Out-'deogaling' Deogalwulf (whatever 'deogaling' is)!

The cogniscenti of 'Blogdom' treasure 'Deogalwulf' and his cryptic but pointed commentary over at 'The Joy of Curmudgeonry' in much the same way that today a bibulous wine-lover would cosset a 1970 claret.  I even stole my splendid mission statement from him (see heading at the top of my Blog). Apart from his elegant essays, he is a veritable Stakhanovite in mining for the delight of his regulars a steady supply of apposite quotations with which to illustrate the points he wishes to make.  My only complaint is that it is a constant reminder of the paucity of my own reading.  So, I am particularly delighted to have stumbled over a quotation that is, so to speak, right up 'Deogalwulf's strasse.  And, even better, it is by a literary giant - Tolstoy, no less!  Much as I would like to pass it off casually as something I picked up whilst riffling through War and Peace (as one does), alas, the fact is I picked it up from a commenter, 'bsneath', over Anthony Watts's site.  The commenter used it as an illustration of the Nelsonian blindness of experts (in this case our very own dear, and I do mean double-dear, Met Office whose predictions on both the weather and long-term climate change appear to depend on a very old piece of seaweed.  However, this quote has wider applications of the sort beloved by 'Deogalwulf' and I have pleasure in donating it to him:

“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”   Leo Tolstoy

(Why do I have a sinking feeling that 'Deogalwulf' not only already knows it but has already used it!)

Comments

[Deogolwulf]

Thank you very much. It is an excellent quote, gladly received. I have never seen it before, but then I'm afraid to say my reading of the Russkies hasn't yet stretched to the most famous one of them. By the way, have you discovered archive.org yet? All kinds of old and out-of-copyright books can be found. (Search under "Texts", and, if needs be, use an American proxy-server to download the Google-scanned ones.) It has saved me quite a lot of money, though it has cost me some sleep. Indeed I have read too much recently, and my little brain cannot cope.

[Deogolwulf]

You may delete the repetition, if you like, or keep it, as you see fit. And you may delete this one too, if you so choose, though if you do delete the repetition, but choose not to delete this one . . . well, it'll look odd, won't it? Especially now that I've gone on about it.

[Sister Wolf]

Ah, the repetition is everything. It's so postmodern!

By the way, I loved War and Peace. According to my father, I read it when I was 2 years old (I get younger and younger in his retelling of this.)

[David Duff]

Consider yourself 'snipped', 'Deogalwulf', and don't worry, oddity is our trademark, here at D&N!

'Sister Wolf', I can only suppose you achieved that amazing muscle tone of yours by also using your copy of War and Peace as an exercise weight. The key question, I feel, is whether in that case it did more for your mind or your body?

[David & Son of Duff]

Thanks a million, 'Deogalwulf', - archive.com - there goes my social life and my marriage! My God, you could spend an entire lifetime in there, in fact, several lifetimes!

[Deogolwulf]

Splendid, isn't it? There is no better way to ignore family and friends.

[David & Son of Duff]

To return the favour, although I suspect you already know it: www.abebooks.co.uk is first class for finding old or out of print books. They seem to have the entire English-speaking world at their finger tips.

[Deogolwulf]

I think I've bought from abebooks a couple of times. At the moment, however, I am trying to cut back the expenditure.

[David & Son of Duff]

"I feel your pain"!