Anton Checkhov explains how life works in a letter to his brother - Interesting read - General

[QUOTE][IMG]http://deathandtaxesmag.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/971317_206758892781584_1546085163_n.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Moscow, March, 1886 My little Zabelin, I’ve been told that you have taken offense at gibes Schechtel and I have been making. The faculty of taking offense is the property of noble souls alone, but even so, if it is all right to laugh at Ivanenko, me, Mishka and Nelly, then why is it wrong to laugh at you? It’s unfair. However, if you’re not joking and really do feel you’ve been offended, I hasten to apologize. People only laugh at what’s funny or what they don’t understand. Take your choice. The latter of course is more flattering, but—alas!—to me, for one, you’re no riddle. It’s not hard to understand someone with whom you’ve shared the delights of Tatar caps, Voutsina, Latin and, finally, life in Moscow. And besides, your life is psychologically so uncomplicated that even a nonseminarian could understand it. Out of respect for you let me be frank. You’re angry, offended…but it’s not because of my gibes or of that good-natured chatterbox Dolgov. The fact of the matter is that you’re a decent person and you realize that you’re living a lie. And, whenever a person feels guilty, he always looks outside himself for vindication: the drunk blames his troubles, Putyata blames the censors, the man who bolts from Yakimanka Street with lecherous intent blames the cold in the living room or gibes, and so on. If I were to abandon the family to the whims of fate, I would try to find myself an excuse in Mother’s character or my blood spitting or the like. It’s only natural and pardonable. It’s human nature, after all. And you’re quite right to feel you’re living a lie. If you didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t have called you a decent person. When decency goes, well, that’s another story. You become reconciled to the lie and stop feeling it. [B]Read the rest of the letter in the linked page.[/B][/QUOTE] [url]http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/202536/anton-checkov-explains-how-life-works-in-a-letter-to-his-brother/[/url]

Wise man.

Return letter: [quote]tl;dr[/quote]

[quote]In March of 1886, at the age of 26, acclaimed Russian author and physician Anton Chekhov wrote this fascinating and honest letter of advice to his troubled older brother, Nikolai, a talented painter and writer who, despite being just 28 himself, had for many years been plagued by alcoholism to the point where he often slept on the streets, his days a blur; his notable skills as an artist largely untapped. This letter and the list it contained—eight qualities exhibited by "civilized" people—were essentially Anton's attempt at knocking some sense into the brother he was slowly losing. Sadly, his efforts were ultimately futile. Nikolai passed away three years later.[/quote] The context to the letter that the shit blog writer was too lazy to copypaste or rewrite for his blog. Really annoying, stuff like this should always be contextualized and not by linking to the 'source'. Otherwise reading it and making sense out of most of it is a pain in the ass.

chekov owns

Wow I have to say this is some deep shit, awesome read.

He makes some good points.

[quote]You often complain to me that people “don’t understand” you. But even Goethe and Newton made no such complaints. Christ did, true, but he was talking about his doctrine, not his ego. People understand you all too well. If you don’t understand yourself, then it’s nobody else’s fault.[/quote] [img]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-damn.gif[/img]

More enlightening (or alarming really) is his points ram home that human culture hasn't essentially changed in all those years. We still exhibit the same behaviors more or less, the same character flaws. This point in particular I mean: "6. They are not preoccupied with vain things. They are not taken in by such false jewels as friendships with celebrities, handshakes with drunken Plevako, ecstasy over the first person they happen to meet at the Salon de Varietes, popularity among the tavern crowd. They laugh when they hear, “I represent the press,” a phrase befitting only Rodzeviches and Levenbergs. When they have done a penny’s worth of work, they don’t try to make a hundred rubles out of it, and they don’t boast over being admitted to places closed to others. True talents always seek obscurity. They try to merge with the crowd and shun all ostentation. Krylov himself said that an empty barrel has more chance of being heard than a full one."

stuff like this never fails to make me feel humble as heck. i am dumb compared to the contents of this letter.

Good read, thanks for sharing. Like Jaeger mentioned, it's interesting how some things appear to be a modern-era issue, while in fact they've always been there (and will be).

Your only job was to spell the guy's name right. That was all you had to do.

[QUOTE=JaegerMonster;41660245]More enlightening (or alarming really) is his points ram home that human culture hasn't essentially changed in all those years. [/QUOTE] And since then we've gone pretty much from horse & cart to being able to blow each other up from the opposite side of the planet.