Wednesday Wisdom

Boris Pasternak was a Russian poet and novelist best known for his epic novel "Doctor Zhivago", which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958. Pasternak's works are celebrated for their deep philosophical insight, lyrical beauty, and exploration of individual morality against the backdrop of sweeping historical events like the Russian Revolution. Pasternak was also a gifted translator, rendering works by Shakespeare, Goethe, and others into Russian. His translations, particularly of Shakespeare's plays, are considered some of the finest in the Russian language.

Pasternak was born on February 10, 1890, in Moscow, Russia, into a cultured and artistic family. His father, Leonid Pasternak, was a well-known painter, and his mother, Rosa Kaufman, was a talented pianist. Growing up in this intellectual environment, Pasternak was exposed to some of Russia's greatest cultural figures, including composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and novelist Leo Tolstoy.

Part of the great Russian Literary Tradition

Initially, Pasternak pursued a career in music and philosophy before turning to literature. He first gained recognition as a poet, with his early collections like "My Sister, Life" (1917) establishing him as a major voice in Russian poetry. His style combined rich imagery with a focus on nature, love, and the inner workings of the human mind and joins the rich Russian novelist tradition with Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky.

Pasternak’s most famous work, "Doctor Zhivago", was completed in 1956 but was not published in the Soviet Union due to its critical depiction of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Soviet totalitarianism. The novel follows the life of Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, as he navigates the personal and political upheavals of early 20th-century Russia. The manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published in Italy in 1957, where it became an international sensation. In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but the Soviet government reacted with intense hostility. They saw Doctor Zhivago as critical of the October Revolution and Soviet society. Pasternak was pressured by Soviet authorities to decline the prize, and he ultimately did so out of fear of reprisals and exile. He sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy saying:
“Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must renounce this undeserved distinction...” The Soviet Union launched a campaign to discredit him, and he was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers. Pasternak's later years were marked by political persecution, isolation, and personal suffering. Though never imprisoned, he lived under constant scrutiny by Soviet authorities and was ostracized by many in the Soviet literary establishment. He died on May 30, 1960, never seeing the effects of his work in literature or in film. In 1989, as the USSR was liberalizing under Gorbachev, his son Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the Nobel Prize posthumously on his behalf in Stockholm.

Carlo Ponti, an influential Italian film producer (and husband of Sophia Loren), saw the cinematic potential in Doctor Zhivago and secured the rights to adapt it. Ponti offered the project to David Lean, who had just finished directing Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — a sweeping epic that had won multiple Oscars.

David Lean is best remembered for his epic storytelling and masterful visuals, he brought a painter’s eye to cinema and had a gift for turning internal emotion into grand, sweeping landscapes. He got his start in the film industry as a clapperboard boy, quickly rising to become one of Britain’s top film editors in the 1930s, editing was skill that set him apart as a director. Images of Lawrence extinguishing a match turning into a sunrise over the desert, the ice palace in Dr Zhivago or the bridge implosion in “over the river Kwai” are lasting images to images in cinema. The film’s screenwriter, Robert Bolt, said adapting Pasternak’s novel was the toughest challenge of his career - even tougher than writing Lawrence of Arabia. ‘I’ve never done anything so difficult,’ he said. ‘That bugger, Pasternak! It’s like trying to straighten cobwebs! ’The film was actually shot in Spain - a surprisingly realistic substitute for Russia. However, the Spanish weather was a handicap. ‘We were once sent home for three weeks while they went to Finland to find snow,’ recalls Tom Courtenay. ‘There wasn’t any snow in Spain. ’Robert Bolt was unable to attend the US Premier of Doctor Zhivago, or the 1966 Oscars. The former schoolmaster was barred from entering the States, having been imprisoned for Anti-Nuclear protests in 1961. Julie Christie won Best Actress at the 1966 Oscars, but it wasn’t for Doctor Zhivago. She won her Academy Award for her role in Darling; a film widely acclaimed in 1966 but relatively unknown today.

David Lean was knighted in 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II for his outstanding contributions to cinema. Brief Encounter (1945) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Doctor Zhivago (1965) A Passage to India (1984) remain as some the best and most influential movies of all time. His impact on the aesthetics of cinema has had a lasting influence, shaping the work of directors such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Weir. David Lean started his career by directing classic novels of Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist and Great Expectations in black and white, but his legacy is the pastoral masterpieces filmed in 70 mm film. The art of brining great historical figures as well as great novels to the screen will forever be David Leans legacy.

And now you know:

Thank you, Dad, for the gift of curiosity.

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.