“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out…” – Anton Chekhov
I’m glad this quote turned out to be the subject of one of my journals as it is absolutely one of my most favorite. As the previous gave us a quote that reflects Tolstoy’s writing style yet also alludes to a sentiment that is difficult to deny, this one does the same with Chekov.
One could argue that Chekov was just as much as “naturalist” as Tolstoy, but where as Tolstoy emphasized the mundane and captured the simplicity of life, Chekov photographed the mundane and hinted at their unexplored beauty and/or humor. Chekov’s best work exists in the “simple day to day living” referenced in the above quote and the struggle he mentions with this life makes sense with the lack of melodramatic flair in his work.
He finds the crisis and/or major plot devices found in most literature to be simple things that were approached and solved on a superficial level. This is where most drama lies, the storyteller introduces a way of life, throws it for a loop, and we get involved with the characters who eventually solve the chaos. Our life is seldom like this, though, and Chekov understood this. That is why he never got involved with the shrill turning points that his fellow writers were so heavily dependent upon. He didn’t “solve” our daily way of living in the same way but the fact that he meditated on it is far more impressive than the simple narrative structure of others.
