A Month in the Country by Turgenev

"What's the point of writing if you weren't born with the talent for it? -people will only laugh at you. And apart from that- it's very strange, perhaps you can explain it to me- even an otherwise clever man seems to become completely stupid when he takes a pen in his hand. No, it's no use writing- let's be thankful we can understand what's being written."

This talent cannot be "developed" like so many workshops try to make one do. One is born with it.

"...all love- whether it be happy or unhappy- it's sheer misery if you surrender completely to it... Just wait a little, and perhaps you will learn how these tender little hands can torture you, and with what loving care they tear your heart to pieces...wait a little, and you will find out what pangs of hatred lurk beneath the most passionate love!...Wait a bit, and you will learn what it is to belong to a woman, what it means to be enslaved and infected- and how degrading, how wearying that slavery is! And in the end you will learn what trivialities are brought for so dear a price..."

This side of "love" is rarely talked about. How so much evil can be found in it.
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Again, reminds me of Anna Karenina. But not just adultery...anything, even human love, can be too much if one delves too deep into it. As an obsession. It can become "sheer misery." I wonder if man these days are still enslaved as in the older times, when men thirsted fpr women- but were forbidden (or maybe an obstacle) by society. maybe it provided more of a challenge....one had to go around the system. Are women so controlling nowadays? I don't see many cases....since everything is so liberal...

And about the main woman, Natalya Petrovna. Even though she has a girlish and immature air, she is extremely selfish. All for her own gain, even if she is sincere. This selfishness is dangerous, especially when she doesn't realize it in herself; because she doesn't know what she wants, and may even feel guilty about it.

After reading the analysis, it turns out that Natalya was dominating because her father had scared her in childhood. What was more interesting though, is that Rakitin (her lover) has ceased to be a man. When a woman dominates a man, he ceases to be one, because the main function of a man is to be dominant at least in some way- if he loses that, he loses his function...and becomes a mere body walking about. So those traditional roles are somewhat true, to a certain extent. If roles switch, nature itself is thrown off balance- which ends up being "sheer misery" and chaos.
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Pub by Chandler Co