Reading, er, Tuesday

[troisoiseaux]

Read Boris Pasternak's "sketch for an autobiography," I Remember, which I discovered at a used bookstore a few weeks ago. Curiously, he spends most of it talking about other people: the artists he admired and was influenced by— Tolstoy, who was a family friend; the composer Scriabin, a neighbor, and the reason Pasternak had originally wanted to go into music rather than writing; poets Blok and Rilke— and his contemporaries on the Russian literary scene of the early 20th century, Mayakovsky and Marina Tsvetayeva in particular.

Reading Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman, which is what it says on the tin. Obviously, horribly relevant reading given current events, but I've found this - how legal, political, and cultural forces shaped and were shaped by the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - kind of a reoccurring theme this year, from my constitutional law class last semester to podcasts like Slow Burn, You're Wrong About, and American Hysteria. And, like— I was four years old in 2001; I literally can't remember a time before "the war on terror," but my actual knowledge of it has been patchy at best, so this book (and class discussions, podcasts, etc.) has been eye-opening.

Comments

[kore]

Hunh, that sounds interesting....I was thirty in 2001 (CRUMBLES INTO A HEAP OF DUST) and the difference in civil life before and after is still pretty stark to me. I'd be interested to see what he highlights. -- For one thing, while everyone is screaming at Joe Biden about Afghanistan (in some ways deservedly) and some news outlets have emphasized Trump was inviting the Taliban to Camp David (Why. What. Why) I remember fucking Operation Enduring Freedom and Rumsfeld cosplaying Robert McNamara and how civil dissent was like crushed overnight. It felt like the politicians were dragging the world down the wrong timeline and there was no way to fix it.

[troisoiseaux]

I'd definitely be interested in hearing your perspective on this book, if you end up reading it. So far, Ackerman seems to have really fixed his microscope on the Obama era— what he calls the "Sustainable" War on Terror. I've just gotten to Edward Snowden's 2013 NSA leak, which - with the exception, to varying extents, of the 2008 and 2012 elections - is the first event he discusses that I really remember paying attention to in real time.

[osprey_archer]

The Pasternak book sounds really interesting! I love reading writers talk about other writers (or other artists of any kind really). Is it called a "sketch for an autobiography" because it was meant to be longer?

[troisoiseaux]

I don't... think so? I think it was always supposed to be like, a collection of vignettes and musings rather than a formal memoir or autobiography? Although completed and published in 1957, he cuts it off at the 1920s.

Slightly separate from the "sketch of an autobiography," it also featured an essay on Pasternak's thoughts about translating Shakespeare, which I found fascinating. (Particularly brain-stick-y is that he said Macbeth reminded him of Crime and Punishment.)

[osprey_archer]

Damn it, I may have to interlibrary loan this. It sounds fascinating.

[rose_griffes]

Ackerman's book recently came to my attention, so seeing you mention it in a positive light has further piqued my own interest.

(Here's an interesting essay by an American veteran who served in Afghanistan.)

[troisoiseaux]

I'm still about 3/4 of the way through, but I'd say that it's worth a read.

I've read a number of essays from veterans of Afghanistan over the past couple of days, but this one is new— and the first one I've seen by a woman. Thanks for the link.

ETA: The Guardian has been publishing anonymous essays by women in Afghanistan— I've read this one by a journalist and this one by a college student. Absolutely heart-wrenching.

[cmcmck]

I re-read Rilke's 'Duino Elegies' a while back.

Well worth a read if you haven't.

[troisoiseaux]

I'll have to check it out! Besides Tolstoy, I wasn't familiar with any of the writers Pasternak talked about— although there was a passing mention of And Quiet Flows the Don, which iirc you've also recommended?

[cmcmck]

I have!