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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
"The Vagina of my Life
is so stretched
out — Eileen Myles
Balzac is writing here like Tolstoy (in the sense that he's conveying a hatred of frigid bitches only slightly less intense than his hatred of the syndicated literature review). The point of interest doesn't lie in the chief character's punishment for use of the subjunctive tense. (I once had a professor who dealt out punishments no less harsh for use of the past imperfect.) It occurs, rather, after that romantic outing in which the chief character has managed to forget himself in "a pleasant abiding here and now" and yet manages no mistake. This is followed by the small anagnorisis (petite-mort) in which he notices a fractional retraction of the magic skin. A poisoning of regular happiness, to always be dependent on a convivialité one knows to be false. I wonder about the coincidence between the shrinkage of that glabrous skin after a pleasant episode of verbal intercourse and Balzac's knowledge of anatomy. Because he appears to be associating, in the negative movement, the stretching of the female organ that was once thought to be associated with the act. A skin that shrinks down to nothing and magically ends your life has its corollary in the moment when "the vagina of your life is so stretched out" that, to Balzac, you're as good as dead.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Le beau monde bannit de son sein les malheureux, comme un homme de santé vigoureuse expulse de son corps un principe morbifique; il abhorre les douleurs et les infortunes; il les redoute à l'égal des contagions, et n'hésite jamais entre elles et les vices : le vice est un luxe. Quelque majestueux que soit un malheur, la société sait l'amoindrir, le ridiculiser par une épigramme. Elle dessine des caricatures pour jeter à la tête des rois déchus les affronts qu'elle en recevait naguère; ressemblant à la Romaine au cirque, elle ne fait jamais grâce au gladiateur qui tombe. Elle vit d'or et de moquerie. Mort aux faibles!... est le vœu de cette espèce d'ordre équestre. Cette sentence est écrite au fond de tous les cœurs opulens.
Rassemblez-vous des enfans dans un collége?... Cette image en raccourci de la société, mais image d'autant plus vraie qu'elle est plus naïve et plus franche, vous offre toujours de pauvres ilotes, créatures de souffrance et de douleur, incessamment placées entre le mépris et la pitié.
L'Évangile leur promet le ciel!...
Rassemblez-vous des enfans dans un collége?... Cette image en raccourci de la société, mais image d'autant plus vraie qu'elle est plus naïve et plus franche, vous offre toujours de pauvres ilotes, créatures de souffrance et de douleur, incessamment placées entre le mépris et la pitié.
L'Évangile leur promet le ciel!...
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Relu, vingt ans après, pour les corrections du bac. J'en gardais un bon souvenir mais c'est peut-être un des pires Balzac, d'une lourdeur vraiment harassante, roman qui pourrait aisément tenir dans une nouvelle de 100 pages... dans ce récit écrit au debut de sa carrière, on sent que le romancier n'est pas encore maître de ses moyens et tire péniblement à la ligne. Quel supplice de lecture !
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Balzac briskly makes Raphael pick up the magical donkey skin on page 31. He does not mention it again until p.138.
He made fun of everything, his own prospects included. Always short of money, he remained, like all men with a future before them, wallowing in inexpressible idleness, condensing a whole book into one epigram for the benefit of people who were incapable of putting one witticism into a whole book. Lavish of promises that he never kept, he had made his fortune and reputation into a cushion on which he slept, thus running the risk of coming to his senses, as an old man, in an almshouse. With all that, keeping faith with his friends to the point of death, a swaggering cynic and as simple-hearted as a child, he worked only by fits and starts or under the spur of necessity.
This marked my return to Balzac, a welcome one after many years. When I spend time with my friends' children I make point of telling them to avoid Zola and stick with Balzac.
The Wild Ass's Skin is simply stunning. The depictions of emotional uncertainty and the fluctuations of fortune were remarkable. The display of ornate and obscure objects, avocations and sundry theory were equally compelling.
This marked my return to Balzac, a welcome one after many years. When I spend time with my friends' children I make point of telling them to avoid Zola and stick with Balzac.
The Wild Ass's Skin is simply stunning. The depictions of emotional uncertainty and the fluctuations of fortune were remarkable. The display of ornate and obscure objects, avocations and sundry theory were equally compelling.