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/lit/ - Literature

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13511782 No.13511782 [Reply] [Original]

>All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Um, no? What on earth could be his angle with this demonstrably false epigram? My guy even proceeds to write about two families unhappy because of adultery. But even leaving the book out of it, there are only so many realistic reasons for a family to be “unhappy”, and many, many millions of families are.
What am I missing here? I worship Tolstoy but have long begrudged him the wanton brainletism in this epigram. How did he get away with it, and how do so many intelligent and learnéd people admire it like it’s profound?

>> No.13511786

Guy was an unhinged neurotic. Read his autobiography.

>> No.13511791

>>13511786
but confessions is really good.

>> No.13511796

>>13511782
he means that order is simple and disorder is chaotic and complex therefore unique in each instance

>> No.13511804

>>13511796
Except the opposite of true. There is more variety in renaissance paintings than abstraction.

>> No.13511819

>>13511791
It's good in that his life story is interesting and it reflects who he is well. What I meant is it's also going to show how neurotic and manic he can get, hence why a lot of the things he has said can be very inconsistent.

>> No.13511821

>>13511796
>>13511804
Both interesting takes

>> No.13511831

>>13511804
crystals exhibit regular patterns, a turbulent liquid does not, mapping one is highly reducible, the other is a million different unique subsections

a biological organism is complex but has this same regularity, as do renaissance paintings compared to abstract art(abstract art is not merely chaotic it has rules as well even in the painter himself doesnt see them)

>> No.13511840
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13511840

>>13511782
>Takes aphorisms literally

>> No.13511854

>>13511840
Hmm. If it *is* nothing more than a vacuous aphorism equivalent to redneck repartee then it’s unworthy of opening the GOAT novel.

>> No.13513053

>>13511782

Think of it like entropy. Things tend toward disorder, and disorder is always unique exactly because there's no order, it's random, etc. But whatever kind of disordered it is, it's always disordered relative to some order. Even if you say there are different ways to put something in order (putting your clothes away in the dresser or in the closet), you're always putting in the energy to counter disorder, to counter entropy.

All happy families are alike because they've put in the work necessary to live harmoniously together; but unhappy families have all fallen from some ideal of happiness in their own unique ways.

>> No.13513069

>>13511782
>How did he get away with it
BOOK POLICE! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST FOR WRITING THINGS WE DON'T AGREE WITH!

>> No.13513446

>next week, OP discovers it is not actually a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

>> No.13513827

>>13511782
He's not necessarily endorsing that as a rule. He's just suggesting that there's an ideal of how a family should be, and that most existing families are abberations or failed versions of that ideal, which I think is demonstrably true.