In addition to documenting our own adventures and cultural insights, this blog seems like a great place to share insight from other sources. I am currently working my way through the 15 books that my friend Claire lent me because I don’t have much else to do (a situation that, praise to God, is changing and I’ll post more on later). So far I have read The Red Tent, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, Life of Pi (so good! One of my favorite books I’ve read in a while) and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The last is particularly engaging and interesting, as it is written by a British author of French heritage about an Italian unit that is stationed on the Greek
The Greek doctor Iannis is expounding to the Italian capt. Corelli: “I know you have not thought about it. You Italians always act without thinking, it’s the glory and the downfall of your civilization. A German plans a month in advance what his bowel movements will be at Easter, and the British plan everything in retrospect, so it always looks as though everything occurred as they intended. The French plan everything whilst appearing to be having a party, and the Spanish…well, God knows.”
Also from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: “In those days
I don’t know about the first quote, but the second matches up pretty well with most people’s attitudes about the British government, in our experience. We watched Out of Africa the other night, which also eloquently captured
2 comments:
I'm still deep in The Idiot. It has led to some good comments....I left the idiot in the car, have you seen the idiot?, the idiot is still on the couch.....love, mom
That's really funny! You'll be happy to hear that Lord Jim is much, much shorter.
It should lead to some good comments as well - "The Lord is in the car," "I lost the Lord", etc.!
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