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SubstantialFrivolity  I'm not even supposed to be here today  1yr ago (text post)   2172 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 14, 2022

Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So, what are you reading?

I finished Récit d'un paysan russe this week, which is a book in Russian published by Institut d'études slaves in Paris. It's the memoires of a Russian émigré, Ivan Stolyarov, who, unlike most of them, was actually born and grew up a peasant.

The gap between the peasantry and everyone else around the turn of the 20th century is simply astonishing. People like to say that Russian burghers, living in their posads with their vegetable gardens were basically peasants, but the gap between them and actual village peasants that were living like it wasn't 1900, but 1800, 1700 even, is hard to comprehend without reading a book like this. I guess you might find people living like this in India and SE Asia these days, but back then the peasants were the majority of Russians. Uplifting them must've been a herculean task for the Bolsheviks (and they extracted a terrible cost from them in return).

The book this book reminds me of the most is, surprisingly, Incandescence by Greg Egan, one of his less popular novels. In it an alien civilization, faced with an imminent destruction of their homeworld, engineered themselves into a very hardy water bear kind of creatures, but with a twist. In usual circumstances, they would grow up, live and die in ignorance, content to toil for their daily grub. However, if the gestation happened in times of ecological stress, they would be born increasingly smart and driven to ensure the survival of the population. Two human explorers are brought to a boring and stable asteroid populated with these creatures and they learn that since the process is stochastic, there are individuals who are smart and driven and very lonely even in the most stable conditions.

Récit d'un paysan russe is basically the thoughts of one such creature. There's no vitriolic hatred of peasantry there in the style of Maxim Gorky, Stolyarov understands that the cruelty and small-mindedness are not people's personal failings, you can't blame them all for not being like Stolyarov or Douglass, but nor can you ignore the system and the culture that holds these people back.

I suppose no English translation exists?

Also this sort of peasant literature was a big thing in Turkish back in the 50s. It had big soviet support so that sort of politics is always visible but I remember reading plenty of books written by ex peasants describing many elements of peasant life as a kid.

I don't think one exists. There's a review, but I couldn't find a complete translation.

After appreciating Mikhail Elizarov's songs I decided to check out his books, starting with Librarian.

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