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Show Notes: This week, we see that every author starts somewhere in Anton Chekhov, Earliest Stories: Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880-1882. To talk about Chekhov’s earliest published stories, Cameron sits down with Elena Michajlowska and Rosamund Bartlett. The pair not only edited the collection, but also oversaw the unusual editing process that involved 83 other translators across the world. They’ll talk about where Chekhov was this early in his career, the editing process and what kinds of stories we find among this juvanalia.  Book tickets for Rosamund and Elena’s event at Pushkin House here. Follow the Anton Chekhov Foundation on Instagram @antonchekhovfoundation  Read more on the foundation’s blog here. Check out their website antonchekhovfoundation.org Learn more about the Early Chekhov Translation Project here The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron talks a little bit about director Sergei Parajanov’s “Sayat Nova” (also known as The Color of Pomegranates), and five other films he really liked this year.  Want to see the video version of this episode? Check it out here: https://youtu.be/khXaVt0ilFc Also, sorry, the name of the theater is Dreamland Cinema. I forgot to say that in the video.  An Analysis of the Color of Pomegranates by YouTuber Blythe Sinners and the Death of Black art by YouTube F. D. Signifier Goodnight Irene, dir. by Sterlin Harjo The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron dives into the final entry into Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Silent Trilogy, “Earth” (1930). The film’s deceptively simple plot—of a tractor delivery to a collectivizing village in Ukraine is followed by the murder of a local Bolshevik organizer—doesn’t hinder its avant-garde stylings, employing a montage of loose logical associations better described as dream logic, moving from people to fruit to threshing in a way that demands your attention.  Yeah, that’s right — I’m arguing that a socialist realist work about tractors is super interesting. A novel concept for the podcast, I know.  You can watch Earth (1930) in excellent quality here: “Earth” (1930) x biju Offscreen Dreams and Collective Synthesis in Dovzhenko’s Earth by Elizabeth A. Papazian All in the Foreground: A Study of Dovzhenko’s Earth by Gilberto Perez Dovzhenko: Folk Tale and Revolution by Gilberto Perez Death and life on Alexander Dovzhenko by Jonathan Rosenbaum The Dovzhenko Papers by Marco Carynnyk Who is Hidden behind the Figure of a Genius? The Context of Dovzhenko’s Work by Anna Tsymbal  Subversions in Dovzhenko’s Earth by Romana M. Bahry “Ukranian masterpieces: Earth (1930) - Dovzhenko” Earth: Analysis of Film Form, Auteur Characteristics and Context The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Ally Pitts — host of A Russian & Soviet Movie Podcast — joins Cameron to talk about the book Not Russian by Mikhail Shevelev. The book follows veteran journalist Pavel Vladimirovich as an old friend’s sudden reappearance at the head of a terror attack forces him to reflect on his history as a Russian journalist and how things turned out this way.  You can find Ally on his Twitter @Alistair_Pitts and on Instagram under @ally_pitts_movies_etc. You can find A Russian & Soviet Movie podcast anywhere you listen to your audio.  Our prior episode with Ally on Anna Karenina film adaptations. The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron dives into Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur, covering chapters 1 through 25. Through the late Russian Empire into the early Soviet Union, Sasha Dvanov is finally orphaned when his fisherman father drowns in an attempt to understand his all-knowing, deathless fish. Growing up in the shuffling shadow of the new world, he joins the Bolshevik party and seeks to spread communism.  This episode covers his adventures trying to find out if the peasants have, after the abdication of the Tsar, suddenly begun to embrace communist lives. From anarchist militias to a Bolshevik Fyodor Dostoevsky, he finds little to approve of in the countryside. Check out our old episode covering The Cow and the Third Son. A Companion to Andrei Platonov’s “The Foundation Pit” by Thomas Seyfrid. Time out of line: Sequence and plot in Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur by by Hallie A. White The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron returns to Vasily Grossman, covering his first novel of World War II, The People Immortal.  I’ll write more later, but it’s almost 5 a.m. and I have to be at work in four hours. Womp womp.  The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron dives into Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic and Hai Fan’s Delicious Hunger, trying to probe the question plaguing recent episodes: “What is the value of art during wartime?” Deaf Republic tells an all-too-familiar parable of a town under occupation, subjected to abuse and murder, and how the people there chose their own forms of resistance to occupation.  Delicious Hunger tackles the issue from another angle: Hai Fan is the pen name for Ang Tiam Huat, a guerilla who fought for the Malaysian Communist Party for over a decade. His book fictionalizes the stories and struggles of his comrades during their years in the rainforest.  Hai Fan’s interview during Ethos Books’ launch party for Delicious Hunger. The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We were supposed to talk about Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic and Fan Hai's Delicious Hunger today, but the episode's audio is trapped on a dead computer. You can look forward to listening to (a probably re-recorded) episode on Monday. Since we have the time, I wanted to take a step back and discuss the ever-evolving reason for this podcast. It's hard to talk about "just" literature right now. But I think it's still worthwhile. We'll go over that and what's coming up next. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron continues speaking about Yevgenia Belorusets’ work with War Diary and also explores the experience of women living through war in Merce Rodoreda’s The Time of Doves.  War Diary catalogues the first 40 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, capturing the turbulence and violence while never forgetting to focus on the human element. Belorusets’ writing is a powerful call against apathy and a reminder to not forget what is human in man.  The Time of Doves follows Natalia, a Catalan woman in a new marriage in the years prior, during and after the Spanish Civil War. Rodoreda’s writing depicts the anxiety of being a woman — subject to an overly-expectant husband, keeping house and kids while earning rent money. The flow-of-consciousness style gives you an intimate look into Natalia’s experiences, sometimes blatantly and sometimes merely hinting at the things in her subconscious.  Read the entries of War Diary at https://www.isolarii.com/kyiv The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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Show Notes: This week, Cameron talks about unreliable narrators in Yevgenia Belorusets’ Lucky Breaks and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, posing an unusual argument: what if lying to your reader was a good thing? Belorusets is a Ukrainian writer whose work focuses on the people marginalized by society and takes that eye toward the East, writing stories of women from the Donbas region after war broke out in 2014. Her work brings a light to stories often left untold — and even poses questions about the morality of doing so.  Yevgenia Belorusets’ website “The Complaint Against Language” in Wartime Ukraine: A Conversation with Yevgenia Belorusets, interview by Eugene Ostashevsky Yevgenia Belorusets Focus On Ukraine, Creative Horizons (video, 2024) One Day More — Yevgenia Belorusets’ visit to Brussels The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, in For Your Consideration, Cameron dives into Belarusian writer Alhierd Bacharevič’s Alindarka’s Children and Laguna-Pueblo-American writer Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Both novels explore people native to a land that is now, in different ways, hostile to them.  Alindarka’s Children follows Avi and Sia’s fairy tale-like journey escaping a camp where they’re fed “vitamins” and taught to speak the correct Lingo, rejecting their own language. Their trip is beset by an unstable father, who insistantly passed their native Leid, a forest witch, a “corrected” hunter and other dangers. Written in both English and Scots to capture the Russian and Belarusian of the original, the novel challenges the reader’s understanding of linguistic and cultural preservation.  Ceremony is downstream of Marmon Silko’s brief attempt to write a humorous story about the native WW2 veterans of her childhood, who often drank heavily to deal with their trauma. As the wrote, though, she found that it really wasn’t very funny at all. Her exploration of Tayo’s PTSD, and the struggle to find a way forward, is a profoundly empathetic approach to everyone involved.  Alhierd Bacharevič: “Belarus is the place where literary subjects are just lying under our feet.” Special Problems in Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony” by Paula Gunn Allen I have lost everything: The impact of homeless sweeps - Propublica The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron dives into William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central and Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. The uniting theme this week: reflection and memory. Both novels cast a long shadow over his life, so it’s time to untangle exactly why that is.  Can Europe Central be cleanly read as a series of parables? Is it appropriate to turn Hitler into a sort-of fairy tale? Is it a red flag that Cameron has read Norwegian Wood six times? Tune in to find your answers.  “Shostakovich in Love: William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central” by Peter G. Christiansen The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: This week, Cameron dives solo into two books: Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me by Teffi and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien. He’ll pull apart their authors’ mutual love for taking a creative license to their own lives. Major themes: Emotional truth, social expectations, Vietnam The interview with Tim O’Brien I read from. The documentary on My Lai I mentioned. Seymour Hersh’s article on My Lai  The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes: Pick up a copy of The Story of Sonechka here. This week, Cameron dives into Marina Tsvetaeva’s The Story of Sonechka, a recollection of her relationship with the actress Sonia Holliday in Moscow, 1919. The story — one of the clearest examples of queer literature we’ve had on the podcast — reflects not only Marina and Sonia themselves, but also questions on relationships, memory and how we understand each other.  Joining him to talk about the novel is Inessa Fishbeyn and C. D. C. Reeve, who translated The Story of Sonechka into English for the first time.  Fishbeyn is an independent writer and translator of Russian literature, born and educated in Kazan, Russia.  Reeve is DKE Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and has translated many of the works of Plato and Aristotle and written books, commentaries, and essays on them.  Major themes: Love Triangles, Queer literature, Knowing the other The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠  Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | Facebook Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected]. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands