The Kreutzer Sonata

It's not usual for a writer to mention, within a novel, a book that a particular character is reading or has read. The names of other writers often make their way into novels. I've discovered quite a few writers, coming upon their names in a novel I'm reading. Elizabeth von Arnim, Mikhail Bulgakov and Mayne Reid are three examples.

At one point in 2010: Odyssey Two , Dr. Heywood Floyd attempts, unsuccessfully, to read The Kreutzer Sonata in the original Russian. I was a bit confused by that. I was familiar with Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9, known as The Kreutzer Sonata, but I was unaware of any book by that name - and certainly not a Russian novel.

With a little web search, I learned that Clarke was referring to a novella by Tolstoy named after Beethoven's sonata. According to the wikipedia article on the novella,"The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage. The main character, Pozdnyshev, relates the events leading up to his killing of his wife: in his analysis, the root causes for the deed were the 'animal excesses' and 'swinish connection' governing the relation between the sexes".

The work was banned by the Russian censors and in 1890, the United States Post Office Department attempted to prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized installments of the translated novella. Theodore Roosevelt called Tolstoy a "sexual moral pervert."

Of course, with recommendations like that, I had to download a copy from Project Gutenberg.

I'm certainly no expert on Tolstoy - I've read Anna Karenina twice and attempted to read War and Peace more than that. I was not familiar with his somewhat bizarre take on Christianity. With The Kreutzer Sonata and the other four stories in the ebook I downloaded, Tolstoy goes full blast, bombarding the reader with his strange philosophy.

Reading the wikipedia article on Tolstoy's novella, I learned of a book by Arab Israeli author Sayed Kashua, Second Person Singular , which uses Tolstoy's novella as a major plot device. I'd never heard of Kashua prior to this, but now I'm currently reading Second Person Singular and I'm very impressed with his writing. His other books will (somehow) find their way to the queue.

2001

Two days ago, having re-read Arthur C.Clarke's Childhood's End and Rendezvous With Rama, I was thinking of which direction my reading would take - either continue on with Clarke, or return to Anthony Burgess with The Malayan Trilogy . I decided to stay with Clarke and read 2001: A Space Odyssey .

I was 16 when the film came out in 1968. I went to see it at the Wink theater in Dalton GA. I must say that at that first viewing, a good deal of the movie went over my head. Although, over the years I have watched the movie again, this is the first time I've read the novel. Having finally read the book, I have to say I prefer it to the film.

That being said, there are areas where Clarke "goofed" in his portrayal of 2001.

1) The novel was written between the years 1964 and 1968. It was obvious to any thinking person that mankind would land on the Moon before too many more years. It was understandable that Clarke would imagine Lunar colonies by 2001. We all know that didn't happen.
2) As an aside, Clarke mentions that by that time all the world's major religions would accept birth control. We're well past 2001 and the Catholic Church still hasn't given birth control the OK.
3) When traveling from the space station to the Moon, Dr. Heywood Floyd goes by shuttle, but there was no shuttle available to take him from Earth to the space station.
4) In Clarke's 2001, the Soviet Union was still around. In the real world, the U.S.S.R. never made it that long.
5) In Clarke's 2001, extraterrestrial vehicle activities (EVA) were carried out with vehicles named after females, because they were unpredictable.
6) There are "office girls" in Clarke's future world.

Even with those "goofs", I still enjoyed the novel. I've gone on to Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two . Frankly, I'm not enjoying it quite as much. I will probably exit Clarke for awhile when I've finished with this one.

Childhood Zen

Last week, while reading The Enderby Quartet , I thought that when I had finished those four books, I'd go on to Anthony Burgess' first published work, The Malayan Trilogy. However, when I neared the end of the final book in the quartet ( Endeby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby ) I decided to take a slight detour. The final book in the series began to take on elements of science fiction, which put in my mind a desire to read a bit of real sci-fi.

I picked two sci-fi novels by Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End and Rendezvous With Rama . I had read these two before, but after nearly 50 years, it was time for a re-read.

When I was first introduced to Childhood's End by word of mouth, I had misheard the title. I was very interested in Eastern Religions at the time and understood the title to be Childhood Zen. That seems to be all I could remember about the book. I remembered that the plot centered around humanity's first encounter with an alien race, but that was all I could recall. Everything in the novel was new to me. It was as if I was reading it for the first time. This made me wonder if my "memory" of having read the book 50 years ago might really have been a false memory.

Childhood's End was published in 1953. Most of the events in the story take place in the 21st Century, fairly close to the present day. Setting aside to encounter with the aliens, it's interesting how Clarke saw our time from 1953. At one point, one of the characters uses a camera with film. Of course, Clarke could not have foreseen digital cameras. Another interesting point is Clarke's discussion of the word "nigger". He predicted that in the 21 Century, that word would have lost all it's destructiveness.... it would be looked upon as just another neutral word. No one would be upset hearing it. We know that isn't the case in today's world. We must all refer to it as the "N-word". Writers who used the word in earlier times are threatened with "cancellation".

Rendezvous With Rama was slightly more familiar to me. Of course, most was forgotten, but certain bits were still in my memory.

Now that I've finished those two ebooks, I'm trying to decide whether I'll go back to Burgess with the The Malayan Trilogy or stick with Clarke for a few more (like 2001: A Space Odyssey, for example). That decision can wait for a bit.

The Enderby Quartet

On October 5, I finally finished reading the last of Agatha Christie's mystery novels. I can't say I've read everything Christie wrote: the list does contain a few of her short story collections in addition to the novels, though there are a few more short stories I'm not going to read at this time. It's taken me since May 29th to read the 73 ebooks I've read.

Also, I haven't read any of the novels Christie published under the nom de plume Mary Westmacott.

Even while reading the Christie novels, my mind was on which direction I would go when I finished with Agatha Christie. In April of this year, my reading consisted of dystopian novels. One book which, naturally enough, made the list was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I thought I'd look into whatever other books I could find by Burgess, and read something written by him when I'd finished with Christie.

One group of novels written by Burgess which has received high praise is the, so-called Enderby Quartet, a set of four comic novels: Inside Mr Enderby, - Enderby Outside, -The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End, and Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby. I found a website that allowed me to download several of Burgess' works and began reading the quartet.

As I write this, I've finished the first three novels in the series and have started # 4.

After reading the first two, it struck me odd that those books should be considered two, rather than one novel. I later came to find out that Burgess had originally planned these two to actually be just one novel. However, while working on what was to become Inside Enderby Burgess was told by a number of doctors that he would not be expected to live much longer. Burgess published the 1st "half" of the novel, not expecting to finish the 2nd "half". As it turned out, the doctors were wrong and Burgess lived for several more years.

Burgess' writing style with the quartet reminds me of William S. Burroughs, although I'd consider Burgess to be the superior writer.

In the first novel, the character Enderby uses an expression which I found confusing. When upset, Enderby would often say "for cough". It wasn't until after I had begun reading the 2nd novel that I realized that this was Burgess' response to censorship of the time. "For cough" was actually "fuck off" in much the same way Norman Mailer used "fuggin" in The Naked and the Dead. Apparently, literary censorhip had lightened up by the time of the 2nd novel. Although Enderby would continued to say "for cough", other characters in Enderby Outside say "fuck off" and "motherfucker".

In the third novel of the series, The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End Burgess seemed to predict the future that we're living in today.....politically correct pronouns and further censorship of words.

In the introduction of the final novel, Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby Burgess explains that, although he had killed off Enderby in the 3rd novel, fans of the series convinced him to bring Enderby back to life. I haven't gotten far enough into the last book to see just how Burgess managed to do that.

The New Saddle - A Quick Review

 

In yesterday's blog post I told of purchasing a new bicycle saddle online and swapping out the saddle that had come with my bike. The old saddle was less than comfortable and I had read a number of good things about the Vertu Spyder saddle and wanted to give it a try.

I had already had my morning ride when the saddle arrived yesterday. I promised to put on the new saddle for my ride today and subsequently review the saddle.

A few of my friends who had seen the photos of the saddle were skeptical. There's no padding on the saddle and most found the idea that it could be comfortable counterintuitive.

I went out early this morning for 8.6 km (5.3 miles) run.

The saddle is definitely more comfortable than my previous saddle. I can't put a number on how much better it feels, or an explanation why it should feel better. I suppose the shape and contours of the Spyder saddle have something to do with it.

In all fairness, it's difficult to assess the saddle until I've ridden on it for at least a week. I can say that after this one ride, I am pleased with the saddle.

New Bicycle Saddle

No matter how positive an action or activity might be, there is always lurking nearby, a negative. In the case of cycling the positives are many - cycling increases stamina, strength and aerobic fitness. Cycling can improve both physical and mental health, and can reduce the chances of experiencing many health problems.

On the negative side, the most common problem I hear about is the discomfort one can experience in the seat. Your own seat....the butt, your bottom, however you wish to put it.

Judging from the ads I come across on social media platforms, the problem is pretty wide spread (if you'll pardon the expression).

I've come across ads for more comfortable bike saddles, bicycle shock absorbers and padded shorts and padded underwear.

 

The idea of purchasing padded underwear is tempting, but unfortunately most of the bicycle clothing available for delivery in this area is for smaller persons than yours truly. I haven't had a 33 inch waist in quite a long time and I'm unlikely to drop down to that any time soon.

So, for me the obvious choice is a new saddle. One of the more popular saddles advertised is the Vertu Spyder saddle. Several companies advertising on Facebook have that particular saddle for sale.

 

Of the companies selling the Vertu Spyder saddle online, I picked the one with the best price. COD, 899 PHP. The saddle arrived this afternoon - about a week after I ordered it, which isn't bad for Philippines during the pandemic.

I removed my old saddle and had the new one on in minutes. I've already ridden today, so I'll get my first test ride with the new saddle tomorrow morning. I'll be reviewing the ride soon afterwards.

 

Dog Food Run - Alternate Route

I've written before about making the occasional bicycle ride to Sibulan to purchase dry dog food. Of course, it isn't something I do every day, but once or twice a week is a regular routine.

As I wrote in an earlier blog post, taking the most direct route to the Gentle Paws Pet Store is 2.8 kilometers (one way) for a total ride of 5.6 kilometers. This is slightly less than my usual minimum of 7 kilometers morning run. So, this morning, I decided to take the 2.8K ride to the pet store, but take an alternate route on the return.

This alternate return route takes me past Simms Store and then on thru Tubtubon. This route is 4.4 kilometers, making the total morning ride today 7.2 kilometers. That's certainly more in line with my goal. Add to this the additional 2 kilos in my backpack and this a nice challenge.

The September Reading List

I'm posting the September reading list a bit late. No excuses. I suppose I could blame my tardiness on The Squid Game , but I could have managed to fit this post in with a little effort.

At any rate, the number of books read in September was below my normal average. I'm getting near the end of Agatha Christie novels and I'm just a wee bit burned out. When I've finished reading the novel I'm currently reading ( Postern of Fate ) I will have read the last novel she wrote - although I have three more to read which were written earlier but published afterward.....one not being published until 2014.

There are still a number of short story collections which I haven't read, though those may be put off until much later. There are also a number of works written by Christie under the nom de plume Mary Westmacott. I've only managed to find one of the Mary Westmacott novels available as a free e-book. That will probably be put off until later as well.

Here is the list of the 10 books I read in the month of September.

The Clocks
A Caribbean Mystery
At Bertram's Hotel
Third Girl
Endless Night
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Hallowe'en Party
Passenger to Frankfurt
Nemesis
Elephants Can Remember