Suburban secrets
I've never seen as many fences anywhere as there are in Russia.
And by fences I mean solid, concrete walls that separate the oligarchs from the common working class, or one construction zone from another, or a school from a highway. These fences simultaniously serve as canvas for free speech.
I was riding on a train the other day, and one of those concrete blocks ran the length of the railway, and on one of them it said in letters big enough for me to read as the train was zipping past: "ULYA IS FUCKING VITYA".
This made me think of King Midas, who hid his donkey ears under a turban, but his secret was so overwhelming that he whispered it into a hole in the ground and covered it up, but when grass grew on that mound, it whispered the secret all around, and then everyone knew.
Likewise, the concrete fences in Russia are a much - needed outlet for screaming one's inmost concerns, like one's political views or the fact that Ulya is fucking Vitya.
I wondered at what circumstances this text was produced (was it a guy who liked Ulya? Or was he concerned with justice or revenge, or simly proving his ability to be stupid and vulgar to a group of drunken droogs, and therefore matching the local standards of masculinity), and also whether Ulya really was fucking Vitya, and if so, if that meant she was cheating on someone else by doing it. I also wondered if she's ever seen this manifestation (truthful or not) of her privacy thus violated - it could be that she hasn't because she never travelled on a train outside of the suburbs of Moscow, where fucking Vitya was was the biggest news in town.
And by fences I mean solid, concrete walls that separate the oligarchs from the common working class, or one construction zone from another, or a school from a highway. These fences simultaniously serve as canvas for free speech.
I was riding on a train the other day, and one of those concrete blocks ran the length of the railway, and on one of them it said in letters big enough for me to read as the train was zipping past: "ULYA IS FUCKING VITYA".
This made me think of King Midas, who hid his donkey ears under a turban, but his secret was so overwhelming that he whispered it into a hole in the ground and covered it up, but when grass grew on that mound, it whispered the secret all around, and then everyone knew.
Likewise, the concrete fences in Russia are a much - needed outlet for screaming one's inmost concerns, like one's political views or the fact that Ulya is fucking Vitya.
I wondered at what circumstances this text was produced (was it a guy who liked Ulya? Or was he concerned with justice or revenge, or simly proving his ability to be stupid and vulgar to a group of drunken droogs, and therefore matching the local standards of masculinity), and also whether Ulya really was fucking Vitya, and if so, if that meant she was cheating on someone else by doing it. I also wondered if she's ever seen this manifestation (truthful or not) of her privacy thus violated - it could be that she hasn't because she never travelled on a train outside of the suburbs of Moscow, where fucking Vitya was was the biggest news in town.