Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Diary for a Madman (a.k.a. The Final Insult)
After days of excruciating RSI, wasted paper, and Fox's Golden Crunch biscuits, the diary's finished...but I messed it up with gold letraset that seemed like such a good idea at the time. Bugger. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Blog of a madwoman
After 72 hours of almost continuous laying out, printing, screwing up, re-printing and trimming the pages of my Diary for a Madman, every page is done and awaiting binding.
I have printed all the pages on ivory, slightly glossy paper that matches those of my own 2007 diary and have made every effort to make the transition from 'normal' diary structure to disjointed and illogical/nonsensical as gradual as possible.
I have printed all the pages on ivory, slightly glossy paper that matches those of my own 2007 diary and have made every effort to make the transition from 'normal' diary structure to disjointed and illogical/nonsensical as gradual as possible.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Who nose?
Found this in the BBC News online archives... Apparently some joker decided it'd be amusing to steal the commemorative statue of The Nose from its public place in St Petersburg back in 2002. But it's ok, because they found it again a year later. Panic over.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The stories so far
I've read The Overcoat, The Nose, and The Diary of a Madman, considered to be Gogol's short-story masterpieces. I've also read The Carriage (very short and VERY boring) and am nearing the end of Taras Bulba which is another very famous, much-lauded Gogol piece.
I have drawn up a few similarities between the tales.
- His chief protagonists are always male.
- His treatment of female characters is distinctly wary; never once does he create a tangible multifaceted female character.
- The antiheores of his stories are often heavily flawed/hopeless low-ranking members of society who suffer at the hands of those in higher positions.
- Rank and standing are major concerns in every story.
"And Petersburg remained without Akaky Akakievich, as if he had never been in it."
- The Overcoat, following the death of the beleaguered lonely clerk Akakievich.
"But youth and old age see things differently, and cannot communicate."
- Taras Bulba, on the different views of young upstart Cossacks to those of their experienced elders.
I have drawn up a few similarities between the tales.
- His chief protagonists are always male.
- His treatment of female characters is distinctly wary; never once does he create a tangible multifaceted female character.
- The antiheores of his stories are often heavily flawed/hopeless low-ranking members of society who suffer at the hands of those in higher positions.
- Rank and standing are major concerns in every story.
"And Petersburg remained without Akaky Akakievich, as if he had never been in it."
- The Overcoat, following the death of the beleaguered lonely clerk Akakievich.
"But youth and old age see things differently, and cannot communicate."
- Taras Bulba, on the different views of young upstart Cossacks to those of their experienced elders.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Introducing: NIKOLAI GOGOL
Brief: To produce a piece of design inspired by a randomly-assigned figure.
This is Nikolai Gogol.
Wikipedia as ever was my first port of call, but this is my potted biography.
Gogol (1809-1852) was a Ukrainian famed for writing Russian literature. After an unhappy childhood he left for St Petersburg to make his name as a writer. At first he failed dismally, his poetry widely derided by critics. But 1831's Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka was well-received and his controversial 1836 satire The Government Inspector, only staged once personally green-lighted by Nicholas I, saw him 'hit the bigtime'. He travelled Europe for years churning out celebrated work, particularly the unfinished epic Dead Souls (which ranks alongside Crime & Punishment as one of the 'realistic' Russian novels) and masterful short stories like The Overcoat and The Diary of a Madman.
However his final years saw a pitiful decline. A relationship with deeply-religious Matvey Konstantinovsky drove him to believe his literary work to be sinful. Convinced he was going to hell, he became depressed, and began a practice of extreme self-denial that saw him fast fanatically. In 1852 a week, despairing Gogol burnt his manuscript for the the second part of Dead Souls, and died just a week later.
The existing part of Dead Souls is available at Bibliomania but as a sad geeky completist I've bought the book, along with a selection of the short stories. Reading starts now.
This is Nikolai Gogol.
Wikipedia as ever was my first port of call, but this is my potted biography.
Gogol (1809-1852) was a Ukrainian famed for writing Russian literature. After an unhappy childhood he left for St Petersburg to make his name as a writer. At first he failed dismally, his poetry widely derided by critics. But 1831's Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka was well-received and his controversial 1836 satire The Government Inspector, only staged once personally green-lighted by Nicholas I, saw him 'hit the bigtime'. He travelled Europe for years churning out celebrated work, particularly the unfinished epic Dead Souls (which ranks alongside Crime & Punishment as one of the 'realistic' Russian novels) and masterful short stories like The Overcoat and The Diary of a Madman.
However his final years saw a pitiful decline. A relationship with deeply-religious Matvey Konstantinovsky drove him to believe his literary work to be sinful. Convinced he was going to hell, he became depressed, and began a practice of extreme self-denial that saw him fast fanatically. In 1852 a week, despairing Gogol burnt his manuscript for the the second part of Dead Souls, and died just a week later.
The existing part of Dead Souls is available at Bibliomania but as a sad geeky completist I've bought the book, along with a selection of the short stories. Reading starts now.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
