tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post359327560737858128..comments2024-02-26T13:12:10.143-05:00Comments on Lizok's Bookshelf: Life’s a Birch and Then You DieLisa C. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-45447326214597106042008-05-10T12:26:00.000-04:002008-05-10T12:26:00.000-04:00Thanks for your comment, Lisa!I completely agree w...Thanks for your comment, Lisa!<BR/><BR/>I completely agree with you that Lara's various choices each contained elements of masochism. In many ways, I think compromise itself has an element of masochism because it involves rejecting the option that provides the likeliest path to happiness. Those balances can be interesting!<BR/><BR/>It's interesting, too, that you mention the combination of deliberate suffering and strength. Lara may be a creation of Pasternak, but I've met many real people -- of many nationalities! -- who seem to carry the same contradictions.Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-20107831313000138872008-05-10T07:41:00.000-04:002008-05-10T07:41:00.000-04:00Hello Lisa,I am not sure that Lara was really a ma...Hello Lisa,<BR/><BR/>I am not sure that Lara was really a masochist, although she certainly had masochistic tendencies. She punished herself greatly for her affair with Komarovsky - perhaps to the extent of marrying Pasha. However, she did love him. Her affair with Zhivago caused her much suffering and guilt, but it was such a wonderful love story that it can be argued that it may even have been more masochistic for her not to have lived with him!<BR/><BR/>She is an incredibly complicated character and is proof that someone can be inclined to deliberate suffering and yet very strong.<BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/>Lisa<BR/>www.bookaddiction.blogspot.comViolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08046603677301666579noreply@blogger.com