Category Archives: literature

RKS Literature: British Boarding Schools Creators of Psychopaths (Salman Rushdie)

Cyrus Cama was sent away to boarding school, still with murder in his eyes, banished to an implacable hill-station establishment which based its methods upon the tried and true British principles of cold baths, bad food, regular beatings and high-quality academic instruction, and which helped him to develop into the full-blooded psychopath he afterwards became.Continue reading “RKS Literature: British Boarding Schools Creators of Psychopaths (Salman Rushdie)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Chink of Gold Coins on the Roulette Table Drives the Gambler into Near Convulsions! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

When I hear the cries of the croupiers – ‘Trente-et-un rouge, impair et passe’. ‘Quatre, noir, pair et manque’ it’s with a sort of apprehension, a sort of sinking feeling in my heart. How greedily I look at the gaming table, with its scattered louis d’or, gold friedrichs and thalers, at the streams of goldContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Chink of Gold Coins on the Roulette Table Drives the Gambler into Near Convulsions! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: With Gambling You Have Renounced Everything! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

‘You have not only renounced life, with its interest and social ties, but the duties of a citizen and a man. You have not only given up the friends I knew you had, and every aim in life except winning money, but you have also given up your memories. Although I can remember you duringContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: With Gambling You Have Renounced Everything! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Always…The Next Spin of the Roulette Wheel (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

I have a feeling of expectation and it can’t be wrong. I’ve got 15 louis d’or now, though I only began with fifteen gulden. If I play carefully to start with…..But no! Surely I’m not such a fool as that. I’m a lost soul. But why should I not rise from the dead? All IContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Always…The Next Spin of the Roulette Wheel (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS Literature: What Does Song Show Us? (Salman Rushdie)

Our lives are not what we deserve; they are, let us agree, in many painful ways deficient. Song turns them into something else. Song shows us a world that is worthy of our yearning, it shows us our selves as they might be, if we were worthy of the world. Salman Rushdie, “The Ground BeneathContinue reading “RKS Literature: What Does Song Show Us? (Salman Rushdie)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Sordidness of Beggary After Being Wiped Out at Gambling! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Scarcely a year and a half have passed, but I’m worse off than the poorest beggar. But what is a beggar anyhow? Who cares about being a beggar? I’ve just ruined myself, that’s all. There’s nothing I could compare my situation to at the moment, and moralizing would serve no purpose in any case. AtContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Sordidness of Beggary After Being Wiped Out at Gambling! (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Bloodsucker Mademoiselle Blanche Completely Cleans Out Our Protagonist (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

I frequently had recourse to champagne because I constantly felt depressed and bored, owing to the fact that I was living in the most bourgeois, mercenary milieu imaginable, where every sou was counted and grudged. Indeed, two weeks had not gone by before I realized Blanche had no real affection for me, even though sheContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Bloodsucker Mademoiselle Blanche Completely Cleans Out Our Protagonist (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS Literature: Giving Thanks to God When There is No One Else to Give it To (Salman Rushdie)

I always in my own godless way found it hard to believe that she actually believed in an actually existing god. But she probably did; I was probably wrong about that too; and anyway, what other word is there? When there’s that gratitude in you for life’s dumb luck, when there’s nobody to thank andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Giving Thanks to God When There is No One Else to Give it To (Salman Rushdie)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Charlatan Poles at the Casino Robbing Grandmother (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

An hour later, the two Poles who earlier in the day had been thrown out of the casino, made a reappearance behind the old lady’s chair and renewed their offers of service, even if only to be sent on errands; but Potapych told me these rascals exchanged winks with the said “gentleman of honour”, andContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Charlatan Poles at the Casino Robbing Grandmother (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Croupiers at Casino Guardians of Assets of the House (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

At the casino Grandmother seemed to be expected, for no time was lost in getting her to her former place beside the croupier. It is my opinion that though croupiers seem such ordinary humdrum officials – men who couldn’t care whether the bank wins or loses – they are, in reality anything but indifferent toContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Croupiers at Casino Guardians of Assets of the House (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”