08:00 – With the breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death, I didn’t do any reading toward the end of last night. So that set me up with a mission this morning – to read Isaac Babel’s Guy de Maupassant (there’s an online version of it HERE). Just finished it and first thoughts? Wow this Russian needs a bucket of cold water thrown over him. His obsession with breasts would make a British builder blush. Joking aside though, this a really nice story in which the writings of De Maupassant are used as a ‘weapon’ of seduction. What I love most about the story is how Babel contrasts the romanticism of De Maupassant’s fiction with the sad reality of his later life. Clever stuff.
Reading the story actually set me off on a bit of a hunt. In the story Babel makes brief reference to Edouard de Maynial’s 1906 biography La vie et l’oeuvre de Guy de Maupassant. Sadly I couldn’t track down an English translation of this text (anyone?), but with one thing leading to another I did find an interesting article on De Maupassant written by Tolstoy in 1894. Downloaded on to the Sony for later consumption. Also found a 1907 article from the New York Times discussing Edouard de Maynial’s De Maupassant biography (downloadable PDF). Will try to fit that in later too. Wahoo..great start to the day.
11:45 – Enjoyed an unexpected 25 minutes of reading outside the supermarket. Wife was inside getting a few bits and pieces while I sat outside, in the sun, with the dog tied up next to me, reading that earlier Tolstoy article I spoke about. It was actually quite a warming experience, and I don’t just mean the sun. There’s shoppers rushing around finding parking spaces, juggling with shopping and generally getting stressed out. And there’s me ‘listening’ to Tolstoy talk about the nuances in De Maupassant’s writings – pure heaven! Sadly never finished the article. Will have to try and fit the rest in later.
13:00 – Arrived home to find three books delivered. Cue bookish euphoria for around 20 minutes. What were the books? Can’t say but you’ll find out soon enough. One I’m very excited about – think ‘Scandinavian’ and think ‘crime’. Enough said!
18:00 – Bath time and an opportunity to finally launch myself into Tsotsi (Canongate). Yeah I know I’ve not put my ‘forethoughts’ up for it yet, but I’ve written the draft, so the reading isn’t going to affect my initial thoughts. Only got myself up to Chapter 6 (71 pages) but so far, so good. In his introduction Kaplan paints the tsotsis as being a ruthless bunch, and Fugard certainly paints that impression to great effect in the opening chapters. Character called Butcher. Easy to figure out if he has a capacity towards violence (which he does). I guess it’s all part of Fugard’s ‘masterplan’ in providing a juxtaposition for Tsotsi’s promised ‘turnaround’ in the second half. We’ll see.
22:45 – Nothing too major planned for the rest of the evening. I want to finish the already-mentioned Tolstoy article and read the 1907 NYT article on De Maynial’s Maupassant biography. That’ll probably be enough but if not I’ll get tick off a bit more of Tsotsi.
About Rob
