Russian Literature

[duchess.diana]

Actually, Sergey, I like long books. I remember loving Burney's Cecilia when I was about 12. I don't know who "average" people are, but if you're trying to say that people's attention spans have gotten shorter, then you're entirely right. Everyone is interested in instant gratification. . .oh dear, that sounds sort of sexual, doesn't it? Don't worry, Stewart, I won't litter your list with a lot of sexual innuendos. I'm much more interested in the books great authors wrote than in who they went to bed with .

And Sergey, I'm hurt! You didn't address what I said at all. If you'll notice, I said that War and Peace was one of my very favorite books. . .

Sincerely,
Diana

[SergeyM]

And Sergey, I'm hurt! You didn't address what I said at all. If you'll notice, I said that War and Peace was one of my very favorite books. . .

Oh dear... Sorry! I am very glad people like our Russian literature...

But average people (and that's are people around us ) prefer shorter books these days. Actually, I do not think that at least 10 young Russians out of an average school class read all of W&P... And how many your fellow Americans can say they read and liked all of it?

[duchess.diana]

Yes, I see where you're coming from. In answer to your question about my fellow Americans liking W & P, I don't know that I could answer it with any validity. You see, I'm an actress, which means that most of the people around me don't read, and, if they do read, they read the plays that they're acting in productions of. Theatre directors tend to read more, but mostly they read plays.

Sincerely,
Diana

[SergeyM]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant.
And as the theatre directors are absolute minority, we can discount them from our approximation of the reading audience...

To tell the truth, I am not reading much myself these days: I am writing a fiction book about contemporary hoard seekers, so that takes most of my "potentially reading time". But in our country house, or dacha, as we, Russians, call that, we have about a ton of books (about a half of that in English), and it's difficult to imagine almost all of them were read... But, OK, they were read in different times from these...

[SergeyM]

Hi. I registered for the sole purpose of asking you for the link to that discussion (but will contribute to this forum as well!). After reading some articles by William Brumfield I became interested in Siberian culture. It appears many people had made quite the fortune there during its colonization by White peoples. So I'm just dying to know more about their views. Because if those people are a part of Siberian intelligentsia (as undoubtedly some transhumanists are) - that could be dangerous... But who are they? Do they accept Asian ethnicities (like most transhumanists do)? Or perhaps, they do not accept even Russians - themselves being descendants of Polish and Ukrainian colonists? Please, the link would be greatly appreciated. Also, I know Russian, and perhaps will even translate interesting bits myself!

From Russians, who are nationalists, I've heard that after two Chechnyas in a row the Russian government became phobic about ethnic separatism, and gives preferential treatment to ethnic minorities. In Tatarstan the federal government sponsored the building of several mosques and other cultural projects, such as the Quzan metro (which, like the metros of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Kharkiv, looks like a museum!). Although I can hardly imagine the Tatars going to war with Russians for nationalist reasons - in my experience they are very nice and calm people. </br>

Hello dear, sorry I have been away for so long, but now I am back, and if you are still interested - please look in your mail, I have sent you a PM.

As to Siberian culture... First of all, Russians do not see themselves as "descendants of Polacks and Ukrainians". So, contemporary Siberian culture is mostly Russian - i.e. has been created by descendants of Russians, Ukrainians, Tartars, Jews (but Jews are in a special position, as an awerage Jew prefers the nation in matrimonial respects), Bielorussians, Baltic peoples, Kazakhs, Chechens, Bashkirs and many others. For example, my wife, who was born in the city of Zlatoust in the Urals, looks quite Asian, being half-Ukrainian, quarter-Russian, one-eighth-Tartar, etc.
Actually, speaking about Siberian culture, we have to define which culture we have in mind, as Russian culture in Siberia is young... And pre-Russian culture still exists, but is far from flourishing... Actually, it has never flourished, as the elements there were quite wild, and the people lived in dire straits, and never had much time to spare...

But it would seem that the discussion tends to go astray from Russian literature, so I invite those interested to appear in my thread here:
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...eared-ask.html

and ask any questions they wish there.

[nnyhav]

Russia's new generation of writers, some of whom were still in high school when the Wall fell, is breaking away from the giants of the past

so says one of the Nabokv-l stalwarts:
Russian stories for our time - The Globe and Mail

Reviewed here: Life Stories: Original Works by Russian Writers, edited by Paul E. Richardson; Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, edited by Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker

(also should mention that, among Krzhizhanovsky's stories in BTBA longlister Memories of the Future, the one I found most compelling was "The Bookmark" ...)

[Eric]

Thanks, Nnyhav. I found a list of the authors presented in the Rasskazy anthology:

Stories by Linor Goralik, Ilya Kochergin, Oleg Zobern, Olga Zondberg, Roman Senchin, Vladimir Kozlov, Nikolai Epikhin, Evgeni Alyokhin, Arkady Babchenko, German Sadulaev, Dmitry Danilov, Marianna Geide, Kirill Ryabov, Vadim Kalinin, Maria Kamenetskaya, Aleksander Bezzubtsev-Kondakov, Maria Boteva, Anna Strobinets, Ekaterina Taratuta, Aleksander Snegirev, Zakhar Prilepin, and Natalya Klyuchareva.

Edited by Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker

Could some of our more Russia-oriented fellow-posters perhaps tell us more about these authors? I think I can say without lying that I've never heard of any of them. This surely means that a whole new generation of authors are represented here. Why are we still discussing Tolstoy-Chekhov-Turgenev-Nabokov-Bulgakov, when there is a whole generation of new talent. Half of these may be mediocre, but given the sheer number of names, I cannot imagine that they are all rubbish or establishment lackeys.

*

The other anthology called Russian Writers, has a more familiar cast:

The authors included in this fine collection are: Vladimir Voynovich, Andrey Gelasimov, Boris Grebenshchikov, Yevgeny Grishkovets, Victor Yerofeyev, Alexander Kabakov, Eduard Limonov, Dmitry Lipskerov, Sergey Lukyanenko, Vladimir Makanin, Marina Moskvina, Victor Pelevin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Zakhar Prilepin, Dina Rubina, Dunya Smirnova, Vladimir Sorokin, Alexander Khurgin and Leonid Yuzefovich.

The translators who have given of their time and talent are: Alexei Bayer, Michele Berdy, Liv Bliss, Lise Brody, Nora Favorov, Anne O. Fisher, Deborah Hoffman, Marcia Karp, Michael Katz, Peter Morley, Susanna Nazarova, Anna Razumnaya-Seluyanova, Paul E. Richardson, Marian Schwartz, Bela Shayevich and Nina Shevchuk.

Thought I note what Maxim Shrayer says about omissions:

Life Stories is missing three of the original volume's bigger guns – Boris Akunin, Tatyana Tolstaya and Ludmila Ulitskaya.

Original volume?

Anyway, let's hope these two books put modern classic and contemporary Russian literature on the map, so we can read what people are writing now.

[Manuel76]

Perhaps not a very modern classic but I've just started "Petersburg" by Andr?i Biely (translated into spanish).

The first 40 pages are interesting enough, and I seem to like his prose style (well, the translation doesn't seem too polished, perhaps). It's 700 pages...anyone read it and can tell his opinions.

[learna]

I'd like to mention some names that are talked about after the Big Book, 2009.

Leonid Yuzefovich with the novel Журавли и карлики (Cranes and Dwarfs or Cranes and Pygmies) become a major literary winner of Big Book,2009. An English-language excerpt is available on translator Marian Schwartz’s Web site. The Life Stories anthology contains a story by Yuzefovich, “The Storm” (“Гроза”), also translated by Schwartz. Yuzefovich won the second place in the Big Book readers’ vote.

The Big Book jury awarded the second prize to Vladimir Terekhov for Каменный мост (The Stone Bridge). Leonid Zorin took the third place for Скверный глобус (The Wretched Globe).

Andrei Baldin won the first place among readers for Протяжение точки ( The Space of a Dot). I mentioned of it.

Boris Vasil’ev won a special award (“за честь и достоинство” – “for honor and merit/virtue”). A list of his work shows a number of historical and World War 2 novels, many of which have been adapted to film.

And another work that is talked about ( I'm going to read in the near future):

Google Translate

If somebody is interested in Russian versions I can send them.

[Eric]

Your Google Translate URL gives the mysteriously entitled: "Bury me for skirting". Is this a machine translation, or a blend of dress and boards? Skirts and skirting boards are not the same, otherwise ladies would walk very stiffly.

[learna]

For ladies' calm.
Really, skirts and skirting boards are not the same .
I have not checked the Google translation.
The original title is "Похороните меня за плинтусом" and "плинтус" means a skirting board:



So if we do a word-and-word translation we have:" Bury me behind( the other side of) a skirting board."
The title sounds quite horrible and strange but they say that the novel is worth reading. Anyhow, we can say nothing until after reading.
Somebody have a new demesne for develoing a theory .

[Eric]

I realised it was a skirting board, but I got the preposition wrong. Now it makes much more sense. If you think a plea to be buried behind a skirting board is entirely normal, that is.

When it's translated into three or four Western European languages (or EU ones), many of us will have more of a chance to read it. Not only English, but the other ones we can read.

[Omo]

I actually read this novel you two are talking about, maybe 6 months ago. It's about this boy who is raised by his grandmother, and this grandmother turns everything he says to her into a curse directed at him. Very funny, but also sad. The book portrays his childhood in a way full of humour, but also tragically depicting the reality of many children these days. I can recommend it and understand that this book has cult status.

And of the authors Eric mentioned some posts above I must say that Arkadi Babtchenko wrote a good novel about his time as a soldier in the Chechen War. I read the accounts of Anna Politkovskaya about this war, but this novel made me realise how bad the situation within the Russian army actually is.

[learna]

Eric, as for the first list I can tell you nothing. I heard some names( read Linor Goralik) but they are not widely-known and some people can not understand what criterion was used for selecting those names. We only have a hope.
The names from the second list are reputed and there are some threads dedicated to Yevgeny Grishkovets, Victor Pelevin and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya or to their works.
Boris Akunin, Tatyana Tolstaya and Ludmila Ulitskaya are indeed famous modern writers but a lot will depend on your taste.
Some days ago I was impressed by "Похороните меня за плинтусом" by Pavel Sanaev ( we discussed an unusual title and I have to warn that the novel is not softer ), really something interesting.

[Eric]

Learna suggests that these new names in the first anthology are not well known. (Even in Russia?) This could mean one of several things.

[learna]

We can mark some names from the first list( Zakhar Prilepin, Aleksander Snegirev, Arkady Babchenko,Nikolai Epikhin ) but they are not considered as modern classics.

[hdw]

I've just been asked to write a review of a new Swedish book about Joseph Brodsky, but I'm minded to say no, as 1. I'd have to read it first, and I have too many other things to read at the moment, and 2. all I know about Brodsky is that he was a Russian poet who won the Nobel Prize, so I'm not best qualified to write about him.

Most reviews I read (in print, I'm not talking about the WLF) seem to be written to show off how smart the reviewer is, and sometimes the book ostensibly under review barely rates a mention.

Incidentally, I was amazed the other day to find that my local very basic Co-op convenience store has started stocking piles of the Times Literary Supplement. Obviously I'm not the only pointy-head intellectual in the neighbourhood!

Harry

[Bottle Rocket]

Often as not, it's in reaction to the fact that they're reviewing, not being reviewed.

Sometimes the bare-mention strategy is a way to avoid really slamming a not-so-hot book, which many (maybe most) periodicals are not really enthusiastic about doing, lest they offend somebody -- and, more to the point, not sell more copies.

I've gotten pretty adept at this last ... the cognoscenti know to read between the lines, the rest deserve what they get. (Nudge nudge, wink wink. know what I mean ... she's a goer, your wife, eh?? ~ Eric Idle)


BRocket

[chrisphillips]

Interesting thread indeed, though it's significant perhaps that it isn't replete with the names of newer generation Russian authors producing literature about what post Soviet life is like.

A 'must-read' list of Russian novels would feature lagre amounts of novels with a terrifically subversive spirit. A large part fo why The Master and Margarita is so close to my heart is my amazement at how such a free-spirited and imaginative book could have been written in a society where any movement from the straight and narrow was considered so dangerous and where such an intellectual strait jacket was all pervasive. The scene which features an empty suit sitting at a desk carrying out the duties of an apparathick is my favourite piece of satire in any novel I've ever read.

So where is this spirit of defiance in Russia now? Is it present and merely untranslated? Or has it died now that the Soviets have gone? As an outsdie obersevr it seems tome that the whole country has more or less gone to hell in a hand basket; surely a state of affairs perfect for young writers. For all the misgivings there are about him, onlythe first 70 or 80 pages of Pelevin's Babylon springs to mind as an example of satire aimed at post Russian society, with all its new found exposure to Western materialism and consumerism.

Kurkov seems to focus on Ukraine and Boris Akunin (Georgian) appears to be writing light-hearted historical mystery/crime romps more akin to the Flashman novels. Other than that, the trend seems to be relatively trashy/pulpy detective stories, which is an enjoyable genre in its own right, but where is the modern day equivalent of Soviet era samizdat fiction?

I suppose my point is that there is plenty of interesting stuff going on in Russia since 1989 but the literary produce from this modern era seems thin on the ground. Surely there is more out there!!

[Liam]

...only the first 70 or 80 pages of Pelevin's Babylon springs to mind as an example of satire aimed at post Russian society, with all its new found exposure to Western materialism and consumerism...

Wait till this gets translated, .