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Re: Russian culture: books, music, films, series and more

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 3:22 pm
by whatiftheblog
Ogrim, :D ! I quite like the lyrics in this one, too - she's very different from most other modern Russian artists, particularly pop artists, in that sense:



ETA: And this one:


Re: Russian culture: books, music, films, series and more

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 3:41 pm
by Cavesa
Thanks for the thread.

One of the main reasons why I want to learn Russian are the sci-fi/fantasy writers.

Sergei Lukyanenko, perhaps the most famous of this generation. However, his most famoust series about the Night Watch is not his best work, in my opinion. It is great, but he's got even better ones.

the Strugatsky brothers are classics of the genre.

Zamjatin. Some say Orwell was copying him. I don't think so, but his We is certainly a must for distopia readers.

Now I am going to the list of authors I only heard about and haven't read yet, so I have just a limited idea what they write, but the sources I discovered them through usually point to good stuff. I am keeping them as a source of motivation, once I have the time for a new language.
Kiryl Yeskov
Andrei Rubanov
Alexey Pehov: This one looks the most interesting at first sight. I hope the most interesting thing about his work is NOT the fact that some ofthe book covers are copies of the covers of more famous books. :-)
Boris Akunin is quite well known as a writer of historical fiction, unless I am mistaken.

and now, while googling correct English transcription of the names, I found http://readrussia.org/ which may be interesting.

Re: Russian culture: books, music, films, series and more

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:52 am
by abr
Cavesa, if you are interested in a good modern Russian sci-fi/fantasy writers, I'd like to add Vadim Panov to your list. The plot of his novels often takes place in Russia and the stories are very interesting.
And Alexey Pehov is very good too. Don't pay attention to the covers :)

Re: Russian culture: books, music, films, series and more

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:56 pm
by Ogrim
I came across this little gem today:

В 2017 году.

It is a диафильм (diafilm - a story told in a set of diapositives) from 1960 showing what the world might look like 100 years after the Bolshevik revolution. Notable features are atomic-driven trains crossing a bridge over the Bering strait from the Soviet Union to Alaska, a city under ground in Siberia where it is sunny and warm all year round, a mechanical arm waking you up by scratching your nose, an intelligent kitchen machine making breakfast and a "televideophone" to stay in touch over long distances - they got that one right at least, we call it Skype :).

It is not terribly political, but it does include a story of "the last imperialists" trying to create a bomb which will produce huracanes to create havoc for the communists. Obviously the communists win ;) .

Anyway, I thought it was a nice example of educational material from the Soviet period, and it is quite interesting to read the comments posted alongside the slides.