Illustration: DAVID HUGHES
[...]
Whatever else “honor” may be, it is the knowledge that every impertinence carries with it the seed of a greater, more fundamental insult: the suggestion that a person can get away with it—which is, after all, where humiliation really begins.
Somewhere in our molecular makeup a sword-bearing protein squalls to have its day. But that doesn’t mean we have to listen. Although there are occasions that justify armed combat, a challenge to a duel isn’t one of them. Life is short and dangerous enough—why lower the odds of survival, why make existence even more precarious?
Whatever else “honor” may be, it is the knowledge that every impertinence carries with it the seed of a greater, more fundamental insult: the suggestion that a person can get away with it—which is, after all, where humiliation really begins.
Somewhere in our molecular makeup a sword-bearing protein squalls to have its day. But that doesn’t mean we have to listen. Although there are occasions that justify armed combat, a challenge to a duel isn’t one of them. Life is short and dangerous enough—why lower the odds of survival, why make existence even more precarious?
“My friend, let us speak frankly,” Schnitzler wrote, apropos of the duel, “one must be somewhat limited to stare death so calmly in the face.”
Ultimately, the duel was sustained not by a failure of communication but by a failure of imagination. Our duelling days are over now, but, as we look around, it appears that the collective imagination has still not grasped the prophecy of cut steel, the secret germinating inside the barrel of a gun."
Ultimately, the duel was sustained not by a failure of communication but by a failure of imagination. Our duelling days are over now, but, as we look around, it appears that the collective imagination has still not grasped the prophecy of cut steel, the secret germinating inside the barrel of a gun."
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Book Review by Arthur Krystal, of James Landale’s “The Last Duel: A True Story of Death and Honor”, The New Yorker, March 12, 2007
3 comments:
hai ca azi am muschii antrenati, m-am duelat ca o zeitza,...
si pe blogul alalalt cu 3 dintr-un foc, galeria inca mai shuiera ... si pe ZIUA cu 2 deodata ...
anybody elsE ?
En garde... cu morile de vant, ai ajuns mai caraghioasa decat Don Quijote, te lupti de una singura !
Pe blogul celalalt ai luat vreo cateva scaltoace, pe ziulica, prafuri de adormit babele. Altceva ?
De cand are tzantzarul... muschi ???
Las-o, Anonimule, ca pentru ea am facut postarea, stiam ca va veni.
prefer sa-si verse veninul intr-un singur loc, decit sa strice postarile serioase, care necesita destul de multa munca ...
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