вторник, 30 марта 2010 г.

On tour again

This time it was real deal – two and half days en route. And somehow it didn’t cost me much – about 20 euro for return ticket and only 1 euro for food. Hell yeah – the local prices are definitely affordable. I could even settle there some day, but the city has a problem with a water supply system. And hey – haven’t I told a name of the city yet? – It was Lviv or Lemberg or as locals call it – Banderstadt. The latter consists of two words – a surname and a German word stadt, which means city. The trip being very long and tiresome in some way, I decided to take along a volume of novels by Stevenson in English. For I had had this book half read long ago, and now, concerning this distant journey, I thought it would be a nice chance to finish it. So, there were a few novels and the one, which impressed me enough – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. While reading you just can’t link together all the odd events, but the author as always brings some clarification during the narration. And this stuff strongly reminded me that one of Wilde and his Picture of Dorian Gray, for the main problem, I guess, lies in the same subject – duplicity of a human nature and actions as well as the duplicity and hypocrisy of the society. The moral and mental suffering and anguish of the main hero are just as resemble as of Dorian Gray, but I found the description by Stevenson to be more complete and penetrative into the very angles and corners of the human soul. And of course I liked his style of writing, and his gift to make a genuine detective story out of nothing, for you really become involved and experience and worry about someone’s destiny and fate. So as long as Stevenson goes here and there, to and fro, never touching and approaching the major plot itself, never showing a single hint or allusion to give you any sort of a clue, therefore he leaves it up to you to ponder and ruminate on the occasions to happen. Now I would like to quote one dialogue from this book, which took place between Laurence Sterne and some young chap. Here it is:

“Sir,” he said, marching up to the table, ”I do not like your face.”

“That is a pity,” said Mr. Sterne,” for I like yours.”

“I perceive you set up to be a wit,” said the young man.

“No, sir. Only a Christian,” said Mr. Sterne.

“You cannot pretend to make any pleasure in this dinner,” said the student, changing his ground. “Come, be done, be done with it, and do not keep me waiting.”

“Whence is your hurry?” inquired the parson.

“Because when you are done, I presume you will say grace; and I have a curiosity to hear you canting.”

Mr. Sterne instantly laid down his knife and fork, and stood up with a reverent demeanor.

“Lord,” said he, “look down upon thy two poor creatures, met here together in the worst inn (among all thy various works) that I can ever remember to have visited; and grant, Lord, unto each, that of which he stands so much in need – to me, digestion; to him, manners.”

Genuinely fun story this one is. To be frank, I read it a few times before having understoond the humor itself and the witticism of Mr. Sterne. I presume him to have been a nice lad in the first place.

But let’s return to our days. As I travelled barely through a half of the country, the level of purity and correctness of Ukrainian language ascended gradually while my progression from the east to the west. So, since the poor Ukrainian is a cause and reason for a severe butthurt of mine, I scarcely kept myself from slapping all those brutal bastards, who were ignorant of their fucking native language. And here does a surprise part come in – I personally know this language, but I come from a Russian speaking region and my poor Ukrainian can be forgiven in case of any mistake, but you, silly pricks, who usually dwell in the Ukrainian speaking regions, not even should – you are fucking obliged to say it right. When you fail, I just sit and wonder why, ‘cause there could not be any reasonable explanation to that shit. Nevertheless, I proceed from my inner hate to more amiable themes. At least we are united and must be as a unit, “one nation under the God.” So one more shit I could never stand – this obsession to eat, gorge and devour all the fucking food, which was taken along, while travelling by train. It’s a special feature only concerning to railway. You won’t ever see these goofy people chucking their meal on a plane or on the ship. Well, that was an old fuck, who observed that tradition rigidly once more. Hardly had I entered my reserved seat, I caught this smells and fumes of fried chicken, boiled eggs, every other bullshit. You know, separated all these food do not make me vomit or something like that, but in the mixture I just go barely insane and crazy of that shit. And fuck yeah – he was eating all that with a great pleasure marked in his countenance, chewing every bit and slice, swallowing it carefully. God, damn it, I get pissed off. But you must somehow put up with that. So did I. Gotta go to bed, for I have not fully recovered from the trip yet.

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