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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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 Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:10 am Post subject: In a Far Country |
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One of my favorite passages in all of literature, from Jack London's masterfully allegorical short story, In a Far Country:
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| When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as are inherent with existence in the new land; he must abandon the old ideals and the old gods, and oftentimes he must reverse the very codes by which his conduct has hitherto been shaped. To those who have the protean faculty of adaptability, the novelty of such change may even be a source of pleasure; but to those who happen to be hardened to the ruts in which they were created, the pressure of the altered environment is unbearable, and they chafe in body and in spirit under the new restrictions which they do not understand. This chafing is bound to act and react, producing divers evils and leading to various misfortunes. It were better for the man who cannot fit himself to the new groove to return to his own country; if he delay too long, he will surely die. |
_*_ |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:27 am Post subject: Re: In a Far Country |
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[quote="Tiberious aka Sparkles"]
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| When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as are inherent with existence in the new land; he must abandon the old ideals and the old gods, and oftentimes he must reverse the very codes by which his conduct has hitherto been shaped. To those who have the protean faculty of adaptability, the novelty of such change may even be a source of pleasure; but to those who happen to be hardened to the ruts in which they were created, the pressure of the altered environment is unbearable, and they chafe in body and in spirit under the new restrictions which they do not understand. This chafing is bound to act and react, producing divers evils and leading to various misfortunes. It were better for the man who cannot fit himself to the new groove to return to his own country; if he delay too long, he will surely die. |
haa Thank you.
Now i have a book i want to read. THX.
Maybe a lesser book is that by Alain de Botton, he tries to relate traveling with different types of Philosophy, it is somewhat simplistic but refreshing nevertheless. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:41 am Post subject: |
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I just read that short story a few weeks ago. London is dynamite. I considered posting the same passage. I sent off for the Library of America printing because it has 1.000 pages of his stuff. I far prefer his short fiction over his long fiction, but damn, that boy could write!
From "Koolau the Leper"
Kapahei arose. Once he had been a judge. He had gone to college at Punahou..."Let us not make trouble," he began. "We ask to be left alone. But if they do not leave us alone, then is the trouble theirs, and the penalty. My fingers are gone, as you see." He held up his stumps of hands that all might see. "Yet have I the joint of one thumb left, and it can pull the trigger as firmly as did its lost neighbor in the old days..."
From "The Red One"
"I would like to have the curing of your head," Ngurn changed the subject. "It is different from any other head. No devil-devil has a head like it. Besides, I would cure it well. I would take months and months. The moons would come and the moons would go, and the smoke would be very slow, and I should myself gather the materials for the curing smoke. The skin would not wrinkle. It would be smooth as your skin now."
Last edited by Ya-ta Boy on Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:42 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I far prefer his short fiction over his long fiction... |
Damn skippy. There is no worse a feeling than reading the exquisite first 2/3 of The Sea-Wolf, believing it one of the most perfect sea stories ever told, then reading the final third.
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Sina qua non
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:31 am Post subject: Re: In a Far Country |
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[quote="Tiberious aka Sparkles"]
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| When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as are inherent with existence in the new land; he must abandon the old ideals and the old gods.... |
Travellers to far countries should make sure that they "acquire such customs" that are improvements to the human condition.
However, they should be equally as sure to not "abandon the old ideals" which constitute their virtue.
"To thine own self be true." -Shakespeare
Sure, visitors here should respect the locals' special regard for the concept of family and social harmony, but they should be equally certain to avoid some nondicriminatory acceptance of the culture whereby they graduallly agree that things like sexual or racial prejudices.
London's quote seems a bit pollyanna. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| if he delay too long, he will surely die. |
By jingo, Sina, that's my definition of 'pollyanna' too. |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:48 am Post subject: Re: In a Far Country |
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| Sina qua non wrote: |
| London's quote seems a bit pollyanna. |
Oh, I certainly don't believe it should be followed verbatim. But like the Bible it contains sage wisdom which, to a lesser intellect, can easily be misinterpreted.
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:44 am Post subject: |
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to a lesser intellect, can easily be misinterpreted.
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That was diplomatically put, Mr. Tibby. Kudos to you. |
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billybrobby
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:38 am Post subject: |
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Here's another London quote:
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| The Korean is the perfect type of inefficiency � of utter worthlessness. |
http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Revolution/yellow.html
Ah, The Yellow Peril. Written in 1904 and by golly, hasn't aged a day.
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No more marked contrast appears in passing from our Western land to the paper houses and cherry blossoms of Japan than appears in passing from Korea to China. To achieve a correct appreciation of the Chinese the traveller should first sojourn amongst the Koreans for several months, and then, one fine day, cross over the Yalu into Manchuria. It would be of exceptional advantage to the correctness of appreciation did he cross over the Yalu on the heels of a hostile and alien army.
War is to-day the final arbiter in the affairs of men, and it is as yet the final test of the worthwhile-ness of peoples. Tested thus, the Korean fails. He lacks the nerve to remain when a strange army crosses his land. The few goods and chattels he may have managed to accumulate he puts on his back, along with his doors and windows, and away he heads for his mountain fastnesses. Later he may return, sans goods, chattels, doors, and windows, impelled by insatiable curiosity for a "look see." But it is curiosity merely � a timid, deerlike curiosity. He is prepared to bound away on his long legs at the first hint of danger or trouble.
Northern Korea was a desolate land when the Japanese passed through. Villages and towns were deserted. The fields lay untouched. There was no ploughing nor sowing, no green things growing. Little or nothing was to be purchased. One carried one's own food with him, and food for horses and servants was the anxious problem that waited at the day's end. In many a lonely village not an ounce nor a grain of anything could be brought, and yet there might be standing around scores of white-garmented, stalwart Koreans, smoking yard-long pipes and chattering, chattering � ceaselessly chattering. Love, money, or force could not procure from them a horseshoe or a horseshoe nail.
"Upso," was their invariable reply. "Upso," cursed word, which means "Have not got." |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you, thank you, Mr. billy. I've been trying to find a collection of London's newspaper articles from the Russo-Japanese War and none of the bookstores have anything. The article you posted is a major step in the right direction. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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I guess I'm in a literary mood. From "In Another Country" (Hemingway)
He had complimented me on how I spoke Italian, and we talked together very easily. One day I had said that Italian seemed such an easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; everything was so easy to say. "Ah, yes," the major said. "Why, then, do you not take up the use of grammar?" so we took up the use of grammar, and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had the grammar straight in my mind. |
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