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From: Don <g@crcomp.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: WAR AND PEACE by Tolstoy
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 17:32:30 -0000 (UTC)
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Paul S Person wrote:
> D wrote:
>> Don wrote:
>>
>>> It's not really Science Fiction, but it's been mentioned lately.
>>>
>>> The parts pertaining to peaceful romance appeal to me much more than
>>> the warfare. Ironically, Tolstoy's tome helps me cope with armed
>>
>>Too long and boring for me. I prefer Dostoyesky any day of the week. Crime and
>>punishment is excellent! Borther Karamazov also good. The idiot I found so-so.
>
> I enjoy Bondarchuck's /War and Peace/ every time I see it. I just wish
> it were complete. The novel was not memorable.
>
> /The Idiot/ was interesting, but ultimately pointless. If an actual
> idiot had been involved, that might have helped.
>
> I've experienced /Crime and Punishment/ both in novel and Classics
> Illustrated form. Somewhere, probably in a class, I was fed the
> factoid that the protagonist turns himself in because the detective
> wears him down. Imagine my surprise when I last read it to realize the
> true reason.
>
> /The Brothers Karamazov/ was read as part of the collection called The
> Great Books of the Western World. I didn't much like it. Perhaps if he
> had finished the projected follow-ups it would have made more sense.
> The /only/ character I had any concern about (any empathy with) was a
> small boy who dies. None of the brothers was worth reading about,
> IMHO.
>
> I also read other Dostoyevsky novels, notably /The Devils/ which, like
> /The Secret Agent/ (which Hitchcock filmed under the title /Saboteur/,
> having used /The Secret Agent/ for a completely different spy story
> earlier), is about The Revolution. One thing I noticed in a few of
> them were references to Jesuits trying to convert Orthodox believers
> to Roman Catholicism. This makes me wonder if the famous
> "anti-Christian" essay in /The Brothers Karamazov/ is not actually an
> "anti-Roman-Catholicism" essay, since it is clearly about a Roman
> Catholic institution. But I have no idea if this is the case or not.

It's a shame you can't call to mind the Catholic intrigues in WAR AND
PEACE by Tolstoy. It sort of foreshadows the creation of the Catholic
Intelligence Agency (CIA) a century and change later.
    Tolstoy also talks about Freemasonry for a few chapters. Here's
his impression:

    Finally, to the fourth category also a great many [Freemason]
    Brothers belonged, particularly those who had lately joined.
    These according to Pierre’s observations were men who had no
    belief in anything, nor desire for anything, but joined the
    Freemasons merely to associate with the wealthy young Brothers
    who were influential through their connections or rank, and
    of whom there were very many in the lodge.

As an aside, after being banned, Freemasonry is reportedly making a
comeback in Syria.

Danke,

--
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