Re: Pelevin isn't a real Buddhist, he's a superficial pop-culture Buddhist.
wahooka Send a noteboard - 18/05/2010 10:37:36 PM
He's read a few pseudo-science books and so he's able to make references to the occult here and there. His "Buddhism" is likewise really just an ersatz designation that really infers a drug-fueled interest in "tuning out". Escapism is the order of the day.
Your thoughts are very close to my own on the main subject. I can say that luckily, the Russian movie and TV industry was a bit larger and so it survived the telenovelas and B-movies that flooded the Russian airwaves in the 1990s, but even now there is still a tendency to watch that sort of crap and Russian TV still buys telenovelas.
Your thoughts are very close to my own on the main subject. I can say that luckily, the Russian movie and TV industry was a bit larger and so it survived the telenovelas and B-movies that flooded the Russian airwaves in the 1990s, but even now there is still a tendency to watch that sort of crap and Russian TV still buys telenovelas.
I think that this also has to do with the fact that the Czech market is much smaller than the Russian, and therefore less competitive. By the way, my sister watched a Russian telenovela, or soap opera if you wish, some time ago.
As for your question about the mafia, in the 1990s it was everywhere. Putin "cleaned house" when he came to power in 2001. Examples: a powerful mafia boss who virtually ran the Urals region was arrested for bribing a minor official about $100. He hanged himself in jail the next day. Two groups are informed that they need to meet the next day to "sort things out" about shakedown payments to a particular restaurant. They all pull up in their cars, get out and try to figure out who arranged the meeting. Ten seconds later KGB-related special forces kill them all with full machine guns in an ambush.
I can see now why Putin is so popular, but I find it strange that Russian people still need sort of a "tsarish" figure to lead them.
As for the police, they still harass people in Russia.
I'm sorry to hear that. As I said earlier, this would be totally unacceptable here. There was even an instance when a certain "lousy" politician built her political career on a case of police harassment. She participated in some demonstration (she's in the Green Party), picked the dumbest looking policeman, and provoked him to the point where he lost his temper, and then she made a show for TV cameras. The poor guy never had a chance, everyone knew that it was all a show, but he was still immediately dismissed from the police force.
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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- 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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*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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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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