tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post113811161213213242..comments2024-02-27T16:59:54.089-05:00Comments on (The New) Theatre Ideas: Chekhov and CondemnationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-1138255099628374812006-01-26T00:58:00.000-05:002006-01-26T00:58:00.000-05:00Hi DV - When I think of Chekhov the artist, I thin...Hi DV - When I think of Chekhov the artist, I think of the Chekhov who despised his audience and spoke of "iron in the blood". I'm sure he was a charming human being (quite sure, when I read his letters) - but I also think he was as hard as nails. I suspect that his healing in real life - maybe also things like his time in the penal colony in Sakhalin - may have made him want to wound in his art. Certainly his great speeches wound: Nina in <I>The Seagull</I>, speaking of the falling away of her youthful vanities to the bare endurance of vocation, for instance, is not a speech about healing, but about opening the self to the unhealable fractures that are part of living. Whenever I hear it, or read it, it wounds me, because I know it is true; and it is a hard truth that is hard to face in its wholeness, for any of us.<BR/><BR/>There is, as Nietzsche said, a health in the ability to stare into the abyss of catastrophe, that he claims the Greek possessed and that we have lost. But that is a rather different paradigm to the friendly family doctor.Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-1138229883255932172006-01-25T17:58:00.000-05:002006-01-25T17:58:00.000-05:00Scott,After more thought, I'm sort of confused at ...Scott,<BR/><BR/>After more thought, I'm sort of confused at the point of this story or more accurately, how this story proves your point. What you see as accepting, gentle nature...I see as pandering.<BR/><BR/>When I read this story I see a tale about three women who are asking difficult questions that they dont fully grasp, and the person they come to for enlightenement or enabling, giving them an out.<BR/><BR/>"Ladies you aren't as interested in geo-politics as you should be, so let's talk about candy."<BR/><BR/>Granted, my glass is definately half full on this whole lets be friend or doctor as we approach the audience. But what in this Gorky story as you've laid it out has to do with Chekov the dramatist?<BR/><BR/>Do his texts "simply" in the same way?<BR/><BR/>Or is this suppose to be an example of someone who thought they wanted a doctor, but really wanted just a friend and chekow saw that? And if so, did they need the doctor? How revelant are their wants and needs?<BR/><BR/>Or am I trying in too strict a manner to see a coorelation between this post and Freeman's post?<BR/><BR/>AS it is right now for me, where you see kindness and understanding, I think there's potential to see condescention and pandering without too big of an intrepretive leap.<BR/><BR/>I can see the validity when talking about Chekov's relation to poeple in day to day living...I fail to see the relevance to Chekov the artist.<BR/><BR/>With respect<BR/>DVDevilvethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01425758108288436683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-1138121490870805112006-01-24T11:51:00.000-05:002006-01-24T11:51:00.000-05:00Some thoughts on this role of "Doctor" at my blogSome thoughts on this role of "Doctor" at my blogFreemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01183078884824734105noreply@blogger.com