Where Figaro Fights the Powers that Be

The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the play, not the opera.

And it's okay. Frothy. All hijinks and mistaken identities and hiding behind furniture.

To be fair, the play deals with some important themes, especially the unearned power and authority of the aristocracy. Figaro is going to marry Suzanne, but the nobleman they both work for wants to sleep with her before Figaro does. He's said it. Everybody knows it. It's gross. In a long speech, Figaro is lamenting a political system that could allow that:

No, Your Lordship, you will not have her, you will not have her! Just because you're a great nobleman, you think you're a great genius! Being an aristocrat, having money, a position in society, holding public office--all that makes a man so arrogant! What have you ever done for all this wealth? You took the trouble to be born and nothing else!

Such language coming just years before the French Revolution, you can see why authorities didn't like it. In fact, in that same long speech, Figaro complains about censorship in the press and theater. But he also complains about women being unfaithful. It's kind of a wide-ranging rant and feels tacked on.

But mostly this is a silly romp. Figaro is getting married; the count has lost interest in his own wife and wants Figaro's; young lovers are getting in trouble; and a number of characters have designs on other characters, to the point that Marceline tries to force Figaro to marry her through appeal to the court but turns out to be his long-lost mother. Ooops! And we just move on. The play is filled with schemes that don't work and tricks that are discovered and lucky coincidences, making the plot such a muddle you're just glad it all gets sorted in the end.

I can imagine this being staged in a clever, witty way, earning laughs, if the direction is really strong, but if they're not careful I think it'd end up just a mess.

I agree about the aristocrats, though. He had a point.

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Where Too Much Money Is a Bad Thing

The Mouse on Wall Street by Leonard Wibberley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another light, witty book in the Mouse That Roared series, poking fun at concerns of the Sixties. Nuclear war in the first; the space race in the second; and runaway inflation and consumerism in this one.

I couldn't work out whether the author meant for us to go along with the argument contained in the plot--that working people are better off relatively poor because they have no idea how to handle money without running up debt and crashing the economy--or if we're supposed to see it as satire going the exact opposite way. (Maybe he meant neither. That'd be clever.) As a proud aristocrat, Lord Mountjoy displays an attitude toward workers that is so paternalistic and condescending that he's ridiculous, which feels like direct comment on conservative economic intuitions, but his perspective proves to be the "correct" one in the end. How deep does the satire go? Or is it parody?

I dunno.

When a windfall gets divvied up among the small population of Grand Fenwick, it disrupts their normal economy. The people don't just spend but overspend, buying stuff they don't need until they're borrowing money and going into debt. I'm not sure that's how it would work, but for comedy, I guess it's fine. What I don't understand is why the government didn't consider using the money for public works--infrastructure, scholarships, endowment funds--but I guess that stuff's not funny.

Anyway, it's a pleasant read without any real-world angst, so in tone it's closer to a comic book than a novel for me. A nice change. And it was a pleasure to re-read these after whew like 40 years... It's a taste of melancholy that's a little more sweet than bitter.

YMMV. :)

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Where I finally read that book--and like it

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've been meaning to read this for many years and kept putting it off because it doesn't sound all that good--and it's super long.

Well, turns out, it is pretty good. Still long, but more entertaining than I expected, and very instructive.

Set in 10th Century Japan, in and around the court, it's primarily the story of aristocrats and their love affairs. Some aspects of the novel are uniquely Japanese, but I was shocked how much their lives resembled 18th or 19th Century British aristocrats (at least those in novels). It's not just the wealth; it's the way they pursue marriages, the way they spend their leisure time, the way they are hyper-vigilant about reputation, and the way they expect well-bred men and women to be accomplished in art and music and literature. Differences abound, of course, but the similarity was driven home to me when the women were reading romances and having to defend it from those who believed that was foolish. (I'm thinking of both Don Quixote and Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, in addition to many others.) It just seemed so modern...

The plot is like other classical novels--it wanders and takes in many characters, crossing generations and families, without any single conflict unifying it. In spite of this, it is quite readable and comprehensible, and it is often engaging and fun. The first chapter and the start of part 5 (which began with the odd and completely unexpected "Genji was dead...") can be difficult. Many characters are introduced or brought to the fore, and the complex connections between them can be almost overwhelming to sort out and keep straight. Besides a characters list at the start of each section, there are many helps online, and that is how I got through them. Once you get a little bit in, the going gets easier.

The mores of the time, or at least how the author presents them, are a little upsetting. High status men could get away with almost anything, it seems. Catching a wife or consort or mistress was a little like capture the flag. If Genji or Niou or Yugiri could manage to get behind a woman's curtains or screens, the woman was pretty much his. He'd spend the night and send around a poem the next day and some gifts and then she'd move into his house or some fancy place and belong to him. They were rewarded for persistence and daring and audacity, apologizing at times, but then getting things the way they wanted. Poor Kaoru was despised by many because he didn't push and didn't take advantage; he (view spoiler)[drove one woman to starve herself to death and another, her step-sister, into attempting to drown herself and then becoming a nun. (hide spoiler)] If he had been more assertive--refusing to take no for an answer--things would have turned out different.

In 2020, that all seems very wrong, especially in a novel written by a woman. But it's pointless to judge people so long gone by the standards of the present.

I love the poetry found literally through the novel. Almost every page has a few lines or allusions to old poetry. The edition I had did a good job of explaining the allusions.

Overall, I found it engaging and think it is a useful read for anyone curious about Japanese culture or history. I learned a great deal, and it has led me toward other topics of interest.

So--recommended.

For some readers.



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