Shamil Salakhetdinov
shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru
Sun Sep 20 03:45:40 CDT 2009
Thank you, Arthur. I must say that my "first five" preferred list of Russian/Soviet classic literature authors is a bit different: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Ostrovsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Belyayev http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol We were a kind of "forced" here to read and study Tolstoy and Dostoevsky while teens in secondary school, and when you're a teen then reading, talking and thinking about eternal questions and "dark sides of everyday life" is not what you wanted to do first place... Western literature classics were also well known and available here and read by many people, and I did even study Dante Alighieri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri ) and Francesco Petrarka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrarch ) using their native language as I did study Italian and French in secondary school... Well, I must say I almost didn't have time to read any of the Russian or the Western classics for the last 30 years when the "2B || !2B ?" was the main question here. And it still is. The kind of questions Nabokov asked your girl friend is now very popular here in secondary school literature examinations. I'm not sure I'd pass such an exam t all as I usually do accept literature more superficially (without hard thinking and analysis, sorry) - I do like Russian and English and Italian and French... written language when it used in literature classics so ingeniously skillful, and I do often miss the details. And I must note that the details of context play crucial role here (so Nabokov was very Russian in the way he tutored his students) as this country is not governed by common sense laws but more by "absurd laws" especially nowadays... Yes, you did mentioned and you did post "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" here already, and I did read it. It's a kind of beyond me I must admit but I will try to reread it - it would be probably helpful to get it from somewhere recorded in spoken English... As for Fermi Last Theorem - that's a way beyond me, what I prefer these days in my spare time, which is so rare, is to spend my time with my kid looking how he builds his LEGO constructions, or to go with him or alone in the swimming pool, or play tennis, or just drop into my car and to have a "crazy drive" to Finland to have some short rest from computers and absurd of Russian life... Thank you. -- Shamil -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 3:10 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Computer prose Shamil, Russian novelists have nothing to apologize for. IMO they rank among the greatest ever born. The only real issue in Russian lit (I didn't actually take a course from Nabokov when he taught at Cornell, but my then-girlfriend did, and she gave me all her notes to read. Nabokov and I see Russian novels from completely opposite perspectives. That's cool. I like opposing views, they stimulate discussion! Nabokov preferred Tolstoy, I preferred Dostoevsky. We both loved Gogol, a commonality among major other differences. Nabokov believed that every single detail within a scene was crucial. My GF once faced an exam from him, containing a single question, which I cannot quote, but it went approximately like this: when Count Vronski said xxx, what colour were the walls in the room? Whereas my exam question might have been, was Raskalnikov crazy, and if so why, and if not why not? Or going further back to Gogol, was it crazy or mere opportunism to sell dead souls? A strange perspective: Russia as the birth of capitalist oppression. LOL. Anyway, Shamil, I would be most interested in your take on "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home." I deem it a truly great work, and I made it through without reference to the notes, although I admit that it took me a couple of days to work it out. Meanwhile, I'm back to trying to resolve Fermi's Last Theorem. It's tough! A. On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 6:51 PM, Shamil Salakhetdinov < shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru> wrote: > 2B || !2B ? > > -- > Shamil > > P.S. FYI: In Russia eternal questions are: "Who is guilty?" and "What to > do?" with "Who is guilty?" one taking 99% of the time to "chat about" for > ages now... > > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4441 (20090919) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.esetnod32.ru