The book relies so much on drugs and insanity that I would classify it as sci-fi if I had to, but not as fantasy. Still, I would put it in a category with other drug literature as a specific genre called exactly that - drug literature.
But I think an emerging "weird fiction" categorization might be fitting as well, since there's this sense that the setting/world is not as it should be, that something "weird", either it be character, events, or setting, is occurring, but yet nothing is really explicitly impossible.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
Russian Book Club: Chapaev and Pustota or Buddha's Little Finger
16/05/2010 03:42:07 PM
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I'll have my full thoughts up in a few hours
16/05/2010 04:33:54 PM
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Could you give me a better reference as to where that was in the book?
17/05/2010 03:09:16 AM
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Chapter 5, just before Kocurkin appears for the first time. *NM*
17/05/2010 02:34:30 PM
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In Russian it says "succubus" became the Russian "suka" or "bitch" *NM*
17/05/2010 02:49:03 PM
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Ahh, so the English version is closer.
17/05/2010 07:38:35 PM
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This reply is mostly empty of thoughts.
16/05/2010 05:37:54 PM
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I'll wait until it is substantially empty but nominally full, then. *NM*
17/05/2010 03:09:52 AM
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OK, here's what I wrote for the OF Blog on this book
17/05/2010 02:22:18 AM
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I like the way your review is an un-review.
17/05/2010 03:08:20 AM
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That's what I wanted to convey, since it's hard to be definitive with such a work
17/05/2010 03:16:19 AM
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I wouldn't term it "fantasy".
18/05/2010 02:24:40 PM
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Perhaps
18/05/2010 02:36:13 PM
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My thoughts.
17/05/2010 02:16:11 PM
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Pelevin isn't a real Buddhist, he's a superficial pop-culture Buddhist.
18/05/2010 02:33:37 PM
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Re: Pelevin isn't a real Buddhist, he's a superficial pop-culture Buddhist.
18/05/2010 10:37:36 PM
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It is apparently called Clay Machine Gun in the UK.
17/05/2010 02:41:41 PM
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It's Čapajev a Prázdnota (Chapaev and Emptiness) in Czech
17/05/2010 07:46:14 PM
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In Russian prazdny or prazdnost' would mean "lazy, inactive" *NM*
18/05/2010 02:21:42 PM
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Bah. No bookshop in Edinburgh has it. Amazon will have to be my saviour.
18/05/2010 12:56:28 PM
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I like this passage about 10 pages from the end of the book on Russia
17/05/2010 02:56:49 PM
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I think the pseudo-Buddhist bit is not as good as the Russian vodka psychology.
18/05/2010 02:35:07 PM
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Perhaps
18/05/2010 02:38:24 PM
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All and none. Russia is a paradox, but one that can be explained.
19/05/2010 03:30:58 PM
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Re: I think the pseudo-Buddhist bit is not as good as the Russian vodka psychology.
18/05/2010 11:12:10 PM
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And I still don't have a copy of this book!
17/05/2010 07:37:35 PM
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I'll bet you could find a Russian version online if you searched rambler.ru. *NM*
18/05/2010 02:35:49 PM
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Re: I know a weird "lending library" sort of site that can give you the English version.
20/05/2010 12:48:57 PM
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