tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post8698713687621955838..comments2023-12-30T17:31:11.883+00:00Comments on The Solitary Walker: Walking As A Cultural And Aesthetic Act (8)The Solitary Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-72006239821731002892011-01-13T18:51:52.988+00:002011-01-13T18:51:52.988+00:00Hi Robert - yes, I am already blogging about my tr...Hi Robert - yes, I am already blogging about my trip. My site can be found at www.caminosantiago2012.blogspot.com.<br /><br />Regards!emilenenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-19926258990558800732011-01-11T10:14:40.730+00:002011-01-11T10:14:40.730+00:00Thanks, Emiline. Will you be blogging about it?Thanks, Emiline. Will you be blogging about it?The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-23985376074196755542011-01-09T20:23:34.372+00:002011-01-09T20:23:34.372+00:00Very interesting! Glad I found your blog - I look ...Very interesting! Glad I found your blog - I look forward to reading your posts as I prepare for my own camino!emilenenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-65957382678004167782011-01-09T14:41:08.277+00:002011-01-09T14:41:08.277+00:00PS Ruth - the Constance Garnett translation is an ...PS Ruth - the Constance Garnett translation is an old, respected and venerable one, but I myself would go something more modern. I have the Rosemary Edmonds one, which reads very well.The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-81066498510332448232011-01-09T14:28:03.982+00:002011-01-09T14:28:03.982+00:00I love long and enthusuastic comments, Ruth, and t...I love long and enthusuastic comments, Ruth, and thanks for yours. Relax into the book. Don't feel intimidated by all the names and characters. Most are just background. The main protagonists will sort themselves out before long (1. Pierre; 2. The Rostovs; 3. The Bolkonskys) It took me 100 pages to really get into the book. Treat it as a vast panorama against which personal and domestic lives are played. I think there's something great about traversing an ostensibly daunting landscape (or book) and realising - yes! I can do this! And even enjoy it!<br /><br />Thanks as ever, George, for your valuable comment.<br /><br />And Alive: I'm so grateful for your appreciative comment, and I'm glad you are finding some delights among these posts.The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-71639348846244984642011-01-09T14:02:25.325+00:002011-01-09T14:02:25.325+00:00Wow, I'm grateful for this information, Rober...Wow, I'm grateful for this information, Robert, which I didn't know, about the history of walking, and how it was looked down upon. Now the walking of my legendary heroes of the 19th century (Thoreau, et al), means so much more to me. You have also shed more light on the particular scene I love in Pride & Prejudice when Miss Elizabeth Bennet walks to Netherfield (is it?) and soils the bottom of her dress with mud. The sisters are outraged that she should walk, and take the earth upon her that way! Elizabeth's courage and confidence in the face of those silly women is even brighter to me now.<br /><br />I have begun walking over the threshold of <i>War and Peace</i>, my friend. Standing among the stacks in my university library, I had at least twelve editions to choose from, all sorts and sizes (all large, of course, but some thick and stout, others tall and leaner). Would you believe I chose the tallest and heaviest? <i>Because</i> it is tall and heavy? 1146 pages. And of construction to be heavy. I wanted to embrace the hugeness of this greatest of all novels, and besides, it has beautiful pen & ink illustrations by John Groth. It sits so nicely in my lap (not in my hands)! It is translated by Constance Garnett. I have not researched "best translations" so we shall see. Not that I would know any difference among them. But I share this here, partly to update you on my W & P progress, and partly to say, that this is a metaphor for walking. I had felt daunted by the prospect of a cross-country journey by foot through such a vast novel, remembering from my younger days how cumbersome Russian names, like steep inclines with brambles, and the volume of them, can be. But within just a few pages I have been <i>utterly</i> entranced by his beautiful writing. Now, I feel that I hope I will never reach the coast: The End.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-35149208326895075252011-01-09T13:24:09.725+00:002011-01-09T13:24:09.725+00:00I would like to introduce myself, someone who is v...I would like to introduce myself, someone who is very new to blogging. Having first discovered your blog back in May, have been following ever since. What dazzling delights you have given to others through your journeying. Happy New Year.Alivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10086811890184870424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-3963523102804086972011-01-08T22:56:59.842+00:002011-01-08T22:56:59.842+00:00Very interesting, Robert. Europeans have been muc...Very interesting, Robert. Europeans have been much quicker to embrace the pleasures and and other benefits of walking. In the United States, there are still those who will ask, "why would you walk when you can drive." In Texas, moreover, there is a common expression to the effect that "money talks and BS walks," which, again, suggests that walking may sometimes be necessary, but would never be chosen as a superior means of movement. Perhaps I should not generalize too much, but I look forward to the day when more Americans recognize that walking is one of the supreme privileges of being alive, a privilege which costs nothing, but which pays great dividends over the course of a lifetime. The very best of my days have been spent on foot, sometimes in cities, sometimes in the country, sometimes just walking around a neighborhood, but always sensing that the world is created anew with each footfall.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03959953035812596907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-5875653424834682242011-01-08T22:33:44.239+00:002011-01-08T22:33:44.239+00:00So many thanks for telling us about the journeyman...So many thanks for telling us about the journeyman artisans and itinerant scholars, Arija. The picture is a far richer and more complex one one than my brief post could deal with, and I'm really grateful to you for filling in some of the colourful and fascinating deatails!The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-85924902600067110192011-01-08T21:51:54.960+00:002011-01-08T21:51:54.960+00:00In Europe through the ages walking through large t...In Europe through the ages walking through large tracts of landscape was the joy of the journeyman walking to far away towns to seek out a master of his craft, learn as much as he could and move on to another, thus seeing not only his country but also neighbouring ones as he perfected his trade. Scholars walked from one university, sometimes half way across the continent seeking advances in other universities. They wore what we now consider 'the academic gown', a garment that not only proclaimed their calling but also served as balanced bags for carrying any food begged or bought in the sewn up sleeves.Arijahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03720793296992474762noreply@blogger.com