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Sunday, September third, 2006
So in Chapter 25 of The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Vladimir is looking at Morgan's wall. He sees a poster of The Boot, which is the only remaining bit of a gargantuan statue of Stalin which was destroyed after the republic of Stolovaya broke away from the USSR. "Beneath it, a Stolovan slogan: 'Graždanku! Otporim vsyechi Stalinski çudoviši!' Vladimir could never be sure of the funny Stolovan language, but translated into normal Russian this could be an exhortation along the lines of 'Citizens! Let us take the ax to all of Stalin's monstrosities!'" -- the meaning of this is not exactly clear to me. Stolovan is a Slavic language which Shteyngart has invented. Is the quoted phrase correct Russian which translates as given, and Volodya is speculating that the words may have different idiomatic meanings in Stolovan? Or is the grammar not-quite-Russian and the speculation is V. trying to figure out how to run the words together? It's a little hard for me to figure out how V. would be able to come up with that translation but not to be sure it was an accurate one. Update: My esteemed colleague LanguageHat (of LanguageHat.com) comes bearing enlightenment: It's certainly not Russian [he says], and I doubt it's some obscure Slavic language; it's presumably Shteyngart's invention. (For one thing, "grazhdanku" would be the accusative singular of the feminine form of 'citizen' in Russian, and it wouldn't be a plural nominative in any Slavic I've ever heard of.) "Stalinskie chudovishchi" would be 'Stalin's monsters' in Russian, so that's where that comes from; in Russian, otpor is 'repulse, rebuff,' and otporot' is either 'to rip off' or 'to flog, thrash' (though it also means 'to fuck' in slang), but there is no verb otporit'. Also he confirms that I was right in my hunches about pronunciation.
posted evening of September third, 2006: Respond
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Friday, September first, 2006
I'm feeling a lot of kinship with Vladimir Girshkin in The Russian Debutante's Handbook. The story is reading kind of like a fantasy of mine from my younger days, combined with reflections I've been thinking about lately to do with creative effort and getting by -- sorry about the extreme incoherence, it's all sort of impressionistic at this point. I'm wondering about the correct pronunciation of Volodya -- I think it must be "Vo-LOD-ya" but frequently when my eye lights on it, I hear "Vo-lo-DYE-a". A similar question applies to Stolovaya -- whether the accent is on LO or on VAY. Shteyngart has the best-ever jacket photo on this book.
posted evening of September first, 2006: Respond
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Thursday, August 31st, 2006
The Russian Debutante's Handbook: not at all subtle, occasionally obnoxious. But there are moments that just sing. I think Absurdistan was the same way; but maybe Shteyngart is getting better at the subtlety, since I don't remember being as annoyed by his roughness when I was reading that.
posted evening of August 31st, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Readings
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I started Gary Shteyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook this morning and am digging it. The voice is very similar to Shteyngart's voice in Absurdistan, and I am reacting to it in the same familiar way.
posted morning of August 31st, 2006: Respond
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Sunday, August 27th, 2006
A couple of weeks ago we watched Kiki's Delivery Service, which Belle Waring had recommended a while back -- and this weekend we watched Spirited Away. Wow -- two great films. I think on balance I like Kiki a little better, though Spirited Away is far more ambitious and more intense of an experience, and utterly gorgeous. Kiki is more a story with characters, Spirited Away a parable with archetypes. Both are masterful examples of their respective genres -- Spirited Away however has some niggling plot holes and characters playing against type, that stuck in my craw a little.
posted evening of August 27th, 2006: Respond
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Friday, August 25th, 2006
Sylvia and I are reading Lloyd Alexander's Book of Three together now -- her favorite character is Gurgi, who she associates with saying "I want the small one for crunchings and munchings". -- Today she noticed that Gurgi says "Gurgi" instead of "I" or "me", like Elmo does. So "Elmo and Gurgi should get married. Gurgi's a boy, and Elmo's a girl. -- No, Elmo's a boy. But they can still get married. It will be a boy family and no girls allowed." Talking with Ed the other night, he said he felt like Alexander's books had screwed him up as a child by making him think he had a destiny to fulfill -- so he would be continually judging his life rather than just taking things as they come.
posted evening of August 25th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
In New York Magazine this week, Jennifer Egan mentions 5 books she has found useful. Nice -- I have not read two of them, and have only read a smattering of poetry from a third. I am excited about going to see her read tomorrow evening. Update: What a great, great reading -- Chapter 5 was a good selection. She said hi to me! I'm all flustered now.
posted evening of August 22nd, 2006: Respond
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Saturday, August 19th, 2006
I finished Look at Me today -- I'm in shock at what an amazing book it was. It reminded me very strongly, towards the end, of Vineland. Beautiful characterizations, and such a strong, clear voice! There were a couple of weak points in the plot, where the string of coincidences got to be a little hard to buy; but these passed quickly enough as I was swept back up in the glorious rush of the narrative. Off to find Invisible Circus, and her book of short stories.
posted afternoon of August 19th, 2006: Respond
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Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Ok, 2 answers for my shared experience question: - I would like everyone to know the music of Mississippi John Hurt. It's a little silly but I get hassled by the fact that whenever the Blues comes up in conversation, people think about electric music recorded in the 70s and later, or possibly about electric music recorded in the 50s. Plus I want everyone to know this music because it's so good.
- I would like everyone to know American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, and the graphic art of R. Crumb. I think productive conversations would be possible if I could just refer to Crumb's vision of sexual inadequacy and everybody knew what I was talking about without any explication. This also goes for Pekar's work ethic.
I want to tag Roy Edroso and Dave Feldman.
posted evening of August 17th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
Okay, this is my idea for a "meme" -- it doesn't quite fit the questionaire model that's out there but whatever: what creative work or works (book, movie, music, painting, sculpture, etc.) do you wish was part of the vocabulary of everyone you will ever speak to? What prompted the question was me thinking about Look at Me, that I wished everybody had read it so I could use ideas in it as premises and assume people were going to understand what I was talking about -- this often happens with books I am in the middle of reading. But I want to generalize it a bit and take it outside the experience of reading a book and digesting its ideas. Anyway -- I am going to work on an answer and tag some people later on. In the meantime if you are interested feel free to write your own answers.
posted afternoon of August 15th, 2006: Respond
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