Crime and Punishment: Approaching a novel from a Musicological Lens

So I'm reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.  I'm only on Chapter 4 or so, but I'm loving it.

My Russian-speaking friends recommended the translation by Richard pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.  The edition I found provided a really good introduction by W. J. Leatherbarrow that goes through some highlights of Dostoevsky's life.  It is incredible.  Turns out the guy was part of a group of writers who ended up getting sentenced to death for crimes against the government... only to be revoked of their death sentence in an act of "compassion" by the Tsar at the moment of their execution.  He was then sentenced to exile in Siberia.  Most of the events in Crime and Punishment were inspired by his time in exile.

I'm sorry, but the life of a modern author just isn't as cool.

Anyway, after finishing a paper on Modest Mussorgsky, who wrote his opera Boris Godunov at around the same time Crime and Punishment was published, I figured it would be interesting to look at a literary account of Russian society and values in the 1860s.

I'm discovering that the different arts are in fact not as distinct and separate from each other as I originally had thought.  Novelists often inspire musicians; visual artists inspire poets; filmmakers inspire fashion designers, etc.  All are born from the same social fabric.  I enjoy being in a field that allows me to also explore my interests in visual art, literature, and other fields.

A depiction of Our Lady of Kazan, the most famous Orthodox Russian icon, dating back to 1579.

Listening to: Johnny Ace, "Pledging my Love" and Vivaldi's Concerto in C for Two Trumpets

Blessings:  An easy semester, German-speaking friends, and men with beards. 

A Thought about Composers and Artists

Tell me why, when I listen to the conversation of young artists, painters, or sculptors, I can follow their thoughts and understand their opinions and aims, and I seldom hear them mention technique, save in certain cases of absolute necessity?  On the other hand, when If ind myself among musicians I rarely hear them utter a living idea; one would think they were still at school; they know nothing of anything but technique and 'shop-talk.'  Is the art of music so young that it has to be studied in this puerile way?

-- Modest Mussorgsky

A man, in our times, if only he possesses such a talent and selects some specialty, may, after learning the methods of counterfeiting used in his branch of art, if he has patience and if his aesthetic feeling... be atrophied, unceasingly, till the end of his life, turn out works which will pass for art in our society. To produce such counterfeits, definite rules or recipes exist in each branch of art. So that the talented man, having assimilated them, may produce such works a froid, cold drawn, without any feeling.

...

"It is impossible for us, with our culture, to return to a primitive state," say the artists of our time. "It is impossible for us now to write such stories as that of Joseph or the Odyssey, to produce such statues as the Venus of Milo, or to compose such music as the folk-songs." 

 And indeed, for the artists of our society and day, it is impossible, but not for the future artist, who will be free from, all the perversion of technical improvements hiding the absence of subject-matter, and who, not being a professional artist and receiving no payment for his activity, will only produce art when he feels impelled to do so by an irresistible inner impulse.

--Leo Tolstoy

A profound statement about what makes an "American"

In 1937 the anthropologist Ralph Linton published an article entitled "One-Hundred Percent American."  "There can be no question about the average American's Americanism or his desire to preserve his precious heritage at all costs," wrote Linton.  "Nevertheless, some insidious foreign ideas have already wormed their way into his civilization without his realizing what was going on."  These "insidious ideas" -- derived from the cultures of Asia, the Near East, Europe, Africa, and native America -- include pajamas, the toilet, soap, the toothbrush, the chair, shoes, the mirror, coffee, fermented and distilled drinks, the cigar, and even the newspaper.  On the train to work, Linton's "average American" reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters invented by the ancient Semites by a process invented in Germany on a material invented in China.  as he scans the latest editorial pointing out the dire results to our institutions of accepting foreign ideas, he thanks a Hebrew God in an Indo-European language that he is 100 percent (decimal system invented by the Greeks) american (from Americus Vespucci, Italian geographer).

--Larry Starr, Christopher Waterman
American Popular Music Second Edition 2007

Listening to:  Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors"
Learned:  The Japanese have a tradition where they make art out of food.  This technique is called Bento.  Google it.  It's like amped-up school lunch!
Blessings:  Cool roommates.  A sister.  A bank.
Things going on today:  Bought a wig.  Paid for Gas.  Didn't find a Charles Schwab bank.

Heart Of Darkness: A quick, yet confusing read.

If you didn't get my hint, that was a photo still from the movie Apocalypse Now.  I had to watch that movie back in my senior year, and while there are parts I wish I could forget, I remember enough of that movie to be able to compare it to the book upon which it is based:  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

The book and the movie are not very similar.  Even the very settings in which they are placed are strikingly different.  Heart of Darkness is set in Imperialist-era Africa, while Apocalypse Now takes place in Vietnam during America's controversial involvement there back in the 70's.  The character Marlow remains the ultimate perspective for both stories, but Apocalypse Now seemed like a more life-altering and disillusioning experience than what Marlow saw in the novel.  Heart of Darkness was rather dry.  Most of it was talking and observing simple natural phenomenon as Marlow travels to meet the man named Kurtz, who is present in both stories.  There were some parts where I wondered exactly who was speaking at one time.  Very few characters are brought into the limelight enough for me to recognize them as they perform various plot tasks. Perhaps this was what Conrad's intention, but it was difficult for me to follow the different personalities and to gauge their importance in the entire plot.

Simply put, this book probably was made cooler by the movie.  This doesn't make my favorites list, but maybe if I read it again, it would make more sense.

Listening to:  Big Bang Theory
Blessings:  Blankets, Saturdays.
Learned:  That there is more than one day to fix an 80's speaker system.
Things Going On Today:  Work.  Tried to try out for Staheli's choir, but he never opened his door.

My Next Literary Adventure...

My next read:

Here's a hint.  Hopefully someone understands this reference.

Listening to:  Officer Jenny, "I saw the sky collapse."
Things going on today:  Olympics.  Missionaries over for breakfast.
Learned:  A little about the Relay races at the Olympics.
Blessings:  Mirrors.  Matching dress sizes.  Grandmas.

Portrait of a Lady

Finished Henry James' Portrait of a Lady this week.  Not my favorite book ever, but it had its good points.  I guess the best part about the book is the independent women.  Isabel Archer Osmond, while not the best example because she does end up marrying a misogynistic scum-bag, is a fiery character with lots of great ideas for herself and her future.  I may be wrong, but I think most women during that day and age were not given many opportunities to express their opinions or do what they wanted to do, so in a way this lifestyle is pretty revolutionary for its time.  Isabel wouldn't just marry the first rich guy to cross her path.  She sort of rejects three guys before she settles down.  But, UNfortunately, she is still sort of used and abused by society and ends up getting pushed into an "arranged" marriage after all. And in this marriage, she is stripped of a lot of her agency as a woman. So, like I said, she's not the best example.
But there are others.  Look at Herietta Stackpole, for example.  She not only gets married until the end of the book, but she's a business woman!  She writes!  How often do you see one of THOSE in nineteenth-century novels.  A woman of letters!  In the book, lots of people don't have a lot of respect for her.  She's intimidating and modern.  But I appreciate her spunk and her willingness to just do what she wants and serve those she loves.
My favorite character in the book is Ralph Touchett.  He's the most loyal, sweet, and wise person in the book.  The one who's always there, always willing to forgive, even if you make the stupid choice.  I'm glad Isabel learns to really appreciate him in the end.
 Something I learned from this book that I want to take with me into my own relationships:  First impressions can be very deceiving.  When you are dating someone, try to get to know the ENTIRE person before you decide to settle down with them.  Isabel thought she knew her husband Gilbert really well, but it turns out that he was not only a sour, somewhat emotionally abusive codger, but he was in some pretty big scandals in his younger years.  No wife ever wants to find out what Isabel finds out about Gilbert.  So watch out!  Demand honesty in a relationship.  Settle for nothing less than someone who loves you entirely.  Someone who will put you first and respect your opinions, not wish you didn't have any.  Sure, people make mistakes and they deserve a second chance, but keeping it a secret is not the way you go about deserving that second chance.  I never liked Gilbert Osmond from the start.  But more and more he is reminding me of some people I've seen in my life that I invested too much in.  They always end up disappointing you, but it's hard to leave them once you've started.  The very end of this book reflects that truth.

Listening to:  Officer Jenny's Album, "Grape Crayons."  It's super indie.
Things Going On Today:  Ran errands with dad.  Grocery shopping with mom.  It's good to be home.
Blessings:  Home.  Cars.  Coupons.
Learned:  How to change the oil in a car.

Let's Play the Guessing Game...

My next reading adventure:

  

  

I'll give you a clue.  What do all of these pictures have in common?

Listening to:  "He Calls Home" by Candlebox
Things Going On Today:  Come home from a Girl's night sleepover with my old roommate.
Learned:  Candlebox...  Why it exists.
Blessings:  Rain.

Anna Anna Bo-Banna

FINISHED Anna Karenina. 


FINALLY.  

That took FOREVER.  Over eight hundred pages and two whole semesters later, I can finally say that I have completely read an entire work by Leo Tolstoy.  I am so proud of myself, and the best part is that it was IN NO WAY a waste of time, reading that book.  

Tolstoy lived during a time when the family unit was beginning to fall under a lot of scrutiny and ridicule.  For many, families weren't the solution to society's problems anymore.  Love between couples didn't always last.  Divorce became more acceptable and frequent. Tolstoy, however, believed that the family had an important role in society.  He shared a lot of similar beliefs that members of the LDS Church have about divorce and family relationships.  He also had strong feelings about equality in society, as well as the Russian systems of government.  I won't go into the political can of worms, but I'd like to talk a little bit more about the more social aspects discussed in Anna Karenina.     

Anna Karenina is all about relationships.  Relationships that work, and relationships that don't work. Tolstoy begins his novel by saying, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  He then backs up this profound statement by telling the stories of a series of characters who form relationships with each other.  Even though they all have different circumstances, I see that they all have one thing in common:  They are all seeking happiness for themselves, and almost all of them fail miserably at finding it.  Anna ends up super paranoid that Vronsky's going to abandon her.  Dolly becomes this jaded and miserable woman who doesn't understand her husband. Oblonsky falls into debt. Vronsky is so worked up about his image in society that he kind of ignores the really important problems that are going on at home.  Kitty ends up getting her heart broken hard-core when Vronsky picks Anna over her. Shortly put, there are lots of unhappy people in this novel, and they all become unhappy for a variety of reasons, just as Tolstoy hypothesized.  

BUT.. there is one couple in the novel that ends up happy in the end.  That is Levin and Kitty.  Why?  What is that thing that they share with other happy families?  I think Tolstoy hits on the answer to that question in the last few pages of his book.  My favorite character in the book is Levin, because he's always so sincere and meek and he just wants to make the world a better place.  He's falls in love with Kitty, and after a lot of pursuing, he finally wins her and they end up married.  But then he learns pretty fast that marriage ain't one big picnic and he still has the same insecurities and problems that he had before.  Levin is struggling over the moral dilemma of how to treat the poor, and he wonders if there really is a God out there who cares.  After months of depression and confusion, Levin finally has this epiphany and learns that TRUE happiness comes from TRUE goodness, and TRUE goodness is free from selfishness and thought of reward.  We shouldn't be doing good things in order to avoid a punishment or to get a blessing.  We should just be good because good is good.  It has nothing to do with what we want, or what someone else wants, or what the world wants.  We just need to care about what God, who is the ultimate epitome of goodness, wants. It's a "My will, not thy will" philosophy.  And that's the key to a happy life and a happy marriage.  If both you and your spouse are working to do what God wants you to do, you'll be happy together. Levin soon finds out that it's not as easy as it sounds, being good ALL the time, but as long as you've got the right attitude, you're trying hard, and you have the goal in mind, you can be assured that you will be able to find happiness in any situation.  

On the more negative flip side, there are characters in the book who THINK they can find happiness by being selfish and only caring about fulfilling their own desires, but that only leads to a world of instability, heartache, and misery.  Look at Anna.  She thought that she'd be happy with Vronsky, but by having the affair she lost the respect of people she cared about, and she was forever separated from her son (who was a much more true source of happiness), and she ended up killing herself out of jealousy and revenge for something Vronsky never did.  What I've learned from Anna is this: Disobedience and dishonesty eventually will lead to bad things.  There's a very practical thing that I sort of wish couples today could understand. If you are unfaithful to your spouse or partner, who's to say that the person you're cheating with won't up and betray you just as quickly?  And really, deep down, I think Anna knew that what she did was wrong, and you just can't be happy if you're living in constant guilt and shame.  Furthermore, I think another reason why Anna and Vronsky failed was because they didn't really communicate.  Vronsky tried really hard, but Anna never really said exactly what was on her mind.   She'd just get mad for no apparent reason.  How do you think that made Vronsky feel?  The key here is this:  You need to actually TELL your husband what's wrong.  If you have a problem, talk about it.  Be candid.  Say how you feel.  Be specific.  If you bottle up your feelings, you may end up going stinking crazy like Anna did.  You may not end up throwing yourself under a train, but I'll tell ya, it's a miserable existence when you constantly feel misunderstood.  You don't have to feel that way.  

This book hit on a lot of subjects that I think are very important for us today.  It's definitely shaped the way I go about my relationships with my roommates, my family, and my boyfriend.  I think good novels reveal truth about the human experience.  Anna Karenina definitely does this for me.  

PS

Remember those pictures of Kierra Knightly and Jude Law that I posted?  The reason why I used them as clues for guessing this book is because there is a MOVIE being made based off of this novel.  It's currently in post-production and is set to release on the Ninth of November.  Kierra, of course, is playing Anna and Jude Law is going to be her husband Karenin.  Check out this picture!  It's so epic!!  I'm SO EXCITED.  

Listening to:  "All Alone" by Fun. 

Blessings: Three-day Weekends. 

Learned:  Leo Tolstoy had thirteen children.  He was born in 1828 and he died at a Railway station (which is ironic... That's where Anna died.) in 1910. This was right before the Communist revolution in 1917.  I wonder how Tolstoy felt about the Communists.  

Things Going On Today:  A barbecue... or maybe a recital.  I don't know which one I'm going to yet.   

My Next Read...

What am I reading now??
Here's a hint:

Guess guess guess!

In the meantime, I'm adding Jude Law to my Hot Guy Hall of Fame...


Listening to:  Some 50's TV show
Blessings:  CHRISTMAS BREAK.
Learned:  Jude Law is seriously balding.
Things going on tonight:  Probably just watching crap on TV and doing more laundry...

Whale of a Tale

AUGH!  I never geeked out about Moby Dick!!

It is an INCREDIBLE book, overall.  Herman Melville has created an iconic book -- from the first words, "Call Me Ishmael," to the intense and quite forbidding epilogue.  I don't want to give anything away, if you haven't heard the ending already, but I find the whole work to be incredibly allegorical and filled with symbolism.
I also have a word of advice for anyone who reads anything.  READ THE INTRODUCTION before you start and READ THE AFTERWORD when you finish.  It might also be a good idea to read the introduction AGAIN after you've finished, as well.  You just understand the book so much more with an outsider's perspective.  It gives you things that the author doesn't explicitly say, things you wouldn't otherwise catch within the work.  I learned from the introduction not only things about the book, but things about the author.  Did you know that Herman Melville was a sailor himself?  Did you know he got kidnapped and marooned on islands infested with cannibals?  And he survived!  Did you know his works were considered pop fiction back when they were first published?  These little tidbits about Melville help me more appreciate the parts of the book that get a little verbose.  It's obvious that he loves whaling and sailing, and he likes to talk about how cool it is by explaining every little detail you can experience on a whaling voyage.
The way Melville creates his characters is also ingenious.  While most of the perspective comes from the character Ishmael, he uses context and dialogue to create these intense characters.  Ahab?  Intense.  Full of wrath and vengeance that looks contained from the outside, but inside, he's a raging volcano.  Starbuck?  Probably the least noticed character.  Most people don't pay attention to him in the movies.  But he learns quite a bit about morality and duty in the book. Don't forget Starbuck.
There's also so much irony in the book.  Irony and symbolism.  Ahab's coin.  Queequeg's coffin.  The whiteness of Moby Dick.  And then there's this biblical allegory.  Good versus evil.  God versus Man.  Fate verses free choice.  You can approach this book from so many angles, and the ending is EPIC.
The ending can't be epic, however, if you don't read through all of the book.  All of Ishmael's (Melville's?) monologues about whaling lead up to the climax.  You have to learn what being a whaler is like before you can truly empathize with the characters and understand the importance of events that occur.  Plus, it's fun, learning so much about whales and how to hunt them.  You even learn about man's understanding of whales through the centuries, and how they were perceived.  It's quite fascinating, if you allow yourself to get into it.
Also, watch the movie after you're done.  I would suggest the one made back in 1956.  You'll find some famous names were involved in its creation.  Ray Bradbury (the famous author of books like Farenheit 451) was one of the screenplay writers for the film.  The cast includes Gregory Peck (who also played Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird and Joe Bradley in Audrey Hepburn's movie premiere Roman Holiday) and Orson Welles (who plays the foreshadowing Father Mapple and gives a rousing narrative of the story of Jonah in this film).  These actors are pretty amazing.  I mean, word's can't quite describe the eeriness of this face:

 

Clockwork Orange, anybody?

I was able to watch the entire movie (no commercials or anything!) on Youtube for free.  I would highly suggest it to anyone who appreciates old movies.  Of course the whale isn't too realistic, but it was made in the '50s...

Another version was made for TV in 1998, and another feature film was released in 2010.  I had never heard about the 2010 version before I researched it, so it must not have been very good.  It's set in the 1950's, during the Red Scare.  An American ship has crossed into Soviet waters, and a white whale looms beneath the ocean's surface.  I wonder how they would portray that.

Anyway... If you're up to it, you should read this book.  I was obsessed with it for a few days after I finished it.  It just leaves you with so much to think about. 


Listening to:  A telephone ring.
Things going on today:  Went to Deseret Book and JoAnn fabrics.
Blessings: Hospitals and cellphones.
Learned:  Gregory Peck won an Oscar in To Kill a Mockingbird for his performance as Atticus Finch.  He died in 2003 at age 87, and was an advocate for worker's rights.  His imposing stature often caused him to be type-casted in roles that involved leadership or authority.

What am I reading Next?

This should give you a clue...

Listening to:  Nothing at the moment.
Things Going on Today:  My friend Annabell is getting married!!!
Blessings:  Weddings.
Learned:  The guy who plays Ladislaw on the BBC version of Middlemarch is also the guy who plays Willoughby in BBC's Sense and Sensibility.

Middlemarch: George Eliot's Guide to a Good Marriage

I guess I haven't told you this, but I plan on reading the 100 best books of all time, and the first book on my list was Middlemarch by (a woman named ) George Eliot.  It was 896 pages of good ol' Victorian age British writing about three provincial couples who lived around 1832.

I grew very attached to the characters in this book, particularly to the characters of Lydgate, Fred, and Dorothea.  All three of these characters had goals that were somehow frustrated by outside forces like death, debt, and social position. What these three characters had in common was that people had trouble understanding them.  Dorothea wished to marry the man of her choice, but others did not feel he was a good match.  Fred wished to marry his childhood sweetheart, but others felt that he is unworthy of her love.  And poor debt-stricken Lydgate tried to maintain a happy marriage in the face of poverty, but his wife did not support him.  The story of Lydgate is probably the one I responded to the most.  There were points while I was reading it that I became simply enraged at the character Rosamond.  She had no conscience whatsoever, and just could not see what a little brat she was.

This book stresses on a particular idea that I am pretty obsessed with: What makes a good marriage?  All three of the major plots in Middlemarch revolve around picking good matches for marriage and then remaining loyal to them in the face of trial.  Each character handled the task differently.  From the start, headstrong Dorothea picked a man who may not have been perfectly suited for her.  Mr. Casaubon was old, cold, unfeeling toward his wife's passions and feelings. And once Mr. Ladislaw entered into the picture, he became jealous and suspicious.  Dorothea could not be truly happy with him, but she maintains her love for him almost like a victim of abuse.  There's this attitude women have -- even today -- where they allow men to walk all over them.  When Mr. Casaubon dies, Dorothea has to make a choice:  Will she remain faithful to her dead husband's wishes, or will she make her own decisions in life and choose to be with the one she truly loves, the one who sees her as an equal.
Rosamond has the opposite problem.  She doesn't do anything her husband asks her to do.  This is also undesirable in a marriage.  I felt like Lydgate was wronged by Rosamond because she made herself an enemy to him by being secretive and cunning.  The MOST IMPORTANT thing in marriage is TRUST.  If you aren't able to trust your spouse, then the marriage completely falls apart.  It can also easily be seen that Lydgate and Rosamond had different priorities for happiness, and I personally feel like Rosamond's need for a big house and a lot of furniture was an irrational one.  There are more important things than material wealth.  Your love for your husband should transcend the earthly tribulations that come.  "For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health..."  George Elliot points out directly that the problems faced by Rosamond in a marriage are not unique to her relationship with Lydgate.  Every marriage has its level of sacrifice, because you're not just looking after yourself anymore.  It's a two-way street.  It's a compromise.
As for Miss Mary and her Fred, I feel like the lesson I pull away from them is that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover.  Fred was definitely not the cream of the crop when it comes to being a suitor for marriage.  Mary could have chosen many other men -- including Mr. Farebrother -- who could promise a lot more than Fred ever could.  But Mary saw through the worldly qualities of her potential husbands and looked on the love that lay within.  Fred loved Mary truly, and Mary saw this.  So, despite the almost certain poverty and ill opinion of her family, she went ahead and married Fred.  She, like Rosamond and Dorothea, put aside her worldly desires and married out of love.
That, I think, is the moral of the story.  You don't choose to marry someone because they are rich or powerful or because your parents want you to.   You choose to marry someone because you love them and you want to be with them above all else.  Marriage is a risk, but I believe it to be a risk well worth taking.

My favorite quote by Eliot in Middlemarch:

Our deeds still travel with us from afar,

And what we have been makes us what we are.

I give it...

Four out of five stars.  Amazing, approachable characters, good plot flow, great lessons to take away, but tends to drag at certain parts and somewhat difficult to read if you don't have a good sense of Victorian vocabulary.  If you choose to read this book, please remember that it was first published in 1871.

Listening to:  THUNDERRRRR!!!
Things Going On Today:  I see DAUGHTRY in concert, I wake up late, thunderstorms.
Blessings:  A bed.  The internet.  Three bathrooms in one house.
Lessons:  George Eliot did not like being compared to other "contemporary teen novelists" that were popular at the time, such as the Bronte sisters.  She wanted to be known as "one of the greats," who were primarily men.

It's HARRY FREAKING POTTER

I must write a post about this....

All I really gotta say is this:  If you have read all the books or seen all the movies, you need to see this one.  It's a masterpiece, a crowning achievement that lived up to its hype, and a glorious final act in the Harry Potter saga.  Well done, Harry.  Well done.  

On a similar note, I'd like to tip my hat to J.K. Rowling, for she has successfully changed the world through these books.  Harry Potter is a social phenomenon. What American child doesn't know who Harry Potter is?  Who doesn't recognize the iconic round glasses or the lightning bolt scar?  Even if you haven't read the books or seen the movies, you know who Harry Potter is!  You recognize the characters, the spells, the costumes, the magic!

Harry Potter will never be last year's fad.  I'm sure generations to come will read the books and watch the movies and regard them as classics.  But they are not going to remember the series as a great technical achievement or as a great example of cinematic or literary prowess.  People will continue to read this series because the story is such an important chapter in pop culture history.  People will remember it as the series that swept all of the Western masses off its feet into a new world of whimsy. Harry Potter has become an eternal part of our culture. And the magic will never die.

Listening to:  Nothing at the moment.
Things Going On Today:  Friday, Friday...
Blessings:  Midnight Premieres with short lines
Learned:  You can easily get past a ticket-taker at a movie theater if you just go in a big enough crowd.

Weird, I know, but...

I'd really be interested in picking up some LDS literature about intimate relationships between married couples.  I'd just like to see how we'd handle it.

Listening to:  Randy Newman
Things Going on Today:  Quiz (yuck) snow (yuck) and homework (yuck)
Blessings:  Devotionals.

THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES. TOLD BY PLATO, RETOLD BY ME

Paragraph 1: Kay guys, so there's a lot of haters out there who say I'm a liar. They say I'm good at sweet-talking, but I'm really not. I just tell it like it is in my own way.
2: The people who accuse me can be split into two groups. There's the group that steered you wrong when you were young and impressionable. Of course you followed them becaus we there was no one to tell you otherwise. But now there are also people who are living today who manipulate and are fed by envy and malice. I'll deal with the old ones first, then the new.
3: I hope I can win your hearts, though I know it won't be easy. But let God's will be done.
4: What do my accusers say? They say Socrates teaches false doctrine. Aristophanes even wrote a play that made fun of me. But that's not my business. My business is to tell you the truth, and it's your business to judge it.
5: I am not a paid teacher, though I respect the profession. There's a story told of a man with two sons. I asked the man, "If your kids were horses, you'd give 'em to a horse trainer. But there isn't a people-trainer, is there?" The man told me yes, there was. And he taught for cheap, despite all his wisdom." Heaven's, I'm surprised he doesn't charge more! I know I would... but I can't. So I don't.
6: Well then why do people accuse me of this, then? Surely there must be some grounds for it? Well, it's because I'm "wise." I'm not wise in an unattainable sense, but as God is my witness, I am the wisest. The oracle at Delphi said so.
7: But I don't think I'm the wisest! Why would God say that? God can't lie. That's against his nature! So I decided to go out and look for a man wiser than myself. I went to this politician, who I thought was very wise at first. But it turned out the more I talked to him, the less wise he became. He thought he was wise, but he wasn't. So he hated me. I came to the conclusion that I am better off than he is -- because he thinks he knows something, yet knows nothing. I don't even think I know. This applied to every "wise" person I talked to.
8: After experimenting on this, I became more sure that "wise" people are actually very foolish -- it's the inferior men who know more. After politicians, I went to the poets. I asked what their verses meant, but all they did was brag about how "inspired" they are. They wrote the stuff, but they didn't understand it. So they're not wise, either.
9: I went to the artisans next. They knew a lot of stuff... but they still thoght they knew more than they actually did. I'm still better off!
10: So that's why people hate me. I am not wise. Only God is wise. Our wisdom is nothing. You are only wise when you come to understand that wisdom is worth nothing. So it's my job to get people to realize their own foolishness. I'm consumed by this quest.
11: People react towards me rather than towards themselves when they hear this. They blame me, even though I did nothing evil. They don't like to be told they are wrong. I'm simply plain with my accusers, and they hate me for it. This hatred is proof that I speak truth.
12: So that's the OLD accusers. Now for the new. What do THEY accuse me of? They say I don't worship God and I corrupt youth. They are, in fact, the evil ones -- they make a joke out of serious things -- they claim they care, but the don't. I'll have a conversation with one of them: Mr. Meletus.

S: So you care about youth?
M: Yes.
S: Who is improving them? You've accused me as their corrupter... who is their improver?
M: Speechless.
S: You've got nothing to say. How shameful! Doesn't this mean you don't care??
M: The laws!
S: But I need a person! Who knows the laws?
M: Judges.
S: How do they improve youth? Do they?
M: yes.
S: All of them?
M: yes.
S: Good! Does the audience improve youth?
M: Yes.
S: And Senators too?
M: Senators, too.
S: What about ecclesiats?
M: Them too.
S: That's like everyone in Athens, then! Everyone but me!
M: You got that right.
S: Too bad! But... what about horses? Does only one man do them harm? No... many injure them. Sometimes it's just the trainer who does them good. There is never just one corrupter. Obviously you don't care enough about the children to think of this. Obviously it's better to live among good people, Right?
M: Yep.
S: Does anyone like to be injured?
M: Nope.
S: so you think I intentionally corrupt youth?
M: Yes.
S: But you just said that good neighbors are good doers... why would I want to corrupt someone if he's gonna injure me? So either I don't corrupt them, or I do it unintentionally. Either way, you lie. If I did it unintentionally, you should have privately corrected me. Instead you bring me here to be punished! One more thing. How do I corrupt the young? Am I worshipping false gods?
M: you are.
S: What do you mean? I believe in Gods. So I'm not an atheist. Are my Gods different from the laws?
M: I believe you're an atheist.
S: Why?? I believe in the Gods of the sun and moon!
M: Yet you believe the sun is stone and the moon is earth.
S: That's Anaxagoras... but what about me?
M: You don't believe in God!
S: Liar! You don't even believe yourself! You thought you could get away with being a walking contradiction, but you can't! This is a joke! Let's look at this guy, judges, and see. you can't see a flute player without flute playing. you can't see horsemanship without horses. Neither can you see divine agencies without God, right?
M: Right.
S: I believe in spiritual agencies! I believe in divine beings, I believe in God! Spirits and demigods are all God, right?
M: Right.
S: If I believe in a demigod -- a child of god -- I believe in the parent! I can't say mules exist without horses and donkeys. Nonsense! You have nothing to accuse me of. Yet I still have many enemies: envy and distraction. That kills a lot of people.

12: Am I ashamed? Am I ashamed of dying? No. It's not about life or death, it's about right or wrong. We shouldn't worry about death, but honor. That's what Achilles did.
13: This is a mission God wants me to fulfill -- to deny this mission is to deny him. I'd think I was wise, even though I'm not. Fear of death is the pretence of wisdom. No one knows what comes after death. Why pretend to know? That's foolish! Death may be bad, but it may also be good -- why avoid what is good? I will obey God rather than man. I care about deeper truths -- not money and reputation, but improvement of the soul. A guy can't do this without virtue. Don't think of yourself and your properties. Care about your soul. After that, you'll get those other things. I will not change.
14: If you kill me, you will injure yourself more than me. Bad things can't really hurt me. To kill an innocent man is bad for you! Don't sin against God. I'm like a gadfly, and the state is like a horse. I stir it to life -- I land on you and wake you up. I'm not easily replaced. You may be irritated by me -- you may wanna kill me and keep sleeping, but dontt! I'm like your brother! I don't seek payment!
15: Why do I not publicly do this? Why am I not a politician? The oracle has forbidden me. If I was a politician, you wouldn't see me today to help you still. I'd die early.
16: I'll give you an example: I was a Senator for a while. We had won a battle, but our prisoners needed to be tried. You wanted to try them all together, but that's illegal. I said so, even though you threatened to kill me. Later, after the democracy, the oligarchy told us to bring another prisoner, but he was innocent, so I didn't ring him. I would have died if the oligarchy had survived.
17: Now do you see how I wouldn't have survived in politics? I simply tell it like it is, and invite all to follow -- no pay needed. I am no respecter of persons. I tell the world.
18: I like it when foolish people argue with me. it's fun! But I'm doing my godly duty. if I'm corrupting children, how? They're turning out to be pretty decent people! Let those who believe they have been corrupted come forward! Or their families! Anyone? I see a lot of you here! You all know I speak truth.
19: One more thing: To those who may be offended by my presence here -- all by myself, not fearing death -- I am a man, flesh and blood. I have a family, yes. but I won't bring them here. That would be discreditable. Some people act really stupid when they're accused of something. People fear death -- they want to be immortal, continuing to live. These people are wimps. They make the city look ridiculous.
20: Judges need to give justice according to the laws. Don't bribe them. Remember: Believe in God, and it is before him that I make my argument.
21: I've been condemned, but I don't grieve. Why? I expected it. In fact, the vote was closer in my favor than I expected.
22: They propose death. Remember, I don't care about things of the world. I only went about doing what good that I could. I've besought of you to look inside yourselves and find virtue. Good comes from good. A good poor man deserves more than an athlete who won a race. I need, but he has enough.
23: I'm not begging innocence. I'm just saying Ive never wronged anyone. I don't think a capital offense should be concluded in one day, either. I have too little time to convince you. I don't deserve death, but I don't fear it. I may be imprisoned instead of put to death, but death may be better than imprisonment. I'd hate to be exiled, separated from he people I serve. Besides, I'll get kicked out wherever I go. I can't hold my tongue. To converse about virtue is the greatest good of man. A life unexamined is not worth living. I have no money, so I can pay no fines.
24: Your name will be shamed because you killed me, Socrates, a wise man. you should have waited to see the reward of my words. To those who convicted me, it wasn't my words that bothered you. It's cuz I didn't cry and beg for forgiveness. I was bold til the end. I did not try to escape death. I did not surrender. I avoided unrighteousness, not death. Now you'll be the unrighteous ones. You'll have your reward.
25: I have a prophecy: You'll get much worse than me. You'll still have to face the music -- there will be others who will tell it like it is like I did. you can't avoid accusation by killing people. Don't kill others, improve yourselves.
26: My friends, stay and let me talk to you. The oracle didn't disapprove of anything I did today. Nothing. How can we explain this? It means that everything I said was meant to be said. it was good. Death can't be bad. It's good!
27: Death is either nothing or it is something. It's either utter unconsciousness or it is a migration to a new world. So I either have a nice sleep to look forward to -- a deep undisturbed sleep with no dreams -- which would be great -- eternity is only a single night. But if death is a journey, that's good too! He's delivered from the evils of this world -- true judgment reigns. We'll see good men -- and we can talk to them! I'd love this! I'd continue my search for knowledge among great heroes! I will be happy and immortal!
28: No evil can happen to a good man. Nothing happens by chance. God loves good men. To die is better for me. I am not angry! I gently blame them for trying to do me wrong, but they didn't.
29: Teach my sons what I taught you, please! Reprove them if they pretend to be wise or seek riches.
30: I'm gonna die now. God only knows what's next.

INSOMNIA

Clotho smiled.
[You didn't imagine it. Try to think of life as a kind of building, Ralph -- what you would call a skyscraper.]
Except that wasn't quite what Clotho was thinking of, Ralph discovered. For one flickering moment he seemed to catch an image from the mind of the other, one he found both exciting and disturbing: an enormous tower constructed of dark and sooty stone, standing in a field of red roses. Slit windows twisted up its sides in a brooding spiral.
Then it was gone.
[You and Lois and all the other Short-Time creatures live on the first two floors of this structure. Of course there are elevators--]
No, Ralph thought. Not in the tower I saw in your mind, my little friend. In that building -- if such a building actually exists -- there are no elevators, only a narrow staircase festooned with cobwebs and doorways leading to God knows what.


Ralph favored him with a bright, bitter smile.
["There goes freedom of choice, I guess."]
Lachesis: [You mustn't think so! It's simply that what you call freedom of choice is part of what we call ka, the great wheel of being.]


Lachesis: [There is no such thing as natural death, not really. Our job is purposeful death. We take the old and the sick, but we take others, as well. Just yesterday, for instance, we took a young man of twenty-eight. A carpenter. Two Short-Time weeks ago, he fell from a scaffold and fractured his skull. During those two weeks his aura was]
Ralph got a fractured image of a thunderstruck aura like the one which had surrounded the baby in the elevator.
Clotho: [At last the change came -- the turning of the aura. We knew it would come, but not when it would come. When it did, we went to him and sent him on.]
["Sent him on to where?"]
It was Lois who asked the question, broaching the touchy subject of the afterlife almost by accident. Ralph grabbed for his mental safety belt, almost hoping for one of those peculiar blanks, but when their overlapped answers came, they were perfectly clear.
Clotho: [To everywhere.]
Lachesis: [To other worlds than these.]


Lachesis: [It's the north side of the Civic Center that Deepneau's plane will strike. This little boy will be killed instantly if steps are not taken to prevent it ... and that can't be allowed to happen. This boy must not die before his scheduled time.]


Clotho: [Listen, then. Every now and again a man or woman comes along whose life will affect not just those about him or her, or even all those who live in the Short-Time world. These people are the Great Ones, and their lives always serve the Purpose. If they are taken too soon, everything changes. The scales cease to balance. Can you imagine, for instance, how different the world might be today if Hitler had drowned in the bathtub as a child? You may believe the world would be better for that, but I can tell you that the world would not exist at all if it had happened. Suppose Winston Churchill had died of food-poisoning before he ever became Prime Minister? Suppose Augustus Caesar had been born dead, strangled on his own umbilical cord? Yet the person we want you to save is of far greater importance than any of these.]


He was an amazingly competent artist already, only four years old or not ("My little genius," Sonia sometimes called him), and his picture was much better than the color-it-in poster on the other side of the sheet. What he had managed before the lights went out was work a gifted first-year art student might have been proud of. In the middle of the poster-sheet, a tower of dark, soot-colored stone rose into a field of roses so red they almost seemed to clamor aloud. Standing off to one side was a man dressed in faded bluejeans. A pair of gunbelts crossed his flat middle; a holster hung below each hip. At the very top of the tower, a man in a red robe was looking down at the gunfighter with an expression of mingled hate and fear. His hands, which were curled over the parapet, also appeared to be red.
Sonia had been mesmerized by the presence of Susan Day, who was sitting behind the lectern and listening to her introduction, but she had happened to glance down at her son's picture just before the introduction ended. She had known for two ears that Patrick was what the child psychologists called a prodigy, and she sometimes told herself she had gotten used to his sophisticated drawings and the Play-Dough sculptures he called the Clay Family. Perhaps she even had, to some degree, but this particular picture gave her a strange, deep chill that she could not entirely dismiss as emotional fallout from her long and stressful day.
"Who's that?" she asked, tapping the tiny figure peering jealously down from the top of the dark tower.
"Him's the Red King," Patrick said.
"Oh, the Red King, I see. And who's this man with the guns?"
As he opened his mouth to answer, Roberta Harper, the woman at the podium, lifter her arm (there was a black mourning band on it) toward the woman sitting behind her. "My friends, Ms. Susan Day!" she cried, and Patrick Danville's answer to his mother's second question was lost in the rising storm of applause:
Him's name is Roland, Mama. I dream about him, sometimes. Him's a King, too.


They emerged at last into the corridor. A few deeply shocked people wandered back and forth, eyes dazed and mouths agape, like zombies in a horror movie. Sonia hardly glanced at them, just got Pat moving toward the stairs. Three minutes later they exited into the fireshot night perfectly unscathed, and upon all the levels of the universe, matter both Random and Purposeful resumed their ordained courses. Worlds which had trembled for a moment in their orbits now steadied, and in one of those worlds, in a desert that was the apotheosis of all deserts, a man named Roland turned over in his bedroll and slept easily once again beneath the alien constellations.

The Beethoven Factor

Some good quotes from The Beethoven Factor, a book about positive psychology and the art of thriving. It's by Paul Pearsall.

"This fascinating new field has discovered that happiness is not just the absence of unhappiness or the presence of lucky circumstances. It reverses that assumption by saying that unhappiness is the absence of our natural state of happiness." -- xxxvi, Introduction, "Joy from the Inside Out"

"...mental health was much more than the absence of mental illness."
-- xxv, Preface, "Remarkably Ordinary"

"We all have relatives who violated almost every health warning and lived long and well. We also know of people who seemed to religiously try to follow every healrth warning and directive and yet died young. There is something more that causes us to be healthy, and that something more is the concern of positive psychology." -- xli, Introduction, "Lessons from the Health Reprobates"

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." -- John Milton, Intro to Part 1. I really really like this quote.

Six Reactions to Life's Challenges:
1. Stress Response: "Fight-or-flight," Basic survival body systems, catabolic ("energy-burning") mode.
2. Relaxation Response: Calming down from stress response. Body systems slow down.
3. Survival: Lifesaving action. Only needed body systems are functioning.
4. Recovery: Body systems return to balance; healing.
5. Resilience: Full return to "pretrauma" state. Person is no worse off than he was before trauma occurred. Back to normal.
6. Thriving Response: We're better than we were before. Use of psychological immune system. "Tend-befriend-comprehend" reaction.


... "Consciousness creators"... decide what will or will not be on their minds and do not reacively surrender their consciousness to the negative power of whatever is happening to them.
-- P. 6

Five Phases of Coping With Crisis:
1. The Kindling Reaction (Worsening) Includes worry and venting. Debilitating to both the victim and others.
2. The Suffering Reaction (Victimized) Self-pity. Dibilitating to victim and even more to others around him/her.
3. The Surviving Reaction (Existing) Moving out of the Kindling/suffering cycle, but not always permanently. Victim accepted into society, but not fully healed.
4. The Resilience Reaction (Recovering) Near permanent removal from beginning stages; victim is just as he was before trauma occurred, and fully accepted into society.
5. The Thriving Reaction (Flourishing) Victim learns something from trauma and is a better person because of it. Embrace life and trials that come with it. The ultimate goal.


"Just as junk food tastes good but is not good for us, venting makes us feel temporarily good. In the long run, however, it is terrible for our health... The one thing we can be sure of when we let our anger or negative feelings out is that we will become een angrier and end up making ourselves and others feel worse... We are not hydraulic steam machines that need to have our pressure released to prevent explosion. Thrivers learn this fact of life... Under pressure, the first thing they do is nothing."
-- pg. 10

"The act of construing is the process of mentally interpreting and framing life events in our own way. One of our most distinguishing and powerful human traits is our innate ability to interpret and assighn meaning to what happens to us, to focus our attention where, when, as deeply as we decide, and to be the masters of the content of our consciousness."
-- pg. 10

"Thriving is the mental and emotional opposite of worrying because it involves construing a way out of and beyond a real and existing problem, not ruminating about what may be in store for us."
-- pg. 10

"Worrying is one of the most mentally exhausting things we can do. It is like racing the engine of our car when it is in neutral gear."
-- Pg. 10. I am such a worryer.

"I worry, but what worries me most is when I start worrying about worrying. I used to worry that I was worrying or even worry that I was not worrying enough. It sounds stupid and funny for a shrink to say that, doesn't it? NowI do what I call wiser worrying. I don't go round and round about a problem. For me, a worry is like a memory or reminder. I think about it and then try to figure out something to do about it. For me, a worryi is an alarm to do something or figure something out. I think most worrying is being nervous about the future and frightened by the past, so I want to pay more attention to the now. Worrying really takes you out of the present, which is where you need to be if you're going to solve a problem. I think I've become a wiser worrier lately. I think and then try to come up with a new way of thinking."
-- Thriver, quoted on pg. 11

"About 40 percent of what we worry about will never happen. Another 30 percent concerns old decisions, which we cannot change. About 12 percent is related to criticism of ouselves that are not fair ad made by people who feel inferior to us. Another 10 percent of our worrying is related to our health, and worrying only makes us sick. About 8 percent of our worrying is worth the effort because it can help us find a starting point for doing something about whatever it is that is worrying us. If we resist wasting our time on the useless 92 percent of our worrying, we can get busy doing something about the 8 percent that needs our full attention."
-- Ohana member, quoted on pg. 11. I have a lot to learn from this one.

"If we are aware of and try to get through the first two crisis reaction stages as quickly as possible, the result is the increasing social support and caring thjat comes from people who feel comfortable, competent, and safe enough to get close to us again."
-- pg. 14

"...Thrivers are 'emotionally elevated.' Elevation is characterized by warm, pleasant, tingling feelings in the chest, feeling the need to hold, hug, and help others, and feeling energized and optimistic about ife in general."
-- Pg. 17

"He was a young comedian diagnosed with cancer. I was speaking with him when a nurse entered his room to ask if she could take his pulse. With the humor that is so charactiristic of thrivers, he joked, 'No thanks. I need it.' As the nurse placed her fingers on his wrist, he looked at me with tears in his eyes. He said, 'You know. I've learned one thing in all this. Being fully alive is not just having a pulse. It's feeling like you are pulsating.'"
-- pg 24

Questions to Ask about Thriving:
- Do you feel more alive today than yesterday?
- Are you free from worry?
- Do people seem to be made happier by your presence?
- Are you laughing hard every day?
- Are you crying hard every day?
- Do you feel in love with life?
- Are you in love?
- Do you feel loved?
- Have you been made stronger by adversity?
- Do people turn to you for strength and comfort?
- Do you often feel overwhelmed by the grandeur and beauty of simple things?
- If you were to die today, would byou feel you have fully lived?
You don't have to cry every day to live. Some people experience joy in different ways.

"Izzie, the death camp survivor, said of [self-help books], 'I think a waist is a terrible thing to mind. I almost starved to death when I was in that Nazi prison. I don't worry anymore about controlling my appetite or my weight. When I step on the scale and numbers roll up, I feel relieved. it's like I'm becoming more and more alive. My body was healthy enough to survive the garbage we ate there, so I'm not that worried about dieting now. I'd sooner go to the cookbook section and find a book on tasty fattening food for the joyfully obese.'"
-- pg. 27. Not sure I totally agree with this one, but I thought it was interesting.

"As one of the invincibles put it, 'The talent to thrive is the ability to happen to the world instead of allowing it to always happen to you.' Thrivers are the architects of their own consciousness... They become their own meaning-makers, mental illusionists who take whatever happens to them and transform it to find challenge where others see only disaster."
-- pg. 29

"The miracle of thriving is that we were made to be agents with free will. To offer up the 'I couldn't help it' excuse squanders one of our most powerful human abilities, our capacity to deal constructively and effectively with almost any challenge by assigning our own meaning to it and using our innate emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual skills to develop that meaning."
-- pg. 30 I totally agree with this one.

"Here is another one of my simple science experiments. It was designed to look at whether we have an optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style.
The next time you have a drink from a full glass of soda or some other fluid, drink only half of it. Before you take your next drink, stop and seriously ask yourself, 'Do I in fact see this glass as half-full or half-empty?' If you are drinking with someone who knows you well, ask that person how he or she thinks you see the glass. How you honestly answer the question says a lot about the meaning you are now assigning to your thriving potential at this time in your life."
-- pg. 30 My impression is this: Instead of deciding whether or not the glass is half-empty or half-full, you should be savoring the fact that you've already drunk and enjoyed half of it.

Compare:
"From the moment you are born, you begin to die. We are all dying."
to
"I was born to live ant thrive through all that life offers, no matter how stressful... Learning to thrive allows us to be free of our fear of death because we give our lives a meaning that transcends physical endings."
-- pg 31

Another thing I don't quite totally agree with:
"Dire warnings worry us, but they don't seem to do much to significantly change our behavior. Despite warnings of the danger of eating meat, most of us still eat it, but we do so with a 'glutton guilt' that interferes with our enjoyment of a juicy steak and makes us feel as if we are hopeless health reprobates slowly but surely killing ourselves. Most of us know our parents were far from perfect, but until the recent emphasis on dysfunctional families and scarred inner children, we thought we had become stronger because of our upbringing and all its flaws."
-- pg. 35. Enjoying life doesn't mean abandoning good decisions.

More that I'm unsure of:
"Thrivers are more likely to be found lying on the couch eating poato chips than panting on a treadmill at the health club. They are more likely to be sitting quietly on their porch watching the day go by than attending a seminar on personal power. YOu may find a few of them running in marathons, but more of them are likely to be walking joyfully at the end of the race or sitting on the curb with their families watching in amusement as gaunt-looking runners pant past in their knee braces. You are more likely to meet one of them while strolling along a garden path than in the aisles of a health food store. I met some myself while standing in line at an ice cream parlor. They are not worriers, so don't expect them to be up-to-date on the latest reason they should not be eating ice cream."
-- pg. 36
I know someone named Pam G. who runs marathons down to the last yard, who prefers a healthy salad over a bowl of ice cream, who goes to church and women's seminars to learn more about what she can become, and I believe she thrives. Thriving is more than just accepting who you are, it's wanting to be more. It SHOULD be a want to improve yourself, not a want to stay in one place. Those who take medical research and advice lightly often end up paying for it. And while they, themselves might be able to embrace the bad consequences due to their "flourishing nature," those they love might not. It's harmful to those around them as well as to themselves. What we SHOULD be doing is taking care of ourselves, but enjoying every minute of it. Run on the treadmill, but will yourself to like it. As he says, it's mind-over-matter. But it should be applied differently than the way he says.

"In a culture that emphasizes the value of beating the odds, being a fighter, and struggling to get a piece of the pie, we often lose sight of how to enjoy the pie."
-- pg. 37

"Researchers have learned that when biofeedback works, it does so when the person feels that they 'just let' relaxation happen to them rather than trying to 'make' it hapen. In the positive or salutogenic view of life, we can be naturally relaxed, balanced, well beings who don't have to 'try' to be that way. We only have to let ourselves 'be' that way and stop getting in the way of our phychological immune system by striving to overcome adversity or be all we can be.
-- pg 37. Running those marathons help us be all we can be, in my opinion.

WHAT IS THE REAL LOVE MEDICINE?!

http://www.answers.com/topic/love-medicine-novel-7

More About "Blue Boy"

-- Friday, May 8
-- Rakesh Satyal Blue Boy
-- Magers and Quinn Bookstore
-- Rakesh Satyal
= Graduate from Princeton in Editing
= Indian Background
= Also wrote The Man I Might Become: Gay Men Write About Their Fathers
-- Summary
= Boy named Kiran
= Indian family living in the United States
= Effeminate Tendencies; ex: dance, Makeup
= Story about Acceptance, growing up


-- Last Thoughts
= Highly Recommend it
= Great Character Building; amazing attention to detail
= A book worth reading.

Little Big Man

New book for Lit: Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger.
I'm liking the style, so far (I'm only a few pages in.) The characters are really funny, and the part that sticks out the most so far is that the guy wants to be a Mormon, but has only heard about it through other travelers and knows nothing more about them except for the fact that they're allowed to have multiple wives. haha.