Warning in advance- length is due to copying a books passage. Read it, it's good.

Well, I have just succeeded in creating a facebook event- I knew I could do it if I just sat down and figured it out. Yeah, it was actually really easy, not sure why I couldn't see that button before... well, never much occasion to figure it out.

Ah, I spent so long going over that friends list and figuring out who to invite. There are so many reasons why that's hard. Couldn't I just absorb the experience of myself going to see the movie in every potential universe of me going with A, and going with B, with C, etc. We can do that, right?

I said I would talk about Père Goriot yesterday- but I was too tired. You know how I mentioned working on posture last post? Well, that wasn't happening yesterday- I had no choice but to collapse on myself. I imploded. That is how tired I was. (Okay, you were tired, we get it)

So Père Goriot is about this twenty one year old law student Eugène de Rastignac in early 19th century Paris and his efforts to make it in the real world. And by real world I mean the world of fashion and extravagance. In a sense we're shown two different possible paths to success- that of the cynical criminal Vautrin, and that of the hard working, generous and insane Goriot.

I say insane because his story goes like this: a man rises through the ranks of the pasta market to become inordinately wealthy, gives EVERYTHING to his two daughters, reducing himself to the state of a pauper, then when these daughters incur more debts thanks to their husbands and lovers Goriot somehow pulls out more money until he kills himself through worry over his unappreciative daughters and of course his general lack of care for his person. You can't have much of an immune system after a few years on little beyond bread and water.

It's a downer ending, what with Eugène de Rastignac learning just how much a person is worth in the eyes of others, and what you have to do to thrive- become a hypocrite, and a backstabber and an incredibly ruthless oppourtunist. He isn't as bad as Vautrin, whose plan involved getting Eugène de Rastignac to pitch some woo at this poor lonely girl (Eugène, generally a very charming guy, could heartlessly follow "the right script" and she'd be his in a moment)then killing her brother so she'd inherit millions. Vautrin even goes through with the murder when Eugène hadn't even said he'd go along with it. In fact I'm pretty pleased with Eugène's arc in the story- though he is certainly tempted by a great number of unsavoury paths to greatness, his thought processes are generally very high minded and believable- perhaps it's the idealism of youth, but regardless Eugène never descends to the state of a total monster, which is good- when that happens in a book it is very difficult to redeem that character, but because that is so often attempted it just comes across as forced.

Ah, not that I can come up with any examples at the moment.

Interesting (and impressive) to note that the author Honoré de Balzac created an interconnected universe for his characters to inhabit- this story of Eugène de Rastignac is something of a prequel to "La Peau de Chagrin" where an older Rastignac takes the role of the elder cynic, guiding some other youth through the world- in fact it really sounds like Eugène has taken up the role, at least in part, of Vautrin.

Plenty of other characters that show up in Père Goriot have their own stories elsewhere, and it's a good trick to suck me in to finding other Balzac novels to get the whole picture. For that reason alone it's brilliant, but also I admire the economy of it- when Balzac was first writing Père Goriot Rastignac's character was named Eugène de Massiac- just some simple country boy introduced to Paris. But with the substitution of "Rastignac" suddenly this isn't just some character playing the hero role in a story, but a life that can be understood. And it's the continuity that makes it okay for Eugène to grow up into a Vautrin figure- I'm no longer reading something to satisfy my desires for a particular narrative arc, but following a history. It's a created history, but that's why the very begining of this novel quotes Shakespeare under the title: "All is true."

Probably my favourite part of the book:
Eugène is struggling with that offer of millions from Vautrin while walking along with his friend Bianchon, who up until this point I thought was just a goof of a fop (which is what makes this passage all the more satisfying... that said, I have to acknowledge that I may have conflated Bianchon with another character to get that foppish image, but there are a lot of characters running around here, so I don't feel too bad for making any mistakes. And again, it's worth it for the result of me reading the passage and going "Oh- I like this guy!")

Bianchon "Why are you looking so serious?"

Eugène "I'm tormented by wicked impulses."

Bianchon "What sort? You can cure impulses, anyway."

Eugène "How?"

Bianchon "By giving in to them."

Eugène "You laugh only because you don't know what I'm talking about. Have you ever read Rousseau?"

Bianchon "Yes."

Eugène "Do you remember that passage where he asks the reader what he would do if he could get rich by killing an old mandarin in China without moving from Paris, just by willing it?"

Bianchon "Yes."

Eugène "Well?"

Bianchon "Pooh! I've got through thirty-two mandarins already."

Eugène "Don't joke about it. Come, if it were proved to you that you could do it- just by a nod of the head, would you?"

Bianchon "Is he a very old Mandarin?... Well, anyway, young or old, paralytic or healthy, of course I... well, damn it, no, I wouldn't."

Eugène "You're a fine, noble boy, Bianchon. But suppose you were so much in love with a woman you'd sell your soul for her; and suppose she needed money, lots of money, for her clothes, and her carriage, and everything else...?"

Bianchon "But you deprive me of my reason, and then ask me to use it!"

Eugène "Well, anyway, Bianchon, I'm mad. Kindly cure me. I have two sisters, lovely innocent angels, and I want them to be happy. Where can I get two hundred thousand francs for the dowries they'll be needing five years from now? There are, you see, situations in life when you must play for high stakes, and not use up your luck in winning pennies."

Bianchon "What you're asking is what everyone has to ask at the beginning of a career; and you want to cut the Gordian knot with a sword. To do that, you must either be Alexander the Great or else face prison. I'm happy with the minor existence I shall make for myself in the country, where I shall dully follow in my father's practice. A man's affections can be satisfied in the smallest circle just as fully as in a gigantic one. Napoleon himself couldn't eat two dinners, and couldn't cope with any more mistresses than a medical student at the Capucines'. Our happiness, my dear boy, always lies between the soles of our feet and the occiput; and whether it costs a million francs a year or only a couple of thousand, the intrinsic gratification is just the same inside us. So I vote you should spare the Chinaman's life."

Eugène "Thanks, you've done me good, Bianchon! We'll always be friends."