tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post8536509782157768811..comments2023-10-08T03:32:33.151-04:00Comments on bookeywookey: Playing Stalin - Giving history a face (Books - Children of the Arbat)Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-90791270412039698662007-08-21T07:24:00.000-04:002007-08-21T07:24:00.000-04:00Sarah - oh, and Gorky and Ostrovsky.Sarah - oh, and Gorky and Ostrovsky.Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-77311883945573950572007-08-20T17:38:00.000-04:002007-08-20T17:38:00.000-04:00Sarah - your list looks pretty good to me, there's...Sarah - your list looks pretty good to me, there's also Gogol, Andrei Bely, and then on the modern front, Victor Slavkin, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Tatyana Tolstaya.Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-57380616029587023232007-08-20T17:23:00.000-04:002007-08-20T17:23:00.000-04:00Sheila -It would be wonderful to see a dramatizati...Sheila -<BR/>It would be wonderful to see a dramatization of this novel, especially one shaped by the events so closely. I feel really poor to never have gone. I want so badly to go to Moscow and St. Petersberg and see theater for a week!Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-34599879329447053992007-08-20T12:46:00.000-04:002007-08-20T12:46:00.000-04:00Ted - Yes, yes, yes - the details reveal something...Ted - Yes, yes, yes - the details reveal something psychologically. Too many biographers take a Freudian view of their subjects - which (in my opinion) is way too limited, especially with such a political anomaly as Stalin. His mummy didn't love him enough? Sorry. That doesn't explain Stalin. <BR/><BR/>A blogging friend of mine who lived in Russia at around the time this book came out - was lucky enough to see an amateur production of Children of Arbat. The troupe had adapted the book themselves - and he said it was just unbelievable - so potent and real - with amateur actors, but you know - with that deep sense of reality and exorcism that comes with personal work. Raw. He described how each "Stalin" scene - began with an actor behind a scrim with a light shone on it, so that "Stalin" showed up in silhouette. And the guy had a huge bushy mustache - which showed up in the silhouette, and apparently - he had a pipe, and the posture - the bum leg - this amateur Russian actor dude had it DOWN. <BR/><BR/>Anyway, it's one of those random productions I so wish I had seen!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-85837311358980536952007-08-20T10:15:00.000-04:002007-08-20T10:15:00.000-04:00I am impatiently waiting for a copy of Children of...I am impatiently waiting for a copy of <I>Children of the Arbat</I> to come in at the library. (I also requested <I>Heavy Sands</I>. Thanks for the reviews/reading updates, as I would never have discovered this author without them! On a slightly different note: I've started putting up a list of Russian authors I want to read or re-read on my blog--if you have any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com