When we were moored in St Petersburg we were , of course, on the Neva. This the the river where they finally managed to drown Rasputin. I have downloaded a recent book about Rasputin, written since the end of communism by a man who then gained access to papers not seen before. I wonder if Rasputin was all bad. When someone's character is ripped to sheds I wonder why.I shall enjoy reading that book but at the moment I am knee deep in Dostoevsky, who also writes about St Petersburg. Somehow I seem to be reading Crime and punishment in English whilst having a recording of it in Russian which I listen to on my phone; also I am reading Poor Folk and The Idiot. Poor Folk is short and based in St Petersburg and I want to see if it talks about the White Nights at all. All these books are full of strong emotions and angst, I think it's a Russian thing. I guess there must be a lot of depression in St Petersburg during the winter with limited light. The summer nights must be a great relief. I am also reading a library book , nothing to do with Russia. I just take them out to keep the mobile library service going as it is not well attended and we are likely to lose it. I think I will abandon that book. Can you do that or do you have to read a complete book once you have started it?
I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...
Comments
Post a Comment