New diaries and memoirs – Weekend
[ad_1]
Frederick Barnaby “A Trip to Khiva”
Publishing house Gorodets
Translation Andrey Gelasimov
The author of this book, Colonel Frederick Gustavus Barnaby, is a real hero of an adventure novel: an adventurer, a British intelligence officer, a fanatical traveler, an aeronaut, a polyglot, a womanizer, a not very successful politician, but a successful writer. In the spring of 1875, Barnaby set off on another journey – through Russia and Central Asia. Its end point was the Kingdom of Khiva – at that time a disputed territory, over which the Russian and British empires were secretly fighting for patronage. A year later he returned and, following fresh trail, compiled a book from his travel notes. Barnaby makes no secret of whose interests he represents; he is a classic agent of classic colonialism, and so is his book. This is a white man’s view of amazing wild areas (Central Russia in this sense is not so different for him from Turkestan), a gaze that is intent, but arrogant, exoticizing, eager for everyday and political curiosities. Here is a typical example of his style: “If someone could persuade the Russian peasant to take a closer look at the idea of regular ablution, it would serve a great good – even if not for the peasant himself, since he does not care about basic comfort, at least for those with who he travels with. Superstition and dirt in Russia are like twin brothers. I have often noticed the following: the more selflessly a peasant worships all kinds of idols displayed on the porch of every house, the more categorical he is in his forgetfulness about the benefits of water and soap.”
Elizaveta Redlikh “Memory Captive”
Publishing house New Chronograph
The artist Elizaveta Redlich wrote memoirs towards the end of her long life – in the 1970s and 1980s, but they are based on her youthful diaries. In her book, she fills in the semantic gaps between entries, constantly complaining about her poor memory. This is how a curious text arises, as if suspended between two times. This text is emphatically literary, sometimes a little mannered, but also very lively, written in an obvious way for internal use – addressed to the circle of household members and closest friends. Redlikh comes from the Chernigov region, spent most of her teenage years in Crimea, communicated with Tsvetaeva and Voloshin, survived the revolution there, then went to Moscow, studied at VKHUTEMAS, became one of Favorsky’s favorite students, but also went through the constructivist school (first encounter with the metropolitan avant-garde of a girl brought up on Koktebel landscapes – one of the funniest moments of the diaries). For a representative of her generation, she lived a relatively calm life, although she saw a lot of terrible things – in particular, first the white and then the red terror in Crimea. Redlich’s memoirs go back to the mid-1950s, but the last three decades are briefly glimpsed here; she describes the 1920s in more detail and most interestingly. These notes contain a lot of interesting details of the artistic history of the early Soviet era.
Gershom Scholem “From Berlin to Jerusalem”
Publishing house Grundrisse
Translation Alexander Yarin
Gershom Scholem is a philosopher, religious scholar, a major expert on Kabbalah, the author of the classic “Main Currents in Jewish Mysticism,” as well as one of Walter Benjamin’s closest friends and long-term interlocutors, about his relationship with whom he wrote an impressive book (it was published nine years ago in Russian ). Scholem published his memoirs of his youth in 1977, five years before his death. Almost all the people in his circle were long dead, and the author himself looked like an ancient patriarch. The intonation of his book is appropriate – a look turned to the deep past, but attentive to the smallest, seemingly insignificant details that require preservation, simply by virtue of belonging to that era. Scholem grew up among the almost completely assimilated Jewish-German intellectuals of the early twentieth century. His formation is a story of consistent de-Germanization – a gradual coming to Zionism, Judaism, gaining interest in the archaic and ultimately moving to Palestine. Among the participants and witnesses of this path are the mentioned Benjamin, Martin Buber, Gustav Meyrink, and in absentia – Franz Kafka (they did not know each other, but were interested in each other). The philosopher moved to Jerusalem in 1923, his memories go back to 1925. The main difficulties and tragedies are still ahead, so far this is a rather fun, almost carefree path.
“I want to live to the fullest…”: Diaries of teenagers during the Thaw
European University Press
A large volume of teenage diaries of the Thaw era, collected and commented by literary historian Irina Savkina based on the archive of the Prozhito center. Constant self-observation, often in the form of keeping a diary, was the most important activity of Soviet people, an integral part of the Soviet educational project, many books have been written about it. The Khrushchev era, with its demand for sincerity and the cult of youth, was a special time in this sense. For the boys and girls of the thaw, their own spring coincided with the refreshing breath of the era. That’s why teenage diaries from the early 1960s have a special charm. There are no famous people among the seven authors-heroes of the book, although some of them later became amateur writers. They are from very different environments – from the metropolitan intelligentsia to the Karelian village, very different in character, different in the manner of keeping a diary. Some try their best to make high literature out of their lives, others are much closer to naive writing, but often much deeper. This is the most voluminous diary in the book of Zinaida Lykova, a brutal girl from Cherepovets who works part-time as a courier, describes mostly quarrels and reconciliations with friends, but has a surprisingly lively mind.
Werner Herzog “Everyone for himself, and God is against everyone”
Publishing house individual
Translation Olga Aspisova, Elizaveta Sokolova
The autobiography of the famous German director, published in the original last year and extremely quickly translated. This book is a little crafty: at the beginning of it, Werner Herzog declares that he will not say anything about his friends, relatives, teachers, colleagues, employees, lovers, to whom he owes so much, but it is about them that he mainly talks. Thus, an artist with a romantic aura of a lone genius suddenly acquires a very human context, a large family and friendly history. But enough about myself here. Herzog’s own portrayal resembles his favorite characters, from the conquistador Lope de Aguirre to the foundling Kaspar Hauser: a self-educated man who does not understand the rules of human society, a megalomaniac who again and again indulges in majestic events on the verge of madness, a heretic who wants to speak on an equal footing with the Creator or others higher powers. There is, of course, a lot of narcissism here, but besides that, “Everyone is for himself, and God is against everyone” is an interesting testimony about the life of Germany from the first post-war years to the present day.
Subscribe to Weekend channel in Telegram
[ad_2]
Source link
