Holmes Wilson and the Timeless Themes of “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
About the Interviewee: Holmes Wilson is a co-founder and co-director of Fight for the Future. He is also a co-founder of Amara, Miro and Open Congress. He was the founder and co-director of Downhill Battle, a first-of-its-kind viral campaign website behind Grey Tuesday. Wilson studied Italian literature at Holy Cross College in Worcester, and often lives in Brazil. He speaks Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.
“Everyone should read fiction, and if possible, read fiction by geniuses. It makes you a better writer, and it keeps deep ideas alive in your head and heart.”
Gino: I’m curious when and where you first read War and Peace.
Holmes: I was in Brazil at the time, and on the days when I wouldn't work all day, I would just lie in a hammock and read. Like, work in the morning, and lie in a hammock and read all afternoon. There’s a free and open source e-book android app called Fbreader where the books are all free because movie companies, ahem, Disney, haven’t scammed the world into making copyright last forever yet. I’d read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina at some point after a break-up, which is totally the greatest time to read Anna Karenina, so I knew War and Peace would be good. And I had all this time lying in hammocks!
Gino: That sounds like a reader’s dream. It is rare to get that kind of quiet, dedicated reading time.
Holmes: And I wasn't just reading in hammocks. Since the book was on my phone, I’d basically pull it out and start reading anywhere. In Brazil, you end up waiting a lot. For buses, on buses in traffic, but also in lines at banks, other bureaucratic situations, and buying Christmas gifts at the mall. Whenever I would've otherwise been this pissed off gringo waiting forever in a line I would just pull out War and Peace.
Gino: That’s amazing. A book from long ago has endured so well that it translates perfectly to being read from an android app while traveling abroad.
Holmes: Yeah. A close friend of mine read it in India. Similar vibe, i.e. “Whelp, I’m gonna be chilling here for a while, might as well read War and Peace.” He found a paper copy.
“A close friend of mine read it in India. Similar vibe, i.e. “Whelp, I’m gonna be chilling here for a while, might as well read War and Peace.” He found a paper copy.”
Gino: What is it about the book that makes it stand the test of time? It seems that the written word can have an amazing amount of resonance many years after it was written. Many believe we don’t have the attention span for books like War and Peace anymore, yet it endures.
Holmes: Well, time is a filter. The more time goes by, the more stupid stuff gets lost. If something survives, it probably has some interesting stuff to say.
Gino: Very true.
Holmes: And, in a lot of ways, the world Tolstoy is writing about, the fading aristocracy and the Russian middle class, didn't really go away. It just spread outward. Economic development took those middle class values and middle class problems from a tiny elite who weren't doing subsistence agriculture, and pushed them out to an ever-growing chunk of the planet. Entire countries, now. He’s talking about the beginnings of the world we live in: all the family dramas and personal crises that happen when you have a little too much time on your hands. First world problems! So, it’s super relevant.
But there’s something he talks about that’s even more amazing, and super relevant now, and I didn't really grasp it until a couple years later. War and Peace specifically goes through Russia’s invasion by Napoleon’s France. He writes about the lead up, the invasion/occupation, and the eventual French defeat. The part Tolstoy focuses on, and the key thing he got a glimpse of, is this dynamic where an entire Russian society, unified by an outside threat, starts almost magically acting as a large meta-organism, even though there’s no obvious system of organization. When Russia’s armies are run by its know-it-all elites jockeying for status, they get their asses kicked. But when the invasion happens, it’s as if this monster just rises up out of the collective consciousness to repel the invader. And does. That vision of national or global collective consciousness is so extremely relevant now.
“Well, time is a filter. The more time goes by, the more stupid stuff gets lost. If something survives, it probably has some interesting stuff to say.”
Gino: Where are you seeing that playing out? Is it a global collective consciousness because of technology and the internet?
Holmes: We have the Internet and spend our days on it. Most of the time Twitter and Facebook are this funny chaos of gossip, drama, and cheap ideas. But every once in a while we have Occupy. Ferguson. SOPA. Tunisia or Tahrir Square. The collective consciousness kicks into gear and people start acting together in a kind of magical unison. Tolstoy felt it as magical and spiritual, but he also reminds you in his pragmatic, brass tacks way that it’s just a totally mundane and normal part of being human. It’s what we are.
Gino: So do you think Tolstoy would appreciate social media as a form of activism? Would he see the benefit?
Holmes: Hmm. I have no fucking clue. The world we’re in right now might have destroyed a mind like that. And he’d certainly be at the front lines of saying all of this stuff we revere is ephemeral bullshit. But, I think he’d get that same feeling of something magic afoot, sometimes. And if he wasn't too annoyed about everything else he might even write about it.
Gino: I want to go back for a moment to your thoughts on collective consciousness. Do you think that as a human race we've always had it in us to unite during certain times of struggle to do something amazing and worthwhile on a large scale?
Holmes: Well, as tribes and small groups, definitely. And then eventually as nations, which can be really dangerous. I mean, that’s what the world wars were. But now the ways we’re banding together are increasingly a bit more real, because the Internet puts us more in charge of deciding who our friends and foes are. Drawing those lines in the sand is up to us now, not up to kings or propagandists. And yeah, if we got attacked by extraterrestrials, you bet we’d band together as a human race! Will Smith would punch an alien in the face, etc.
But as it is, we’re really a heterogeneous bunch, with lots of really different interests based on where we are in the social order, culture, etc. So, I don’t think we can or should rely on humans uniting together. We've definitely got some shit to sort out first, by different groups uniting just to get their fair share, or to have a chance to shape our common political and cultural future. So, that’s what’s happening with all those movements.
Gino: So, in many ways, it seems that the themes that tie War and Peace together will continue to be timeless and continue to resonate regardless of what is happening in the world. The book speaks to something that is innate in humans. For someone like me, who has yet to read War and Peace, should I place it at the top of my to be read pile?
Holmes: Definitely. Everybody should. I mean, we all care about humans, right? And Tolstoy, man, he was really good at looking at humans. At them. Around them. Through them. He sees so much. Everyone who is even thinking of having a girlfriend or boyfriend someday should read Anna Karenina. It’s that good, as a picture of the dynamics of relationships. Even just the first couple chapters.
Gino: What about those of us who are married?
Holmes: It might be too late! But actually, the answer is probably to read it as soon as possible if you’re married.
Gino: The way we experience books is changing and you seem to be embracing it. You read War and Peace on your phone. Looking to the future, how much do you plan on reading paper books versus digital? Are you almost exclusively digital now?
Holmes: I think I’ll read paper books by chance or for a treat sometimes. Or because the right book is just sitting there at the right time, or because somebody got me a gift. But I travel a lot and books are heavy. And most of the time when I want to read a book, it’s exactly at some moment when I’m traveling light. So, I’ll probably mostly read books on my phone.
“Most of the time when I want to read a book, it’s exactly at some moment when I’m traveling light. So, I’ll probably mostly read books on my phone.”
Gino: It is amazing how portable reading has become in the digital age. You can carry an entire personal library on a tiny device. Do you ever want to move to an iPad or Kindle, or are you happy consuming books on your phone?
Holmes: The key thing about books is that they can’t be consumed. Unless we’re talking about some kind of Fahrenheit 451 scenario or something, which I hope isn't the case. People can just keep reading them and reading them. And re-reading them. iPads are like having a shopping mall for a computer. There’s no way I’d ever buy one. The cool thing about the traditional Kindles is that you can buy them for kids, and they can’t play games on them. We got one for our daughter, and that part is awesome. The battery life is a good thing, but I’d rather just carry around an extra battery for my phone than carry a Kindle. So, I’m just going to stick to my phone for now.
Gino: Do you plan on re-reading War and Peace at some point after our interview?
Holmes: I hope I get a chance to. But I feel like I've got to spend the next five or 10 years just reading more things before I get around to re-reading things.
Gino: I understand that. There are so many books I’d like to re-read, but also so many unread books I need to get to. It can be hard to justify a re-read when there are mountains of new books to get to. Before we sign off, do you have anything else to add?
Holmes: Just this: Everyone should read fiction, and if possible, read fiction by geniuses. It makes you a better writer, and it keeps deep ideas alive in your head and heart.
Seven Fiction Recommendations from Holmes Wilson
1. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf
2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6. Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
7. Neuromancer by William Gibson
Bookshelf Beats is a website run by Gino Sorcinelli. I interview people about books that change their lives, inspire them, and/or make them think differently. If you enjoyed this article consider subscribing to my Medium publication.
