Collage 291

Lola Baltzell
from page 589-590 of original text
collage, acrylic paint, ink
made 11/19/10
page 468-469

We are in Volume II, Part Three, Chapter XX. I enjoy hearing Tolstoy's voice when he comments on social norms and such. Some of it rings true today -- probably most of it. But in some areas, such as between men and women -- how things have changed -- or have they?

"Boris smiled with a consciousness of his superiority over a weak woman and fell silent, thinking that all the same this sweet wife of his was a weak woman, who could not comprehend all that made up the dignity of a man -- ein Mann zu sein*. At the same time, Vera also smiled with a consciousness of her superiority over her virtuous, good husband, who all the same understood life wrongly, as, in Vera's view, all men did. Berg, considered all women weak and stupid. Vera, judging by her husband alone and extending all observation to everyone, supposed that all men ascribed reason only to themselves, and at the same time understood nothing, were proud and egoistic"

* of being a man

-- Lola