(1) Epigraphy.
The title of this Introduction is “Why At All?” Here are my two epigraphs to the book as a whole, jointly providing an exhaustive answer to the title’s question.---
George Bernard Shaw says it with his customary humor and somewhat differently, but otherwise with a very similar idea in mind: “Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” I find Shaw rather too generous toward humankind as, from my life-experience-based perspective, very few people ever think at all.
This book’s greatest benefit to its reader is that it encourages free thinking in all who will read it. But this is by no means the only raison d’être for my book, as there is a second epigraph, which is a phrase taken from Pushkin’s tragedy Boris Godunov: "Ispolnen Dolg" (The Duty is Fulfilled).
Here is its larger context, the opening monologue of the monk Pimen, where he reflects on his completion of a long manuscript, which serves to prove that his life had not been lived in vain (as always in such cases, the translation into English is mine):
Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine (Lord, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace), or, in the Russian version, Nyne otpuschayushi raba Tvoyego, Vladyko, is of a particular religious significance to me. I must also add that I would have much preferred the Russian title for this work: Nyne Otpuschayushi; but, as the reader can see, being written in English, my work requires a more universally understood title, and, needless to say, my book’s Russian title can only be Nyne Otpuschayushi, even though every cultured Russian is very well familiar with the Latin version of Simeon’s Prayer.
This second epigraph explains the meaning of Nunc Dimittis, as it applies to my work.
(2) Robinson Crusoe.
My work on this book reminds me, in a way, of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe’s classic hero was unwillingly shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, forced out of the thick of a thriving social life into a complete solitude.
Out of necessity, Robinson Crusoe starts building a very crude lodging for himself, at first, but, as he moves along, his living conditions considerably improve. Having the simplest roof over his head, plus a primitive fence, to keep wild animals away, gives him confidence to continue building and to improve on his creation, which daily acquires new features and superior qualities. Likewise, I myself have started with a few scraps, currently preserved in the Archive, for purely sentimental reasons. Those sketches no longer have a rightful place among my already finished entries, but without this “old guard,” the new and better ones would never have been here.
The story of Robinson Crusoe has been written, its author has been lying in the grave for centuries and not a single word can be added to it. My life story has not reached its last page yet, and so, its ending is, perhaps, still unknown to all, especially to me. As I am today, I love my solitude, and I do not wish to go back to the civilization at all. But should some off-course ship surprise my solitude one day, I might be happy to load it full with my solitude’s handiwork, and then send it off back to civilization.
(3) The Gold Mine.
Some people can be compared to a gold mine of old: a shabby entrance, but plenty of gold in there…
(4) The List Of Contents.
This List includes an Introduction, eighteen Sections and three Appendices.
Introduction: “Why At All?” ventures to answer its own question with a modest degree of success.
Part I: A Contradiction In Terms points to the basic contradiction between Capitalism and Christianity.
Part II: In Sickness And In Health focuses on the copious problems and rare triumphs of world religions.
Part III: Tikkun Olam is an intrepid dossier on Res Iudaica.
Part IV: Collective Guilt And Glory is a Mad Hatter’s exercise in sociology.
Part V: The Genius And The Scholar is a self-explanatory apologia of inspiration over perspiration.
Part VI: Twilight’s Last Gleaming is an acute inflammation of the Blame America First nerve.
Part VII: It’s Russia, Stupid! is a predictably angry album of my “voice-in-the-wilderness” rants.
Part VIII: No Way To Treat A Lady is a lesson in little-known history for those who don’t know any.
Part IX: One Step Beyond Wishful Thinking may still have landed in Utopia!
Part X: God, By Postulate! is philosophy made…even less comprehensible.
Part XI: Looking At Myself In The Mirror is a much flattering portrait of a Dorian Gray…
Part XII: “Sonnets To Sundry Notes Of Music” is literature, and music, and a Shakespearian title.
Part XIII: My Friend Nietzsche is a basso ostinato on the word count’s hands-down winner.
Part XIV: PreSocratica Sempervirens summons the shadows of our earliest and brightest ancestors.
Part XV: The Magnificent Shadows. What do I have in common with Dante? Been there, done that!
Part XVI. Significant Others. Each of these gets his own entry… but only one.
Part XVII. Nations And Their Heroes. The wisdom of the Stamp Catalog, translated into a treasure.
Part XVIII. Scrapbook. My Rapid Reaction Section, promptly responding to political “emergencies.”
Appendix A: Apte Dictum. My newest version of the paroemiological minimum.
Appendix B: From Acorn To Oak, a. k. a. caterpillars getting ready to fly…
Appendix C: Archive. The retirement home for some decrepit, yet dearly-beloved ex-entries.
The title of this Introduction is “Why At All?” Here are my two epigraphs to the book as a whole, jointly providing an exhaustive answer to the title’s question.---
The greatest freedom, and the rarest of them all, is the freedom of thought!
This epigraph is basically of my own making, written in my blood, so to speak, to use Nietzsche’s metaphor. Yet, even though I have always held this utterance as my own signature dictum, for the record, I am by no means the only one to have said something like it. Here is Kierkegaard’s wise reflection on the very same subject: “How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech… People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought, which they seldom use.”George Bernard Shaw says it with his customary humor and somewhat differently, but otherwise with a very similar idea in mind: “Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” I find Shaw rather too generous toward humankind as, from my life-experience-based perspective, very few people ever think at all.
This book’s greatest benefit to its reader is that it encourages free thinking in all who will read it. But this is by no means the only raison d’être for my book, as there is a second epigraph, which is a phrase taken from Pushkin’s tragedy Boris Godunov: "Ispolnen Dolg" (The Duty is Fulfilled).
Here is its larger context, the opening monologue of the monk Pimen, where he reflects on his completion of a long manuscript, which serves to prove that his life had not been lived in vain (as always in such cases, the translation into English is mine):
The duty is fulfilled, bequeathed by God
To me, the sinner.
‘Twas not in vain that of so many years
God let me be a witness,
And inspired me in the art of books.
These Pushkin lines are just as powerful to my senses as Simeon’s Prayer in Luke 2:29, known by its Latin name Nunc Dimittis, which, of course, has become my whole book’s title.Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine (Lord, Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace), or, in the Russian version, Nyne otpuschayushi raba Tvoyego, Vladyko, is of a particular religious significance to me. I must also add that I would have much preferred the Russian title for this work: Nyne Otpuschayushi; but, as the reader can see, being written in English, my work requires a more universally understood title, and, needless to say, my book’s Russian title can only be Nyne Otpuschayushi, even though every cultured Russian is very well familiar with the Latin version of Simeon’s Prayer.
This second epigraph explains the meaning of Nunc Dimittis, as it applies to my work.
(2) Robinson Crusoe.
My work on this book reminds me, in a way, of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe’s classic hero was unwillingly shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, forced out of the thick of a thriving social life into a complete solitude.
Out of necessity, Robinson Crusoe starts building a very crude lodging for himself, at first, but, as he moves along, his living conditions considerably improve. Having the simplest roof over his head, plus a primitive fence, to keep wild animals away, gives him confidence to continue building and to improve on his creation, which daily acquires new features and superior qualities. Likewise, I myself have started with a few scraps, currently preserved in the Archive, for purely sentimental reasons. Those sketches no longer have a rightful place among my already finished entries, but without this “old guard,” the new and better ones would never have been here.
The story of Robinson Crusoe has been written, its author has been lying in the grave for centuries and not a single word can be added to it. My life story has not reached its last page yet, and so, its ending is, perhaps, still unknown to all, especially to me. As I am today, I love my solitude, and I do not wish to go back to the civilization at all. But should some off-course ship surprise my solitude one day, I might be happy to load it full with my solitude’s handiwork, and then send it off back to civilization.
(3) The Gold Mine.
Some people can be compared to a gold mine of old: a shabby entrance, but plenty of gold in there…
(4) The List Of Contents.
This List includes an Introduction, eighteen Sections and three Appendices.
Introduction: “Why At All?” ventures to answer its own question with a modest degree of success.
Part I: A Contradiction In Terms points to the basic contradiction between Capitalism and Christianity.
Part II: In Sickness And In Health focuses on the copious problems and rare triumphs of world religions.
Part III: Tikkun Olam is an intrepid dossier on Res Iudaica.
Part IV: Collective Guilt And Glory is a Mad Hatter’s exercise in sociology.
Part V: The Genius And The Scholar is a self-explanatory apologia of inspiration over perspiration.
Part VI: Twilight’s Last Gleaming is an acute inflammation of the Blame America First nerve.
Part VII: It’s Russia, Stupid! is a predictably angry album of my “voice-in-the-wilderness” rants.
Part VIII: No Way To Treat A Lady is a lesson in little-known history for those who don’t know any.
Part IX: One Step Beyond Wishful Thinking may still have landed in Utopia!
Part X: God, By Postulate! is philosophy made…even less comprehensible.
Part XI: Looking At Myself In The Mirror is a much flattering portrait of a Dorian Gray…
Part XII: “Sonnets To Sundry Notes Of Music” is literature, and music, and a Shakespearian title.
Part XIII: My Friend Nietzsche is a basso ostinato on the word count’s hands-down winner.
Part XIV: PreSocratica Sempervirens summons the shadows of our earliest and brightest ancestors.
Part XV: The Magnificent Shadows. What do I have in common with Dante? Been there, done that!
Part XVI. Significant Others. Each of these gets his own entry… but only one.
Part XVII. Nations And Their Heroes. The wisdom of the Stamp Catalog, translated into a treasure.
Part XVIII. Scrapbook. My Rapid Reaction Section, promptly responding to political “emergencies.”
Appendix A: Apte Dictum. My newest version of the paroemiological minimum.
Appendix B: From Acorn To Oak, a. k. a. caterpillars getting ready to fly…
Appendix C: Archive. The retirement home for some decrepit, yet dearly-beloved ex-entries.
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