Category Archives: LITERATURE

LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Symbolism

Posted on September 15, 2007 by susan

Back in history with Chapter XXV to Pontius Pilate, and the scenario of Pilate waiting for word of the deed being done, while a thunderstorm rages overhead. Were it not for the roar of the water, the claps of thunder … Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Honesty and Honor

Posted on September 9, 2007 by susan

These last few chapters, the beginning of Part 2 of the novel, had been quite a ride.  The story line at this point focuses on Margarita and her goal to find her lover, the Master, and she makes a deal … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Fantasy Bias

Posted on September 9, 2007 by susan

If you read only one chapter of this novel, Chapter XXII, Satan’s Grand Ball, would be the one to do. One after the other, three coffins tumbled out of the fireplace, splitting open and breaking apart on impact, then someone … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: Confessions – Creation and a Favorite Saying

Posted on September 8, 2007 by susan

Even while Augustine’s purpose in this next section is likely primarily political, that is, to prove his recanting of his former belief in the teachings of Mani (Manichee), I find I must dig deeper into Augustine’s writings, and have been … Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Flight & The Fourth Wall

Posted on September 8, 2007 by susan

The naked Margarita is happily flying on her broom above the apartment house where she’s wreaked havoc on Latunsky’s apartment and is smashing windows in every other when through a window she spots a small boy in bed, evidently frightened. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: BooksPrice.com – A Service to Readers

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Susan

I received an email from Lucy at BooksPrice.com and decided to check out the site.  I found it to be very helpful in checking prices of a particular book, and it’s prepared to lift your Amazon Wish list and price … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE & WRITING: Missouri Review

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Susan

Hey…I didn’t know this: The Missouri Review has an audio only competition complete with guidelines and assistance to help your presentation, including a free download of Audacity software for recording.  This is a challenge that tests a writer’s skill beyond … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Call for Suspension of Disbelief

Posted on September 4, 2007 by susan

No, really.  If you haven’t come to accept and love the bizarre by now, you may as well just close the book. Margarita jumped off her broom, and the stone landing felt pleasantly cool against the soles of her inflamed … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: Confessions – Religion and Science

Posted on September 3, 2007 by susan

Augustine has an interesting comment on this: With the mind and intellect which you have given them, they investigate these matters.  They have found out much. (…) People who have no understanding of these things are amazed and stupefied.  Those … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Theme

Posted on September 1, 2007 by susan

One of the themes I see in this novel is the one of good versus evil; obvious, since both the devil and Jesus Christ are metaphorically referenced.  But there is more to the repression of Russia’s common folk than temptation … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: Confessions – Augustine and Faith

Posted on August 31, 2007 by susan

You alone are always present even to those who have taken themselves far from you.  Let them turn and seek you, for you have not abandoned your creation as they have deserted their Creator [Wisd.5:7].  Let them turn, and at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – The Fourth Wall

Posted on August 31, 2007 by susan

In third person omniscient point of view the reader is privy to all going on, anywhere, depending upon the narrator’s movement through the structure of story and of course, reliant upon that narrator’s opinion of events and situations. Bulgakov eases … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Confessions – Perception

Posted on August 29, 2007 by susan

I like the way Augustine puts this: For I did not know that the soul needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, because it is not itself the nature of truth.  … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – A Couple of Highlights

Posted on August 28, 2007 by susan

So that’s what happens on vacation: you still read, but you don’t bother writing about it.  A couple things that struck me particularly in this reading: And suddenly they started singing the second verse as if of their own accord, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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LITERATURE: The Master and Margarita – Some Mid-Point Thoughts

Posted on August 28, 2007 by susan

Actually a bit beyond the midpoint, but Bulgakov makes it a focus of change: We have no idea whether there were any other strange occurrences in Moscow that night, and we have no intention of trying to find out, since … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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