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Ladan's Reviews > The Tartar Steppe
The Tartar Steppe
by
by
Ladan's review
bookshelves: favorites, must-have-read-when-i-was-20, must-read-as-a-teen, italian-lit
Sep 25, 2019
bookshelves: favorites, must-have-read-when-i-was-20, must-read-as-a-teen, italian-lit
Read 2 times. Last read September 20, 2019 to September 25, 2019.
Wake me up when September ends...
One September morning Giovanni starts the journey of his professional life, "the beginning of his real-life". Recalling his dull days at Military academy, left him wondering if his best youth years were over. This may sound like he has learned his lesson. HELL NO, he didn't. Did I? Did you? Did anyone of us learn our lesson? We keep waiting for that miracle for that hero for that very moment, yet deep down we know it is an illusion and will never show up, and we linger on. Giovanni waited for those four months to end, for September to end, for all those "just another year", which seemed so distant to end. We do the same!
We keep on waiting until the drab sluggish birth of habit. Then it comes the stinky sticky hands of a lifetime of pathetic repetition of habits, which leads to paralyzing one to stay trapped in his comfort zone. Giovanni derived special pleasure from his mastery of the routine, we all do! So Go away while there is still time...
Which side are you on?
Lazzari or Moretto?
The military is a messed up business! A password vital now and gone tomorrow, the stupid rules and roles, how people put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of nothing are heartbreaking. The foundation of this unabashed business is well depicted by the scene in two and a half men:
It's exactly like a video game. Except we blow up real people!
This could be generalized to any role one would take in any position. How deep is one drowned into the roles imposed by society?
The death of Ivan Ilych(1886)/The castle(1926)/The tartar steppe(1940)/The stranger(1942)/Waiting for Godot(1953)
They all resemble one another, if you enjoyed one of them, you will enjoy the rest.
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses All went to the university
Where they are put in boxes, and they come out all the same
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry
And they all have pretty children And the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes, and they come out all the same
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
And boxes made out of ticky tacky, and there all look just the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
The way Buzzati illustrates one's emptiness is by emphasizing the importance of having a career as one's comrades, getting married, having kids and even grandchildren. I disagree. No boxes, no limitations. If you wanna go for the weirdest kind of lifestyle, stay single, marry the chubby fat ass shorty guy or gal, have no kids, feel free and do whatever serves you best, yet don't wait, Just move, take action, LIVE, I will do the same:
One September morning Giovanni starts the journey of his professional life, "the beginning of his real-life". Recalling his dull days at Military academy, left him wondering if his best youth years were over. This may sound like he has learned his lesson. HELL NO, he didn't. Did I? Did you? Did anyone of us learn our lesson? We keep waiting for that miracle for that hero for that very moment, yet deep down we know it is an illusion and will never show up, and we linger on. Giovanni waited for those four months to end, for September to end, for all those "just another year", which seemed so distant to end. We do the same!
We keep on waiting until the drab sluggish birth of habit. Then it comes the stinky sticky hands of a lifetime of pathetic repetition of habits, which leads to paralyzing one to stay trapped in his comfort zone. Giovanni derived special pleasure from his mastery of the routine, we all do! So Go away while there is still time...
Which side are you on?
Lazzari or Moretto?
The military is a messed up business! A password vital now and gone tomorrow, the stupid rules and roles, how people put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of nothing are heartbreaking. The foundation of this unabashed business is well depicted by the scene in two and a half men:
It's exactly like a video game. Except we blow up real people!
This could be generalized to any role one would take in any position. How deep is one drowned into the roles imposed by society?
The death of Ivan Ilych(1886)/The castle(1926)/The tartar steppe(1940)/The stranger(1942)/Waiting for Godot(1953)
They all resemble one another, if you enjoyed one of them, you will enjoy the rest.
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses All went to the university
Where they are put in boxes, and they come out all the same
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry
And they all have pretty children And the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes, and they come out all the same
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
And boxes made out of ticky tacky, and there all look just the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
The way Buzzati illustrates one's emptiness is by emphasizing the importance of having a career as one's comrades, getting married, having kids and even grandchildren. I disagree. No boxes, no limitations. If you wanna go for the weirdest kind of lifestyle, stay single, marry the chubby fat ass shorty guy or gal, have no kids, feel free and do whatever serves you best, yet don't wait, Just move, take action, LIVE, I will do the same:
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
(Paperback Edition)
August 30, 2019
– Shelved
August 30, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 20, 2019
–
Started Reading
September 20, 2019
–
1.4%
"He recalled the torture of counting one by one the days to which there seemed to be no end."
page
3
September 20, 2019
–
2.34%
"There it was, shut up in the dark, the little world of his childhood. His mother would keep it like that so on his return he could find himself there, still a boy within its walls even after his long absence-but, she was wrong in thinking that she could keep intact a state of happiness which was gone forever or hold back the flight of time, wrong in imagining that when her son came back everything would be as before."
page
5
September 20, 2019
–
4.67%
"He had got himself into a ridiculous situation simply because he was bored with himself"
page
10
September 20, 2019
–
8.88%
"and, however shameful such weakness in a soldier, he was ready to confess to it, if necessary, provided they let him go at once."
page
19
September 21, 2019
–
11.21%
"besides, four months are four months-long enough for a personal report. You can be certain that the colonel will do one on you. And you know how important that can be for your career. But let us get this quite, quite clear-you are perfectly free . . . "
ugh! "The promised heaven", makes me skin a goat"
page
24
ugh! "The promised heaven", makes me skin a goat"
September 21, 2019
–
13.55%
"During the whole night, no one would come in to greet him; in all the Fort no one was thinking of him and not only in the Fort, probably in the whole world, there was not a soul who had a thought for Drago; everyone
has his own worries, can barely cope with himself perhaps even his mother at that moment had other things on her mind"
page
29
has his own worries, can barely cope with himself perhaps even his mother at that moment had other things on her mind"
September 21, 2019
–
18.22%
"After twenty-two years in the Fort what was left of this soldier? Did Tronk still remember that somewhere there still existed millions of men like himself who were not in uniform? who moved freely about the city and at night could go to bed or to an inn or to the theatre, as they liked? No, you could see at a glance that Tronk had forgotten other men for him nothing existed but the Fort and its hateful regulations."
page
39
September 21, 2019
–
19.16%
"He felt that he was among men of another r.ace, in a foreign country, a hard, thankless world."
page
41
September 22, 2019
–
19.16%
"Of course with the others, with his colleagues, he had to be a man, had to laugh with them and tell swashbuckling stories about women and the soldier's life. But to whom could he tell the truth if not to his mother?"
page
41
September 22, 2019
–
20.09%
"No, he could not be frank even with his mother -even to her, he could not confess the vague fears which beset him."
page
43
September 22, 2019
–
20.56%
"Up to then, he had gone forward through the heedless season of early youth-along a road which to children seems infinite, where the years slip past slowly and with quiet pace so that no one notices them go."
page
44
September 22, 2019
–
23.83%
"So even this old man hidden away in his lair in the cellar casting accounts-even this obscure and humble being looked forward to a heroic fate? Giovanni looked him in the eyes and the other shook his head a little with a mixture of sadness and bitterness as if to indicate that there was indeed no remedy: "That is how we are made," he seemed to say, "and we shall never get better.""
page
51
September 22, 2019
–
28.5%
"New Year had come, bringing mankind a few strangely hopeful minutes"
page
61
September 22, 2019
–
30.84%
"but-he had within him dull sluggishness born of habit, military vanity, love for the accustomed walls which were his home. Four months passing with the monotonous rhythm of routine duties had been enough to entrammel
him."
page
66
him."
September 22, 2019
–
30.84%
"He derived a special pleasure from his mastery of the routine."
page
66
September 22, 2019
–
31.31%
"games of chess in the evenings which Drogo often won; but Captain Ortiz told him: "It's always like that, the new people always win to begin with. It happens to them all-they think they are really good but it's really only a question of novelty; then the others learn our system too and one fine day we can do nothing right any more.""
page
67
September 22, 2019
–
32.71%
"How much time there was before him?! A single year seemed immensely long and the good years had barely begun. They seemed to form a long, long series of which it was impossible to see the end, a treasure still intact and so great that one might tire of it."
page
70
September 22, 2019
–
33.64%
"It was water, that was what it was-a distant cascade dashing down the steep sides of the crags. The wind causing the great jet to quiver, the mysterious play of the echoes, the varying sounds of the struck rocks made of it a human voice which spoke and spoke-spoke of our life in words which one was within a hair's breadth of understanding but never did."
page
72
September 22, 2019
– Shelved as:
favorites
September 23, 2019
–
37.38%
"At this hour he was always full of hope and he thought over these heroic tales, tales which probably would never come true but still served to make life worth living."
page
80
September 24, 2019
–
46.73%
"He thought he was in the other world -a world apparently like our own, except that there the good things of life will come true, according to our just desires and once they have been satisfied one's soul is at peace, not as in this world where there is always something to poison even our happiest days."
page
100
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
"After all we always get our deserts. Angustina, for instance, was ready to pay a high price-we weren't. Perhaps that is the whole point. Perhaps we expect too much. After all, we get our deserts.""
page
131
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
"Go away while there is still time, go back down to the city, get used to garrison life. After all, you don't seem to me the type to despise the pleasures of life. You'll have a better career there than here, that I'm sure of. And then we aren't born to be heroes.""
page
131
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
"You have been cut off from the world, no one will remember you any more."
page
131
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
""I've seen others before you," the' major went on.
"Little by little they got accustomed to the Fort, remained imprisoned in here and could no longer make a move. Old at thirty, that was what they were.""
page
131
"Little by little they got accustomed to the Fort, remained imprisoned in here and could no longer make a move. Old at thirty, that was what they were.""
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
"all of us, more or less, persist in hoping. But it is absurd. You've only got to
think a little."
page
131
think a little."
September 25, 2019
–
61.21%
"this page is precious. wow M gonna write the whole page here! I so need a friend like Ortiz coming up with wise words..."
page
131
September 25, 2019
–
62.62%
"Many, many years ago in happier times...
seriously? when is this past that almost everyone and any culture brags about it being such a happy time?!!"
page
134
seriously? when is this past that almost everyone and any culture brags about it being such a happy time?!!"
September 25, 2019
–
63.08%
"Always the same faces, he thinks instinctively, always the same talk, the same duties, the same documents."
page
135
September 25, 2019
–
71.96%
"At the bottom of his heart, he is even pleased in a fainthearted way at having avoided sudden changes in his mode of life, at being able to go back, as he was, to his old habits."
page
154
September 25, 2019
–
80.84%
""I have learnt to accept things," said the major. "Year by year I have learned to want less. If I am lucky I shall go home with the rank of colonel."
"And then?" asked Drago."
page
173
"And then?" asked Drago."
September 25, 2019
–
83.64%
"there is no time to halt even for a second, not even for a glance behind. one feels like crying, but then one sees it is useless. Everything goes by, men, seasons, the clouds, and there is no use clinging to the stones, no use fighting it out on some rock in midstream; the tired fingers open, the arms fall back inertly and you are still dragged into the river, the river which seems to flow so slowly yet never stops."
page
179
September 25, 2019
–
84.11%
"It is difficult to believe in a thing when one is alone and there is no one
to speak to."
page
180
to speak to."
September 25, 2019
–
84.11%
"It was at this period that Drago realised how far apart men are whatever their affection for each other, that if you suffer the pain is yours and yours alone, no one else can take upon himself the least part of it; that if you suffer it does not mean that others feel pain even though their love is great: hence the loneliness of life."
page
180
September 25, 2019
–
85.51%
"And yet if one looks closely the marks of the years can be seen in their faces."
page
183
September 25, 2019
– Shelved as:
must-have-read-when-i-was-20
September 25, 2019
– Shelved as:
must-read-as-a-teen
September 25, 2019
–
Finished Reading
October 10, 2019
– Shelved
(Paperback Edition)
October 10, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
(Paperback Edition)
January 4, 2020
– Shelved as:
italian-lit
Comments Showing 1-15 of 15 (15 new)
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message 1:
by
Mirror
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Sep 25, 2019 10:01PM
“In that case, I’ll miss the thing by waiting for it.�
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Sofia wrote: "“In that case, I’ll miss the thing by waiting for it.�"We all do Sofia, we all do!
Travelin wrote: "More women should marry shorty men, and I say that as a shorty man."Cross me out, I wanna marry a tall one 😁
A fine tribute to freedom, Ladan. I look forward to read this one too :-).
Ilse wrote: "A fine tribute to freedom, Ladan. I look forward to read this one too :-)."Thank you Ilse, and I can't wait to read your review on it, hope you enjoy it 😊
one of my very favourite books of all time. the ending reminded me of thoreau's 'the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation'.
e wrote: "one of my very favourite books of all time. the ending reminded me of thoreau's 'the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation'."It is indeed quite a great read. So true.
If you enjoyed this one I would recommend "the remains of the day" and also "Stoner".
That is high praise, Ladan. And a beautiful review.
Lorna wrote: "That is high praise, Ladan. And a beautiful review."Thank you, that's very kind of you dear Lorna. :)
i gave away my copy of stoner before i'd read it, to a friend who was going on a long train journey. if i'd known it was tartar steppish i would have made him choose again.
e wrote: "i gave away my copy of stoner before i'd read it, to a friend who was going on a long train journey. if i'd known it was tartar steppish i would have made him choose again."haha, tartar steppish! How lucky is that friend of yours! :D
I have a pdf file of stoner's book. send me your contact if you like and I will send you the book :)
thank you, Ladan. received just now.i am bumping it to the top of my pile!
e wrote: "thank you, Ladan. received just now.i am bumping it to the top of my pile!"
cool, hope you enjoy it :)
In Italy this book is a classic, a must-read for people before they reach their 30s. It had a profound impact on me, and I am glad that many people outside of Italy, decades later, are curious and eager to read it
Marco wrote: "In Italy this book is a classic, a must-read for people before they reach their 30s. It had a profound impact on me, and I am glad that many people outside of Italy, decades later, are curious and ..."Great, wish I had read it when I was a teenager. I really loved the book and would love to watch the movie.
You may enjoy "Stoner" and "the remains of the day" as well.
