Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
Alexander Adams has reviewed a number of books on architecture in the Soviet block (aka the Second World) and the Third World. It’s in the Critic, one of those Save Western Civilization mags whose writers are generously paid to keep…
This picture was taken in Moscow in the early 2010s. I hope they have painted over this graffiti: every time I look at it, it scares the bejeezus out of me. On the other hand, I won’t be surprised if…
In 2013, Brazilian writer and translator Ronaldo Bressane reviewed a translation of Oblomov by Rubens Figueiredo. Caution: this book is extremely dangerous. A genuine affront to society. Reading it can poison you with a diabolical languor… a sweet apathy… a…
Madame de Genlis appears twice in War and Peace. First, as the author of books for children, “de nombreux ouvrages édifiants à l’usage de la jeunesse” to quote Wikipedia, much disliked by some of her involuntary readers for her oppressive…
Back to where I left off last time. In his comments to Propertius III:15, John Kevin Newman remarked: Propertius is sentimental, but evidently sentiment does not exclude cruelty. To this observation, Newman supplies a footnote quoting from The Brothers Karamazov:…
Not that I know much about Joseph Beuys‘s work but this episode from his younger years – perhaps invented – keeps interjecting itself into my random thoughts. Actually, I’m pretty sure he did invent it now. Here’s the deal: When…
Osip Mandelstam wrote in 1933 in Conversation about Dante: Would you like to become acquainted with the lexicon of Italian rhymes? Take the entire Italian dictionary and leaf through as you please. Here everything rhymes. Every word cries out to…
Turning away from Auden’s Icarus, if only for a moment. What follows is my approximate prose rendering, line by line, of a poem written in Russian in 1984 or a little earlier. Its author, Dmitry Shagin, is a major figure…
When Eduard Limonov died, five days ago, obituaries appeared the world over. The New York Times, The Los Angeles TImes, Le Monde, La Repubblica, El País, O Público. Limonov was a uniquely talented, original poet, a gifted fiction writer, and…
Early in 1892, Chekhov bought a modest estate in Melikhovo, forty miles south of Moscow. In March, he moved there from Moscow together with his parents and sister, and would live in Melikhovo until 1899. From time to time, he…
Osip Mandelstam wrote a poem in 1933 that begins approximately like this: Do not tempt alien tongues – rather try to forget them:No matter what, you won’t be able to bite glass with your teeth. It’s not an invective against…
More on M. Blanchard’s adventures in France and other European countries. (Part 1; part 2.) Here’s a brief recap: J. D. Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. Jean-Baptiste Rossi, later known as Sébastien Japrisot, translated it into…