Eratosphere Forums - Metrical Poetry, Free Verse, Fiction, Art, Critique, Discussions Able Muse - a review of poetry, prose and art

Forum Left Top

Notices

Reply
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #11  
Unread 02-27-2022, 10:09 AM
Allen Tice's Avatar
Allen Tice Allen Tice is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY USA
Posts: 6,119
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Isbell View Post
Putin, blood-soaked thief that he is, claimed Ukraine is not a country and was invented by Russia. So the US embassy tweeted photos of four 10th-12th century Kiev churches and of the forest that was Moscow at the time.

John
Probably a certain number of the Russian populace knows this history as well. For what it’s worth, despite the most recent big scare talk as of today, there is scant danger that the functionality of MAD stability shall fail. Who wants that though! Decades ago, instead of intimidation and violence, a lot of sweetness and metaphorical cookies to Kiev could quite possibly have prevented this fuck up.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Unread 02-27-2022, 11:14 AM
Jennifer Reeser's Avatar
Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
Distinguished Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: United States
Posts: 2,444
Default

I am a translator of Akhmatova, who by the way, not insignificantly, was born in Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...sia-victimhood

"Putin leans here on a strange theory advanced by the 20th-century historian and ethnographer Lev Gumilev. The son of two of Russia’s most famous poets, Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, Gumilev maintains that every people possesses a distinct life force: a “bio-cosmic” inner energy or passionate substance that he calls passionarnost. Putin may have known Gumilev in St Petersburg at the start of the 1990s. At any rate, he has embraced his ideas and never misses an opportunity to refer to them."
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Unread 02-27-2022, 12:27 PM
F.F. Teague F.F. Teague is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
Posts: 1,790
Default

How to help (Guardian, so UK) 👍
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Unread 02-27-2022, 12:53 PM
Allen Tice's Avatar
Allen Tice Allen Tice is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY USA
Posts: 6,119
Default

Jennifer, in your understanding, does this specialized 'life force' differentiate on the basis of which typeface or alphabet a 'people' uses? Examples might be the Sequoyah alphabet; much better would be alphabets like Cyrillic (at various stages), Roman (at various stages), Etruscan, Oscan, Greek (at various stages), English (at various stages), Chinese and Japanese (several) (at various stages), Arabic, etc.?

There's no need to try to answer my question. Some people have theorized that the development of nationalistic fervor was encouraged by the regional spread of books printed in languages that differed more at the cultural centers than at intertelligible border lands where practically no speech variation had previously occurred. A good example is the drawing of boundary lines between Denmark and Germany north of Schleswig-Holstein. A sad and difficult piece of history there.

To the extent that Gumilev actually believed these ideas, he was as off-track as the Lysenkoists in biology, who believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics such as, it would seem, tattoos, etc., the very rare possible coincidences notwithstanding. In Marx talk, DNA would be the 'base', and a tattoo the 'superstructure'.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Unread 02-27-2022, 02:47 PM
Jennifer Reeser's Avatar
Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
Distinguished Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: United States
Posts: 2,444
Default

Allen, thank you, what an interesting vector. I humbly admit I am no authority on "passionarity" from a scholar's perspective, and I don't know the family enough to elucidate nor to be at all helpful. Akhmatova's agents in Moscow say only to me that her heir has approved my translations, and that's that. It is super-secret spy-type stuff

Technically, we refer to Sequoyah's Cherokee system as a "syllabary," rather than an alphabet, since each character represents a consonant/vowel blend of two letters -- but you are right and justified in calling it an alphabet. For practical purposes, it works. And what you postulate is more than plausible. Gumilyev argued that every ethnic group goes through the same stations from inception to acme. If I had to offer a theory, I would suspect Lev was influenced by his parents' insistence on a non-elitist language. They were, after all, founders of the Acme school, which emphasized clarity and simplicity. I would not, at gunpoint, guess how this might have applied, though, to his theory of passionarity.

I do know that he had a strong belief Russians were a "super-ethnos," not really Europeans so much as they were Eurasians, geopolitically and culturally, their traits descended from the Mongols and Turks. Again, this may hearken to Akhmatova's teachings and beliefs, things he learned at his mother's knee. As they say -- the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Her very name was chosen as a derivative of Akhmat Khan, her alleged Tatar ancestor which name first appears amongst Turks and the Mongol Empire. So obviously, it was a big deal to her.
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Unread 02-28-2022, 04:44 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4,197
Default

.
"In my life, I've never seen so much bravery. I'm completely stunned."


Yes, conscience-driven bravery.
It serves to remind me, too, that this scenario is played out countless times around the world every day, in remote villages, in steaming cites, in squalid slums, in toxic relationships — anywhere callous, power-drunk, corrupt, conscience-less, ogres and their minions have the upper hand.
It serves to remind me. It steels me. Let's not forget. This is why we live. To speak truth to power.
.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Unread 02-28-2022, 08:17 AM
Allen Tice's Avatar
Allen Tice Allen Tice is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY USA
Posts: 6,119
Default

Jennifer, I did know that Seqouyah’s system was a syllabary, as are some others I mentioned. I just wanted to be understood quickly. Thanks for your neat handling of that. This morning’s question for me that I’ve been pondering and looking at on-line is whether Russia’s leader has had a Covid infection; Trump did. If so, it’s a possible source of interest.
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Unread 02-28-2022, 08:34 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4,197
Default

.

In my eyes, Zelinsky is the right person at the right time. Just a precursory review of his path to power and the presidency (his power began to grow with his burgeoning career in the entertainment industry) shows a trajectory that appears to be something like destiny — though that’s just another way of saying “right person at the right time “ or even “a perfect storm” of events producing a catalytic leader in a world where there is a dearth of leaders.

A good place to begin to know him is here.

He has been tested multiple times in his short tenure. Trump tried to bribe him and it resulted in Trump’s (1st) impeachment. Now Putin has come knockin’. FKPTN.

Could it be? Can people everywhere (social media: it’s time to grow up and be what you promise to be) see this opportunity and build on it? Forgive me. My hope rages even at the slightest indication that goodness and bravery are the alchemy we need to change the tide. Bright yellows and deep blues are the colors…

.
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Unread 02-28-2022, 11:27 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: New York
Posts: 16,476
Default

Jim, a good place to get to know him is here. I mean that, though prepare yourself for a good laugh when you see this.
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Unread 02-28-2022, 12:23 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4,197
Default

.
Roger, That’s fantastic! (Impressive even : )

The political party in which he ran and won the presidency is called “Servant Of The People” which also happens to be the name of a political satire TV series he developed, produced and starred in 2015 that was widely loved in Ukraine. The character he played? President of Ukraine. Life imitating art imitating life. Go figure. Here’s the trailer for it with subtitles.

This interview by BBC about his run for the presidency is compelling.

He's also the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian.

He is a man for our times. Unless he proves himself otherwise.

.

Last edited by Jim Moonan; 02-28-2022 at 12:57 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



Forum Right Top
Forum Left Bottom Forum Right Bottom
 
Right Left
Member Login
Forgot password?
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,399
Total Threads: 21,841
Total Posts: 270,805
There are 1950 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Sponsor:
Donate & Support Able Muse / Eratosphere
Forum LeftForum Right
Right Right
Right Bottom Left Right Bottom Right

Hosted by ApplauZ Online