Thread 24634245

Just finished this masterpiece. Can't help but think that it is some kind of allegory on solitude, but I don't really have the brains to articulate it. Also, what does the horse that is found in the desert mean? What is /lit/'s interpretation?

One of the most poignant paragraphs:

>At the bottom of his heart he is even pleased in a faint-hearted way at having avoided sudden changes in his mode of life, at being able to go back, as he was, to his old habits. He deludes himself, this Drogo, with the dream of a wonderful revenge at some remote date – he believes that he still has an immensity of time at his disposal. So he gives up the petty struggle of the day-today existence. The day will come, he thinks, when all accounts will be paid with interest. But in the meantime the others are overtaking him, they contend keenly with each other, they outstrip Drogo and have no thought for him. They leave him behind. He watches them disappear into the distance, perplexed, a prey to his usual doubts: perhaps he really has made a mistake? Perhaps he is an ordinary mortal for whom only a mediocre fate is reserved?

>>24634245 (OP)

I'm gay

>>24634374
I'm gay, and my dick is small. And I'm also Chinese.

>>24634245 (OP)
I think the book is about stagnation. Bastiani can be many things in someone's life, for example how you stay in a shitty relationship just because it is more convenient than finding someone else, and when you notice you spent so much time with that person that it would be painful to change.
About the horse, do you mean what it means in a "philosophical" way, or in the plot itself?

>>24634611
i miss him so much

>>24634245 (OP)
Is the NYRB translation any good? Thinkin about getting one.

>>24634618

Yes, stagnation is a better word than loneliness or solitude, thank you. About the horse, I think that it is a plot device to 1) give hope to poor Drogo and 2) show the results of the kafkian password rules; but I would like other opinions. I don't know what else to read into it, but I found it a bit disconnected from the other parts of the story.


>>24634814

Can't tell, I read it in Spanish.

>>24634245 (OP)
The movie is pretty good. Though it does change some stuff.
Looks amazing too.
https://youtu.be/sK6oKZ7Vi4I?si=CW2QoM6NC15zI8Y-

>>24634949
In my opinion, it is a way for the author to build expectation. Not only Drogo and the other characters, but you, as the reader, become more absorbed in the expectation that something will happen because of the "baits" that the fort presents. It first starts with the tartar rumors, then the horse, then the army, then the road and then the climax.

Bump.

>>24634245 (OP)
The point of the horse is that there is no point. The body of the plot is made of little scenes that quite literally go nowhere, without war the stationed soldiers have nothing to do but engage in pointless little tasks like retrieving a horse and competing with the neighbouring state to measure the border. Interesting that both of these subplots end with the death of a soldier, but rn I'm too tired to argue about what this means.

>>24634245 (OP)
It's an incredible book. Really made me think about my life. So many people endure miserable, pathetic everyday lives and routines in the faint hope that something out of nowhere (but not out of their own doing) will redeem them, and like a baptism they will rise a new person rid of all sorrows and worries.

Drogo's solitude in the Fort and his eventual demise and withering reflects on so many people in the modern age contently succumbing to an unsatisfactory existence.

More like Fortchan, am I right bros? Haha... everything sucks.

Im still confused as to exactly when or where this book takes place in. I know it's irrelevant to the plot but it just keeps ticking in my head, I couldn't help but recall my time in officer's school where I could have come out a lieutnant with a cushy salary and "brothers" from the same caste, specially since my country hasn't taken major action in a war since a couple of relativly minor WW2 skirmishes in Italy. I remember carrying some regret in me for living, the academy was out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with only hillbillies who all seemed a bit mentally ill and unfullfilling sex so I could not see myself staying there. A pinch of regret washed over me because I could be having cushy state benefits, but that book made me realise that lifestyle was not for me
As for the horse I think it's more to show the absolutely unfair nature of military life and regimental rules. By all means any sensible person would have called that off but some people, specially in that type of career, are absolutely stubborn about regulations. Im pretty sure that this is why Simeoni got the upper hand over Drogo into becoming chief there, because as soon as he got the warning for trying to use the spy glass thingie he immediatly started bootlicking his superiors and pretending nothing ever happened. Also as >>24635013 and >>24635876 have pointed out it's probably another bait into leaving Drogo there, constantly on the edge of glory.

>>24637280
>where
On the border of the North Kingdom.
>when
Idk, I imagine its after the independence of Holland (the country was mentioned somewhere on the book, i don't remember where) and before the invention of the car, as the characters only use horses.