The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy, adapted for the big screen by Robert Bresson as L’argent http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/12/largent-written-and-directed-by-robert.html - 9 out of 10

 

The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy, adapted for the big screen by Robert Bresson as L’argent http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/12/largent-written-and-directed-by-robert.html

9 out of 10

 

 

Leo Tolstoy is best known for his masterpieces,  Anna Karenina http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy-one-of.html War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilych, all three have been included on the reputable list of The 100 Greatest Books, compiled by the luminaries of our time, from Nadine Gordimer to John Irving, Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco have been asked for their opinion and the result is available on line, as The Norwegian Book Club list

 

The great Russian author has explored the most important themes, death, especially in The Death of Ivan Ilych http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-death-of-ivan-ilych-by-leo-tolstoy.html but also in The Forged Coupon and other works, indeed, we could say that this giant of literature has not left a major subject outside the scope of his magic writing, religion would be just one other topic of major, nay, paramount interest.

War and Peace is fundamental for the culture of the world http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/01/war-and-peace-by-leo-tolstoy-with-fun.html and if it were not for the one thousand two hundred and twenty five pages, I would take it up again – maybe I will, instead of losing time with new, or unread, lesser works, it would be a better idea to engage with the ‘old masters’, Anna Karenina has been read again recently , though I must admit that I did not find it all that exhilarating, on the second encounter, but there are quite a few factors at play there, from the invasion of the Ukraine, to the knowledge of the tragic end of the protagonist – and we could wish that Putin and his henchmen would know the significance, if they could not be expected to read something that pleads for peace, they only know terror and Armageddon

 

Leo Tolstoy had a very vile side and that is evident in the wondrous Intellectuals http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson, who writes about the fact that the great writer was a rather small man, metaphorically speaking, and in some parts of his life, he would not legalize the status of his children, born outside marriage – a bond that was very tenuous for long periods – he was vile to Ivan Turgenev, when the latter was approaching his death and wished for a reconciliation, Tolstoy was so insensitive and cruel as to deny the dying man that…

This is how I remember what I have read in Intellectuals, but as it is put into another opus, memory is not just about recollections, it also tells you things about the one who is reminiscing – now that I see this here, it could be that I am really a negative man, and what I bring from the past is the bad and the ugly, from The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html we find that about half of our penchant to be mirthful is predestined, it is in our genes, about ten percent relies on the circumstances, the place where we live, and we can work with about forty percent

 

From the same monumental How of Happiness we learn about ‘Happiness Activity No 11: Practicing Religion and Spirituality- becoming more involved in your church, temple or mosque or reading and pondering spiritually themed books’ – this where Leo Tolstoy was very much interested and involved, albeit he was excommunicated later in life and he attacked the "pseudo-piety and hypocrisy of organized religion."

Religion is a vast topic indeed, it has been for centuries the most important subject – one could be tempted to say the only dogma, theory admitted, vouched for and allowed – albeit more and more young earthlings have abandoned ‘God’, or opt for unorthodox roles for Her – yes, She is female for an increasing number of young ones – and we have the view shared by Sonja Lyubomirsky, that faith, spirituality is important, on the one side.

 

Being part of a community helps – there is the notion that humans have developed such a large brain, not because of the causes suggested in the past, but because they are social beings, and socializing, being part of a group, being able to cope with the challenges posed by that man, the other woman, this child, and various couples and groups are immense and require a lot of brain activity…it sounds like  a legitimate theory – and faith provides that, the sense of belonging, having a support group to rely upon, a sense of meaning, significance, answers to some rather overwhelming issues…

On the other hand, there is the conviction of Nathaniel Branden – the ultimate expert on self-esteem, author of the classic The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem – who argues in his The Psychological Effects of Religion http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religion-by.html that dogma has a pernicious, disastrous effects on believers, the omnipresence of this guy who has all the powers, he is rather vengeful and if you masturbate at fifteen, he is bound to strike you down at forty-six, because you have broken one of his silly rules, is one bad thing, but there are others: a crucial plagues is…eternity

 

The knowledge, conviction for the evangelicals and other cult members that they will reach heaven could be calamitous, for they see the other life as the much more important part, that is eternal, this one is just a brief transit, and hence a good majority of them concentrate on what is to come and therefore ignore, or pay less attention to what looks like the only chance we all have, there is no after life, heaven, hell

It is tempting to hope that with death we have not ceased to exist, embracing various arguments, from Pascal’s wager http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-pickwick-papers-by-charles-dickens.html you must believe, because if there is a God, then at the ‘end’ you would have lost everything, would be tortured forever in hell, and then if He is not up there, what would you lose…evidently, there are major flaws to this ‘logic’, for the Almighty would not like you to take such a route…there are however quite a few good, presentable ‘proofs’, a couple that I like would be the watch found in the desert, or somewhere, of which you know it had a maker, even if you have no evidence, and then the idea of ‘perfection’ involves it being extant, thus He (or She) exists…let us pray: http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world

 

Written by Revolutionary Realini – the proof is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html a page in The Newsweek article covering the 1989 Revolution that has deposed Ceausescu