Dmitry Bykov Today

~ Clarissa ~ Leave a comment

I’m reading Dmitry Bykov’s biography of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. I haven’t finished the book, so I’m not ready to say anything about it. I only want to comment on the author for now.

I wrote about Bykov several times in the past. He’s so talented that I actually buy his books of poetry. His are the only books of poetry I have ever bought in my life not for teaching or research but simply to read. I’m not a poetry person. It’s got to be absolutely out-there poetry for me to buy it.

Bykov is also a talented novelist and biographer with a voluminous output. He’s a real writer. And he can’t go back to Russia or ever get published there again. Imagine for a writer suddenly to lose his entire readership, his linguistic environment, his purpose as a writer. People in the past returned to Stalinist USSR because they couldn’t accept such a loss.

This isn’t an issue of financial necessity. Bykov is famous, he’s been invited to teach at Cornell. This is about not having any readers for his new books. This very long and massively researched biography of Zelensky is an example. People would go to jail in Russia, where Bykov was designated “a foreign agent”, for owning a copy. Jail times for posting something like “I want peace” in Russia have surpassed sentences for rape. A book about Zelensky would be considered treason of the highest order.

Bykov understands that his book won’t be read in Ukraine either because it’s in Russian and he’s from Russia. Nobody wants to hear a Russian perspective on anything. Bykov says it’s as should be, and I respect him for not pouting.

I’ll write about the book once I read it, which will be soon since my reading speed in Russian is stratospheric.

Spied On

~ Clarissa ~ 15 Comments

The screen on my flight to Madrid was pre-set to look like this:

It knows something.

Achieving the Opposite

~ Clarissa ~ 11 Comments

The Russian writer Dmitry Bykov, who is the only significant literary talent Russia produced since Solzhenitsyn, says that Putin is famous for achieving the exact opposite of what he planned.

He wanted Russia to be one of the world leaders but it’s now more despised than ever.

He wanted to dominate Chechnya, and as a result Chechnya dominates Russia. The notorious videos of Chechens whipping and raping Russian soldiers at the front with complete impunity are only one of the many manifestations of this phenomenon.

Putin wanted Ukrainians to like and respect Russians again but instead he awakened such a wave of hatred and contempt for everything Russian that not even the most radical among Ukrainian nationalists ever wanted.

He’s an old, bumbling loser, and seeing him as anything else can only stem from ignorance.

Horseshoe Sulk

~ Clarissa ~ 5 Comments

Without the word “students”, it’s impossible to guess if they are left- or right-wing pouters.  Weak, sulky, infantile and self-pitying, they are the mirror image of each other.

Good Comments

~ Clarissa ~ Leave a comment

The most unexpected thing with my show is that all the comments are mega complimentary and sweet. Usually, with a large anonymous viewership, one should prepare for mega-tons of abuse. I saw things that viewers write to the host, and they are often not pretty. All I got, though, is “brilliant, talented, where can I buy the book by this amazing intellectual?”

The War on Traffic Signs

~ Clarissa ~ 10 Comments

The war on homophobic traffic signs is proceeding apace in LA:

When people ask me if Ukrainians can go woke, I always say that no, they can’t because they have a sense of humor.

A sense of humor is urgently needed here in the US.

Intelligence Loves Quiet

~ Clarissa ~ 9 Comments

I don’t know about rich people, but mental health and intelligence both love quiet. People who are all right in their heads don’t need to drown out with din the unbearable affects that gush out of them like geysers. And if they have interesting thoughts they want to concentrate on, they’ll have no need of filling an inner vacuum with noise.

Brilliant Strategy

~ Clarissa ~ 16 Comments

That is, indeed, an excellent ad. And an absolutely brilliant political strategy to take away and appropriate the American flag at a time when the opponents are increasingly embracing Berkeley-style pouting about “evil America”.

Puzzled

~ Clarissa ~ 1 Comment

My aunt watched the show and wrote to congratulate me on my amazing command of the Ukrainian language. Of course, the show was in Russian, so I’m not sure what she meant.

This particular aunt is not known for sarcasm so I’m quite puzzled.

Post-show Update

~ Clarissa ~ 8 Comments

I haven’t even been able to watch my show yet because I had another appearance scheduled for 15 minutes after. And I haven’t had anything to eat in 24 hours because nothing would go in. Now that it’s all done, I’m very ready for a gigantic burger. Wow, I’ve really been Americanized.

N is happy. It was the dream of his life that I appear on the show. He cultivated the host for months to prepare ground for me to be invited.

He first established contact before the book even appeared in print. Started a conversation with the host, saying, “Great show today! Interesting discussion topic! Here’s what I think…”

Then, after a while, he started saying, “What’s lacking is a discussion of topics XYZ. It would be great if there were somebody you could invite to talk about them.”

After a few weeks, he came back with, “Lookihere, there’s a new book that was just published and it’s all about these topics you and I were saying would be cool to discuss.”

And then, “Hey, do you want me to send you a copy of the book? Maybe invite the author. That would be interesting to watch.”

N never initiates contact with other humans, so it’s huge of him to do this. I’m touched beyond words.