Collage 389

What makes a "classic" a classic? I should remember this from my college days when I studied Russian literature. There was something about timelessness, right? I was reading an article about honeybees and colony collapse disorder, and it was prefaced by the following quote from Leo Tolstoy himself, "The closer we examine the honeybee, the more we realize the workings of a beehive encompass territories beyond our comprehension."

What an amazing human being.-- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 33-34, Volume II of original text
collage, acrylic paint, ink
made 2/18/11
page 625-627 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 388

At dinner, seating Balashov beside him, he treated him not only benignly but as if he counted Balashov among his courtiers, among the people who sympathized with his plans and were supposed to be glad of his successes. Among other subjects, he talked about Moscow and began to ask Balashov about the Russian capital, not merely as a curious traveler asks about a new place he intends to visit, but as if convinced that Balashov, as a Russian, must be flattered by his curiosity. -- p. 625 in P/V

Lynn Waskelis
from page 31-32, Volume II of original text
collage, wax, ink
made 2/18/11
page 624-625 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 387

We are in Volume II, Part One, Chapter VI. The Russian emperor's envoy, Balashov, has been sent to deliver a message to Napoleon. For whatever reason, he finds it impossible to relay to Napoleon the message, i.e. get off Russian soil! Napoleon is on a verbal rampage and Balashov is brow-beaten into submission, barely able to follow the argument and completely frozen, a deer in headlights. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 29-30, Volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 2/18/11
page 622-624 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 386

He paced silently from one corner of the room to the other, and again stopped in front of Balashov. His face was as if petrified in its stern expression, and his left leg trembled still more rapidly than before. Napoleon knew that he had this trembling of the left calf. "La vibration de mon mollet gauche est un grand signe chez moi," he would say later. --p. 621 in P/V

Lynn Waskelis
from page 27-28, Volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 2/18/11
page 621-622 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 385

War and Peace is chock full of repetitions; who can forget Princess Marya's "luminous" eyes? In this passage, Tolstoy draws out attention to a tic of Napoleon's -- a rhythmic trembling of his left calf. Balashov is with Napoloeon and has been tasked to tell Napoleon the following -- "that not a single armed enemy remains on Russian soil". This is his directive from the tsar. Yet he is unable to say this directly to Napoleon. All that Balashov asks for is that Napoleon withdraw his troops beyond the Niemen river.

On the next page Napoleon comments that the trembling of his left calf is a great sign to him. A sign of what is unclear. He does not heed Balashov's polite request and continues his march on Moscow. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 25-26 of original text, Volume 2
collage
made 2/11/11
page 619-620 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 384

Ugh.

Lynn Waskelis
from page 23-24 of original text, Volume II
collage, ink
made 2/11/11
page 617-619 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation

Collage 383

We are in Volume III, Part One, Chapter V.

Again, more Paynes Gray. This has the feeling of a smoky battlefield.

Tolstoy is describing one of Napoleon's marshalls. "In the mechanism of the state organism these people are necessary, as wolves are necessary in nature's organism, and they always exist, always appear and hold out, however incongruous their presence and closeness to the head of the government may be."

He goes on, "...Davout was one of those people who deliberately set themselves up in the most gloomy conditions of life, so as to have the right to be gloomy. For the same reason they are always in a hurry and stubbornly busy."

Tolstoy was part historian and part psychologist. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 21-22 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 2/11/11
page 616-617 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation