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

RKS Literature: Death by Consumption (Thomas Nasche)

“Oh, a consumption is worse than a Capius ad Ligatum: to nothing can I compare it better than to a reprieve after a man is condemned, or to a boy with his hose about his heels ready to be whipped, to whom his master stands preaching a long time all law and no gospel ereContinue reading “RKS Literature: Death by Consumption (Thomas Nasche)”

RKS Russian Literature: The Cacophony of Hounds in a Russian Village (Nikolay Gogol)

“Meanwhile the hounds were giving vent to voices of every conceivable kind. One, his head tossed back, was, drawling so protractedly and zealously that God knows what fee he was getting for it; another was snapping it out as briskly as a sexton; among them rang a tireless treble, probably a young puppy’s, like theContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: The Cacophony of Hounds in a Russian Village (Nikolay Gogol)”

RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part Two (Nikolay Gogol)

“In three years’ time the thin man will not have a single serf left to him that has not been mortgaged; the fat man goes on his quiet way, and ,lo and behold, suddenly at the end of town there appears a house that’s been purchased in his wife’s name, then at the other endContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part Two (Nikolay Gogol)”

RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part One (Nikolay Gogol)

“These were the highly respected officials of the town. Alas! The fat ones of this world know how to manage their affairs better than the thin ones. The thin ones are mostly employed on special assignments or are merely carried on the civil service list, and flit hither and yon. Their existence is weightless, insubstantialContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part One (Nikolay Gogol)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)

“I keep using the word expression” Haraguchi went on, “but an artist doesn’t paint what’s inside, he doesn’t paint the heart. He paints what the heart puts on display. As long as he observes everything in the display case, he can tell what’s locked up in the safe. Or we can assume that much, IContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Literature: Two Types of Melancholy (Thomas Nasche)

“Of this melancholy there be two sorts: one that, digested by our liver, swimmeth like oil above water and that is rightly termed women’s melancholy; which lasteth but for an hour and is, as it were, but a copy of their countenance; the other sinketh down to the bottom of the lees of the wine,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Two Types of Melancholy (Thomas Nasche)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Young Japanese Men with Literary Power in their Hands (Sōseki Natsume)

“No one with a brain in his head can stand here in the centre of the intellectual world and be indifferent to the violent upheavals going on before his eyes. We young men are the ones who hold today’s literary power in our hands, so we have to take the initiative to make every word,Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Young Japanese Men with Literary Power in their Hands (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Empty Headed Japanese University Students (Sōseki Natsume)

“The students who flocked to Berlin to hear Hegel’s lectures”-this fellow was obviously a great admirer of Hegel-“were not driven by ambition. They did not intend to exploit the lectures to qualify themselves for making a living. No, they came because their hearts were pure. They knew only that a philosopher called Hegel transmitted fromContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Empty Headed Japanese University Students (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Literature: The Three Evils of the Tramp’s Life: HUNGER (George Orwell)

“The first is hunger which is the almost general fate of tramps. The casual ward gives them a ration which is probably not even meant to be sufficient, and anything beyond this must be got by begging-that is, by breaking the law. The result is that nearly every tramp is rotted by malnutrition; for proofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Three Evils of the Tramp’s Life: HUNGER (George Orwell)”

RKS Literature: What are Dreams? (Thomas Nasche)

“A dream is nothing else but a bubbling scum or froth of the fancy; which the day hath left undigested; or an after feast made of the fragments of an idle imagination. A dream is nothing but an echo of our conceits in the day. In them all states, all sexes, all places are confoundedContinue reading “RKS Literature: What are Dreams? (Thomas Nasche)”