Blog Number 84

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I recently finished re-reading "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.  I read this in college about 18 years ago for a literature class.  I remember liking it very much and when I visited the local library recently, I checked it out.  The book is very depressing and looks at one man's death and focuses toward the end on his pain and suffering and his realization that he lived his life in mostly a wrong way (hey I said it was depressing).

I tend to read books just a few pages at each setting so it is not uncommon for me to take a month or two to finish a book.  This story is only 60 or so pages long so it took me only about 10 days overall.  I took it with me to work last week so I would have it to read at lunch.  As I was heading home for the night I stopped off at the restroom and laid the book on the sink while I headed toward the urinal.  Another man entered shortly after I did and noticed the book.  He then started a deep theological discussion while at the urinal next to me.

OK, the "deep theological discussion" only took less than a minute (how long can you take at a urinal really?).  The man had an accent that I could not quite place (somewhere in Europe perhaps).  Anyway, he was shocked that someone was actually reading Tolstoy.  I don't know why he was shocked exactly.  Was is because no one reads Tolstoy or that an American was reading Tolstoy?
A few jobs ago I worked in the laboratory at a foundry.  Toward the end of my tenure there, they hired a metallurgist who was originally from India.  He seemed a little proud overall and carried himself as if he was the most intelligent man there.  I don't think he did this on purpose, maybe I just wasn't used to his culture (or he to mine).  At any rate, one day he was trying to educate me by using a reference to another short story by Tolstoy.  The shock on his face as I told him the story verbatim was priceless.  Here was this $6.50 / hr lab dude that actually heard of Tolstoy (let alone had read anything by him).

This was the same look I got from the guy at the urinal.  It may be coincidental that the only two times I have seem this kind of reaction was from people that were not from this country originally.  Or it could be the fact that every time I bring up Leo Tolstoy to another American, they say, "Leo who?"

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon