Review of Love and Death (2013) by Joseph S — 20 Sep 2008

Woody Allen on Russian Literature:

*Sonja: Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical, or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.

Boris: Yes, I've said that many times.

*Black Drill Instructor: "You love Russia, don't you boy?".

Boris: "Yes sir!".

Black Drill Instructor: "I CAN'T hear you!" Boris: "Yes sir!".

*Russian gentleman: So who is to say what is moral?

Sonja: Morality is subjective.

Russian gentleman: Subjectivity is objective.

Sonja: Moral notions imply attributes to substances which exist only in relational duality.

Russian gentleman: Not as an essential extension of ontological existence.

Sonja: Can we not talk about sex so much?

*Sergeant: Imagine your loved ones conquered by Napoleon and forced to live under French rule. Do you want them to eat that rich food and those heavy sauces?

Soldiers: No...!

Sergeant: Do you want them to have soufflé every meal and croissant?

Soldiers: No!

*Sonja: To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down.

*Boris: "I was walking through the woods, thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter, I wondered what he charged for bookshelves." ?