So just finished re-reading The Death of Ivan Ilych. The first time I read it, I hated it. It was too painful and drawn out and I didn’t really get it.  This time, though, especially having just read Anna Karenina and War and Peace, it really took me by surprise. I also really appreciate the little linguistic details. Like, Ivan Ilych’s surname is “Golovin”, which comes from “golova,” which means “head,” and for the duration of his illness he’s trying to reason himself back to health, or at least think himself to self-justification of his life..

Unfortunately, all the short stories of Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and even Chekhov (eek) are mixed up in my mind, especially Gogol and Dostoevsky. I need to go back and make some sort of chart. It also doesn’t help when the covers are so similar.

(is this really the formula for anthology of works by any given Russian author? said author sits on bench and looks pensive, with trees in the background? hmm.)

So it’s been a little while, what with getting back to the grind and everything, but I’m back. getting so excited to graduate! and spring in the northeast is maybe the best thing ever.

finally finished rereading Anna Karenina, and this is still one of my favorite quotes:

Reasoning led him into doubt and kept him from seeing what he should and should not do.  Yet when he did not think, but lived, he constantly felt in his soul the presence of an infallible judge who decided which of two possible actions was better and which was worse; and whenever he did not act as he should, he felt it at once.

Despite the self-contained ethics of this idea, living well by intuition and not by planning or reason is much easier, I think. Besides it’s the right kind of thought process for the spring.

A year ago, I thought that I would have things considerably more planned out than I do now.  But that’s the way it goes, right?