Tina Norris Fields
tinanfields at torchlake.com
Thu Sep 24 09:08:12 CDT 2009
Arthur, if you get Fermi's Last Theorem resolved, please let me know. My Dad's been working on that one, off and on, for about 40 years, now, I think. T Arthur Fuller wrote: > 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... >> >> >>