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Chevengur by Andrei Platonov (Ann Arbor: Ardis Publishers, 1978), translated by Anthony Olcott When we last left Alexander “Sasha” Dvanova, he was wandering the countryside at the request of the provincial executive committee president looking for spontaneous outbreaks of socialism in the countryside. Sasha is shot by anarchists but rescued by Stepan Efimovich Kopenkin, commander […]
Chevengur by Andrei Platonov (Ann Arbor: Ardis Publishers, 1978), translated by Anthony Olcott I plan on several posts as I read through Platonov’s Chevengur, focusing on what strikes me as I go. The English translation is out of print but can be obtained from other libraries through interlibrary loans–please do so! Don’t expect any unifying […]
I’m going to try and post on Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur later this week but wanted to pass on some links I enjoyed related to the author and/or the work. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of what’s available on one or the other. Update: a large pdf file of the novel (the Olcott […]
Pytheas’ route Fridays with Off the Beaten Track in the Classics by Carl Kaeppel (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1936) continues, although a little late… Of the three great explorers of the ancient world Pytheas has had the worst fortune. Of none of them has the personal narrative survived, but the work of Hippalus and Hanno, […]
Ten Tales by Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) Translated from the Spanish by Robert M. Fedorchek Introduction by John W. Kronik Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8387-5436-8In this post I’m going to focus on the story “Doña Berta,” one of the richest and most perplexing short stories/novellas I’ve read. I commented on the other nine stories […]
Ten Tales by Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) Translated from the Spanish by Robert M. Fedorchek Introduction by John W. Kronik Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8387-5436-8 Reading and posting had suffered of late, so I’ll try and get caught up with a couple of posts on this collection of short stories by Leopoldo Alas. Ten […]
I ended up with two copies of A Novel Without Lies by Anatoly Mariengof. Both paid for from two different vendors (long story). I’d like to send one to someone interested in reading it, but there’s some fine print… If you have a blog, I want to see a post on the book and I […]
Check out these crazy kids performing in Athens on the Hill of Muses in the summer of 1989, covering Van Morrison’s “Foreign Windows” and “One Irish Rover.” I hope they have accomplished something since then…it looks like they’re up to no good here. For more on the collaboration, click here.
Off the Beaten Track in the Classics by Carl Kaeppel (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1936) To what extent the civilizations whose remains have been discovered in North-West India influenced and were influenced by the civilizations of Mesopotamia and, thereby, influenced those of the Western World, we cannot as yet determine. Such influence there certainly was, […]
I’ve commented on the miniseries several times already, but I did want to mention that it will premier on HBO on February 26. Despite some issues with the series, I was impressed with how well they adapted a difficult book to the screen. Definitely recommended. Here are some random thoughts I had while watching it. […]
For anyone that has read Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, be sure to read Helen Rittelmeyer’s post The Redemption of Nathan Leopold, Maybe. While the circumstances have important differences, there are some eerie similarities. In all its externals, Leopold’s life followed the arc of a basic redemption story. He felt remorse for […]
Publicity card from The Collected Works’ production of Princess IvonaSaturday night my wife and I attended The Collected Works’ production of Witold Gombrowicz’s Princess Ivona at the Performance Art Institue in San Francisco. I provide a cursory overview of the play in this post. As a director, I know a good play through working with […]
A Novel Without Lies by Anatoly Mariengof, translation by Jose Alaniz (Glas Volume 23: 2000) The friendship between Anatoly Mariengof and poet Sergei Esenin started when they met during the summer of 1918 and lasted until Esenin’s suicide in 1925. These tumultuous times and their extraordinary events provide a backdrop for the “unvarnished portrait” Mariengof […]
Patience: After Sebald is available for instant viewing on Netflix. Grant Gee’s documentary brings to life Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn with readings from the book and images of the places mentioned. I wouldn’t call it an adaptation of the book…more like an homage and supplement. The movie tends to polarize reviewers, either loving or […]
It’s Friday so I’m continuing with a chapter from Off the Beaten Track in the Classics by Carl Kaeppel (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1936). In studying any long period of history, one frequently realizes that great ‘discoveries’ which have profoundly influenced civilization are, after all, only rediscoveries—though the later discoverers showed every whit as much […]
I am supposed to attend a performance of Princess Ivona (the English title) by Witold Gombrowicz this weekend and I wanted to write about the play in advance. For the record, there will be lots of spoilers in this post. Gombrowicz wrote Ivona, Princess of Burgundia from 1933 to 1935 and it was first published […]
Rustic Baroque by Jiří Hájíček, translation from the Czech by Gale A. Kirking (Brno: Real World Press, 2012) As I mentioned in the post on Rustic Baroque there were also four stories from Hájíček’s collection The Wooden Knife included in the book. Memories of a Village Dance in 1986 The Wooden Knife Horses are Supposed […]
Posting will resume soon…I’ve been assisting my wife lately with her website. For anyone with kids check out her site “kids + love + acupuncture: tips from A – Z to keep your kids healthy” and follow her on pinterest. Thanks to the last article I know more about kids’ constipation than I ever wanted […]
10th century CE Greek copy of Aristachus Samos’s 2nd century BCE calculations of the relative sizes of the Sun, Moon and the Earth Picutre source Off the Beaten Track in the Classics by Carl Kaeppel (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1936) So stupendous is the work of the Greeks in art, literature, and philosophy that there […]
Marginalia on Casanova by Miklós Szentkuthy St. Orpheus Breviary, Vol. 1 Translation by Tim Wilkinson Introduction by Zéno Bianu (Translation by Rainer J. Hanshe) Afterword by Mária Tompa (New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2012) ISBN 9780983697244This is one of the strangest and most enjoyable books I’ve read in quite a while. I have hesitated to […]