I believe the only thing I have ever read by Tolstoy was excerpts from his self-important "What is Art?" Only because It was required in a music history class. College was a very long time ago, and all I remember is 1) he seemed very dry and pompous, 2) he felt that the only purpose of art was to convey emotion (yet he deplored overly emotional composers like Rachmaninoff, so in addition to defining art, he also got to define acceptable emotions), and 3) by his definition, he considered later works of Beethoven not to be art at all.
If he were around today, he would definitely be active on Twitter. Though perhaps he would get his wife to do the actual posting for him.
One of the more gripping posts yet, touché. (Heads up, there's a typo in "Tolstoy" in the first mention here ["Tolstoy"]- do you wish to be notified of typos? And if so, in the comments or elsewhere?) Fine, fine work as usual. Thanks for the very cool insights!!
Feb 7, 2023·edited Feb 7, 2023Liked by Marjie Alonso
I finally read Anna Karenina last year and loved it - so this Tolstoy story was FASCINATING to learn about. Because of you I am no longer ignorant (though I DID know what COD is!) Just ordered the pomegranate oolong tea!
I believe the only thing I have ever read by Tolstoy was excerpts from his self-important "What is Art?" Only because It was required in a music history class. College was a very long time ago, and all I remember is 1) he seemed very dry and pompous, 2) he felt that the only purpose of art was to convey emotion (yet he deplored overly emotional composers like Rachmaninoff, so in addition to defining art, he also got to define acceptable emotions), and 3) by his definition, he considered later works of Beethoven not to be art at all.
If he were around today, he would definitely be active on Twitter. Though perhaps he would get his wife to do the actual posting for him.
One of the more gripping posts yet, touché. (Heads up, there's a typo in "Tolstoy" in the first mention here ["Tolstoy"]- do you wish to be notified of typos? And if so, in the comments or elsewhere?) Fine, fine work as usual. Thanks for the very cool insights!!
Still giggling over War and Peace and beach read being in the same sentence.
I'm thinking you need to write history books for public education!
<music> I've got my mind set on you.... <\music>. Thanks for the earworm. I don't remember it from my forced reading of W&P!
I finally read Anna Karenina last year and loved it - so this Tolstoy story was FASCINATING to learn about. Because of you I am no longer ignorant (though I DID know what COD is!) Just ordered the pomegranate oolong tea!
Write On!