Tuesday, December 3, 2013

What if … we read it second time?

When I start to write this last blog, I suddenly realize that we are getting end of our tutorial. I can’t believe that we are going to say goodbye to War and Peace, though I complained to my friends about the super length of this book for many times before. I don’t want to do any analysis any more. Instead, I reopened my War and Peace at beginning pages, trying to do some recollection with you. Do you remember what Pierre, Natasha or Andrew were like when we first knew them? I can recall Pierre as “an awkward bear”, Natasha as “a carefree angel”, and Andrew as “a perfect prince”. I’m like an old friend of them when I reread previous chapters. When I read that Andrew gave Pierre advice of never getting involved in marriage, I found myself was talking to Andrew that “young man, you will desire true love and nice marriage afterwards.” In spite of his death, I’m very glad that perfect Andrew who is always spotless can be aware of the secular love. To my surprise, I did not find it horrible to read War and Peace second time. I found myself enjoy the process, though another voice in my mind sometimes played a role of spoiler.


Back to the time when we knew these characters at the very beginning, you’ll move at their great changes. Reading War and Peace second time, not for reading a masterpiece of Tolstoy, not for analyzing Tolstoy’s philosophical views, not for learning Russian history, just for the sake of meeting our old friends, finding their immature behavior at that time lovable!  

13 comments:

  1. I also have thought about reading War and Peace again, that is whenever I have an extra 61 hours in my life. Sometimes when we reference previous parts of the book, I think of how distant that seems. The characters have changed so much! But they changed so gradually that although the little changes were noticeable, it took a while for me to realize how drastically they've changed since the beginning. I wonder if Tolstoy had the character development all planned out when he imagined War and Peace or if in part as he wrote he was coming up with new ways to develop the characters.

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    1. Brianna, like you said in your blog: we get to know each character just like making friends with them. We don't need to deliberately spare out 61 hours to reread it. Just whenever we miss our friends, we can open any chapter and do some recollection with "old friends".

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  2. It is amazing how much the characters have developed since the beginning of the novel. Not only have the characters changed, the tone of the book has shifted as well. There was so much more plot at the beginning of the novel! I hate to be the stereotypical sentimental girl, but I don't think I would have enjoyed War and Peace as much without all of my tutorial friends :) We have done such a good job in discussion, on this blog, and on the facebook page, of making this book way more dramatic and interesting than it would have been if I read it on my own! I will miss you all next semester and think of you every time I see that ridiculously thick book on my bookshelf :)

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    1. Lizzie, you are right! War and Peace gives us not only the memory of those plots and characters, but also the treasured time with you guys.

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  3. I absolutely adore this post! They really are like old friends that we have grown with. I'm excited to finish the book to see how everything ties up, but I'm also sad its over! The memories will fade until I have time to pick up this book again.

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    1. In spite of the sentiment of the almost ending, I also can't wait to see what each character ends up to be. I hope our "old friends" can get what is best for them finally.

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  4. You guys are going to make me cry!

    On the other hand, reading War and Peace again and again is worth it :)

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    1. Kelly, we are grateful to have you as our tutorial professor. As in the progression of War and Peace, thank you for seeing all of our growth within this semester (:

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  5. War and Peace is the first classic novel I've ever read in English. I couldn't even imagine myself reading it until I actually sat in the library and opened this huge book. I couldn't imagine that I can actually finish the book until we've come so far. I had a wonderful time with our friends Pierre, Andrew and Natasha. I had some times reading a paragraph of Tolstoy's opinions over and over again trying to figure out his logic. I found some parts of me in the characters and even thought about social problems in China when I read about Pierre's tour in his estates. Some say readers always have different understanding when they read a book again. We'll see how that goes.;-)

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    1. Good point, Yang! It is really worth reading it again if you can figure out different understanding. Actually we now have a different understanding compared with the very beginning when we started to read it.

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  6. I'd have to agree with Lizzie!
    When I first saw the book my jaw dropped but after the first few chapters and the great class discussions I found the story to be far more interesting! I didn't know what to expect from tutorial class but I'm definitely glad my first choice was War and Peace! I will miss all your side jokes and Facebook comments! & Prince Bolkonsky shall never forget you!

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    1. It's great that we don't need to miss each other, Ayesha, my roommate!

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  7. A very nostalgic post, Kaiqian. I would agree that a book can lose a lot of it's emotional impact if you spend your time reading it highlighting important lines and writing about character development in the ledgers. Anyways, it was good to work with all of you.

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