War & Peace Thursday: Part 3, Chapter 2

[osprey_archer]

You know, my literature classes always gave me the vague idea that no writers had noticed that war was terrible until the war poets during World War I, but actually Tolstoy seems to be pretty on top of the whole "War, kind of unpleasant" thing too. He even has a scene where the French and the Russian soldiers clown around together on the eve of battle, and the absurdity of the whole war is briefly exposed and it seems that there is nothing to do but for them to all go home, but of course the generals have other ideas and soon everyone is shooting at each other.

It is a bit less grindingly miserable than Sassoon, I guess. Perhaps the war poets are different from earlier war writers is not that they realize war is awful, but that they reject the idea that war despite its awfulness offers any opportunity for ennobling personal heroism? This seems like the kind of nuance I would have missed as a high school student.

Having said this, I know Tolstoy became a radical pacifist later in his life, so it's entirely possible that by the end of War and Peace he too will have rejected the idea of war as a vehicle for ennobling personal heroism. I'll just have to wait in see.

And now we're back at Peace again! (So far, at least, each part seems to be alternating from peace to war and back again.) Young Pierre is in Moscow, utterly befuddled by how nice everyone is being to him now that he has come into the possession of a large fortune and vast estates. On the one hand, I sort of feel like he should notice they're flattering him disgracefully, but on the other hand, how could he? They're so good at this flattery thing. So subtle, so thoughtful.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I thought the war chapters of Les Mis were also pretty clear on the chaos and misery of war.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I, uh, I may have skimmed quite a lot of the Waterloo chapters in Les Mis. So I wouldn't know.

The insurrection later on is eventually a bloodbath, but there are also stirring scenes of heroic sacrifice and noble death, and I think a lot of readers (particularly younger readers) feel that the Amis are tragic, romantic, glorious martyrs. So from a certain point of view it makes war (or at least violent uprising?) attractive, even though it's also terrible.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

It's not that hard a thing to notice! Euripides seems to have noticed, for example.

Whenever there's a major cultural shift, it's hard not to present the decade leading up to it as static, and of course it can feel that way to people who lived through it. It's not that there wasn't plenty of exhaustion and cynicism about turn-of-the century wars, but if you're a schoolkid in 1914 in a militaristic society, that's not a persepective you're likely to see a lot of.

I think Tolstoy is fairly skeptical about the idea of personal heroism in war, or at least it's possible to interpret War and Peace that way. I should get around to reading some W&P criticism one of these days.

Awww, Pierre. It's so nice to be liked! I'm so glad people are finally starting to realize how great a guy he is! And to think, he finally has all these friends, just when he's in a position to help them out financially - what a lucky coincidence! <3

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I have actually never read any of the ancient Greeks (except a few books of the Odyssey - in translation, of course - which I did not appreciate). Someday I should correct this.

I'm sure that's EXACTLY what Pierre is thinking, too. "Gosh, I'm so glad that I can help all my new friends!" Oh Pierre. His father should have given more thought to training him in dealing with all that wealth before designating Pierre as his heir.