The Slavic Literature Pod

Covering thoughts shared by some of our listeners on our Discord and on social media about Part 2, Chapter 48 of Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. You can read our post about the chapter here.If you haven't already signed up to get daily emails reflecting on each chapter of Life and Fate, you can do so on our website.Be sure to follow us on Instagram and join our Discord to participate in the discussion.Thanks to Dominique for their thoughts in this episode.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron keep up the pace in Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, covering Part 2, chapters 21 through 50. They’ll be covering everything from Klimov’s All Quiet on the Western Front moment in Battlefield Stalingrad to the death camps that take up much of the latter chapters for this part. Get ready to get sad, and tune in. Major themes: Why fight wars, no step on snake, not the purge exactly01:02:19 - “Art and Politics” by William T. VollmanThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

You can pick up a copy of Dr. Maya Vinokour’s book Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture here. Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron sit down with Dr. Maya Vinokour to talk about her book Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture and touch on Daniil Kharms’ short story “How the Old Woman Tried to Buy Ink.” Dr. Vinokour is Assistant Professor in the Department of Russian & Slavic Studies at New York University and the author of Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture. Her interests include Stalinism and Nazism, late-Soviet science fiction, post-Soviet media, and the global Far Right. She recently published an article in Jacobin on a phenomenon she calls "lifestyle fascism."Major themes: Flow, cosmic symbology, energy reserves39:45 - “How the Old Woman Tried to Buy Ink” by Daniil KharmsThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron decide to see what insights Book-Twitter has to offer by reading and reacting to some choice passages from Hit Reverse: New Ideas From Old Books by Jash Dholani. If you’ve ever read H.P. Lovecraft and decided, “yeah, I should get my views on governance from this guy,” boy is this the book for you. Head to visitmagnitogorsk.com to book your tour today! 10:37 - “How Julius Evola Became the Internet’s Favorite Fascist” by Morgan Jones56:01 - E.B. White and William Strunk, not E.B. Strunk lmao.The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron continue their quest through Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, covering Part 1, chs.61-70 along with Part 2, chs. 1-20. They’ll be going into greater depth about the state of Grossman’s world, the nature of fascism, and will dive a little bit into the nature of science in the USSR. Major themes: Provocative moral questions, totalitarian ideology, World War 2 worship01:57 - Find “Life and Fate - Chapter A Day Read Along” anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever! 3:52 - Sorry about the weird noises over this part! Tried to re-record it, but the issue kept popping back up. 31:44 - This example comes to mind due to Jacob Geller’s video essay “Who’s Afraid of Modern Art?”48:36 - Cesare is actually from the Island of Martinique, but was a French speaker. The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Note: This episode contains light discussion of sexual assault throughout. Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron dig into Ivan Bunin’s popular short story “Light Breathing” to talk about narrative chronology, whether Bunin really is the emigree Gorky, and why exactly every Slavic literature class makes its students read this piece at least once. Major themes: Philosopher ships, respecting tomes, the emigree Gorky The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron take some time to recap the syllabus to students in Office Hours. They’ll be recapping the Life and Fate Read Along so far, talk about Dostoevsky on Instagram, and then spend far too much time talking about the one, the only novel of its kind: Empress Theresa. Major themes: Read Along recap, Dosteovsky-gram, Empress TheresaThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron stay on the Life and Fate grind, covering Part 1’s chapters 32 through 60. Time to talk hospital tours, tank corp organization, and front-line commissars oh my! Get your canteen full of carefully boiled water and tune in! They’ll be briefly recapping the events covered in these chapters, but for a complete play-by-play, check out our daily read along episodes: the current’s month’s chapters will be in our main feed, and all previous month’s chapters can be found under Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate Read Along (available wherever you already listen to The Slavic Literature Pod). Major themes: Rehumanizing routine, totalizing systems and their believers, GrossmanGPTThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron are joined by Professor David Cooper to talk about his new book The Czech Manuscripts: Forgery, Translation, and National Myth. In the book, Dr. Cooper takes a new look at the so-called Czech Manuscripts — several forged literary works that played a large role in 19th Century Czech national identity-building — using several approaches to tackle what trends shaped them and how they were treated in turn. Pick up a copy of The Czech Manuscripts here.David L. Cooper is Associate Professor and Head of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A specialist in Czech and Russian literatures, his research is in the areas of nationalism in literature, forgery and mystification, translation history and translation studies, and history of criticism. David has published translations of Slovak folktales and a critical edition of the poems of the Czech 19th-century forged manuscripts, The Queen’s Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts with Other Forgeries of the Czech Revival (Ann Arbor, 2018).Major themes: National identity, forgery or fiction, more medieval poetryThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

This week, Matt and Cameron take a break from their daily Grossman grind™ to talk about what they’ve been getting up to for fun this month, about Cameron’s deep fear and love for the sea and its creatures, as well as a ChatGPT’s take on how you should be reading Dostoevsky.Major themes: Dissertations, fears of sea monsters, DostoevskyGPTThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | BlueSky | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands