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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*

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The February Revolution and Kerensky’s Missed Opportunity - 13/03/2017 09:37:00 PM 915 Views
Fascinating stuff - 13/03/2017 10:52:58 PM 500 Views
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Thanks. I'll ask him too. *NM* - 14/03/2017 03:01:36 PM 269 Views
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That's fascinating. But give me a book recommendation! - 14/03/2017 09:15:57 PM 506 Views
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Russian history is as depressing as they come. - 15/03/2017 12:08:15 PM 573 Views
Read Figes first, I suppose. - 14/03/2017 10:55:23 PM 540 Views
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Which books have you put off reading? *NM* - 15/03/2017 12:05:32 PM 246 Views
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I'm always afraid I'm missing something critical, though! - 15/03/2017 03:50:59 PM 519 Views
Annotations are amazing. My eBook version of War and Peace was the same. - 15/03/2017 04:03:59 PM 538 Views
My High School English teacher neglected Russian literature. - 16/03/2017 01:46:29 AM 510 Views
Hmmmm. - 16/03/2017 01:18:14 PM 536 Views
Tolstoy was a reprehensible human being - 15/03/2017 04:02:52 PM 509 Views
I had no idea. I was under the impression he was deeply devout. - 16/03/2017 01:47:43 AM 541 Views
Here's one example: - 16/03/2017 02:06:45 AM 536 Views
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Pavel Basinsky's bio is best - 16/03/2017 02:46:47 PM 722 Views
Getting it now. Thanks. *NM* - 16/03/2017 11:06:25 PM 245 Views
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I think that's entirely incorrect. - 15/03/2017 04:00:54 PM 611 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 493 Views
Well if you want to completely redefine the phrase "just a thug", perhaps you're right - 16/03/2017 02:43:38 PM 515 Views
Good point - 16/03/2017 09:52:29 PM 654 Views
I hear what you're saying, but... - 16/03/2017 11:53:19 PM 536 Views
Attempt at clarification - 17/03/2017 12:55:03 AM 627 Views
Hehehe..."Fuck off" - 19/03/2017 05:23:49 PM 575 Views
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I do enjoy historical "what if" situations. - 14/03/2017 01:47:27 AM 518 Views
Hi there. - 14/03/2017 01:02:44 PM 493 Views
I still think democracy among those insidiously intrusive Western values Russia resists so fiercely - 14/03/2017 02:37:39 PM 625 Views
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Really? - 14/03/2017 03:15:10 PM 549 Views
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I thought you would think this way. - 15/03/2017 12:04:57 PM 594 Views
I can't decide what I think about Evans - 15/03/2017 04:10:05 PM 504 Views

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