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Based on many popular responses to “White Nights,” misunderstanding existentialism remains as common as it was when Satre delivered his lecture “Existentialism is a Humanism.” 

 “White Nights” is often discussed as a novella about loneliness and the redemptive power of love to wake a person from complacence. (Or about how the good guy ends up alone, to some). But really this is a story of an unnamed man wasting away in sad conditions while distracting himself with his studies. He expects that the perfect woman will appear for him and she does–only she’s waiting on the return of a man she intends to marry. The narrator expects things to go his way as if their relationship is fated to occur. But, having spent all of his time dreaming rather than living, his idealism sets him up for disappointment and stagnation. 

Satre here explains to a general audience that the essence of existentialism is that “existence precedes essence,” or that things happen and then we must give meaning to them. He posits that we are burdened by choice but to avoid choice (or action) is to avoid reality. While he placed Dostoyevsky as a “Christian existentialist” (maybe so with his later works, e.g. “The Idiot”) Dostoyevsky is secular in “White Nights” where the narrator is unable to create the life he wants because he is overcome with inaction and the desire to avoid choice by “living” only through his studies that require limited choice or risk. 

Both works are existential calls to action denying that reflecting on all that happens and everything wrong with the world will get us anywhere.  

Another very cold weekend so I went back to the oatmeal sourdough that seems to give good results even if things are running a bit cold.

A good oven spring but maybe a touch dark. The texture of these oatmeal loaves have all been good and by the feel of it this one will be as well.

How can I review what is maybe the best novel ever written? 

This gigantic novel is overflowing with humanity and life from the most wretched places. 

In contrast to the movies (and musical?), the book provides Hugo’s politics and religion for 1,200 pages. This novel focuses on backstory or social environment leading to the French Revolution (with plenty of commentary on the American, including John Brown’s revolt). The movies includes most of the major plot points but miss the point of the novel–the social commentary on religion, criminal justice reform, and political economy. The films largely lack the depth of feeling and conflict that Valjean experiences at nearly all points (the Bishop, the Campmatheiu affair, leaving the convent, giving up Cosette, etc.). This is maybe the most pertinent example of movies lacking the depth of the novel. This is a very ethical novel which is missing from the movie. 

Hugo spends a large amount of the 1,200 pages talking about religion, criminal justice reform, and economic policy. While the movies focus on Javert vs. Valjean, a relatively minor plot point which culminates in Valjean’s forgiveness. 

In the end, this is a novel brimming with humanity and forgiveness. It provides a masterclass of pacing and tension building with interest rising throughout the novel. Valjean is a rich protagonist who faces constant moral dilemmas but always with a remembrance of Myriel.

This is a gigantic novel that is completely worth the time.

Back to the standard recipe containing ~35% whole wheat and not much else. A bit sluggish compared to the oatmeal sourdough but it’s also been quite cold and dry so it’s hard to assign blame here. A long bulk didn’t quite make up for a too short initial ferment.

Once again an oatmeal sourdough (without any oats for a topping). Forgot about this before fridge-ing but wasn’t too far over–just a bit more “spread” than “rise.”

Another oatmeal loaf although not as good as last week. Feel like the fermentation got away from me a little (seems quicker with the oatmeal) and there wasn’t quite enough gluten to avoid a slightly flat loaf.

Oatmeal sourdough (recipe) that I’ve made several times before but never got such good results.

Recipe was rescaled and hydration was increased based on feel of the dough. Good feeling dough considering the somewhat sharp inclusions. Nicely fermented to produce a bubbly crust.

Back to my standard recipe for the first bake of the new year!

These are two classic biographies of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and Beethoven that focus on the intellectual/musical development related to their artistic output. 

Pyzant’s biography of Glenn Gould contains little of the standard biographical detail but rather focuses on the writing and interview output of Gould in order to present his ideas. There are descriptions of Gould’s approach to repertoire, instrumentation, musical recordings (vs live performance and in terms of editorial splicing), and the essence of sound from the piano. Effectively, the ethos of Gould is summed up in ~150 pages. 

This book is quite an accomplishment considering how unorthodox Gould was. It does no disservice toward how revolutionary Gould’s opinions were or how rigorously they were developed. In fact, this was so successful that it’s affected how I hear the piano as a percussion instrument (certainly a bit more than Mann’s idea of purity of harmony through a lack of sustain). 

The Beethoven biography that Sullivan writes, on the other hand, is a work focused much more on how the authors ideas of how Beethoven’s suffering contributed to his musical development. While the compositions certainly developed in a few stages and his life was tumultuous as his fame increased and health decreased, this all feels little too narrativized. Sullivan wants us to believe that Beethoven, more than any other composer wrote music directly corresponding to his inner world and this is the reason for his greatness. This remains a somewhat popular opinion, but such simple yet encompassing claims rarely almost never capture the entire picture. In fact, this reads a bit like an artifact of its time and Beethoven’s influence on early modernism (through Strauss, early Schoenberg). 

In trying to show the emotional depth of Beethoven’s music, Sullivan accomplishes what he criticized: imposing a “programmatic” sense of narrative and meaning to almost entirely instrumental music. 

The greatest Christmas song? (apologies to the Phoebe covers)