I'm writing a post that doesn't include pictures of young and photogenic children.
Why?
Because I just finished reading one of the big Tolstoy books, which always makes one feel smart, doesn't it?
He makes you jog through 900-1500 pages, but in the end, Anna Karenina and War and Peace have roughly the same message on the last page. The best part is that I seem to be clever enough now to suggest -- to myself at least -- that all the great stories have the same message in the end. I'm also going to suggest I'm clever enough to suggest that the best television shows, The Wire and the Sopranos, specifically, have the same message, too.
And will I tell you what this message is?
Hell no, because while I've had an idea that this message was the guiding source of everything I've enjoyed for the last ten years, I'm not sharing because I just finished reading a 1500 page book and I don't feel like giving away the ending.
Suckers.
In Anna Karenina, the whole friggin' ending is that the main character won't share the message with others, so I guess that's kind of the point anyway. Mr. Tolstoy suggests that his character knows everything, but then he won't share it...
Wait, I'm the sucker?
Middle Finger to you, too, Tolstoy.
I've always been a little interested in this guy and I saw this short documentary quite a few years ago about him... After seeing him in the background in a 1988 Olympic gymnastics video, I thought I'd try and find it again, and I did!
