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TIGHT_PIECES

                                        January 27, 2006

   Upon re-reading "War and Peace"...
   it's remarkable how *tightly*
   it all fits together.

   There are very few -- if any --
   passages that could be deleted
   without harming the whole work.


        For example, there's that long
        scene of hunting on horse back
        that seems interminable: okay,
        I get it, the Rostov's are
        irresponsible (perhaps
        "decadent"): fiddling about as
        Moscow is about to burn...


            But then later, we see Nikolai Rostov
            in battle, spontaneously leading
            a charge against the French forces --
            behaving exactly as he did when hunting.

                Dazed, he finds himself awarded
                the "St. George's Cross" for
                this "bravery", when he knows
                he's only reacted by reflex, and
                ran some scared French soldiers
                off of the battlefield...





  Consider that you can draw a parallel
  between Prince Andrei abandoning his
  body, and the Russian army abandoning
  Moscow.  Winning through surrender...


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