Tuesday, February 24, 2004
An english professor of some sort, in the preface to the novel Doctor Zhivago tried to explain Pasternak's purpose. I don't remember his name or the exact wording, so this is a paraphrase of his idea:
Zhivago, a product of industrialists, chooses medicine and a career in helping the masses. In the same way, Pasternak is commenting on the needlessness of the revolution, as former industrialists change their fortunes. Like a broad metaphor, comparing the common man to Zhivago. I thought it to be very clever, however we will never know Pasternak's true intent since he died two years after the publication of the book in early 1958 and his winning of the Nobel Prize in late 1958.
Zhivago, a product of industrialists, chooses medicine and a career in helping the masses. In the same way, Pasternak is commenting on the needlessness of the revolution, as former industrialists change their fortunes. Like a broad metaphor, comparing the common man to Zhivago. I thought it to be very clever, however we will never know Pasternak's true intent since he died two years after the publication of the book in early 1958 and his winning of the Nobel Prize in late 1958.
