"He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars." -William Blake
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Gogol's The Overcoat has an unnamed narrator who relates the story of a lowly Russian government clerk named Akakiy Akakievitch. Day in and day out Akakiy labours away, copying documents at his government office in St. Petersburg. It's tedious work, but Akakiy enjoys it and has no desire to do anything else. Indeed, when a superior attempts to reward him for his dedicated service by giving him more interesting and challenging tasks, Akakiy gets stressed out and asks to go back to his copying. He would be perfectly contented with his lot except for a couple of things, one being his treatment at the hands of the other government employees; no one respects him. His superiors barely notice him, except to hand him documents which they need copied. The other clerks regard him as a figure of fun, with his shabby clothes, diffident manner, and lack of interest in anything except flawlessly copying the papers he's given. They tease and mock Akakiy, though he generally ignores their jibes until they start trying to cause him to make mistakes in his work, by tossing bits of paper onto his head, saying it's snowing, or by jostling his arm. At which point he's goaded into imploring, "Leave me alone! Why do you insult me?" This makes little impression on his tormentors, except for one young fellow who is struck with remorse for his behaviour and leaves off his teasing. The other thing which worries Akakiy is the state of his coat. As winter approaches, he is very cold and achy and realises this is because his cloak has become so old and threadbare that it is no longer protecting him from the elements. He goes to see the tailor- Petrovich- who he usually has mend his clothes. After examining the cloak, Petrovich tells him bluntly that there's not enough of it left to repair anymore and he must have a new overcoat made. Akakiy is dismayed because there is no way he can afford a new coat on his meagre salary. And yet, he must have an overcoat. Doing some calculations, he thinks that he can save up the money needed if he keeps to a very strict budget, forgoes eating an evening meal, and burns no candles. As he spends every night cold, hungry, and in the dark, Akakiy consoles himself with thoughts of the beautiful overcoat Petrovich will make him. And, as he works toward his goal, Akakiy becomes a firmer, more determined man, driven by thoughts of the wonderful new coat, which in his mind he almost regards as a living thing. The anticipated day comes even sooner than Akakiy could have hoped when he receives an unexpectedly large holiday bonus at work. Added to what he has saved, it's enough to pay the tailor. He excitedly goes to see Petrovich, who is just as enthusiastic and gets to work right away on the new overcoat. When it is finished, the new overcoat is beautiful: warm, well-cut, and with a fur collar (cat, because any other fur was too expensive). Akakiy is ecstatic, and for the first time in his life conscious of his clothes; he has never before given any thought to his appearance. But walking to work in his new coat is an unexpected pleasure to him, and his arrival at the office causes a bit of a sensation as everyone is shocked to see dowdy old Akakiy in a stylish coat. As the other clerks exclaim over it and jokingly declare that he must throw a party in honour of his new overcoat, Akakiy is confused and embarrassed by all the attention, not knowing what to say. Just then one of the officials comes into the room, attracted by the commotion. Wanting to show that he is on good terms with his underlings, he volunteers to host a party at his house that evening, and all must come- especially Akakiy and his new coat. (To Be Continued...) Related Posts: Let me just start off by saying that I have no love for Russia, Communism, or Vladimir Putin. Putin's a megalomaniacal lunatic, Communism has been a deadly scourge on humanity for over a century, and as for Russia... well, like most Canadian kids I was raised on tales of the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series. I knew who Paul Henderson was long before I knew who the first Prime Minister of Canada had been. Americans had the Bay of Pigs, Canadians had the Summit Series. For the uninitiated, here's a five minute explanatory video on the real Cold War rivalry: So with that disclaimer out of the way, can I say that the performative cancelling of all things Russian is making me cringe? Pouring out bottles of vodka which have already been paid for is useless theater designed to draw attention to oneself, not actually do anything helpful. And as for that Italian university which declared its intention of removing Dostoyevsky from its reading list because he was Russian... I really don't know what to say to such stupidity. Does anyone actually think Vladimir Putin cares if you throw your copy of The Brothers Karamazov over the back fence or not? If you want to hit Russia where it hurts- financially- STOP BUYING RUSSIAN OIL!! Canada has plenty, and if we didn't have the petulant man child Justin Trudeau as leader, we'd be ramping up domestic oil production and telling Russia and the other corrupt nations we currently buy from to go pound sand. All of this is by way of an explanation for my discussing The Overcoat, a short story by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (who was actually born in the Ukraine). It's ridiculous to retroactively reject great writing from classic authors because we have irreconcilable differences with their country of origin. So I decided to revisit an author whose work I've discussed before- Gogol- mostly because he produced some great short stories and I don't have time right now to start in on something like Anna Karenina. Gogol wrote The Overcoat in 1842, and it is now regarded as one of his best works. Vladimir Nabokov went so far as to call it "The greatest Russian short story ever written." Many others agreed, asserting that this short story influenced the writing of most- if not all- of the Russian authors who came after him. In the words of Marie-Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (or maybe Fyodor Dostoyevsky; the quote's been attributed to both of them): "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." (To Be Continued...) Related Posts:“SNOW FLURRIES BEGAN TO FALL AND THEY SWIRLED AROUND PEOPLE’S LEGS LIKE HOUSE CATS. IT WAS MAGICAL, THIS SNOW GLOBE WORLD.” – SARAH ADDISON ALLEN, ‘THE SUGAR QUEEN’ Related Posts: As anyone who even occasionally reads this blog will know, I almost invariably prefer books to any film- or television- adaptations of them. But as is so often the case, there are some exceptions which prove the rule. One of these is C.S. Forester's novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. This is the first (chronologically, not the first one written) of his Hornblower series, published in 1950. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower tells the tale of Horatio Hornblower's early years in the British navy, when he was a young inexperienced midshipman. It's episodic; each chapter is essentially a short story relating an incident in Horatio's newly begun naval career. It is the stories in this book which are used as a basis for the first Horatio Hornblower miniseries, released in 1998 and starring Ioan Gruffudd as the titular character. Generally I read a book before I watch any adaptations of it, but in this case I was actually inspired to read Mr. Midshipman Hornblower after viewing the miniseries for the first time. And I really enjoyed it. But I do think that, concerning one chapter in particular, I preferred the changes they made for the miniseries to the actual source material. In both the book and the movie, Horatio challenges the cruel bully Mr. Simpson to a duel. It is here that liberties are taken with the plotline. In the novel, the rules of the duel are that only one of the two duelling pistols will be loaded and neither opponent knows which when they fire at each other at point blank range. Unbeknownst to either of them however, their captain has ordered the man loading the pistols to leave both of the weapons unloaded so that when Horatio and Simpson shoot, neither is hit and they assume that the (un)loaded gun just misfired, the end. It's much more dramatic and satisfying in the miniseries though, with both of the pistols loaded and both Horatio and Simpson getting a shot off, though not precisely when they were supposed to due to some last minute treachery from Simpson. So to sum up, I really do think that the duel scene was better written for the miniseries than it was in the novel- genuinely a rarity for me.
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