TURMA DE INGLÊS

Reading Log - 2nd and (at) last

Yes, maybe I'm being and idiot because I'm doing this after the grades have all been set and this may not count for anything, but I thought to myself: "Joana, you really need to do this, so start to work!". So, my dear collegues, this is my last entry... about the book.

WAR AND PEACE
(2007 series)
So much to say, few time to do it.
This book was writen by one of the greatest minds of all times, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, and it's a major classic which I thought I really had to read it before I die. An so I did, I read 1392 pages of pure emotion alied with (sometimes) addiction to those little words printed on fragile papper.

First of all, I already knew a bit of Tolstoy's life, but while I was reading the book I got more interested in this fascinating man, so trying to know him better was one of my goals. The other of many was to relate the story with my personal life (how so?). One of my first conclusions was that Tolstoy's wife suffered a lot with him; he had a troubled personality, it very strong and with clear ideas about others, God, him and life itself.
Following what I said, research was the basis of my work, and it added a lot of unknown and useful information in order to understand the story better. The story happens in the period of time between 1805 and 1014, during the Napoleonic wars and Russia's invasion by his troops.

So, the story is divided in three tipes of structure, which are:

• Character's story
• Historical events
• Author's philosophical thoughts

Character's Story

Right from the beginning some of the almost 500 characters of the book are introduced; later on, it's noticeble the that the story is centered on 5 aristocratic Russian families:

• Bolkonsky
• Rostov
• Bezukhov
• Kuragin
• Drubetskoys

Of course they complement each other and they're lifes are attached. I even made a kind of family tree because the characters were so many and had such difficult names I had problems to follow who was doing what.

Although it refered 5 aristocratic families, the most important characters were just 6, but even more profoundly (if I can say so) were the ones marked in blue:

• Pierre Bezukhov
• Prince Andrey Bolkonsky
• Princess Natasha Rostov
• Prince Nikolay Rostov
• Princess Márya Bolkonsky
• Sónya

Pierre Bezukhov iss the major character, but for me it isn't. Pierre was like the week side of us all, and initially I felt pity for him. He was a person with no direction in life, unshore of what to do, how to behave and how to be. The son of a noble, who by the way didn't raise him and so Pierre's role model was the one and only, Napoleon Bonaparte; Napoleon was everything Pierre was not - charismatic, strong, a fighter - and even more. Pierre seeks for "inner harmony".

Andrey Bolkonsky is my favourite character. He's "down-to-earth" or, as others think, a pessimist. He seems to be very strong mentally and phisically, but is just appearence and much of all bad repution given by people who don't know him at all. He's sensitive and cold dued to his father who is selfish and doesn't like to be with other people, so he closes in himself. Because Pierre was always isolated, he tryes to run from it to join the army, but he realised he was alone even in the battlefield. He believe life is pointless whithout loving once, even though he doesn't accept happiness exists.

Natasha Rostov is the perfect woman, the ideal for Toltoy. Beautiful, strong, a good lover and innocent in her unique way. I think of her like a small Marilyn Monroe, because she had a sad life carried with disappointment and high-expectations for te future with somebody else - men, mostly. I also felt very sad for her and the way her life was by the end of the book I must say was kind of surprising, iet I predicted it somehow, but I didn't want to believe how she "ended".

The other characters are, respectively, Natasha's brother, Andrey's sister and Natasha and Nikolay's cousin, and the three are important to the characters I refered before.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Like I said, the story takes place during the Napoleonic wars, and to comprehend better I researched a lot, really a lot. The book mentions the Battle of Austerlitz, the Battle of Borodino, the invasion of Russia by Napoleonic troops, the trades between France and some countries, the Colligations, the Battle of Leipzig and many more. Internally, it's depicted Russian society and its unfair social standards and people deprivations.

STYLE/LANGUAGE

Tolstoy prives for realism, so he recurs to facts, along with fiction that could work out fine in reallity because the book is all about that: real life, real people, real feelings. The environment is detailed at the maximum, focusing the battles and the soirées. Russian is the predominant language, although French is used by some fancy aristocrats because it was seen as the language of the wealthy and intelectual people. The differences between the two languages are a bridge to the cultural transformation in Russia (it's kind like Os Maias, though Russian society was proud of their culture).

BEAUTIFUL PASSAGES

Again, so many, few to pic.

•“- How easy it is, what little effort it takes to do so much good and how little we trouble ourselves to do it!” - Pierre
•“Rostov had seen tears in the Tsar’s eyes and he heard him say to Czartoryski in French has he rode of, ‘What a terrible thing war is, what a terrible thing!’”
•“- Who’s right and who’s wrong? No one is. Just live for the day… tomorrow you die… I could have died an hour ago. And why worry when you’ve only got a second to live on the scale of eternity?” - Andrey
•“’What’s happening?... I think I’m falling… My legs are going’, he thought, collapsing on his back. He opened his eyes (…). Was the gunner killed or not? Did they get the cannons or were they save? But he saw none of that. Above him was nothing, nothing but the sky – the lofty sky, not a clear sky, but still infinitely lofty, with grey clouds creeping gently across. ‘It’s so quiet, peaceful and solemn, not like me rushing about’, thought Prince Andrey, ‘not like us, all that yelling and scrapping (…), those clouds are different, creeping across that lofty, infinite sky. How can it be that I’ve never seen that lofty sky before? Oh, how happy I am to have found it at last. Yes! It’s all vanity, it’s all an illusion, everything except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing – that’s all there is. But there isn’t even that. There’s nothing but stillness and peace. Thank God for that!’”
•“No, nothing is certain, nothing but the nothingness of all that we can understand, and the splendour of something we can’t understand, but we know to be infinitely important!” – Andrey
•“’What have I done?’ he asked himself. ‘I have killed her lover… I’ve killed my wife’s lover. I really have, Why? How did I get into all this?’ By marrying her, came a inner voice. ‘It’s not my fault, is it?’ he asked himself. Yes it is. You weren’t in love with her when you got married and you pulled the wool over your own eyes and hers.” - Pierre
•“The only thing we can know is that we don’t know anything. And that is the summit of human wisdom.” – Pierre
•“’Here on earth, this earth here’, (Pierre pointed to the open country) ‘ there is no righteousness – it’s all false and wicked. But in the universe, the whole vast universe, there is a kingdom of truth, and we are two things – children of earth here and now, and children of the universe in eternity.’”
•“On the journey there he seemed to have reconsidered his entire life and come right back to his first conclusion, which was as reassuring as it was devoid of hope – that he needn’t bother with anything new, all he had to do was live out his life without doing any harm, free from worry and any kind of desire.”
•“Let the dead burry the dead, but while ever there is life, you must live and be happy.” – Andrey
•“If we’ve been angels, why did we fall down so low?” – Nikolay
•“My Hélène has never cared for anything but her own body and she’s one of the stupidest woman in the world, yet everybody thinks she’s the last word in intelligence and sophistication, and they all bow down to her. (…) Oh well, it’s the way of things, I suppose. But there am I – what can I do with myself?” – Pierre
•“Platonic love… passing clouds.”

THEMES

Every time I read a 19th century story I get the feeling that the writers had lots of times to think in banalities and transform them in big monsters, eager to dramatize more and more. But, as always, I have to put in their shoes and think about how their thoughts changed minds and actions. So, briefly, the themes were:

•Free will Vs necessity
•Death
•Personal growth
• Self-reflection
•Evolution of civilization
•Nihilism Vs Christian values
•Love and compassion
•Materialism as a obstacle
•Fate / destiny
•War brutality
•Our place in the world

The themes in Bolt are the highlights of the narrative; personal growth dued to the characters moral changes through 15-20 years, Nihilism and Christian values are religious dualities portrayted by Andrey and Pierre (respectivally), materialism as a obstacule to achieve happiness (Toltoy's personal way of life, far from temptation) and our place in the world logically connected with the characters insered in History and in their lifes, so as Leo Tolstoy.

Summing up, the author tried to achieve truth by showing to people how some facts occurred and how it affected society, mixing History (Napoleon and others personalities biography and speeches, historians essays, chronicles of the time) and fiction. He also gives to the Russians the so needed cultural exhaltation for them to develop and improve it so it won't get lost. Finally, the figure of Napoleon is demystified and even teased:

• “The Emperor Napoleon was still in his bedroom, finishing his toilet. With much snorting and harrumphing he twisted this way and that, offering his fat back and then his flabby, hairy chest to the flesh-brush wielded by a valet who was rubbing him down. Another valet held one finger over the mouth of a little bottle as he sprinkled the Emperor’s pampered person with eau the cologne, and the look on his face suggested that he was unique in knowing where and how much to sprinkle. Napoleon’s short hair was wet and matted down over his forehead. But his face, for its sallow puffiness, glowed with physical pleasure. ‘Go on, harder, keep at it…’”

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really like the book, and I will read it again, but in some years from now because I want to get another perspective and live it differently, I suppose. Tomorrow I have to deliver the book to the teacherm because it's hers, not mine, unfortunately. I have to take off the post-its and hand in this wonderful book I carried on my bag for so long. Farewell War and Peace, hello Mrs. Dalloway.

Reading Log - 1st!

As you all know, or not, I'm reading Toltoy's "War & Peace", while I do my log, which is basically writting some point of views or some beautiful passages on post its (pink pappers).

A beautiful passage:

Tsar in a battlefield, helping a hurted man - "How terrible war is!"

And that's all, I'm not going to spoil my presentation.
But truth be told, it's a hard book because of the characters (they're so many and intense) and because of the writting, full of adjectives and facts.

April 21st Movie Session

"A Waltz with Bashir" was the movie our class watched last Wednesday. It was teacher's recommendation, so we had to respect her decision og bringing it to the class... bad idea (joke). Everyone was falling asleep, or talking, or laughing, or simply distracted with something else. Yes, it was a hard movie, but even hard movies can be more interesting. I don't know if I didn't like because of the animation, or because of the story itself, but simply didn't catch my attention.
But, as I said when the movie ended and we started discussing it, maybe if I had watched at the cinema I would have different opinion.
I just liked two things: the way the "actors" narrated - their voice were more real, the way they reacted, like a man (I don't recall who) who during his report made a sound like saying "Ffhhh, I don't know...", which appeared very natural; the second thing was the music - I love when they add classical songs with slow motion scenes.
Watch this trailer, then the movie if possible, and make your own conclusions.

"Take a sad song and make it better"

Music moves people... unbeliavable.





(Hate this music, but I have to admit it's an original way to promote a concert.)



Even in Portugal...



Though in this case those were the few Portuguese who joined the "cause"...
1: The dance wasn't that good; 2: Portuguese need to loosen up!

"Taugh Catch" TIMES article - Poor tunas...

The principal purpose of the article is to demonstrate the importance of animals (in this case tunas) for a balanced environment.
It gives us the reality of some relevant companies, particulary their struggle to catch Yellowfin and Bluefin, two endangered tuna species.
On one side there's the fisherman, who need to catch this species to survive, and on the other there's WWF, the scientists and even fishermans who defend sanctions to limit the number of fish getting caught.
The business is run like this: first tuna is caught, then washed, beheaded, gutted and packed with dry ice to be put on 10.30 a.m. Manila's flight, to be finally on the market in such places as Tokyo, Seattle or California. Mainly this kind of species come from Southern Filipines where the biggest and best tuna can cost around seven hundred dollars or more!
The way tuna is captured has changed through years; in the old days, fisherman used to go out to sea in the morning and by night came back with two or three tunas weighing each seventy kilos, whereas nowadays even to catch small kinds it's a two/three day trip out of sea due to the massive exploitation. The country which exhides normal ratings is Japan, a country which population much depends on the resources of the sea and, most importantly, of sushi restaurants. This country consumes 80% of the 6 000 tons of Bluefin caught worldwide, which is used for Sashimi.
Although the number of species has increased, the number of boats are rising, and so is the distance permitted to fish, invanding sometimes protected areas (and that's why contolling is so hard).
To solve this problem of possible extinction, European Commission advised a Global suspension of fishing Atlantic Bluefin tuna, which was denied by Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, France and Italy because they think the measure would be a disaster economically; this measure would give time to recover the species. The most worrying method to catch them is by dragging to shore (a technique invented on the Mediterranean in 1996) which is called "Tuna Ranching"; it consists on dragging the fish with aditives so the price gets higher the heavier it gets.
But, and though they're endangered, Bluefin isn't people's first choise; they first pick canned tuna, the Slipjack and Albacore species.
Another method used to produce more fish is Aquaculture, which experts say that is wasteful and expensive. The only system which seems to respect and protect these species are handline fisheres.
Summing up, the greed for tuna is hindering not just these species, but food chain too, and if this problem isn't solved, many animals will disapear quickly.

P.S. - As you may have notice, this summary wasn't really a summary. The reason why? Well, I think that all I've written matters. That's all.



This is how Americans sell canned tuna:

Damn!

3rd term has started and I'm feeling kinda depressed... yeah, already! Vacations were great, but I want more(!).

Pain never ends, right? Yes, I'm overreacting, BUT... there's no but, forget it.

So, enjoy school because it's coming to an end (at last!).

Bye, see you later, as always.

P.S. - Fortunetelly, I'm not feeling as bad as this guy.