Today’s New York Times includes an op-ed piece about Russian president-to-be Dmitrii Medvedev, “Russia’s Last Hope,” by novelist and essayist Victor Erofeyev.
Erofeyev may be best known to American readers of periodicals for “Dirty Words,” a New Yorker piece about Russian swearing that’s only available online in a rather piquant abstract. I last mentioned Erofeyev in this December 2007 posting about Russian politics and culture.
Today’s Times, by the way, contains another article about Russia: “Russia Is Luring Back NHL Stars.”
I'm so intrigued to find your Russian fiction blog. I write about writing, and I have been searching for my writing voice for years. I remember in the cavernous reaches of my memory a quote from some Russian story in which an office worker who wanted to write, "found his voice" and got up on his desk and started dancing in celebration. I want to quote that scene but I can't remember it. Do you know the scene I'm talking about?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Jerry
Memory Writers Network
Dear Jerry,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I wish I could answer your question but I can't think of anything! I wonder about Gogol, though my own memory might be forcing that thought because he often wrote about office workers and bureaucrats.
Some of my favorite Russian literary passages related to memory are from War and Peace. Nikolai, in particular, has some interesting selective recollections when recalling the war.
Orlando Figes addresses the corruption of memory toward the end of The Whisperers. This is very important to his book because he uses so much oral history. I wrote about that book at http://lizoksbooks.blogspot.com/2008/02/orlando-figess-whisperers.html
Good luck recovering your own memory of the story!
L
Thanks Lizok. Darn. I thought of Gogol too. Perhaps it's not a true memory. I'm pretty sure I saw it as a quote somewhere. If you think of it or hear of it, perhaps you could track me down and let me know. Googling doesn't do anything. Maybe if you googled in cyrhillic? :)
ReplyDeleteI like your comment about recovering my memory of the story. It's funny how this works. All of life is memory and story.
Jerry
Memory Writers Network