"The Snowstorm" is quite the patience test. While reading it, I couldn't help but think of Abe Simpson:
"So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I..."
Side note, just watched the interview tonight with Kevin Fitton and NWS, they picked my question about Story Club! Loved listening to the two of you talk about process, readers, teaching...
Ok back to Tolstoy.
One of the things that interests me about "The Snowstorm" and "Master and Man" is how different the characters were in each story, and I wonder how Tolstoy thought to change that dynamic over those years, what his thought process was, especially knowing that it was based on an event Tolstoy experienced.
Both stories had passenger and driver, but the passenger/master in "Master and Man" (Vasili) is so obnoxious...it did add to the story to have the tension between the master and driver, and as a reader to have these strong feelings about the Master character. He's such a damn know-it-all, so arrogant, and the driver in Master and Man we've been told has tried to quit drinking, so we feel for him, his problems with his wife, we can really see him. We see Vasili as well, his church going and his opinions and his bullshit. I felt sorry for the horses and the driver in each story, but Tolstoy seems to have thought out what kind of guys would make the story have more drive and tension, which is lacking in the first story. I'm still thinking and will read both again.
"The Snowstorm" is quite the patience test. While reading it, I couldn't help but think of Abe Simpson:
"So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I..."
Side note, just watched the interview tonight with Kevin Fitton and NWS, they picked my question about Story Club! Loved listening to the two of you talk about process, readers, teaching...
Ok back to Tolstoy.
One of the things that interests me about "The Snowstorm" and "Master and Man" is how different the characters were in each story, and I wonder how Tolstoy thought to change that dynamic over those years, what his thought process was, especially knowing that it was based on an event Tolstoy experienced.
Both stories had passenger and driver, but the passenger/master in "Master and Man" (Vasili) is so obnoxious...it did add to the story to have the tension between the master and driver, and as a reader to have these strong feelings about the Master character. He's such a damn know-it-all, so arrogant, and the driver in Master and Man we've been told has tried to quit drinking, so we feel for him, his problems with his wife, we can really see him. We see Vasili as well, his church going and his opinions and his bullshit. I felt sorry for the horses and the driver in each story, but Tolstoy seems to have thought out what kind of guys would make the story have more drive and tension, which is lacking in the first story. I'm still thinking and will read both again.