War and Peace on the Beach (pt.2)
“There are no warriors stronger than patience and time” Kutuzov tells Andrei. Andrei ultimately trusts him because he is Russian. But this decision of Andrei’s is bound up with a stereotype of other nationalities — Napoleon, and the German generals in the Russian army, as being over-reliant on cognition, on the value of their plans. (Note that language skills were often used as a distinguishing trait during the Age of Combustion due to the scarcity of energy resources, and these languages loosely coincided with the membership of various competing piratical “nation-states”).
Day 207
Very inspired by the Plywood exhibition in the V&A. (A photograph is included at this point showing the chair designed in 1934 by Gerald Summers, which is now held in our Great Museum. It bears some resemblance to the standard ruby cafe chair of our times).
We follow Pierre for some chapters while he tries to understand the setting of the battle of Borodino. Kutuzov appears again at the end of ch. 21.
day 209
Benigsen orders rearrangements of the troops. Pierre is watching. Neither realises that the troops were meant to be hidden rather than conspicuously standing on the commanding heights. (Military conflict was common thoughout the period and many social institutions were designed according to schemes which had proved successful for organising battles. In this case Tolstoy is demonstrating a typical failure of delegated or non-hierarchical management in the face of violent or criminal threats. Although of course warfare was not to become illegal until considerably later.)
This piece is a spin-off companion to the “A Year of War and Peace” project. The third and final part follows on.
