Uncategorized – A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity

RKS Literature: Outsideness (Salman Rushdie)

For a long while I have believed-this is perhaps my version of Sir Darius Xerxes Cama’s belief in a fourth function of outsideness-that in every generation there are a few souls, call them lucky or cursed, who are simply born not belonging, who come into the world semi-detached, if you like, without strong affiliation toContinue reading “RKS Literature: Outsideness (Salman Rushdie)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Mademoiselle Blanche an Unapologetic Bloodsucker (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

‘What do you want with money?’ she would say to me with an air of total simplicity, and I never argued the point. She fitted out her flat very nicely with the money, which did not stop her from saying when, later, she was showing me over the rooms of her new home.’ See whatContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Mademoiselle Blanche an Unapologetic Bloodsucker (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Nature of a Gentleman Gambler (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

For instance a gentleman may stake, say, five or ten louis d’or – seldom more, unless he is a very rich man, when he may stake, say, a thousand francs – but he must do this simply for the love of the game itself, simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process ofContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Nature of a Gentleman Gambler (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Roulette a Sordid Gambling Activity (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

In the first place, everything about it seemed so sordid – morally nasty and dirty, that is. I’m not talking about the expectant, restless folk who, in their scores – even in their hundreds – could be seen crowded around the gaming tables, because I could see nothing sordid in a desire to win quicklyContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Roulette a Sordid Gambling Activity (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Key to Youth for Women (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

“Although Pulcheria Alexandrova was forty-three, her face still retained traces of her former beauty; she looked much younger than her age, indeed, which is almost always the case with women who retain sensitivity of spirit, sensitiveness and pure sincereness of heart to old age. We add in parenthesis that to preserve all this is theContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Key to Youth for Women (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”

RKS British Literature: Failed English Girls to the Indian Meat Market (George Orwell)

“She’s come out to lay her claws into a husband of course. As if it wasn’t well known! When a girl’s failed everywhere else she tries India, where every man’s pining for the sight of a white woman. The Indian marriage-market they call it. Meat market it ought to be. Shiploads of ‘em coming outContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Failed English Girls to the Indian Meat Market (George Orwell)”

RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Talkers vs. Beauties (Andy Warhol)

“I don’t really care that much about ‘Beauties’. What I really like are ‘Talkers’. To me, good talkers are beautiful because good talk is what I love. The word itself shows why I like Talkers better than Beauties, why I tape more than I film. It’s not ‘talkies’. Talkers are doing something. Beauties are beingContinue reading “RKS AMERICAN LITERATURE: Talkers vs. Beauties (Andy Warhol)”

RKS French Literature: Father Ranvier the Catholic Priest Exploits the Misery of the Striking Coal Miners (Émile Zola)

“He was using the strike-the terrible poverty, the sense of grievance, sharpened by hunger-with the ardour of a missionary preaching to savages for the greater glory of his religion. He said that the Church was on the side of the poor and that one day it would cause justice to triumph by calling down theContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Father Ranvier the Catholic Priest Exploits the Misery of the Striking Coal Miners (Émile Zola)”

RKS French Literature: Will Elected Officials Be the Answer for Improving the Lot of the French Coal Miners? (Émile Zola)

“But you didn’t get bread on the table by voting for splendid fellows who then promptly went off and led the life of Riley and spared no more of a thought for the poor than they did for an old pair of boots. No, one way or another it was time to put a stopContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Will Elected Officials Be the Answer for Improving the Lot of the French Coal Miners? (Émile Zola)”

RKS French Literature: A Long Tale of Woe for the French Working Class After the 1789 French Revolution (Émile Zola)

“This time the three men were in agreement. One after the other they spoke in despairing tones, and theirs was a long tale of woe. The working man wouldn’t be able to survive; the Revolution had only made things worse for him; the bourgeoisie had been living off the fat of the land since 1789,Continue reading “RKS French Literature: A Long Tale of Woe for the French Working Class After the 1789 French Revolution (Émile Zola)”