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Jan. 29, 2007 Brian Barbeito has pontificated that Fyodor Dostoevsky" stands at the top of the list of the greatest writers of all time" and that "there is nobody standing beside him." He is "hands down the writer of literature." I disagree. I know of several writers that I consider equal or superior to Dostoevsky. But that is beside the point. Barbeito would certainly be entitled to his opinion if he had read all the great writers that have lived. But there is no way that he can have done any such thing in his 30-odd years. He is merely parroting stereotyped opinions that he may have read in reviews or blurbs. I would be willing to wager that Barbeito has not read "The Quiet Don" for example, which in my opinion is far superior to "The Brothers Karamazov". I read both of those books in Russian. It took me a month to read "The Brothers Karamazov" and a little longer to read "The Quiet Don". So I have some idea of what I am talking about. Barbeito says of Dostoevsky, "Whoever you are, Dostoevsky was writing about you." Dostoevsky was not writing about me; I resent the suggestion that he was. Of the four brothers Karamazov, one was a libertine, one was a sometime Christian monk, one was an illegitimate patricide and one was the member of the fashionable local intelligentsia. I don't see myself among them. If, despite my wager, Barbeito has indeed read Sholokhov, has he read Homer, Vergil, Balzac, Voltaire, Tolstoy, Goethe, Cervantes and Solzhenitsyn? I think that if he has not these and many other authors, it is very presumptuous of him to make remarks like those I quoted above. So let me take this young upstart down a peg or two. Barbeito next turns to Shakespeare, writing, "Shakespeare, whomever (sic) he was, had a knack for getting it right too. Put (sic) are plays literature? Shakespeare is, even once translated to everyday English, convoluted and somewhat righteous. He knew about the deficiencies of the human heart, and the Miltonian ways of God to men, but he is not relevant today…" I personally am a little offended to think that someone pretending to speak intelligently about Shakespeare seems to need to have him "translated". What's so difficult about Shakespeare in the first place? I read Shakespeare's plays with no great difficulty, save for an occasional obsolete word. Statements like, "He knew about the deficiencies of the human heart," strike me as empty words. They don't tell me anything. One could utter such a pronouncement about Agatha Christie, Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming, Shmuel Agnon, Naguib Mahfouz or anyone. Barbeito really outdoes himself when he says that Shakespeare knew about "the Miltonian ways of God to men." Given that Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616 and Milton from 1608 to 1674, one would have to conclude either that "Miltonian ways" antedated Milton himself or that Barbeito is making outlandish statements. He might as well say that Shakespeare was a thoroughgoing Freudian, or that he was influenced by Henry James. Barbeito calls Dickens the "Rockwellesque" writer of the ages. This mystifies me entirely. Is he talking about the late Neo-Nazi, George Lincoln Rockwell? Is he talking about Norman Rockwell, popular painter of domestic scenes? Is he talking about Karen Rockwell, a city councilor from Port Moody, British Columbia? Then Barbeito discusses James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Herman Hesse, with more of the same generalities. He says, for example, "Hemingway is America." I hope Barbeito doesn't include me in what he calls "America". I have no use for an alcoholic bullfight-fan and big game hunter who deliberately used monosyllables in order to sound "macho". I prefer people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. So Barbeito's critique should not be taken very seriously. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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