Comments | arch_schatten: Mother Russia

arch_schatten

Mother Russia

Nov 26, 2008 19:40

Pattern Recognition re-ignited my love for Russia -Jen, I think I know where the communist ferret dream came from!- and I thought I would share these links. Do any of you know of any urban novels set in Russia or that dwell on Moscow's lower levels?

Lost city of Chernobyl: A visit to the abandoned city and a look at how out post apocalyptic world ( Read more... )

nablopomo, the world is awesome

Comments 15

vespa331 November 27 2008, 03:12:51 UTC

I see your Chernobyl and raise you a chick who takes motorcycle journeys alone through Chernobyl.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/spring2007.html

vigilante_wake November 27 2008, 06:30:10 UTC

I thought that was proved to be fake?

vespa331 November 27 2008, 17:57:19 UTC

No idea. Maybe it was? I found it on someone else's blog years ago, and haven't actually read through the whole site. Mina's thing just reminded me of it.

arch_schatten November 30 2008, 22:41:53 UTC

That's a really cool collection of pictures! For some reason, though, I feel less affected by the abandoned towns than by the abandoned city... probably because I have seen abandoned towns before, so it doesn't especially spell 'Radiation Disaster' to me? While an abandoned city is so.. post apocalyptic...

Still, it brings me a measure of happiness to see Nature take over the places we ruined for ourselves.

Thread 5

damos November 27 2008, 03:32:41 UTC

Woah.

The pictures that the French artist drew on the walls remind me completely of Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains."

*shudder*

arch_schatten November 30 2008, 22:45:51 UTC

I haven't read that Bradbury's book! I.. I'm pretty sure that if it can convey the feeling of the graffiti on abandoned buildings in an abandoned city.. it's got to be a really cool book. I need more time for reading! ahh! I'm not reading enoughhhhh...

I'm currently reading a book called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which has made me think of you, Dan! it's a closed room murder mystery, and all mysteries make me think of you :P

vigilante_wake November 27 2008, 06:32:32 UTC

Do any of you know of any urban novels set in Russia or that dwell on Moscow's lower levels?

Just Crime and Punishment ;P

What about those Nightwatch movies? Weren't they based on Russian urban fantasy novels? I am so uninformed.

arch_schatten November 30 2008, 22:53:39 UTC

LOL, I have never read Crime and Punishment *shuffles feet* should I?

I didn't think about the Nightwatch books! My brother has the first one, I don't know if it's here or in Aguascalientes.. still, I'm going to ask him. Thanks for reminding me!

vigilante_wake December 3 2008, 07:46:26 UTC

LOL, I have never read Crime and Punishment *shuffles feet* should I?

That is a good question. I've read it twice, once just because and once for school, and I think I got a lot more out of it the second time. It's something you really have to work at reading. Ultimately, I found the book to be worth it. It has a lot of religious overtones (Dostoevsky was of the opinion that the Russian Orthodox Church was going to save the world), but I think the theme of redemption transcends that. And it's not like it's overly preachy. I mean, the most sympathetic and admirable character in the book is a prostitute. Finally, it's something you could use to defend the opinion that killing people is wrong, no matter what they've done. The ends never justify the means because, to paraphrase Dr. Manhattan, it never ends.

arch_schatten December 8 2008, 01:34:15 UTC

This reply of yours caught me in a peculiar moment at the office. We were discussing the death penalty, and only my (favorite) supervisor was against it. I felt like I was disappointing Batman the second I read your comment and thought about my own position about it. Still, I can't bring myself to think different... I feel terribly backwards about this, and yet... I simply can't believe human beings who kidnap, torture and kill for profit -we have huge kidnapping problems as a whole in the country, and that's besides our war on drugs problems- can ever be rehabilitated. And yet, I'm very well aware that it's mob-thinking that makes me see this as a feasible solution ( ... )

Thread 6

jij November 28 2008, 02:59:32 UTC

The Chernobyl pictures are so wonderful and eerie! It's kind of meshed up with the Lovecraft sculpture in my head...couldn't you totally see some Elder God making Chernobyl its home and brooding over the remains? So creepy and cool...

arch_schatten November 30 2008, 22:59:42 UTC

Ohh! yeah, a Lovecraft old god haunting Chernobyl actually makes a lot of sense... what did I read recently that was very similar to that... probably a King book. Hrm.. about the book of the worm. I think it was a tribute to Lovecraft... (My brother clarifies and it indeed a King tribute!) but yeah, that is exactly the feeling I got from the pictures. A certain foreboding loneliness... that is eerie and beyond us. Very, very cool...