«Даниэль Штайн, переводчик» – Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s last novel? Posted by josefina on Dec 19, 2007
In Русский репортёр №26 [October 29th – December 6th 2007] I came across a short interview, in the magazine’s feature «семь вопросов» [seven questions], with writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya [Людмила Улицкая]. She recently received the Russian literary award Большая книга (Big book) for her novel published in 2007, «Даниель Штейн, переводчик» (“Daniel Stein, translator”). This…
Crime & Punishment – A New Take On An Old Book Posted by josefina on Dec 9, 2007
There’s a witty scene in a Woody Allen movie where he says: ”I took a speed-read course and read ‘War & Peace’ in twenty minutes. It involves Russia”. I’m sure that if he had been forced to read the equally important and famous classic by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky he would have put it something…
A Little Note on “New Russians” Posted by josefina on Dec 5, 2007
Or maybe I wouldn’t call it a “note”, since it is just a few tiny bits of conversations that I’ve picked up from people around me. The longer I live in Russia, the more Russian people surprise me. I thought it would be the other way around. I thought that I would grow to…
The Russian Emotion: Indifference Posted by josefina on Dec 3, 2007
Watching the evening news in Russia can be an adventure all in itself – try to imagine a 30 minute sum-up of what has happened on one sixth of our planet – and you will easily be fooled into thinking that there are mafia bosses in black Armani suits, starving orphans and bombs going…
An [Unusual] Russian Wedding Posted by josefina on Nov 30, 2007
Getting married is, as it should be, a big deal in any country in the world. Russia is not an exception to this rule, even though in Russia the wedding is a big deal but marriage not as much, because of the simple reason that getting married in here involves two days of drinking…
November Snow: Winter in Russia Posted by josefina on Nov 28, 2007
There’s something about Russia which cannot be experienced during those hot, sunny months of continental summer. There’s something about Russia which only comes out with the first snowfall, something that can only be seen when those first, fragile white flakes start to fall. As the ground gets covered, more and more, minute by minute…
The Russian Emotion: Sickness Posted by josefina on Nov 14, 2007
As opposed to many languages, such as, for example, my native language of Swedish and the world language of English, Russian language regards diseases as something coming from the outside the organism, not from inside. The vocabulary used for talking about ailments in Russian clearly points out that not only is the sick person…