Reading 19th Century Russian Wrters

 - in English, of course -- more or less. Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and others had a great deal to say and generally said it well. I missed out on these literary treasures as a young person. I was usually found reading scifi under the covers at night at age 11 or 12 or down at the local Carnegie library of our small town indiscriminately reading my way through the works of Thomas Hardy or S. S. VanDine. Now at age 89 I am discovering the riveting world of 19th century Russia as seen through the eyes of some remarkable literary figures. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Dostoyevsky's  Crime and Punishment because you thought it might be too long or too dull you couldn't be more mistaken.

There are certain tricks one must get onto, though, to get much out of these masterpieces. The first and foremost concerns proper names of the characters. Everyone seems to have a given name, although this can vary all over the map during the course of the tale, a middle title referred to as a patronomic (these are surprisingly crucial to following the story), and a family name. Closely related to learning how to keep everyone straight is the task of pronouncing the names themselves. There may be rules but I don't happen to know what they are. I finally came up with the following trick - pronounce them so they sound Russian. Here's one to practice on - Mikhail Illianovich Kutusov - the general who defeated Napoleon in 1812, a remarkable man, shot twice through the right eye, who was fluent in ten languages, and is remembered today by Russians as we remember George Washington. A good example of what can happen to given names in the dialog is that of Fydor who is variously referred to as Fedya, Fedor, and Theodore.

Now to the stories: don't expect any transformations of the the road to Damascus type. Bad guys finish as bad guys, losers stay losers. I have yet to find 'they lived happily ever after.' Children and women get extensive development. Marriage is sacrosanct and the plot often hinges on the iron bound nature of those vows. A spouse must die before the principal finally can hook up with the true love or the desired romantic ending simply never happens. All of these literary geniuses present us with the ominous stirrings of inevitable change in Russian society. Though the tales are generally of the upper class educated and highly structured society the peasants or serfs are sympathetically portrayed.

It helps if the reader does a little French. It seems that nearly every educated person in Russia communicated in that language. For some reason the translators left the French bits in without parenthetical explanation. Never mind. You will get it. Speaking only Russian and certainly speaking German was just uncouth in those days.

A reader once complained about what he perceived as an historical error in Tolstoy's War and Peace. The reviewer responded - "It is fiction you know." Fiction or not, it is the best account of that titanic war ever written.

Molly's Puzzle

This  story continues the Shelby's sleuthing adventures in the high mountains of Colorado near Aspen. Real old ghost towns like Summitville  are featured along with a fictional camp at 12,000 ft elevation that turns out to be vital to the security of the USA. Get from any book dealer or if you are on your uppers I will send you a free copy for the cost of the postage and packing - about $5.

Molly's Puzzle, A Rocky Mountain Mystery

My latest mystery novel featuring the exploits of JC and Susan Shelby is now live. Title - Molly's Puzzle. You can get it from the publisher, AUTHORHOUSE, or any book seller. If you are really destitute send me an email and I will give you a free copy for just the cost of postage and packing -until I run out. This story follows on from their Fiji adventure with a command vacation ordered by their admiral boss at a small ski resort in Colorado. As expected Susan gets into a fix but helps to solve the case. JC has a chance to visit with some very senior people in Washington and is let in on some top secret info vital to the county's security. If you like the high country and old abandoned mining camps you'll love this tale.

Saving trillions - well maybe, Billions

Here are a couple of ideas: Back in the late 30's and early 40's a first class stamp cost 3 cents. Most everything else at that time was about 20 times cheaper than today. Check it out. I mentioned this once while I was standing in line at the post office. I made the point that first class postage should now be about 60 cents. None of the people in line nor the postal clerks behind the counter could disagree. They all thought a raise to that level was probably a good idea. The other idea has been broached many times. We don't need pennies - or nickels for that matter. Our current dollar bill is worth what a nickel would buy in 1940. I know, I was there. New coinage: nickels, quarters and dollars (a concession to those who hate to see everything change) and paper notes - fives, twenty fives, and hundreds - six different denominations in metal and paper. The bills would be of varying sizes according to denomination and likewise the coins as a nod to the blind or otherwise handicapped. Here's one I actually tried with the chairman of the postal committee in the House. He was from Nebraska. He never answered my letter. Stamps come off the roll of a hundred upside down. I demonstrated this to a postal clerk. They were surprised and agreed that it was wrong. I simply suggested the stamp making people roll up the stamps the other way for the simple convenience of the public. Try it yourself some time.

My books now available

I am pleased to announce that my seventh novel, Dead in the Water, is now live, the fourth in the detective series starring JC and Susan Shelby. It is available as an ebook, from the publisher, or directly from me. I can send hardcover of some and softcover copies of all my books directly to you for $10 plus mailing ($3 in the US). If you wish to use PayPal let me know and I can bill you through them, given your email. It is easy to do and all it takes is a credit card or a PayPal account. The list - latest to earliest - follows:

Dead in the Water – A Russian cruise ship on a Circle of Fire tour of the Pacific is the scene of a mysterious death. The Shelbys are recruited to go aboard in Hawaii and encounter a tangled love affair, another death, and near disaster off the coast of New Zealand.

Murder Hawaiian Style – JC is mustered back into the Navy to solve the murder of a gardener at the residence of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral. The Japanese mafia, the yakuza, plays a role.

The Body at the B&B – The Shelbys honeymoon in London and get involved in international intrigue with MI6, Ukraine, the Russians, and Pakistan.

The Body in the Stacks – A body of a young student is discovered in the library stacks at a small college in Iowa. JC and Susan have their first adventure in solving the crime.

Adam’s Isle – A futuristic coming of age tale of a ten year old in Point Loma whose adventures take him from his life on what has become an isolated part of San Diego caused by rising sea levels to his years of maturing among the Indians of the Acoma tribe in New Mexico. A great gift for a young person.

Dark Matter – A psychotic serial murderer from Southern California kills the President of the US and many many others, escaping undetected, by apparently being very hard to describe or even remember

The Throttlebottom Chronicles and Other Curious Tales – An eclectic collection of short stories.

http://JOHNNYMACKHOOD.com

Thanks, John M. Hood (Johnny Mack Hood)
jhoodjr1@cox.net

The One Planet Irony

The search for exo-solar system planets proceeds apace with the recent launch of NASA's Kepler Satellite . For those who are unfamiliar with this exciting venture it consists of a special satellite sent far out into the Earth's orbit around the Sun to loiter for awhile in one of the La Grange points associated with our home planet. It has arrived on station and has unfurled its powerful telescope to examine hundreds of thousands of stars in a selected region of our galaxy repeatedly in rapid succession in the hope of detecting planets around other stars. It will undoubtedly succeed. We already know of at least 400+. The problem is the ones discovered so far are the low hanging fruit - easy to find and they are very large - Jupiter size. the Kepler Mission hopes to find Earth sized bodies - and it will (http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/discoveries/). It is a supreme irony to consider that if one or more - maybe a large number of planets are found - and if in the decades ahead new technology permits us to really examine these candidates in greater and greater detail to such a point that it becomes certain that we have observed many 'water worlds' from afar then what? We will have discovered what many, if not most, scientists already believe - that the universe is filled with billions upon billions of planets and large moons that would (and probably do) support life. The difficulty is that even the closest planet is many light years distant and most of these new discoveries will be hundreds if not thousands of light years distant just in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. One can not really imagine even communicating with a possible sentient race on one of them let alone traveling to greet them in person. Enrico Fermi is famed for saying "Where is everyone?" Einstein's laws most certainly rule out travel and probably any meaningful communication. Who has the patience to carry on centuries of millennium long conversations. We are as May Flies in this universe - very short lived.