Active Users:832 Time:03/08/2026 01:59:47 AM
My High School English teacher neglected Russian literature. Ghavrel Send a noteboard - 16/03/2017 01:46:29 AM

I'm not terribly put out by it, because I hate rereading books and I know I would not have gotten much at all out of Dostoyevsky at that age. I read Bulgakov in undergrad after taking a few history courses and loved it.

I was taking a seminar on Horace that semester, and seeing the ways the two authors were subversive elements in authoritarian regimes was wonderful. It also marked the beginning of my disenchantment with academia. We had to write a term paper, and I came to my professor very excited to write a paper exploring how satire has changed from the classical to modern period, with the lynchpins being Horace and Bulgakov. She was uninterested and gave me another topic. Around page ten of my philology paper on Horace's use of the word virtus, I decided (rather unfairly) that academia in the classics had its head irredeemably far up its ass and that I was going to law school.

I'm still a little bitter.

"We feel safe when we read what we recognise, what does not challenge our way of thinking.... a steady acceptance of pre-arranged patterns leads to the inability to question what we are told."
~Camilla

Ghavrel is Ghavrel is Ghavrel

*MySmiley*

Reply to message
The February Revolution and Kerensky’s Missed Opportunity - 13/03/2017 09:37:00 PM 947 Views
Fascinating stuff - 13/03/2017 10:52:58 PM 534 Views
Who knows? It could have been worse off. - 13/03/2017 11:37:54 PM 631 Views
What's your opinion on Lenin? - 14/03/2017 02:06:59 AM 578 Views
Lenin. A monster. - 14/03/2017 12:55:18 PM 597 Views
Thanks. I'll ask him too. *NM* - 14/03/2017 03:01:36 PM 288 Views
Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky were all bloodthirsty mass murderers. - 14/03/2017 08:59:06 PM 671 Views
That's fascinating. But give me a book recommendation! - 14/03/2017 09:15:57 PM 532 Views
Start with a general history of Russia - 14/03/2017 10:17:22 PM 675 Views
Excellent. Thank you. It's next on the list. - 15/03/2017 02:11:14 AM 628 Views
Russian history is as depressing as they come. - 15/03/2017 12:08:15 PM 599 Views
Read Figes first, I suppose. - 14/03/2017 10:55:23 PM 572 Views
Thanks, Tom. I've been putting off reading good literature because of my unfamiliarity with Russia. *NM* - 15/03/2017 02:12:10 AM 280 Views
Which books have you put off reading? *NM* - 15/03/2017 12:05:32 PM 269 Views
DEMONS and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV are the big two. - 15/03/2017 02:58:13 PM 554 Views
You don't necessarily need to know the history. - 15/03/2017 03:15:38 PM 591 Views
I'm always afraid I'm missing something critical, though! - 15/03/2017 03:50:59 PM 551 Views
Annotations are amazing. My eBook version of War and Peace was the same. - 15/03/2017 04:03:59 PM 568 Views
My High School English teacher neglected Russian literature. - 16/03/2017 01:46:29 AM 537 Views
Hmmmm. - 16/03/2017 01:18:14 PM 564 Views
Tolstoy was a reprehensible human being - 15/03/2017 04:02:52 PM 543 Views
I had no idea. I was under the impression he was deeply devout. - 16/03/2017 01:47:43 AM 564 Views
Here's one example: - 16/03/2017 02:06:45 AM 564 Views
Good lord. The man sounds deranged. But that's fascinating! Is there a good biography on him? *NM* - 16/03/2017 07:50:10 AM 274 Views
Pavel Basinsky's bio is best - 16/03/2017 02:46:47 PM 756 Views
Getting it now. Thanks. *NM* - 16/03/2017 11:06:25 PM 272 Views
For what it's worth, I read Lenin & Trotsky as genuine idealists, while Stalin as just a thug - 15/03/2017 11:16:36 AM 636 Views
I think that's entirely incorrect. - 15/03/2017 04:00:54 PM 643 Views
I didn't mean stupid or brutish, I meant more like a mafia don than a statesman - 16/03/2017 12:18:34 PM 526 Views
Well if you want to completely redefine the phrase "just a thug", perhaps you're right - 16/03/2017 02:43:38 PM 547 Views
Good point - 16/03/2017 09:52:29 PM 684 Views
I hear what you're saying, but... - 16/03/2017 11:53:19 PM 570 Views
Attempt at clarification - 17/03/2017 12:55:03 AM 658 Views
Hehehe..."Fuck off" - 19/03/2017 05:23:49 PM 609 Views
Seems kind of nonsensical - 14/03/2017 01:33:49 AM 657 Views
Good reply. - 14/03/2017 12:57:47 PM 646 Views
They weren't really wrong - 14/03/2017 01:30:07 PM 657 Views
I do enjoy historical "what if" situations. - 14/03/2017 01:47:27 AM 543 Views
Hi there. - 14/03/2017 01:02:44 PM 520 Views
I still think democracy among those insidiously intrusive Western values Russia resists so fiercely - 14/03/2017 02:37:39 PM 651 Views
Is it your persistant anti-Russia bias that makes you so dogmatic? - 14/03/2017 02:51:23 PM 553 Views
I have no problem with Russia, only its government - 14/03/2017 03:07:14 PM 675 Views
Really? - 14/03/2017 03:15:10 PM 580 Views
What a terrible article - 14/03/2017 08:04:50 PM 543 Views
I thought you would think this way. - 15/03/2017 12:04:57 PM 631 Views
I can't decide what I think about Evans - 15/03/2017 04:10:05 PM 539 Views

Reply to Message