{"id":480,"date":"2020-11-16T08:40:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T07:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=480"},"modified":"2020-11-16T08:40:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T07:40:28","slug":"a-tangled-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"A Tangled Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Tyranny is a virus,\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018Truth is the antidote. It has to be prescribed and administered.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s not entirely encouraging,\u2019 Patrice remarked. He is gloomy over the state of things in Hongkong.<\/p>\n

Kim is gloomy over the state of things on the other side of the pond. \u2018The lies become bigger,\u2019 she said, \u2018as the gap between rhetoric and reality expands.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018But the truth will prevail,\u2019 Rami said, with commendable certainty, and then she added, \u2018Won\u2019t it?\u2019 Which rather undermined the initial conviction. She continued, however. \u2018Disingenuous assertions are confounded by their own logic, eventually. Demagogues are embarrassed by their own inconsistencies.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018What a tangled web we weave<\/em>,\u2019 I suggested, \u2018when first we practise to deceive<\/em>!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Kogo Lyubit<\/em>?\u2019 Dimitri said, perhaps with a tad more panache. \u2018Komu Zheverit? <\/em>Kto ne izmenit nam odin? <\/em>Kto vsedela, vserechimerit Usluzhlivo na nash arshin.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Striking though this rendition undoubtedly was, I felt Dimitri might have put something of a linguistic spanner in the dialectical works, but Kim, rather to my surprise, said, \u2018I know that one!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Of course you do!\u2019 Dimitri grinned indulgently, and his moustache, it seemed to me, stuck out even further from his cheeks, like the indicators on a vintage motorcar.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s Onegin,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018but I forget which bit.\u2019<\/p>\n

Kogo . . . Kto . . . Kto . . . who will judge . . . love . . . measure.\u2019 Patrice sometimes tinkers with language \u2013 like a mechanic under one of those ancient automobiles.<\/p>\n

\u2018Whom to love and trust and treasure<\/em>,\u2019 Rami said. \u2018Who won\u2019t betray us in the end<\/em>?\u2019<\/p>\n

I thought at first that this was a spontaneous (and rather disconcerting) cry from the heart, but then I realized that Rami was quoting \u2013 from the very same Onegin. \u2018And who will be kind enough to measure \/ Our words and deeds as we intend<\/em>?\u2019 she concluded.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am among my own!\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

\u2018But, Dimitri, you\u2019re not Russian,\u2019 I said, perhaps a little pedantically, \u2018and, for that matter, neither are we.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018But we are admirers of Pushkin,\u2019 he replied, to which there was really no argument.<\/p>\n

\u2018I did a production of Onegin in Mombasa years ago,\u2019 Rami said. \u2018The Russians were keen at the time to sponsor the Kenyan theatre \u2013 and sell helicopters.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The only quote I know from Onegin is the one the movie studio stole for Casablanca,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Albus,\u2019 Patrice\u2019s tone was unusually severe. \u2018That\u2019s too opaque to be sociable.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Of all the gin joints . . .\u2019 I began.<\/p>\n

Dimitri took over in the Pushkin original, which \u2013 clearly \u2013 I couldn\u2019t compete with. He recited the couplet: \u2018Zachem vy posetili nas<\/em>? V glushi zabytogo selen’ya<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you come here<\/em>?\u2019 Rami translated, \u2018To this forgotten village in the back of beyond<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Well, it\u2019s not quite Bogart, but the comparison holds,\u2019 Patrice said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Scott and Pushkin,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018had a great deal in common.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Scott and Pushkin?\u2019 Rami asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018Albus quoted Scott\u2019s line \u2013 what a tangled web,\u2019 Kim said.<\/p>\n

\u2018The hero of that poem is a nasty piece of work,\u2019 I said, \u2018He keeps seducing women and casting them aside and then getting other people into trouble. Just like Onegin.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Pushkin was a disciple of Scott,\u2019 Kim continued, \u2018but more ruthless. Flawed protagonists are his speciality. The Queen of Spades is all about cheating and the lengths the hero will go in order to win at cards.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s exposed in the end, though, \u2018Patrice said. \u2018That\u2019s the saving grace. The gulf between disingenuous assertion and reality becomes plain for all to see.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I wish it would happen here,\u2019 Kim said.<\/p>\n

\u2018And here,\u2019 Patrice echoed.<\/p>\n

\u2018It might,\u2019 Rami said. \u2018Scott\u2019s protagonist gives up the fight in the end, because a<\/em> sinful heart makes feeble hand<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Didn\u2019t Pushkin say something clever about choices in \u201cour age of infamy\u201d?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018The choice,\u2019 Dimitri said, \u2018is to be a tyrant, a traitor or a prisoner.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah,\u2019 Kim said, with a certain relish, \u2018when the truth is administered, justice surely follows in its wake.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s part of the recovery process,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

This was an observation with which no one disagreed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.   \u2018Tyranny is a virus,\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018Truth is the antidote. It has to be prescribed and administered.\u2019 \u2018That\u2019s not entirely encouraging,\u2019 Patrice remarked. He is gloomy over the state of things in Hongkong. Kim is gloomy over the state of things on the other side of the pond. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[125,127,126,28,31],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}