Another day, another LARB piece about reading Russian fiction in conjunction with the Winter Olympics. (One particularly interesting earlier installment is over here.) Meanwhile, I offer a compendium of passages from the Russian masters, and use my favorite #SochiFails to illustrate them.
Reading Your Way to Sochi
A Film of Common Prayer
Looks like Joan Didion’s 1977 novel A Book of Common Prayer will now be adapted for the screen.
Stuck in Traffic
Ann Beattie tells the New Yorker how a bumper sticker inspired her short story “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowgirl.” Also check out Alex Dueben’s Millions interview with the author.
“Good evening.”
While you wait around for Hitchcock to hit theaters, you’ve got plenty of time to check out this online record of thirteen storyboards from the English director’s classic films.
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The Book of a Young Girl
Anne Frank’s copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales is up for auction, including her signature on the book’s flyleaf. “This book really is the springboard from which her nascent literary career and dreams of being a writer were launched,” said Nicholas Lowry, president of Swann Auction Galleries.
Tuesday New Release Day: Volodine; Norwich; Gonzales; Nganang; Brooks; Ulin & Kolsby
Out this week: Bardo or Not Bardo by Antoine Volodine; My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich; The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales; Mount Pleasant by Patrice Nganang; The Houseguest by Kim Brooks; and Ear to the Ground by David L. Ulin and Paul Kolsby. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great 2016 Book Preview.
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Professor Gaiman
Comic book creator, novelist, screenwriter, journalist, lyricist — is there anything Neil Gaiman hasn’t done? He can add professor to his already impressive resume soon. Gaiman will be joining the Bard College faculty and teaching an advanced fantasy fiction workshop in the 2014 spring semester. Also, he recently spoke to NPR about Sandman.
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Also, check out:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116668/pussy-riot-releases-new-music-video-sochi (with Annotations)
$50 billion and a rainbow ray
Rodnina and Kabayeva will pass you the torch
They’ll teach you to submit and cry in the camps
Fireworks for the bosses. Hail, Duce!
Sochi is blocked, Olympus is under surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB – argument, Interior Ministry – Argument
On [state-owned] Channel 1 – applause.
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland.
In Russia, the spring can come suddenly
Greetings to the Messiah in the form of a volley from
Aurora, the prosecutor is determined to be rude
He needs resistance, not pretty eyes
An bird cage for protest, vodka, nesting doll
Jail for the Bolotnaya [activists], drinks, caviar
The Constitution is in a noose, [environmental activist] Vitishko is in jail
Stability, food packets, fence, watch tower
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
They will turn off Dozhd’s broadcast
The gay parade has been sent to the outhouse
A two-point bathroom is the priority
The verdict for Russia is jail for six years
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
Motherland
Motherland
Motherland