[PREV - FAVORITE_SCENE]    [TOP]

MISSING_GYN

                                    December 17, 2005

Dave Sims, of Cerebus fame,
comments on how Tolstoy
obviously needed to stay
away from women, that they
were messing up his life.

That seems a peculiar comment
in light of the fact that            But then Dave Sim
Tolstoy didn't start working         has been making a lot
on "War and Peace" until             of peculiar comments in
he was married.                      the last decade or so.

Though, upon re-reading                       THE_LONE_HEAD_OF_CEREBUS
"War and Peace", I noted that
at the outset, Prince Andrei
is running off to war in part
because he wants to get away
from his wife.

Andrei recommends that a man
should not marry until after he
has achieved everything that he
wants to in life... other-
wise, the wife will simply
become an obstacle.

It's not hard to imagine Tolstoy
locking himself up in a room
to work on "War and Peace" as
an escape...


Then there's young Pierre, manipulated
into marrying a woman that he largely
understands is stupid and useless...


Is there a single positive portrait of
a woman throughout all of "War and Peace"?

Ah, there's Natasha of course...

She has her moment of weakness,
but she's clearly the female             FLAKES_OF_GENIUS
hero of this work which is
almost devoid of heroism.



--------
[NEXT - THE_LONE_HEAD_OF_CEREBUS]