Noble Novels: The Master and Margarita

Woland, Behemoth, and Korovyov

       First off, how on earth has it been so long and I haven't written a Noble Novels on this noblest of novels! Shame on me. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is easily one of the best novels of the 20th century. It tells the story of the devil who calls himself Professor Woland visiting Moscow in a belligerently atheistic time period along with a retinue composed of a giant, vodka swilling cat, a sly ex-choir master, a naked witch, and a red-headed gunslinger. As Moscow essentially falls to it's knees as it is enveloped by the flames of devilish chaos, a novel written by a psychotic author called "The Master" about Pontius Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus the Nazarene) as Pilate recognizes a powerful and spiritual craving for this peasant Yeshua and yet later reluctantly submits and allows Yeshua's execution causing himself great personal distress. The Devil and his retinue move to break the Master out of a Muscovite insane asylum and to reunite him with his former mistress, Margarita, leaving Moscow's rigid, bureaucratic social structure practically disintegrated in their wake.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

       You may have noticed that this blog is very... diverse, which may or may not be a euphemism for scatter-brained. One reason for this is because I'm new to this and another is simply because I too am scatter-brained and have too many interests for my own good. Furthermore, I think one will get more out of my writing if one knows a little about me so here are the top ten facts about the Noble Savage:

1. My name really is Noble. I'm kind of self conscious about this fact because I think it makes me sound pretentious. Of course, we can decide for ourselves whether or not I, in fact, am pretentious but I definitely don't want anyone deciding that as soon as they hear my name. Also, with a name like this I almost felt obligated to created a blog titled using silly wordplay. 
2. I like to ride bicycles. I don't care for cars and try to only use them when going on a date or giving a friend a ride as a favor so I try to commute on a bicycle as much as I can. I also race with a team called Saltcycle-Intelitechs, a spectacular group of smelly, bearded champions. I own an Iro fixed gear that I built myself from the ground up for commuting and a carbon fiber Bianchi for racing. 
3. I play the saxophone. I am primarily a jazz artist and mostly perform with jazz combos. I have never really been able to wrap my head around classical saxophone playing because I just don't really think the saxophone was designed for classical music but I have fiddled with some classical solos from time to time. Interestingly enough, though, I actually leave for a tour through Europe two days from now with a large wind ensemble. This is very strange because it is the first time I have ever played in a large group and I really have no idea how to do it; I am totally shooting from the hip. 
4. I love chess. I love to play chess and many of my friendships have been forged using the game's righteous flames. As you can see by my chess.com Elo score, I am a mediocre chess player at best but I think I can hold my own and I love to play even when I lose so long as it is a valiant and honorable defeat. Chess is cool! If you disagree you don't know anything. Also, feel free to challenge me if you have a chess.com profile and tell me you read this because it will make me feel really good if anyone actually sees this post. My username is Nobilis_Saeva. Huzzah!

Noble Novels: House of Leaves Op. 1

      I feel irresistibly inclined to mention this book but I'm afraid that my thoughts on Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves are much too jumbled and chaotic to coherently record at this time. This book has affected my so strongly and left such an impact, however, that I cannot help but mention it. What I may do and the reason why I entitled this post as "Op. 1" is, over time, to repeatedly revisit this novel and write about it as a gradually study it further and come to grasp it slightly better so here goes my first exploration.

Noble Novels: The Great Gatsby

     

       At last, I am going to do something I have longed to do for a very long time. I am going to, first of all, begin a series of literary critiques on interesting, sometimes obscure, novels that I feel are worth mentioning. This is the first post I have written of its kind and I find myself indecisize as to how I should proceed. Honestly, I have no idea how to review a novel but I do love to read them and subsequently think about them so I would like to give it a shot-- please bear with me. Second of all I am going to begin with an incredibly not obscure novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and am going to do so from the point of view of a much more cynical, blunt fellow than he or she who often writes on this subject. In my opinion, this unorthodox analysis is long overdue in the world of the internet.