The Social Porcupine

Comparison of the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Contains spoilers By Keturah Lamb, July 9, 2022 Jane Eyre is feisty and not very pretty, so we are told. But we fall in love with a little girl who has a sensitive heart willing to forgive those who torment her and to pray for them. The plot quickly turns away from the wit and misfortune of a Jane Austen type story and we see a foreshadowing of all the dark, sordid things ahead when Jane is locked in a room where she believes to see a red demon.  Anna Karenina makes quite the first impression. She is beautiful, elegant, but above all she sees those around her and all feel known and loved by her. In her first scene we witness Anna missing her son, but she is here to save her brother’s marriage. She exhorts her sister-in-law to forgive. It is a touching dialogue, and despite all that will follow I believe this to be Anna’s greatest work. The brother’s marriage is saved, the wife forg...

[Contains a Jane Eyre spoiler] I have many shared hobbies with little boys and old men, but my favorite is my hoard of coins... and saving dropped pennies. Lucky people collect fear as collateral.  It is the defining force behind antifragility; when you want to run away: stay put.  Make best friends of she whom you hate when that hatred stirs from the deepest pit of jealousy. Don't become her and she will become you. It's a mark of maturity.  Can't sing? Better learn before you get to heaven.  Your darkest nightmares are designed to become your dearest dreams.  Lucky people choose their passions out of seemingly cold and hopeless options. They say yes and no very often, without prejudice or with very much judgment.  They are the friend everyone wishes to have. They make pain quirky and they always have a penny when you need it. It is the unlucky who believe "moments" and "sparks" just happen. Such people sit by the true dark, dead hearths. ...