Part 2

Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with
himself.  He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading
himself that he repented of his conduct.  He could not at this
date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible man of
thirty-four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five
living and two dead children, and only a year younger than
himself.  All he repented of was that he had not succeeded better
in hiding it from his wife.  But he felt all the difficulty of
his position and was sorry for his wife, his children, and
himself.  Possibly he might have managed to conceal his sins
better from his wife if he had anticipated that the knowledge of
them would have had such an effect on her.  He had never clearly
thought out the subject, but he had vaguely conceived that his
wife must long ago have suspected him of being unfaithful to her,
and shut her eyes to the fact.  He had even supposed that she, a
worn-out woman no longer young or good-looking, and in no way
remarkable or interesting, merely a good mother, ought from a
sense of fairness to take an indulgent view.  It had turned out
quite the other way.

"Oh, it's awful! oh dear, oh dear! awful!" Stepan Arkadyevitch
kept repeating to himself, and he could think of nothing to be
done.  "And how well things were going up till now! how well we
got on!  She was contented and happy in her children; I never
interfered with her in anything; I let her manage the children
and the house just as she liked.  It's true it's bad _her_ having
been a governess in our house.  That's bad!  There's something
common, vulgar, in flirting with one's governess.  But what a
governess!"  (He vividly recalled the roguish black eyes of Mlle.
Roland and her smile.)  "But after all, while she was in the
house, I kept myself in hand.  And the worst of it all is that
she's already...it seems as if ill-luck would have it so!  Oh,
oh! But what, what is to be done?"

There was no solution, but that universal solution which life
gives to all questions, even the most complex and insoluble.
That answer is: one must live in the needs of the day--that is,
forget oneself.  To forget himself in sleep was impossible now,
at least till nighttime; he could not go back now to the music
sung by the decanter-women; so he must forget himself in the
dream of daily life.

"Then we shall see," Stepan Arkadyevitch said to himself, and
getting up he put on a gray dressing-gown lined with blue silk,
tied the tassels in a knot, and, drawing a deep breath of air
into his broad, bare chest, he walked to the window with his
usual confident step, turning out his feet that carried his full
frame so easily.  He pulled up the blind and rang the bell
loudly.  It was at once answered by the appearance of an old
friend, his valet, Matvey, carrying his clothes, his boots, and a
telegram.  Matvey was followed by the barber with all the
necessaries for shaving.

"Are there any papers from the office?" asked Stepan
Arkadyevitch, taking the telegram and seating himself at the
looking-glass.

"On the table," replied Matvey, glancing with inquiring sympathy
at his master; and, after a short pause, he added with a sly
smile, "They've sent from the carriage-jobbers."

Stepan Arkadyevitch made no reply, he merely glanced at Matvey in
the looking-glass.  In the glance, in which their eyes met in the
looking-glass, it was clear that they understood one another.
Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes asked: "Why do you tell me that?
don't you know?"

Matvey put his hands in his jacket pockets, thrust out one leg,
and gazed silently, good-humoredly, with a faint smile, at his
master.

"I told them to come on Sunday, and till then not to trouble you
or themselves for nothing," he said.  He had obviously prepared
the sentence beforehand.

Stepan Arkadyevitch saw Matvey wanted to make a joke and attract
attention to himself.  Tearing open the telegram, he read it
through, guessing at the words, misspelt as they always are in
telegrams, and his face brightened.

"Matvey, my sister Anna Arkadyevna will be here tomorrow," he
said, checking for a minute the sleek, plump hand of the barber,
cutting a pink path through his long, curly whiskers.

"Thank God!" said Matvey, showing by this response that he, like
his master, realized the significance of this arrival--that is,
that Anna Arkadyevna, the sister he was so fond of, might bring
about a reconciliation between husband and wife.

"Alone, or with her husband?" inquired Matvey.

Stepan Arkadyevitch could not answer, as the barber was at work
on his upper lip, and he raised one finger.  Matvey nodded at the
looking-glass.

"Alone.  Is the room to be got ready upstairs?"

"Inform Darya Alexandrovna: where she orders."

"Darya Alexandrovna?" Matvey repeated, as though in doubt.

"Yes, inform her.  Here, take the telegram; give it to her, and
then do what she tells you."

"You want to try it on," Matvey understood, but he only said,
"Yes sir."

Stepan Arkadyevitch was already washed and combed and ready to be
dressed, when Matvey, stepping deliberately in his creaky boots,
came back into the room with the telegram in his hand.  The
barber
had gone.

"Darya Alexandrovna told me to inform you that she is going away.
Let him do--that is you--do as he likes," he said, laughing only
with his eyes, and putting his hands in his pockets, he watched
his master with his head on one side.  Stepan Arkadyevitch was
silent a minute.  Then a good-humored and rather pitiful smile
showed itself on his handsome face.

"Eh, Matvey?" he said, shaking his head.

"It's all right, sir; she will come round," said Matvey.

"Come round?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you think so? Who's there?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch,
hearing the rustle of a woman's dress at the door.

"It's I," said a firm, pleasant, woman's voice, and the stern,
pockmarked face of Matrona Philimonovna, the nurse, was thrust
in at the doorway.

"Well, what is it, Matrona?" queried Stepan Arkadyevitch, going
up to her at the door.

Although Stepan Arkadyevitch was completely in the wrong as
regards his wife, and was conscious of this himself, almost every
one in the house (even the nurse, Darya Alexandrovna's chief
ally) was on his side.

"Well, what now?" he asked disconsolately.

"Go to her, sir; own your fault again.  Maybe God will aid you.
She is suffering so, it's sad to hee her; and besides, everything
in the house is topsy-turvy.  You must have pity, sir, on the
children.  Beg her forgiveness, sir.  There's no help for it! One
must take the consequences..."

"But she won't see me."

"You do your part.  God is merciful; pray to God, sir, pray to
God."

"Come, that'll do, you can go," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
blushing suddenly.  "Well now, do dress me." He turned to Matvey
and threw off his dressing-gown decisively.

Matvey was already holding up the shirt like a horse's collar,
and, blowing off some invisible speck, he slipped it with obvious
pleasure over the well-groomed body of his master.

Quote from: forsalebabyshoesneverworn on January 24, 2009, 09:06:01 PM
I came to say three things.  In honor of Tseung's writing style, I will make a bullet list:

1. Anna Karenina is one of the greatest novels in the history of literature, so I suppose there are worse things to post.

2. This entire thread is completely and utterly insane.  In particular, I will say that the concept of the alternate personality Goldfield fighting for its virtual existence, and the later plight of his virtual daughter Samantha, struggling to resist Tseung-speak, is... well, it's something else.

3. It appears to be a poor idea to argue with Mr. Tseung.  You will either be ignored (best scenario) or driven insane and waste days of your life that you will never get back.

I feel so sorry for Mr. tseung's family. Must be difficult for them to see a guy in his 60's so committed to his delusions, including inventing multiple personalities to support his cause. Think of what he could have done if he would have dressed up as Bozo the clown and entertained sick children in hospitals!

Instead he makes a fool of himself. So very sad.

cheers
chrisC

Quote from: reporter on January 23, 2009, 02:59:38 AM
They will disappear, like tears in the rain.

One last thing.  Blade Runner reference?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOphFl88U-g

Just luck that the file uploads are limited, otherwise we would get War and fucking Peace in toto. Thank God for small mercies.

This thread was kind of fun until now, it appears to turn into a tragedy. Pity.

Hans von Lieven

Dear Mr. Tseung,

Do you think that you have enough substance â€" both theory and experimental data to get the top scientists at MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, Tokyo, Moscow Universities etc. excited about the lead-out theory and the unbalanced force generated from within theory?

Do you think that the new US Secret of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu will read the material or get one of his trusted aids to read them?

Will any one of ambitious Governments now get its researchers to replicate the lead-out-energy machines and the flying saucer prototypes?

You have done your part.  Let others shine.