4 ms·

I'm very curious about this since I do not speak Russian, yet I have read many Russian authors in translation and generally think highly of their literary cultu

I'm very curious about this since I do not speak Russian, yet I have read many Russian authors in translation and generally think highly of their literary culture. Are names like Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov considered overrated in Russia?

dri_ft 6y ago
“Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoevsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians who do, venerate him as a mystic and not as an artist. He was a prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. I admit that some of his scenes, some of his tremendous farcical rows are extraordinarily amusing. But his sensitive murderers and soulful prostitutes are not to be endured for one moment—by this reader anyway.” –Vladimir Nabokov. But of course he's being his usual contrarian self here; make of it what you will.
dmitriid 6y ago
They are required reading at school. So many people are turned away from them just because all soul is sucked from them by school curriculum demanding you dissect their works and write non-sensical, highly formulaic essays like "Author's position and means of expressing of said position in the novel 'Crime and Punishment'" [1] [1] Examples of essay topics: http://velikayakultura.ru/temy-shkolnyh-sochineniy/temyi-f-m-dostoevskiy http://velikayakultura.ru/temy-shkolnyh-sochineniy/temyi-f-m...
FpUser 6y ago
This is of course my personal taste and I could care less what is the official POV on the subject. I do not like Tolstoy at all. Pushkin - I think he is a genius. Calling him overrated I think is not very sincere.
- lovelyviking 6y ago
  I am very sincere when I call him overrated! (citating from my answer here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26910442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26910442) I think this one is especially highly overrated. When you read the poem of someone you willingly or unwillingly trying to read his mind and vision of the world. When I read this one I am simply disgusted. I have the feeling that he is just cold and cynical to the level that I can't stand it! And the general feeling of fakeness in his writings is to the level of realising that this human being simply doesn't understand a few concepts about this life. The same feeling you have when you are listening to some primitive music and you feel that author simply 'doesn't get it' in the first place. I also can't help but notice some cheap/dirty tricks in his poetry when rhythm doesn't work. Even when I write some 'poetry' as a joke to entertain my friends even I manage to avoid such cheap tricks and then I think that surely some great poet must be able to do it too? Isn't it? I mean small kids when they are missing words to express their thoughts use those tricks to make some rhythm to work. In the poem 'Evgeny Onegin' I've counted a few of those and then I had to stop counting in order to somehow finish the poem. Surely like any author he has something in his poems but I do have a feeling that this author is highly overrated.
yurish 6y ago
Considered by whom? Different people have different opinions. I find Dostoevsky's language, for example, quite difficult to read taking some time to get used to. And I don't like this soule digging kind of prose, but other people may love this.
anticodon 6y ago
I tend to think that it is almost impossible to translate anything from one language to another. For this, translator have to be native speaker of both languages and live in both cultures simultaneously all the time. There're many books that become much better or much worse after translation. As of me: I've heard several times that Pushkin is overrated, but I always liked his poems and prose. I like Chekhov. I somewhat like Tolstoy. Never understood Dostoyevsky, but I think I've tried to read his books too early, maybe it's time to read them again.

dri_ft 6y ago

“Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoevsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians who do, venerate him as a mystic and not as an artist. He was a prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. I admit that some of his scenes, some of his tremendous farcical rows are extraordinarily amusing. But his sensitive murderers and soulful prostitutes are not to be endured for one moment—by this reader anyway.” –Vladimir Nabokov. But of course he's being his usual contrarian self here; make of it what you will.

dmitriid 6y ago

They are required reading at school. So many people are turned away from them just because all soul is sucked from them by school curriculum demanding you dissect their works and write non-sensical, highly formulaic essays like "Author's position and means of expressing of said position in the novel 'Crime and Punishment'" [1] [1] Examples of essay topics: http://velikayakultura.ru/temy-shkolnyh-sochineniy/temyi-f-m-dostoevskiy http://velikayakultura.ru/temy-shkolnyh-sochineniy/temyi-f-m...

FpUser 6y ago

This is of course my personal taste and I could care less what is the official POV on the subject. I do not like Tolstoy at all. Pushkin - I think he is a genius. Calling him overrated I think is not very sincere.

lovelyviking 6y ago
I am very sincere when I call him overrated! (citating from my answer here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26910442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26910442) I think this one is especially highly overrated. When you read the poem of someone you willingly or unwillingly trying to read his mind and vision of the world. When I read this one I am simply disgusted. I have the feeling that he is just cold and cynical to the level that I can't stand it! And the general feeling of fakeness in his writings is to the level of realising that this human being simply doesn't understand a few concepts about this life. The same feeling you have when you are listening to some primitive music and you feel that author simply 'doesn't get it' in the first place. I also can't help but notice some cheap/dirty tricks in his poetry when rhythm doesn't work. Even when I write some 'poetry' as a joke to entertain my friends even I manage to avoid such cheap tricks and then I think that surely some great poet must be able to do it too? Isn't it? I mean small kids when they are missing words to express their thoughts use those tricks to make some rhythm to work. In the poem 'Evgeny Onegin' I've counted a few of those and then I had to stop counting in order to somehow finish the poem. Surely like any author he has something in his poems but I do have a feeling that this author is highly overrated.

yurish 6y ago

Considered by whom? Different people have different opinions. I find Dostoevsky's language, for example, quite difficult to read taking some time to get used to. And I don't like this soule digging kind of prose, but other people may love this.

anticodon 6y ago

I tend to think that it is almost impossible to translate anything from one language to another. For this, translator have to be native speaker of both languages and live in both cultures simultaneously all the time. There're many books that become much better or much worse after translation. As of me: I've heard several times that Pushkin is overrated, but I always liked his poems and prose. I like Chekhov. I somewhat like Tolstoy. Never understood Dostoyevsky, but I think I've tried to read his books too early, maybe it's time to read them again.