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Most of the recommendations/discussions here focus on 19th century Russian literature, so please pardon the divergence: Tatiana Tolstoya's The Slynx is excellent for surrealistic science fiction. Also, obviously not Russian, but in the (modernist?) Soviet spirit: Stanislaw Lem's novels are worthy of attention
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Oct 27, 2015 15:55
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Lem is very much not in the spirit of Soviet sci-fi. That's mostly just pulpy trash with Earh united under the glorious banner of communism and heroic Russian space captains braving the unknown threats of space and inevitably giving their lifes for the sake of their inferior-nationed crew. Stuff like Lem and the Strugatskis gets mentioned because it somehow managed to be good in spite of coming from this cesspool and actually get published. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 17:49
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Kinda a doublepost from gbs, but I thought I might seek help here too, as gbs isn't always the best place to go looking for advice. I'm reading the gbs novorussia thread, it's mostly filled with dashcams and crazy russian drunks, anyway, someone in that thread recommeded chekhovs short story "ward no. 6". Well, I read that, then read all his other short stories and now I'm reading gogols short stories, having read dead souls previously. These are great, but they are not exactly contemporary. In the past, I've also read dostoyevsky, solzhenitsyn, tolstoy, pushkin, zamyatin, bely, mayakovsky, kharms, goncharov, bulgakov and a few others. But, after reading the novorussia thread, I'm really in the mood for books in the same vein. Ideally stories that end with "and then he died" or, "but there was no potato, such is life", but without too much social realism as that might ruin the magic/fun. Something like a young doctors notebook, but maybe a little more current? Funny, but bleaker than, say, "if this is man". Uniquely Russian? Anyone got any recommendations? Also, if you'll permit me to Putin it in here, the ukranian book "Death and the penguin" by andrey kurkov is both cute and funny and I've never actually met anyone who didn't like it. Is it the best introduction to Russian literature? Nope, but it's a good read for a beach day and a nice breather between some of the heavier stuff.
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Oct 27, 2015 18:07
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Pelevin Comedy answer - Linor Goralik
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Oct 27, 2015 18:46
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Xander77 posted:Pelevin Is this for my recommendation question? If so, where do ypu think should I start and, if you've got time, why? also, is the comedy answer meant as a joke or as a funny writer? Sorry for the follow up, but I've never heard of either of these two! 
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Oct 27, 2015 19:18
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Seconding Pelevin, though I've only read Omon Ra.anilEhilated posted:Lem is very much not in the spirit of Soviet sci-fi. Yeah, I recommended him as having been a writer from the Soviet bloc and one which others in the thread might enjoy, that's all. I didn't assert him as being in the spirit of Soviet scifi  rather, cited him in addition to Tolstaya as modern bloc/Russian authors. My bad if that's outside the scope of the thread. Most of my experience is with Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Hungarian writers, rather than Russian. (Though I've read a lot of the staples). Bitchkrieg fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 19:22
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Yeah, I probably jumped a gun on that a bit too much. It's a bit of a reflex, needing to emphasise that the good books from that period came out in spite of the USSR, not because of it. Seconding Viktor Pelevin, his perspective is sure as hell... unique.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:59
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I probably jumped a gun on that a bit too much. It's a bit of a reflex, needing to emphasise that the good books from that period came out in spite of the USSR, not because of it. i am not sure you have fully thought through the implications of this statement, or i'm missing something i mean, "because" or in "spite", books that are published in any regime and under any circumstance will necessarily be informed by that historical circumstance - good soviet sci-fi will be, insofar as it is recognisable as soviet sci-fi, good in part because of stuff brought to it by its soviet circumstance
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Oct 27, 2015 20:32
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I just keep getting tangled into it more and more, don't I? Let me try for the last time: in the USSR, and Eastern bloc in general, there were official lines for books to follow, there were rules about what was and wasn't permitted to have as content. Most of the books we'd still consider good nowadays either defied those or managed to work in loopholes; Lem being a good example due to a lot of his worked pegged as what's now called YA (a common attitude to science fiction then) and hence under the radar from most censorship. The poster who triggered my initial reaction mentioned the Soviet (modernist) spirit in regards to literature: that spirit manifested in the desire turn it into a simple propaganda tool. The books we have an appreciate from that era exist (mostly) in spite of that. Yes, they would not have come to being if not for the circumstances, but probably the strongest impulse the Soviet ideology brought to literature was the desire to poo poo on it. Hopefully that's cleared out. I should probably clarify that I'm Czech and managed to read quite a lot of the incredibly formulaic "official" Russian science fiction as a kid since there was nothing else in the genre here; I'm a bit paranoid about it since then. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 21:04
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Bitchkrieg posted:Seconding Pelevin, though I've only read Omon Ra. anilEhilated posted:Seconding Viktor Pelevin, his perspective is sure as hell... unique. I've picked up Omon Ra and Generation P. Or, that is, I've ordered them from the local library, hopefully I'll be able to pick them up tomorrow. I normally buy books, but if these are any good I'll buy them after. Any other recommendations re my original question are still welcome, but I'd appreciate it if a recommendation comes with a few words and, if you're recommending a writer, perhaps a good book to start off with. It not only makes it easier for me, but also for other people reading the thread
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Oct 27, 2015 22:28
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prinneh posted:also, is the comedy answer meant as a joke or as a funny writer?
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Oct 28, 2015 05:26
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prinneh posted:Kinda a doublepost from gbs, but I thought I might seek help here too, as gbs isn't always the best place to go looking for advice. I'm reading the gbs novorussia thread, it's mostly filled with dashcams and crazy russian drunks, anyway, someone in that thread recommeded chekhovs short story "ward no. 6". Well, I read that, then read all his other short stories and now I'm reading gogols short stories, having read dead souls previously. These are great, but they are not exactly contemporary. In the past, I've also read dostoyevsky, solzhenitsyn, tolstoy, pushkin, zamyatin, bely, mayakovsky, kharms, goncharov, bulgakov and a few others. But, after reading the novorussia thread, I'm really in the mood for books in the same vein. Ideally stories that end with "and then he died" or, "but there was no potato, such is life", but without too much social realism as that might ruin the magic/fun. Something like a young doctors notebook, but maybe a little more current? Funny, but bleaker than, say, "if this is man". Uniquely Russian? For bleak you can go with Oleg Pavlov: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5141698.Oleg_Pavlov . Some reviewers talk up his humour, but I never really saw it apart from maaaaybe some glimpses here and there. If you want more humour and surrealist fantasies, see 'The Librarian' by Yelizarov: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19283005-the-librarian Also, while I haven't read him myself, I have heard very good things about Hamid Ismailov, and it sounds like you might enjoy him, too: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20308483-the-dead-lake?from_search=true&search_version=servicee
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Oct 28, 2015 08:41
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Xander77 posted:Both. Her humor is highly Russian-spheric. Not in the "dark and gloomy" sense, but rather because it relies on the reader to recognize a lot of Russian-specific cultural references and parodies thereof. Burning Rain posted:For bleak you can go with Oleg Pavlov: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5141698.Oleg_Pavlov . Some reviewers talk up his humour, but I never really saw it apart from maaaaybe some glimpses here and there. I'll check these out, thank you!
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Oct 28, 2015 14:39
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Just forgoing my lurker status to throw in my two cents. I've seen a lot of recommendation lists here, and I can't believe the under-representation of Lermontov's Hero of Our Time. It was my first Russian novel (after a few Dostoevsky short stories), and I absolutely adore it still. I mean, yeah, Pechorin's a dick, but he embodies such a fantastic blend of Byronic hero and realist character development, with biting social satire and glorious mise-en-scene thrown in.
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Nov 9, 2015 02:31
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Does anyone know where to find the publication history of Dostoevsky's novels? (i.e. how many chapters of The Idiot were published at a time in which issue of Russian Messenger or whatever periodical)
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Nov 10, 2015 03:51
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Dr Dracula posted:Does anyone know where to find the publication history of Dostoevsky's novels? (i.e. how many chapters of The Idiot were published at a time in which issue of Russian Messenger or whatever periodical) Now to the main point - from recommendations in this thread I sought out and read Pelevin's Omon Ra and Generation P/Homo Zapiens, plus The Helmet of Horror. I enjoyed these, so I picked up some other recommendations from my initial please-help-me-find-some-bleak-russian-humour-prompt and got The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov and The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov. Those two seemed a little more obscure and I was only able to get them by actually buying them, rather than running to the library. So while I wait for these, do you guys have any other recommendations along the lines of Pelevin's bleak and slapstick-but-you-actually-die russian funny perspective? Pelevin's books are some of the first I've found to be actually funny for a long time. Of the three Pelevin books I read, I enjoyed the first one, Omon Ra the best and would recommend it to anyone who loves a) short but good books, b) anecdotes from Soviet Russia and c) astronautics. The structure of both Omon Ra and Generation P also spoke deeply to my slight OCD, both wrapping up in almost perfect circles and with very pleasing patterns/repetitions running throughout. Anyway, again, thanks for these recommendations, they weren't exactly what I was originally looking for, but turned out to be a probably much better read. Cheers!
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Dec 8, 2015 17:56
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vladimir sorokin is apparently similar in a sense to pelevin, but i haven't read him much so you may take this with a pinch of salt
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Dec 9, 2015 18:33
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V. Illych L. posted:vladimir sorokin is apparently similar in a sense to pelevin, but i haven't read him much so you may take this with a pinch of salt
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Dec 10, 2015 23:18
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I've been going through Nabokovs books the last few years and loving it for the most part, although sometimes it has also been frustrating reading (I am here thinking particularly about Ada or Ardor, which I love despite of being a long journey of Nabokov trying to show how clever he is). But overall I love his writing and I want to go back and read some of them again. But yeah, I need a break and want to check out some other Russian authors. Never read Gogol before, but I just read the overcoat the other day thanks to this thread, a good short read really enjoyed it, now thinking about starting Dead Souls.
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Dec 14, 2015 00:32
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What's the best translation of We? I read some free kindle version a couple years ago and it was pretty garbage, but I'd like to give it another try.
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Dec 15, 2015 05:13
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The Penguin edition was a pretty solid translation.
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Dec 15, 2015 14:10
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Penguin is really trustworthy when it comes to translations, imo. I've read their versions of Herodotus, Marcus Aurelius, Critique of Pure Reason and Basho and they're all solid
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Dec 15, 2015 19:09
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Burning Rain posted:Also, while I haven't read him myself, I have heard very good things about Hamid Ismailov, and it sounds like you might enjoy him, too: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20308483-the-dead-lake?from_search=true&search_version=servicee Was it just friends who told you good things about Ismailov or is there like a decent goodreads group for goons and/or Russian lit?Woodenlung posted:I've been going through Nabokovs books the last few years and loving it for the most part, although sometimes it has also been frustrating reading (I am here thinking particularly about Ada or Ardor, which I love despite of being a long journey of Nabokov trying to show how clever he is). But overall I love his writing and I want to go back and read some of them again. But yeah, I need a break and want to check out some other Russian authors. Never read Gogol before, but I just read the overcoat the other day thanks to this thread, a good short read really enjoyed it, now thinking about starting Dead Souls.
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Dec 16, 2015 00:45
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Dead Souls is a definite must. Warning though, it's part of a series Gogol never completed. I don't know about other editions, but my (non-Anglophone) edition included only the first, complete section. Government Inspector is similarly a satire about greed and corruption, but it doesn't have the insight of Dead Souls
BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Dec 17, 2015 |
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Dec 17, 2015 10:07
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Dead Souls is a definite must. Warning though, it's part of a series Gogol never completed. I don't know about other editions, but my (non-Anglophone) edition included only the first, complete section. They did you a favour. The second segment is same as the first but with less charm and more god, the third is really just a few scraps.
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Dec 17, 2015 11:44
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prinneh posted:The Dead Lake was a good read, blew through it in a day. Not funny, but pretty bleak without dwelling on it, beautifully written too. Thanks for this recommendation, you should read it too if you get the chance. When I've got money again, I'll probably buy his other novel The Underground, but it's a different translator, so I'm not completely sure yet Cool. I haven't gotten to read it yet because there were no copies in my local bookshops, and the Russian ebook versions are a bit hit and miss. It figured a lot on year-end lists of translations and had a good buzz on some blogs i read and http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/, which is why it was on my radar in the first place. It's a good forum for world lit nerds (also, probably the only one apart from http://mookseandgripes.myfreeforum.org/ and http://w11.zetaboards.com/thefictionalwoods/index/).
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Dec 17, 2015 20:21
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I just received a copy of Anna Karenina as a gift. It's translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. How does this translation hold up? I know a lot of people swear by Pevear and Volokhonsky but I hardly know anything else about translated literature.
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Dec 20, 2015 22:42
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AFAIK the Maude translations are pretty good. They were close friends with Tolstoy, too
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Dec 21, 2015 12:16
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DrPop posted:I finished German's Hard to Be a God this weekend. It really is a horrible film, unless you get into the whole "Is it intentionally horrible?" debate. The issue is that the Strugatskys' story portrays a less bleak overall situation and leaves the question of the moral necessity of interference intentionally unanswered, letting the reader form his or her own conclusion. German's film on the other hand could in my view be interpreted as being extra awful on purpose as a way of convincing the viewer that the answer should be a definite "yes, for gods sake somebody should do something already". So either its a horrible film or its an inaccurate adaptation. In case anyone is wondering if something was lost in translation, no, I watched it in the original Russian and its just as awful. Mr.48 fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Dec 21, 2015 |
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Dec 21, 2015 16:58
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Mr.48 posted:It really is a horrible film, unless you get into the whole "Is it intentionally horrible?" debate. The issue is that the Strugatskys' story portrays a less bleak overall situation and leaves the question of the moral necessity of interference intentionally unanswered, letting the reader form his or her own conclusion. German's film on the other hand could in my view be interpreted as being extra awful on purpose as a way of convincing the viewer that the answer should be a definite "yes, for gods sake somebody should do something already". So either its a horrible film or its an inaccurate adaptation. In case anyone is wondering if something was lost in translation, no, I watched it in the original Russian and its just as awful. That movie owned, what's the matter with you. there's an establishing shot of a donkey's cock and it's like 3 hours of nothing but mud and incomprehensible misery.
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Dec 21, 2015 23:19
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The Maude translation is fine, good to go with that. Dead Souls was supposed to be a three-part series modeled after Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio. There's a reason why no one ever reads the last two--they're boring as gently caress, and all the fun/juicy parts are in Inferno. Gogol couldn't write interesting things about redemption or good characters, so that's why we only have half of part 2 and the charred crisps of part 3 left over, and an amazing-all-time-great part 1. Just starting off with Gogol, I'd recommend to start with his Petersburg tales (Overcoat, The Nose, Nevsky Prospekt, all of those). If you like those, try his earlier stuff that works off of Ukrainian folklore (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, St. John's Eve and A Terrible Vengeance). Would also recommend that everyone read Viy and Taras Bulba (if you want something totally different than the previous stories), which both appeared in a different collection. The Soviet film version of Viy from the 60's has a cult following as an early horror film. It's on YouTube in entirety for free, with subtitles I believe. Inspector's General is a classic -- fairly short play about a bunch of ridiculous, corrupt provincial townspeople. edit: just realized that I recommend reading 80% of everything Gogol published, so yeah--he's really good. In order I'd go Petersburg Tales, Evenings on a Farm, Dead Souls, then branch out from there depending on what you liked) bearic fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Dec 23, 2015 |
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Dec 23, 2015 05:02
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I read Dostoevsky's The Idiot a while back, and lately I've been thinking about the character of Aglaya. Specifically, what the hell was up with her? In one sentence, she's laughing; in the next, she's crying; in the next, she's stamping her little foot in indignation, then bursting into laughter again.... I could not get a read on her. What was Dostoevsky trying to do with her? Was she based on someone he knew IRL? Was the Prince -- the Christ-like, the non-ridiculous Don Quixote -- falling in love with her an allegory or an analogue to something? It took me something like 9 years and 7 tries to finish that book, and in part that was due to my confusion and frustration with her character. (The bigger part was due to having made 6 of those 7 attempts with the Garnett translation -- switching to the P&V translation made the book so much more enjoyable.) Like, Nastasya Filipovna was all over the place emotionally, too, but I had no trouble understanding her and could follow her mad mood swings perfectly well. (She's probably my favorite Dostoevsky character and one of my very favorite characters in all literature. My custom text is taken from her letter to Aglaya.) Aglaya, though, was just unfathomable for me. Was that the point?
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Jan 5, 2016 14:56
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Just curious, is this thread only for Russian fiction work? I just finished Peter Pomerantsev's Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, which while technically not really "Russian literature" (He was born in Kiev but grew up abroad, then worked in Russia), I really enjoyed it and would be interested in more books like it, about modern Russian culture in the Putin era.
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Feb 6, 2016 22:36
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It shouldn't be a problem, we had a bit of a chat about Victor Serge who was born and raised in Spain/France and spoke both better than Russian. Also quite a few of Russia's literary names spent years abroad, and of course many Russian cultural movements were influenced by what was happening outside its borders. And then of course there's the great ethnn-national mashup that was the Russian Empire and Soviet Union making the question of "Proper Russian" rather arbitrary in my opinion.
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Feb 8, 2016 18:36
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Sorry for the DP, but I've just finished watching the new BBC adaptation of War and Peace, it was alright... It was just Six episodes (the last time the BBC adapted it they had well over twenty) so six and a bit hours to cover it. Unsurprisingly they cut a lot out and focussed on the battles (which really weren't that great, Sharpe did more convincing and exciting battles in the nineties) and steamy sex. The show featured male nudity which might be a first for a BBC show, so if your into pasty soldiers dripping wet there you go. Transitions were a bit dizzying too, jumping ahead from say 1809 to 1810 was okay but it was terrible at showing jumps forward in time in the same year. In one middle episode I saw Pierre talking to Andrei, a few scenes later there's a ball and Pierre greets Andrei and congratulates him on extensive army reforms, but it looked like a week at the most had past. One thing that did annoy me though is that the production depicts Russian nobility as an idealised form of British aristocracy, there's not attempt to accurately reflect the conditions of the serfs who are barely shown and I think are only called serfs once. Indeed the only scene that focuses on Russian serfs makes them out to be ungrateful to their noble masters. They want to stay at home and welcome the French army because they believe they'll be freed. Apparently wanting freedom is a bad thing. But as a period drama it holds up, its just one of those drama's where your knowledge of the source material weakens your enjoyment of it.
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Feb 11, 2016 00:10
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Has anyone read Leonid Andreyev? I stumbled across The Seven Who Were Hanged by accident and loved it, found it to be a wonderful character piece. His short stories are really great too, especially the one about the man in Jerusalem on the day of Christ's crucifixion who doesn't give a poo poo because he has an awful toothache.
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Feb 27, 2016 19:34
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I would like reading Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Any recommendations for a good English (or alternatively German) translation? People recommended me the Nabakov translation, but I'm not sure if reading a literal translation of a poem is all that fun.
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Feb 28, 2016 10:59
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gipskrampf posted:I would like reading Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Any recommendations for a good English (or alternatively German) translation? People recommended me the Nabakov translation, but I'm not sure if reading a literal translation of a poem is all that fun. Try Falen.
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Feb 28, 2016 15:53
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So I read The Master and Margarita and I absolutely loved it - immediately became a new favorite. What's the best point to continue diving into Bulgakov's stuff with? I'm most intrigued by Black Snow and Heart of a Dog - which of those is most highly recommended round here?
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Feb 29, 2016 07:30
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DoctorG0nzo posted:So I read The Master and Margarita and I absolutely loved it - immediately became a new favorite. What's the best point to continue diving into Bulgakov's stuff with? I'm most intrigued by Black Snow and Heart of a Dog - which of those is most highly recommended round here? Never read Black Snow, but I definitely can recommend Heart of a Dog if you're looking for something satirical like Master and Margarita. Alternatively I'm also a big fan of The White Guard. It's an earlier work and less magical, but a very interesting introduction both into Bulgakov's life and convictions (the novel contains many autobiographical elements) and into Ukrainian history and the complicated Russian-Ukrainian relationship, which makes it more relevant than ever with the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
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Feb 29, 2016 18:13
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