Subject
Re: Russian best-novels-of-the-century list (fwd)
Date
Body
From: "Leonid L. Delitsyne" <delitsin@geology.wisc.edu>. He responds below
to Galya Diment's posting on "the top 100."
------------------------
> This is from one of my students who is in Moscow right now. Nabokov did
> make the cut -- but only at #12. At #1 is, alas, Sholokhov, whose
> authorship of _Tikhii Don_ (Quiet Flows the Don) has been in great doubt.
Does anybody have the texs of "Tikhii Don" and other Sholokhov and/or
Kryukov works in electronic form? (I know that Geir Kijetsaa and his
group must have them).
> superior works, like _Lolita_, Platonov's _Chevengur_ (#18), Ilf and
> Petrov's _12 Chairs_ (#4), Bulgakov's _Master and Margarita_ (#3). And,
> yes, Pasternak's _Dr. Zhivago_ (#9) is here ahead of _Lolita_... Nabokov,
> on the other hand, has the distinction of being the only emigre writer
> included.
Well, what sort of a rating is this? There are dozens of ratings,
and they must be different, depending on what they are trying to measure.
You can check a rating at http://www.lito.spb.ru/members/writers.html
This is a result of a survey conducted by Dmitry Gorchev among 23 writing
practioners (you can call them "young writers", they are about 33-39,
most of them are published writers, interpreters, etc.) Nabokov is among
the Top10. Though this rating is also very subjective and characteristic
of a particular group, it reflects the preferences of people, who at
least heard of Nabokov.
> Anyway, the Moskovskii Komsomoletz published best Novels of the 20th
> century survey.
>
> 20. Privychnoye Delo Belov, Vasilii
> 19. Zvesdnyi Bilet Aksenov, Vasilii
> 18. Chevengur Platonov, Andrei
> 17. Dom Na Naberezhnoi Trifonov, Yurii
I have to note here, that while the difference between #1 and #10 could
be significant, the difference between #15 and #150 is usually rather
marginal. This is true for most ratings, ranging from the 'the biggest sites
on the Web' up to 'my favorite writers'.
> 5. Zhivye I Myortvye Simonov, Konstantin
> 4. Dvenadzat' Stul'ev Il'f / Petrov
> 3. Master & Margarita Bugalkov, Mikhail
> 2.Vechnyi Zov Ivanov, Anatolii
> 1. Tikhii Don Sholokhov, Mikhail
These books are what I would say "well-known", however, the rating seems
to be fully random. It does not look consistent with any particular
'virtual academy'. "Vechnyj Zov" was a TV-hit for many years, although
I doubt many read the book.
It is possible that MK simply measured the awareness of general public
of these works. In this case what this rating represents is just the
success of the advertising campaings for the books. Faddeev's and Ostrovsky's
books were studied at high school, and as such it is certainly known to
everyone. Pasternak, as well as Solzhenitsyn is more about politics, some
people, Limonov among others use word "pasternak" to label the opposition,
Yarkevich uses "Doctor Zhivago" to mock the idea of a saint book.
Nabokov is an "unknown writer" as compared to these "stars", so no
wonder his position in popularity ratings would be very low. On the
other hand 'Lolita's' rating could be not bad, since the videotape
recently had some success in Russia, even some kids watched it :-)
Leonid Delitsyne
http://sputnik.portal.ru/shtampomer/
http://sputnik.portal.ru/anti-teneta/
to Galya Diment's posting on "the top 100."
------------------------
> This is from one of my students who is in Moscow right now. Nabokov did
> make the cut -- but only at #12. At #1 is, alas, Sholokhov, whose
> authorship of _Tikhii Don_ (Quiet Flows the Don) has been in great doubt.
Does anybody have the texs of "Tikhii Don" and other Sholokhov and/or
Kryukov works in electronic form? (I know that Geir Kijetsaa and his
group must have them).
> superior works, like _Lolita_, Platonov's _Chevengur_ (#18), Ilf and
> Petrov's _12 Chairs_ (#4), Bulgakov's _Master and Margarita_ (#3). And,
> yes, Pasternak's _Dr. Zhivago_ (#9) is here ahead of _Lolita_... Nabokov,
> on the other hand, has the distinction of being the only emigre writer
> included.
Well, what sort of a rating is this? There are dozens of ratings,
and they must be different, depending on what they are trying to measure.
You can check a rating at http://www.lito.spb.ru/members/writers.html
This is a result of a survey conducted by Dmitry Gorchev among 23 writing
practioners (you can call them "young writers", they are about 33-39,
most of them are published writers, interpreters, etc.) Nabokov is among
the Top10. Though this rating is also very subjective and characteristic
of a particular group, it reflects the preferences of people, who at
least heard of Nabokov.
> Anyway, the Moskovskii Komsomoletz published best Novels of the 20th
> century survey.
>
> 20. Privychnoye Delo Belov, Vasilii
> 19. Zvesdnyi Bilet Aksenov, Vasilii
> 18. Chevengur Platonov, Andrei
> 17. Dom Na Naberezhnoi Trifonov, Yurii
I have to note here, that while the difference between #1 and #10 could
be significant, the difference between #15 and #150 is usually rather
marginal. This is true for most ratings, ranging from the 'the biggest sites
on the Web' up to 'my favorite writers'.
> 5. Zhivye I Myortvye Simonov, Konstantin
> 4. Dvenadzat' Stul'ev Il'f / Petrov
> 3. Master & Margarita Bugalkov, Mikhail
> 2.Vechnyi Zov Ivanov, Anatolii
> 1. Tikhii Don Sholokhov, Mikhail
These books are what I would say "well-known", however, the rating seems
to be fully random. It does not look consistent with any particular
'virtual academy'. "Vechnyj Zov" was a TV-hit for many years, although
I doubt many read the book.
It is possible that MK simply measured the awareness of general public
of these works. In this case what this rating represents is just the
success of the advertising campaings for the books. Faddeev's and Ostrovsky's
books were studied at high school, and as such it is certainly known to
everyone. Pasternak, as well as Solzhenitsyn is more about politics, some
people, Limonov among others use word "pasternak" to label the opposition,
Yarkevich uses "Doctor Zhivago" to mock the idea of a saint book.
Nabokov is an "unknown writer" as compared to these "stars", so no
wonder his position in popularity ratings would be very low. On the
other hand 'Lolita's' rating could be not bad, since the videotape
recently had some success in Russia, even some kids watched it :-)
Leonid Delitsyne
http://sputnik.portal.ru/shtampomer/
http://sputnik.portal.ru/anti-teneta/