[Liam]

Sorry Eric, but Järvet was NOT a cast member of Stalker. He played a scientist in Tarkovsky's earlier film Solaris, and that's about it.

Also, there are no words in the Russian language that begin, end, or include (in one way or another) the root *pind. There's pidor, which is a curse word that means, more or less, "fag" (as in "homosexual"); so maybe Pindostan is a reference to that. That said, Pelevin is a hugely overrated writer and on top of everything else is a BOOOOOOORE. If you've ever chanced to see his mug on the web, you know what I mean. Frankly, I wouldn't care to spend more than two minutes in his company.

And Sergey: it seems to be "good style" EVERYWHERE, these days, not to like the United States. I wish I could say the same about my fellow Americans--that they don't like other countries, that they are critical of other governments (whether democratic or totalitarian), but the truth of the matter is, most of us simply don't care. We have enough problems of our own to be worrying about what the Russians think of us.

Finally, "they have stolen our grandeur from us"??? HUH? WHAT grandeur? You mean those portraits of Stalin in the sky? Forgive me, but nobody has ever viewed Russia as "grand" (except, of course, the Russians). Unique--yes, endless--yes, incomprehensible--yes, contradictory--yes, but never ever, in a million trillion years, "grand."

I have many Russian and Ukrainian friends here in NY, and believe me, they gladly left Russia's so-called "grandeur" behind and came here, of all places, to this terrible monster-infested hell-hole also known as USA--I wonder why.

Anyway, anti-Americanism has become so derivatively unimaginative, it's not even worth talking about.

Eric: I agree with you entirely about the sorry state of most modern Russian letters. I spent the summer reading Petrushevskaya, Tolstaya and Tokareva and by the end was ready to jump out of the window. The story about five 8-year-old girls inserting little dolls into their vaginas (no matter how metaphorical) made me nauseous. Sorokin is good when he keeps it short (which is never). Limonov and Yerofeev (Viktor, not Venedikt) need to grow up and realize the world does NOT revolve around a good erection (that's just an unexpected bonus of being human and male, really). But then, I guess these guys are only expressing their views about the general state of their country, which doesn't look so good, so maybe it's a little much to ask them not to write about alcoholism or "suburban train journeys" (LOL--loved your turn of phrase, Mr. Dickens! Have you seen Ilya Khrzhanovsky's 4, by any chance?)

Regards,
Liam.