Re: Russian TV spits out soap operas almost daily now.
wahooka Send a noteboard - 19/05/2010 07:59:05 PM
I can't even figure out which one is which anymore, because their preferred format is to film something with a beginning and an end and then air it every day for a month and move on to something else. My wife likes watching some of the shows.
Our TV stations have learned to do the same. Nowadays, Czech soap operas have more or less supplanted Latin-American telenovelas. The producers found out that they can make similar shows very cheaply, and don't have to buy them, and they can even try to sell them to Slovakia, Poland, or other countries.
The Putin/police points just show how the Czech Republic is very different from Russia. There are a lot of things that Russians and Czechs have in common (not just language) due to a common Slavic cultural heritage. On the other hand, the Czechs have that German sense of order and propriety that keeps police, politicians, etc. from amassing too much power. In Russia, it's the opposite. I suspect it's because it's a facet of Russian life that a failure to have strong, even oppressive control over people leads to total anarchy. The 1990s showed that once again.
It also might explain why my wife sometimes says I act just like a Russian but then will say from time to time, "You're so typically German", particularly in matters like keeping the house clean, etc.
It also might explain why my wife sometimes says I act just like a Russian but then will say from time to time, "You're so typically German", particularly in matters like keeping the house clean, etc.
Yeah, but I'm not sure about that sense of order. It's true that the Czechs don't usually openly break the rules, but we like to skirt them. I would say that an ordinary Czech just "loves" to skirt the rules, and the more clever way he finds to do it, the better he feels afterwards.
I think that if anything we are closer to Austrians than to Germans.
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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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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Russian TV spits out soap operas almost daily now.
19/05/2010 03:19:22 PM
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Re: Russian TV spits out soap operas almost daily now.
19/05/2010 07:59:05 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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