The Mother of God of Kazan, 18th century.
Kazan! I will be leaving for Kazan in June for a two month intensive Russian language study program. Ура! Ура! Ура!!!!!
(via centuriespast)
Don’t forget to say “thanks” to your favorite card catalogue section at the public library! It’s Card Catalogue Memorial Day, May 21!
Vladimir Nabokov at Cornell, working on his translation and commentary of Alexander Pushkin’s great poem, Eugene Onegin.
Nabokov completed his intensively researched and highly influential (and like most things he wrote, confrontational and controversial) 4-volume translation and commentary of Eugene Onegin in 1964. Following this, he wrote Pale Fire, arguably his best novel (no, I am NOT being reactionary, it really is Awesome). Obviously inspired by Nabokov’s research and commentary for Eugene Onegin, his novel followed a similar path, with more extremes: a narrator introduces an epic 999-line poem and then writes an amusing and enlightening commentary, shedding light not only on the poem and poet (sort of), but of the unreliable narrator as well. The joy and thrill of reading Nabokov is in trying to follow the themes the author weaves in his novels, some quite covert, sometimes coalescing, illuminating, and even rewarding the careful reader.
Highlights of Pale Fire: Hahaha, like I will ruin it for you. Just read it. Oh, and maybe message me if you think you know where the crown jewels are located after finishing the book. There will be a no-prize awarded.
Read everything and make notes in the margins.
Because I’m stressed out and in a bad mood, here is a hi-larious picture of me at age 3. I may have posted it before, but those sweet avid washed jeans and suspenders cannot be ignored for long. Or 201 Russian Verbs, which is a book I still own.
GPOY: eternal bitchface edition.
Haha… хорошо хорошо!!!!
I’m having my own struggles right now, but in a Russian immersion program AND have owned the same verb book for years… I’ve included a feigned surprise picture for proof and for gawking. Oh, and remember: все будет хорошо!!! (click on your picture)
How to Build a Secret Bookshelf Door -
I put together a list of the best how-to tutorials and do it yourself instructions on how to build a secret bookcase door.
(via stashvault)
The Book Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
It’s a fantastic place for rare and out-of-print books and great looking volumes of literature. Oh, and for spending a couple of hours searching through their stacks. I found a couple volumes of Joseph Franks’ Dostoevsky biographies that I had been looking for and figured I’d brush up on some elementary physics with a Feynman book.
![Philip Roth, 1962, photographer - Carl Mydans
“Portnoy’s Complaint: Portnoy’s Complaint n.[after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: ‘Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient’s “morality,” however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.’ (Spielvogel, O. “The Puzzled Penis,”Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.”
After reading this for the first time… being raised by a similar Jewish mother and grandmother (who would’ve been Portnoy’s mother’s age) and having had several unsuccessful relationships while believing myself superior than everyone else … well, this book hit home, like I’m sure it did to many of my fellow atheist Jews over the years since this book’s publication.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llmda6OHlO1qannlmo1_500.jpg)
Philip Roth, 1962, photographer - Carl Mydans
“Portnoy’s Complaint: Portnoy’s Complaint n.[after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: ‘Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient’s “morality,” however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.’ (Spielvogel, O. “The Puzzled Penis,”Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.”
After reading this for the first time… being raised by a similar Jewish mother and grandmother (who would’ve been Portnoy’s mother’s age) and having had several unsuccessful relationships while believing myself superior than everyone else … well, this book hit home, like I’m sure it did to many of my fellow atheist Jews over the years since this book’s publication.
James Frey's Writing Factory -
Beware, oh students of Ivy leagues and other higher learning establishments, of this fraud. It’s an article from last year, but I would love to see Frey tumble and fall again.
Hyde Park InteriorInterior of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s library w. hallway entrance stairs covered by a wheelchair ramp on one side, at his mansion birthplace & home.
Location:Hyde Park, NY, US
Date taken:May 1939
Photographer:Margaret Bourke-White
Members reading in library of the Harvard Club.
Date taken: 1940
![yama-bato:
Vladimir Nabokov’s butterflies
“From the age of seven, everything I felt a connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender.
[…] I have hunted butterflies in various climes and disguises: as a pretty boy in knickerbockers and sailor cap; as a lanky cosmopolitan expatriate in flannel bags and beret; as a fat hatless old man in shorts”.
Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory
Nymphalis antiopa LINNAEUS, 1758.
One of the most beautiful butterflies in northern latitudes. In Europe, it is possible to meet up to the northern tip of Norway. Mentioned in the works of Nabokov’s 12 times. During the writing of Nabokov’s novel “The Gift” belongs to the genus Vanessa.
Velvety black, with a warm shimmer plum ripe, Here it is opened, through this velvet live sweet lit some cornflower seeds azure along the circular fringe, yellow as shaky rye. Sat on the trunk, and breathing gear delicate wings, then dropping to the crust, then turning to the Rays … Oh, how they rejoice, as twinkle divine! Say: Deep night in a frame of two fawn dawns. Hello, oh hello, dream northern birch grove! Awe, and laughter and the love of my youth eternal. Yes, I know you in the Seraphim with marvelous rendezvous, Know your wings, this sacred pattern.
Vladimir Nabokov, butterfly (Vanessa antiopa), 1921
http://www.nabokovmuseum.org/butterfly1.html](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lldjx4WVOe1qahuhjo1_500.jpg)
Vladimir Nabokov’s butterflies
“From the age of seven, everything I felt a connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender.
[…] I have hunted butterflies in various climes and disguises: as a pretty boy in knickerbockers and sailor cap; as a lanky cosmopolitan expatriate in flannel bags and beret; as a fat hatless old man in shorts”.
Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory
Nymphalis antiopa LINNAEUS, 1758.
One of the most beautiful butterflies in northern latitudes. In Europe, it is possible to meet up to the northern tip of Norway. Mentioned in the works of Nabokov’s 12 times. During the writing of Nabokov’s novel “The Gift” belongs to the genus Vanessa.
Velvety black, with a warm shimmer plum ripe,
Here it is opened, through this velvet live
sweet lit some cornflower seeds azure
along the circular fringe, yellow as shaky rye.
Sat on the trunk, and breathing gear delicate wings,
then dropping to the crust, then turning to the Rays …
Oh, how they rejoice, as twinkle divine!
Say: Deep night in a frame of two fawn dawns.
Hello, oh hello, dream northern birch grove!
Awe, and laughter and the love of my youth eternal.
Yes, I know you in the Seraphim with marvelous rendezvous,
Know your wings, this sacred pattern.Vladimir Nabokov, butterfly (Vanessa antiopa), 1921
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1973), F.A. March’s Thesaurus (1910), and Dark Circles Under My Eyes (2011).
(Raziel Hamalach, Amsterdam, Kabbalah book, 1701)
The Tenach, Bible, Gematria, and Names
My classmate (three years of Hebrew language together), gave an awesome presentation this past semester on Hebrew names in the Tenach (Torah) and Bible with their translations and meanings. I knew some of the names and their meanings, but her research was so in-depth that it was completely engrossing and gave me things to contemplate.
I started to think about the Tenach and Bible from a literature and oral tradition standpoint and how fascinating it can be, even for someone nonreligious, nontheist, atheist, or ignorant of Judeao-Christian traditions.
Hebrew names in the Torah and Bible symbolize or represent their characters/personality and hint at actions within the respective books. The names hold meaning and, from a literature standpoint, the stories would appear to have come first and the names created afterwards. The origin of the stories can find their roots in ancient creation stories and myths of Mesopotamia/Sumeria and they are presumed to be passed down generations through oral traditions of storytelling, which is fascinating in itself: thousands of years of storytelling… it’s appealing to a literature freak like myself. This storytelling culture is not unique to the middle east and I could go off on a tangent here about it… but I won’t right now.
To give an example of a symbolic name, we can look at “ישראל” or “Israel,” the name given to Jacob (Yakov) in the Tanach by God after his battle with the angel. There are at least two interpretations of his new name when we break it down to the root words. The first three characters of his name, “ישר” (yish-arr), means “straight/honest” and the last two characters, “אל” (al), means “God,” so his name in this context means “honest to God” and portrays his changed character and showing Israel’s loyalty to God. Another way to look at the name is to see the “י” or “ih” at the beginning of the word to reference the future sense of the word, “שר” (shar), meaning “minister.” In keeping the last two characters, “אל” (al) meaning “God,” putting the words together makes “Israel” mean “he will be the minister of God” showing his future with just his name. It was a little difficult to explain this, so I hope it’s not too confusing.
Anyway, to add complexities to the matter, Gematria comes along (associating numbers with Hebrew letters: א=1, ב=2) and names of the biblical characters take on more or added meaning. We talked about how the infamous 666 came from Revelations and that John, who is attributed with writing it, could have been influenced in associating the anti-christ with the Roman emperor Nero, who is infamous for his horrendous acts AND… when computing gematria to the emperor’s name, it equates to 666. So… no devil, only the infamous Nero, don’t worry, he’s dead.
Regardless of your feelings or beliefs on religion, this is pretty damn neato.
2005 תל אביב, ישראל
אני שמאל; פעם, הייתי צעיר מאוד
Tel Aviv, Israel 2005. I was once very youthful (I’m on the left).
I miss looking at falling apart books in Hebrew and arguing with Israelis about everything. I’ll go back one day.
The New Inquiry: Death is Not the End -
A review of Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief
By Emily Smith
The recent publication of Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief (in a new translation by Dustin Condren) calls for a renewed investigation of the political, intellectual and religious milieu of 19th century Russia. Since our natural…
(Source: thenewinquiry)
