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Living in Eastern Europe, I have to say that I've always felt that there was something brutal and thuggish about both Russian and Ukrainian culture (they are mo
by mihaic 4y ago
Living in Eastern Europe, I have to say that I've always felt that there was something brutal and thuggish about both Russian and Ukrainian culture (they are more similar than Ukrainians want to admit). The article merely hints at this while talking of the "illiterate peasants" that create the foundational popular culture.
The Russian people's spectrum is incredibly wide though, and have also produced some of the deepest writers, musicians and filmmakers humanity has seen.
Admitting both of these truths at the same time is something people have a hard time doing, and that's the real issue here.
- biohax2015 4y agoThe greater the suffering of a people, the deeper the art they produce. (This is not a justification for violence of course.) Russia has been a nation of serfs for millennia now.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
- biohax2015 4y agoFor sure, there is not a straight line and what I said was an oversimplification. In fact, it may not even be true.
- jevgeni 4y agoWhy be interested in art for serfs?
- biohax2015 4y agoSerfs can still make art..
- jevgeni 4y agoNot all art is equal. Just because someone suffers doesn’t mean they are talented. If that was the relationship, that would imply that Italian artists of the renaissance were tortured horribly every day.
- mihaic 4y agoThis seems to be only a part of the reason. Tolstoy was born into wealth, and it might be that his simultaneous exposure to the highlight of European culture, combined with the harsh reality of the lives of his serfs produced his insights into human nature. Many cultures have had genocides and countless atrocities without producing anything of similar value.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]