Matt, very impressive for a person who was not brought up emmerced in Russian culture and literature. I mean it. When we studied Saltykov-Schedrin in school, it felt super boring. For some reason, we had to read Golovlyov Family and not his short stories or fables. Only when I got older I realized how mean and merciless his satire was. Along with Gogol, he is said to have influenced Bulgakov’s writing. He us also considered a precursor of Knut Hamsun and modernists. Schedrin lived in pretty gloomy times when Russian writers used aesopian language and people had to learn to read between the lines. Ironically, a hundred years later, we had to do the same in the Soviet Union. I am afraid we will soon need these skills here.
Wow, thanks for the comment, and yes, I’m very worried about that too! So is Walter. We’re both expecting that we’re going to have to talk about everything as metaphor soon. Saltykov was incredibly funny and I feel like a heretic saying this, because Gogol was my hero, but at his best he was like a less affected, smarter Gogol. Where did you grow up?
I’ve always loved your political “current thing” writing, but the type of work in “The Writing Life” suits you just as well (if not better).
You’ve really done a service with your journalism these past couple of decades, but if you use your skills for something more timeless, such as stories about life that speak to all people through generations, I think you’ll have a great impact.
An unplanned excursion, this missive. Loved it. Also reminded me of my lucky days where the nuns in my tiny grammar school brought in a paperback collection of classics and left me alone reading them voraciously.
I was shocked when the public high school I went to insisted on ruining my book experiences with overreaching analysis. I ended up hating each book they dealt.
Thank goodness they didn’t cure me of reading or I would’ve have missed your writing
Matt. This collection of short stories is out of print. There is only one used book for sale at $91.
Is there any way to list out the short stories on this book? Or could you make a recommendation of a Russian anthology that we could find in print? While we are aware of the giants, I suspect there are many writers who are less known but very talented.
Happy Father’s Day, Matt! Enjoy your children as they grow up fast; they’re very blessed to have a wise father who is putting them first ❤️ I love everything you’re doing on Substack and hope it continues for a very long time.
Thank you for this brilliant post. As a Russian, I am so impressed and touched by your understanding, depth and sincerity. Also, frankly as a teenager at an international school in Moscow in the 90s where we read the Exile, I am positively shocked :)
"Russian is an onomatopoeic language and the word for such bureaucrats, chinovniki, sounds like what they are, “pea-brained pseudo-people”" nice
"became intellectual forefathers of one of the unfunniest ideas ever, Bolshevism" - golden
Great little collection, I just received a rather shabby $1.25 edition from Ebay, but inside is a real gem and I'm running through it, faster than I did Solzhenitsyn anyway.
In Saltykov’s Two Officials one of them reached an epiphany, a few questions that I ask myself daily. “How could we come to such a pass as this? What evil genius is making sport of us?” How applicable today.
I forgot my main point earlier. Duh 🙄 so I have had a Gump life that wouldn’t have been possible if I had raised kids. My only quasi- regret. I have been writing Words of Wisdom for the Son I Haven’t Met. This also includes books that had the most profound impact on me. I start with The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Aesop’s Fables obviously by Aesop the classic edition! Matt the new edition have been edited to qualify as Woke politically correct and are not the same!! Will you share your top 5 recommendations? Aside from your own esteemed books of course!
Thanks Matt!! Were you taught by steel tipped shoe wearing nuns wielding steel capped yardsticks as well? I learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and wondered if you learned just from being in the former CCCP? To this day I haven’t been able to get through War and Peace in any language! That knowledge humbles me at appropriate times. But for my final orals I translated Annabelle Lee into Russian and had a discussion about Poe with my Russian dissident teachers.
Matt, thank you for doing this. I came to your writing in a very unusual way and thought you might find it interesting. Somewhere in the early 80s, state television showed (a dubbed) version of a TV series about Peter the Great. It fascinated me so much that I resolved to one day see his city. Unfortunately, the country I lived in had no diplomatic relations. In the mid-90s, I discovered a Swiss-based organization that arranged language courses in-country in a number of European states and they had a deal with MGLU in Moscow. So I travelled to a third country and visited the Russian embassy for a student visa and they gave me one. I arrived in Moscow in '97 and was deposited in the apartment of local pensioners (I chose the 'stay with locals' option over 'stay in the dorm with the other foreigners'). Within an hour of my arrival, the host grandma gave me a ticket and pointed to a corner: 'Troleybus' and sent me downtown to see the city. Somewhere that day, I picked up a copy of the Exile. What can I say, I came for the ratings, I stayed for the writings. Been a fan ever since.
What a great story! Thanks for introducing me to the writer.
I share your attraction to cheap little paperbacks. Dell was *amazing* at making books that begged to be read. The covers, the form, the paper - everything perfect. I still cherish my ever-so-soft Vonnegut books from them.
The recent detour into short stories made me wonder if they might be the perfect form factor for our era, where maintaining attention requires monk-like fortitude. They never got their due. Writers made barely more than cigarette money off them. Yet so many of the literary works that have made a difference in my life are short stories.
Matt, very impressive for a person who was not brought up emmerced in Russian culture and literature. I mean it. When we studied Saltykov-Schedrin in school, it felt super boring. For some reason, we had to read Golovlyov Family and not his short stories or fables. Only when I got older I realized how mean and merciless his satire was. Along with Gogol, he is said to have influenced Bulgakov’s writing. He us also considered a precursor of Knut Hamsun and modernists. Schedrin lived in pretty gloomy times when Russian writers used aesopian language and people had to learn to read between the lines. Ironically, a hundred years later, we had to do the same in the Soviet Union. I am afraid we will soon need these skills here.
Wow, thanks for the comment, and yes, I’m very worried about that too! So is Walter. We’re both expecting that we’re going to have to talk about everything as metaphor soon. Saltykov was incredibly funny and I feel like a heretic saying this, because Gogol was my hero, but at his best he was like a less affected, smarter Gogol. Where did you grow up?
I’ve always loved your political “current thing” writing, but the type of work in “The Writing Life” suits you just as well (if not better).
You’ve really done a service with your journalism these past couple of decades, but if you use your skills for something more timeless, such as stories about life that speak to all people through generations, I think you’ll have a great impact.
On the Volga. A lifetime ago.
An unplanned excursion, this missive. Loved it. Also reminded me of my lucky days where the nuns in my tiny grammar school brought in a paperback collection of classics and left me alone reading them voraciously.
I was shocked when the public high school I went to insisted on ruining my book experiences with overreaching analysis. I ended up hating each book they dealt.
Thank goodness they didn’t cure me of reading or I would’ve have missed your writing
Matt. This collection of short stories is out of print. There is only one used book for sale at $91.
Is there any way to list out the short stories on this book? Or could you make a recommendation of a Russian anthology that we could find in print? While we are aware of the giants, I suspect there are many writers who are less known but very talented.
Happy Father’s Day, Matt! Enjoy your children as they grow up fast; they’re very blessed to have a wise father who is putting them first ❤️ I love everything you’re doing on Substack and hope it continues for a very long time.
Thank you for this brilliant post. As a Russian, I am so impressed and touched by your understanding, depth and sincerity. Also, frankly as a teenager at an international school in Moscow in the 90s where we read the Exile, I am positively shocked :)
"Russian is an onomatopoeic language and the word for such bureaucrats, chinovniki, sounds like what they are, “pea-brained pseudo-people”" nice
"became intellectual forefathers of one of the unfunniest ideas ever, Bolshevism" - golden
Great little collection, I just received a rather shabby $1.25 edition from Ebay, but inside is a real gem and I'm running through it, faster than I did Solzhenitsyn anyway.
In Saltykov’s Two Officials one of them reached an epiphany, a few questions that I ask myself daily. “How could we come to such a pass as this? What evil genius is making sport of us?” How applicable today.
I forgot my main point earlier. Duh 🙄 so I have had a Gump life that wouldn’t have been possible if I had raised kids. My only quasi- regret. I have been writing Words of Wisdom for the Son I Haven’t Met. This also includes books that had the most profound impact on me. I start with The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Aesop’s Fables obviously by Aesop the classic edition! Matt the new edition have been edited to qualify as Woke politically correct and are not the same!! Will you share your top 5 recommendations? Aside from your own esteemed books of course!
Thanks Matt!! Were you taught by steel tipped shoe wearing nuns wielding steel capped yardsticks as well? I learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and wondered if you learned just from being in the former CCCP? To this day I haven’t been able to get through War and Peace in any language! That knowledge humbles me at appropriate times. But for my final orals I translated Annabelle Lee into Russian and had a discussion about Poe with my Russian dissident teachers.
Matt, thank you for doing this. I came to your writing in a very unusual way and thought you might find it interesting. Somewhere in the early 80s, state television showed (a dubbed) version of a TV series about Peter the Great. It fascinated me so much that I resolved to one day see his city. Unfortunately, the country I lived in had no diplomatic relations. In the mid-90s, I discovered a Swiss-based organization that arranged language courses in-country in a number of European states and they had a deal with MGLU in Moscow. So I travelled to a third country and visited the Russian embassy for a student visa and they gave me one. I arrived in Moscow in '97 and was deposited in the apartment of local pensioners (I chose the 'stay with locals' option over 'stay in the dorm with the other foreigners'). Within an hour of my arrival, the host grandma gave me a ticket and pointed to a corner: 'Troleybus' and sent me downtown to see the city. Somewhere that day, I picked up a copy of the Exile. What can I say, I came for the ratings, I stayed for the writings. Been a fan ever since.
What a great story! Thanks for introducing me to the writer.
I share your attraction to cheap little paperbacks. Dell was *amazing* at making books that begged to be read. The covers, the form, the paper - everything perfect. I still cherish my ever-so-soft Vonnegut books from them.
The recent detour into short stories made me wonder if they might be the perfect form factor for our era, where maintaining attention requires monk-like fortitude. They never got their due. Writers made barely more than cigarette money off them. Yet so many of the literary works that have made a difference in my life are short stories.
Matt and Anyone on here please respond with your rules or opinions.
I want to write and I have a limited vocabulary. Using an AI app doesn't count as my writing.
What do you consider to be "my" writing?
To consider it my work do I have to open a dictionary, learn new words, close the dictionary, and then write?
Or if I am writing with my limited vocabulary but during or after it's written can I use a computer's thesaurus or application?
Lastly, if you think using an application or a computer thesaurus is fine, is there a maximum limit on the number of times I can use a thesaurus?
Thank you.