/lit/ - Literature

Literary fiction had it's time and place but any time spent in the here and now is for nothing more than historical interest. The last generation of great literary minds knew this and celebrated it. When will you wake up? This is an anonymous board, you have nothing to prove.

When he liked, he could be extraordinarily charming,
sensitive, and tactful; his talk was fascinatingly simple
and elegant, but sometimes it was painfully unpleasant to
listen to him. I always disliked what he said about
women--it was unspeakably vulgar, and there was in his
words something artificial, insincere, and at the same
time very personal. It seemed as if he had once been
hurt, and could neither forget nor forgive. The evening
when I first got to know him, he took me into his
study--it was Khamovnik in Moscow--and, making me sit
opposite to him, began to talk about "Varenka Olesova" and
of "Twenty-six and One."* I was overwhelmed by his tone
and lost my head, he spoke so plainly and brutally,
arguing that in a healthy girl chastity is not natural.
"If a girl who has turned fifteen in healthy, she desires
to be touched and embraced. Her mind is still afraid of
the unknown and of what she does not understand; that is
what they call chastity and purity. But her flesh is
already aware that the incomprehensible is right, lawful,
and, in spite of the mind, it demands fulfillment of the
law. Now you describe `Varenka Olesova" as healthy, but
her feelings are anaemic--that is not true to life."
Then he began to speak about the girl in "Twenty-six
and One," using a stream of indecent words with a
simplicity which seemed to me cynical, and even offended
me. Later I came to see that he used unmentionable words
only because he found them more precise and pointed; but
at the time it was unpleasant to me to listen to him. I
made no reply, and suddenly he became attentive and kindly
and began asking me about my life, what I was studying,
and what I read.
"I am told that you are very well read; is that true?
Is Korelenko a musician?"
"I believe not; but I'm not sure."
"You don't know? Do you like his stories?"
"I do, very much."
"It is by contrast. He is lyrical and you haven't got
that. Have you read Weltmann?"
"Yes."
"Isn't he a good writer, clear, exact, and with no
exaggeration? He is sometimes better than Gogol. He knew
Balzac. And Gogol imitated Marlinsky."

*https://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides8/Twentysix.html

1/2