About War and Peace

War and Peace is like a vast inland sea. It's huge; there's so much room to swim around in; you can't see the other side; you can't even see the middle from the shore.

One of the great characters of the book is General Kutuzov, the real-life general who was commander-in chief of the Russian army against Napoleon in 1812. Kutuzov retreated and allowed Napoleon to occupy Moscow, much to the disgust of other ambitious generals, and to the Russian emperor's court who were holed up in Petersburg. Tolstoy admired Kutuzov and spends many pages defending his actions which saved Russia and caused the French to lose their whole army in the long run. Tolstoy contrasts Kutuzov with Napoleon in his discussion about the 'great man' which is a major idea in the book - an idea he 'essays' upon rather than 'novelises' about, hence the debate on whether W & P is really a novel.

Be that as it may, now that I'm out of the sea of W & P, I've been splashing around with my usual magazine reading (fifteen minute swots while I'm waiting for the spuds to cook) and found in the latest Vanity Fair an article about Vladimir Putin. It's all about what a mysterious and possibly sinister figure he is, but I was struck by the prosaic fact of how he gets to work. He drives, actually he's driven in impressive style, along the Kutuzovsky Prospect. Hey, I know what that street's about! I've read War and Peace!

Yes, this is highly digressive, but the point I want to make is how often a really good book can illuminate landscapes for the reader. Writing inscribes all sorts of meanings onto the landscape and, for me, it's one of the chief joys of reading.

I'm about to take off for a short trip into the backblocks of NSW. No particular destination in mind, but I'm wondering what kind of writing I'll find attached to NSW country towns? Bush ballads, tales of wandering poets, grim stories of massacres, heroic stories of settlement? What's out there?