some extent, responsible for. And she doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously which I always like in a person (based solely on some of her videos) .
Anyway, I’m fond enough of their music to not turn up my nose at any of these women. Hell, I’ll even listen to Avril Lavigne... I’m such a slut.
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