u/Gay_For_Gary_Oldman

In The Fire randomly came up for me the other day (still one of my favourite guitar solos); I don't think I'd thought of this project in more than a decade. I was in highschool in 2005 and this album, along with the "underground" Disc 2's from Headbangers Ball, really introduced me to more extreme metal.

After seeing Steve DiGeorgio, James Murphy, and Mike Smith on the DVD, I spent ages digging into all those bands. I remember being impressed by how Joey Jordison had both the heaviest song on the record (Annihilation By The Hands of God still holds up) and also the "poppiest" with No Way Out with Glassjaw's singer.

I think a few of the tracks are a bit forgettable, but honestly I'm surprised there arent more projects like this as recording costs come down.

In Levin's adult life, he believed in secular and materialistic principles, rejecting faith and the church, but this did not bring him happiness, and he envied Kitty's simple, uncomplicated faith. He also found that he disagreed with all of his fellow Intellectuals in debate, found their reason led them to horrible conclusions, and that their intellectualising was futile (see the non-reaction to the publication of Sergei's book).

When his child was born, he found himself praying with conviction, and it brought him - if not a comfort - then a stability he previously lacked.

At the novel's end, he finds himself tending to suicidal thoughts whenever he overthinks his existence and morality and higher purpose. It is only when he stops thinking and just starts living, working, loving, that he finds happiness and contentedness.

He equates this with the ultimate doctrinal values of the Church: of family, charity, labour etc, and convinces himself that the key to his happiness is a surrender to faith, opposed to intellectualising himself into existential dread. Additionally, Kitty and Darya repeatedly describe him as a Christian man because his acts embody the values, regardless of his rationalising.

This characterises the overall theme of the novel: contrasting Levin and Kitty's happy ending with traditional marriage and a pastoral life, with Anna and Vronsky's rejection of traditional values and their need for city life culminating in tragedy.

I understand that this reflects Tolstoy's own conversion and therefore metatextually contains all those realistic limitations of reason. Interpreting the end of such a great novel can be tricky when the fundamental themes conflict with one's own worldview, so I wanted to check that I'm reading this correctly?