Friday, August 23, 2013

Scene on Three (4): More from War and Peace

Apparently, War and Peace still doesn’t stop to amaze me till now. It seems that every passage and every dialog is more important and more intense than the others. Prince Andrew is my most favorite character. His insight and his dialog (especially with Pierre) are always valuable. It seems that through Andrew, Tolstoy communicates his own thoughts of war, as well as of life.

This passage is taken from the night before one of the most important battles against French. Pierre was conversing with Andrew, and he asked his friend’s opinion on the tomorrow’s battle under the new appointed commander-in-chief. After having listening to another general about strategy, plans and positioning, Pierre was surprised to hear Andrew’s answer:



Success never depends, and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position. (It’s) On the feeling that is in me and in him, and in each soldier. (…) A battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it! Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours, but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle, and we did lose it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for there, we wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could. 'We've lost, so let us run,' and we ran. If we had not said that till the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we shan't say it! You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the right flank too extended. That's all nonsense, there's nothing of the kind.

But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most diverse chances which will be decided on the instant by the fact that our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is killed, but all that is being done at present is only play. The fact is that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do not help matters, but hinder. They are only concerned with their own petty interests. To them it is only a moment affording opportunities to undermine a rival and obtain an extra cross or ribbon. For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win. And if you like I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles those at the top may make, we shall win tomorrow's battle. Tomorrow, happen what may, we shall win!

And this is what Tolstoy believed too, and I feel that one of his reasons to write War and Piece was to tell us what historians failed to do: to reveal what really defined the course of a battle; it’s not the chief’s orders or plans, but the spirit of the whole army. War might be inflicted by one or more ambitious King(s), but in the end it is a movement of humanity.

~~~~~~~



Jadi bagaimana cara berpartisipasi dalam Scene on Three :

  • Tuliskan suatu adegan atau deskripsi pemandangan/manusia/situasi/kota dan sebagainya ke dalam suatu post.
  • Jelaskan mengapa adegan atau deskripsi itu menarik, menurut versi kalian masing-masing.
  • Jangan lupa cantumkan button Scene on Three di dalam post dengan link menuju blog Bacaan B.Zee.
  • Masukkan link post kalian ke link tools yang ada di bawah post Bacaan B.Zee, sekalian saling mengunjungi sesama peserta Scene on Three.
  • Meme ini diadakan setiap tanggal yang mengandung angka tiga, sesuai dengan ketersediaan tanggal di bulan tersebut (tanggal 3, 13, 23, 30, dan 31).



6 comments:

  1. Wow, it's great that you're enjoying War and Peace. It's on my TBR list and I like Tolstoy, but probably the length intimidates me the most.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't let the length hinders you from reading it! The story is good, and Tolstoy's writing is beautiful. You will find yourself craving for reading the next chapters because you want to know what would happen to the characters. So, give it a try! :)

      Delete
  2. Wah, keren! Jadi inget sejarah Islam dulu (berbagi sedikit ya) saat melawan penyembah berhala yg mengusir dan menyiksa pengikut Nabi Muhammad, dalam jumlah selalu jauh lebih kecil, tapi selalu menang, kecuali saat suatu perang tertentu, beberapa dari mereka tergoda oleh pampasan padahal perang baru 'hampir' dimenangkan, akhirnya malah diserang balik dan kalah. Intinya semangat dan disiplin harus dijaga sampai akhir, apa pun yg terjadi :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ya, memang jalannya perang ditentukan oleh mental para pelakunya. Di sini jendral atau ahli strategi sudah tak dapat mengaturnya lagi.

      Delete
  3. harus optimis yah dalam melawan perang apapun. Kalau kita udah kalah sebelum berperang karena terintimidasi oleh kondisi, maka kita pasti akan kalah. Jadi menghadapi berbagai "peperangan dalam hidup" kita harus berani.
    Kita tidak tahu apa yang akan dibawa oleh hari esok, jadi jangan menyerah. (^_^)

    Jadi ingat kutipan dalam scene on three saya
    "karena ketakutan, anakku, tak akan pernah menyambung hidupmu. Yang akan menyambung hidupmu, hanya keberanian."

    ReplyDelete

What do you think?