My Tolstoy Project is one where my interest has run ahead of my plans. I read “War and Peace” for the first time about 20 years ago, ”Anna Karenina” a couple years later. But it’s only been in the past year when I’ve discovered the wider Tolstoy library of short stories, novellas, essays and his third, fascinating-but-flawed novel “Resurrection.”
My sense is that Americans do not fully appreciate Tolstoy. They consider those two great novels to be his peak (with “Anna Karenina” loved more -- American hate long books, especially those with lots of authorial interventions) and have dismissed Tolstoy’s later political and relgious views for their moralizing and divergeance from his overwhelming gift for fiction.
But Tolstoy is a massive figure and there are too many ways to approach him. So far, I’ve tried a little of all approaches. I’ve even dabbed with a machine-language assisted translation of “Resurrection” — perverse, perhaps, because I don’t know Russian — which if nothing else has been a master class of immersion in Tolstoy’s style.
I’ve considered some Tolstoy alternate histories, extrapolations of his religious thoughts, pieces about his personal biography … and I still don’t have a strong sense of direction for it all.
So, I’m going to keep collecting my fragments here and see if something emerges. It feels like time well spent even if it doesn’t coalesce into a volume at some point.
Tolstoy and the Spirit Wrestlers. This little known tale of how Tolstoy helped a non-violent religious community emigrate to Canada is a beautiful example of putting words into action. I love this story so much, I’ve used it as an anecdote for speeches in my day job.
Tolstoy's Religion, Secular Meaning. This piece from Tolstoy does an amazing job of explaining how his unusual religious ideas can apply to secular issues as well.
On Love and Torment. Tolstoy had unusual views of love – and often connected it to forms of mental torment, especially in "Anna Karenina." The attached fragments of his work demonstrate the depth and complexity of his thoughts.
The Oak. Tolstoy's most famous metaphor, from "War and Peace," collected in one piece.
The Sky. The other big metaphor from "War and Peace" -- less well known than The Oak, but in my opinion, of greater importance to his broad philosophy.
In addition to these original essays, I have also worked on some AI assisted pieces that should be read in the spirit of intellectual doodling. They include all of the features of AI chatbots that we all find frustrating and should be considered notes for future pieces, not completed works. Here are a couple samples with some interesting ideas within them.
The Beast: A Theological and Linguistic Analysis. My theory I proposed to chatGPT is that Tolstoy's theology could be considered a frontal attack on numerical systems of reason that stand in opposition to experiential language-based discourse. So I asked chatGPT to take it a step farther and consider how LLMs, with their reliance on the human corpus of language, could lead us back toward the word.
Russian Revolution, Tolstoy Style. The whole Spirit Wrestlers anecdote made me think: what if Czar Nicholas I was foolish enough to arrest Tolstoy when he stepped out in support of the Spirit Wrestlers? Tolstoy's martyrdom may have led to a very different sort of Russian Revolution. I asked chatGPT to muse on what that alternate history might look like.