Il Gattopardo– Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1956)

This book has taken me a long time to read. I started a week before Christmas. When a 250 page book takes me 5 weeks to read… well… I struggled. I don’t know why this one has been such a struggle. The story concerns Sicily at the time of Italian unification, so it should have held more interest for me, but I honestly only usually managed 4-5 pages at a time.

The story is about the Salinas, an aristocratic family at a time of change in Italy. Gattopardo, in Engllish, is a serval, though the English translation of the book is always “The Leopard”. The serval is the symbol of the family crest.  

Without going into the details of the story, it’s about the end of an era- particularly the era of the Salina family. There are 8 sections of the book. The first six are set around 1860, the seventh in 1883 when the Prince dies, and the final in 1910, when the princes three daughters are old women.  

The oldest daughter had kept an old skin of the Prince’s faithful dog, Bendico. But as everything she held true crumbles about her, she has the skin thrown out. During its flight to the trash pile, it momentarily takes the form of the prancing serval of the Salina family crest before it falls limply on the trash pile.

This perhaps symbolizes the briefness of life. Here was the aristocratic line, momentarily taking its place, and then fallen aside and forgotten.

Tomasi di Lampedusa himself had said that the dog Bendico was the most symbolic character of the book.  

There is also an interesting passage where the Prince is offered a political position in the new Italian government, but refuses saying Sicilians will not be changed. His essential reason is that, given how many cultures have fought over Sicily, Sicilians have come to believe themselves perfect already, so why would they accept government from outside?  

Fascism 2-3: The Total Society– HR Morgan

I don’t know what the first volume is. Everything I’ve found of this author starts from 2 and 3. But anyway, HR Morgan describes himself as a national syndicalist, which, I know from reading about the history of fascism, was the French philosophy that grew into fascism. He is clearly writing as one who is sympathetic to the system.

Fascism starts with some of the same assumptions about human nature that Marx had: human nature can be changed, and that humans find meaning in life through political participation. Marx focused on class consciousness. There was a German branch that focused on race consciousness (National Socialists, or Nazis), and the Fascists focused on national consciousness.

While the Nazis were genuinely racists, there is nothing in fascism that requires it. The main ingredient here is a nation-first focus that looks to modernize and build up the nation. That sounds reasonable enough. The problem with all collectivist mentalities is that individuals’ freedoms are always curtailed when one party thinks that the best thing for everyone is when everyone thinks like me. Fascists bang on about how fascism is an expression of the will of the people. Well what happens when the actual people don’t want to go along with the program? History tells us that they get branded as “enemies of the people” and life gets very difficult for them.  

I might give people in the early 20th century a pass on such stupidity and chalk it up to just being ignorant. But by now we’ve seen the results of totalitarian movements such as communism and fascism and nazism. There is no excuse for people today believing these are legitimate responses to problems.

Quo Vadis– Henryk Sienkiewicz  (1896)

“Why does crime, even as powerful as Caesar, and assured of being beyond punishment, strive always for the appearance of truth, justice, and virtue? What a marvelous homage paid to virtue by evil.”

This is a historical novel set in Rome during Nero’s reign. A young patrician falls in love with a Christian girl, but doesn’t understand her religion. He comes to learn about Christianity through his love for her and commits himself to Christ under Paul’s teaching and Peter’s influence. When Caesar has Rome burned and the people threaten him, he has the Christians blamed and the maiden is taken as part of the multitude to be sacrificed.

The novel is really about the growth of Christianity and it’s supplanting of the Roman empire. The differences in outlooks are stressed and really, the superiority of Christianity as a worldview.

The Red Badge of Courage– Stephen Crane  (1895)

The story concerns ‘the youth’, a young man whose name we come to find out is Henry Fleming, who enlists to fight in the civil war with the union. As he waits for battle, he considers whether he will have the stomach to stay in the fight. And when the time comes, he does run. He tries a series of arguments to justify himself, but he is haunted that he failed in his test of manhood. He meets some other soldiers who are wounded and travels with them briefly, but when he is asked about his own wounds, he leaves.

He realizes he too needs a wound, a “red badge of courage”.

As he moves on, he finds himself in the middle of another battle. As he tries to find out what is going on by detaining a soldier, the soldier hits him in the head with the butt of his gun and leaves him bleeding.

He is then taken for one who was wounded in battle.

After this, he actually does join battles and acts heroically.  

All the while, he sees war for what it is and is sickened. But he also knows that he has stood the test and can stand proudly.