Languor Management

Sweet

Victor Sonkin on Vladimir Sorokin's new novel, The Sugar Kremlin:

[T]he scenes of inexplicable and brutal cruelty, executions, horrible accidents and other disasters make the new book even more gruesome than the previous one. One of the traditional topics of anti-utopian literature, the death of culture, is barely touched upon. Culture seems to have died of its own accord, and in this new Russia, both the elite and the general public are quite content with the widely available cocaine and the New Year's treat which gives the book its title: a sugar Kremlin effigy.

The iron door of the prison is suddenlythe iron door of the prison is suddenly opened

In October, the 92nd Street Y's Theatre for a New Audience and the New York Theatre Workshop present Peter Brook's staging of The Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov.

Pissing Contest

Today, I am wearing a suit and tie because I have to present a report to the *Commissioner*. Not that I generally mind dressing up, but I never wear a tie at work. I deal with freelance writers and printers all day long--none of them wear a tie--for all I know, some may not be wearing pants. But for a one-hour meeting, I must needs wear a tie in this man's presence. He'll be in a suit, of course, but his pants will be too short for him.

Next week I will turn 40: Commissioners, ties, reports...At what point did my ship go astray?

Image from the Sakharov Center 's "A-Z of Forbidden Art" show in Moscow. Sorry, I couldn't find a link to more images. I got this one--Stalin having a pissing contest with a bear--from the Moscow Times.

So different on the surface

Dan Cryer on Irina Reyn's debut novel, What Happened to Anna K, for Newsday:

It's easy to take sides in the ancient battle between authenticity and fakery this story portrays. Yet, Reyn is shrewd enough to know that it isn't always easy to discern the difference.

She is an astute chronicler of smart people making foolish choices. She makes Anna's downward spiral not only credible but horrifically beautiful. She is equally attentive to her dual protagonists, giving to Lev's acceptance of his limitations a poignancy and gravitas it deserves.

I should`ve walked away, I should've walked away

It was a long hot night
She made it easy, she made it feel right
But now it's over the moment has gone
I followed my hands not my head, I knew I was wrong

While sitting in the Dentist's office yesterday awaiting my root canal, The Cutting Crew's "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight" was playing over the office's radio...Of course I got everything I deserve:

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must been some kind of kiss
I should`ve walked away, I should've walked away...

Brodsky on evil

"Evil, especially political evil, is always a bad stylist."

"Evil takes root when one man starts to think that he is better than another."

“The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.”

"Life, the way it really is, is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse."

"Auden's lines: 'Those to whom evil is done/Do evil in return' should be tattooed on every baby’s chest."

 

Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996)

[From David McDuff's always necessary A Step at a Time]

Where there is wine and darling pilaf

For Georgia...

I dream of hunchbacked Tiflis
Where the sanzandar's moans resound.
People crowd the bridges,
Carpeting the whole capital.
And below, the Kura murmers.

Above the Kura are dukhans
Where there is wine and darling pilaf
And the tanned waiter
Gives glasses to the guests
And is at your service.

In the cellar, the rich Cahetian wine
Is ready to drink.
In the coolness, in the peace.
You can drink all you like, drink two,
Or you don't have to drink at all.

In the same small inn,
If you ask for Teliani
You'll find a friend.
Tiflis is swimming in the haze,
You are swimming in the dukhan.

--Osip Mandelshtam (Translated by me)

Deeply diminished

From Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post:

Back in 2005, speaking before a crowd of more than 150,000 exuberant Georgians cheering "Bushi! Bushi!", President Bush made a promise to the people of that former Soviet republic: "The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty. And as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with you." So where was Bush as Russia launched a major military attack against Georgia? Monkeying around with the U.S. women's volleyball players -- and otherwise amusing himself at the Beijing Olympics. This is not to suggest that Bush should have sent in the Marines. But his impotence in the face of such a gravely destabilizing move highlights not only his personal loss of stature, but how deeply he has diminished American authority on the world stage generally and, particularly, in the eyes of Russia.

Via Robert Amsterdam

The Dinner Party

Joshua Ferris has written a story I wish I had written--Of course, his And Then We Came to the End was a novel I wish I had written.

No directions to the Solzhenitsyns

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian literary giant and dissident, has died. Judging from the photo above (taken in 1976) , it's hard to believe he managed to hang on this long.

He wrote that while an ordinary man was obliged “not to participate in lies,” artists had greater responsibilities. “It is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie!”

Obits are everywhere, but the Times has posted a nice, long one on its site, despite the strangest transliteration of Osip Mandelshtam I have ever seen.