Comments on: Ivan Illych, now and then

By: Becky E.

Becky E. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:53:58 +0000

I don’t know when I realized that every single previous generation has proudly considered itself “modern” and “enlightened.” I think sometime early in my college years. That’s why I’m so glad I’m a history major, because I get to learn all the ways that people are people, that our forebears were flawed just as we are today, and that ultimately we’ll grow old and our views will mellow and become complicated and we’ll realize we really were idiots when we were young and cocky. I say that having been considered very mature for my age as a young adult. I still look back and cringe at old journal entries.

By: alwanderer

alwanderer — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

I liked Kitty’s husband, in Anna Karenina, when he came to grips with human death and put away his own atheism / doubt. And this was before Tolstoy was some would say ‘spoiled’ by his religious side (smile )

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Thanks robert aldridge--I was indeed beginning to think that perhaps no one appreciated poor Ivan Illych (or this post!). I agree with you about voices from other times speaking to us in very immediate ways.

One other literary reference to this phenomenon is in this extraordinary poem by Walt Whitman, who address it directly:

Full of Life Now

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Full of life now, compact, visible,
I, forty years old the eighty- third year of the States,
To one a century hence or any number of centuries hence,
To you yet unborn these, seeking you.

When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,
Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,
Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)

By: robert aldridge

robert aldridge — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

No-one has made a comment here, so I figured SOMEONE had to so you don’t think no-one is interested! I’ve never been much of a fan of Russian literature, I’m afraid, despite liking PARTS of Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, War and Peace and other miscellaneous pieces. But what fascinates me is how people in previous centuries “spoke” the same language as us. One feels, sometimes, that one’s most understanding friends are from the past. And it is exhilarating to think that one’s “friendships” are not just confined to the stage on which one is playing, but are also off-stage. I first felt this when, newly arrived in Australia, feeling rather lonely and miserable, and having had to reassess the “world view ” that I was brought up with, I read Voltaire’s “Candide.” I found it hysterically funny, and, at the time, terribly profound. A lot of water under the bridge since then, but since then, I realize that the Ancient Greeks were far from devoid of the ability to write about feelings and attitudes which are distincly “modern”. There really is nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes beautifully states, and describes. And no, sadly, I’m not religious: I think Omar has the truth of THAT!