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Komsomol, Margarita, Master, Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitt Romney, Rosh Hashanah, Woland
I liked this freshly pressed post by Steffan Postaer: Are perpetually happy online personas a big lie or simply a matter of protocol? But, I instantly knew its author is nowhere near my circle of Facebook friends and probably will never be.
I hardly ever see such sugar coated photographs of “duck face” smiling couples or read statuses on life being all pearls and roses, sprinkled by fairy dust… Could be due to my being facebook friends with really cool crowd, could be something else, who knows. But truth to be told, one needs to be subjected to lobotomy so to forget how badly life hurts on some occasions… and how ecstatic it gets on some other.
You don’t need to know that last time i did Brazilian waxing it hurt like hell because i forgot to take the painkiller that everyone in their right mind takes 2h earlier… Ok, now you know. But that’s indeed too much information.
Oh, and there will always be Brits. And Montenegrins. And Dutch. And other people who traditionally don’t rave about their privacy.
Or maybe they were thought (as i was, albeit i gave up on that) “smile – the whole world will smile with you cry and you’ll cry alone.”
I think reality tv did it. I think general dumbing down did it. And the greed behind it and the publicity HOs with sitcoms where everyone confesses and all together cry… That’s fake – the infamous public atonement and the following forgiveness of sins by a millionaire/ tv show host who is so filthy rich that they basically forgot what it feels like to be a mere mortal.
If you know what I mean.
But that’s publicity, and your usual sinner –turned-tv-Saint shall write a book which will become a best seller among other beach reads – the ghost writer will probably remain anonymous, and the ex sinner won’t care about anything (and probably is not capable of self-reflection in the first place)… What happened there was down to someone’s idea of making money out of it all – out of the sin, the repentance , the forgiveness, the tears of relieve… I call that BS, not the human discretion and privacy concerns or simple unwillingness to share with whole wide world what one goes through in the privacy of their bedroom – or bathroom per that matter.
Which brings me back to something I detest… Among all the damage the false tv-messiahs and alike have done is the acceptance of fiction and non-fiction that’s of extremely low quality, not to say – garbage.
A friend of mine, when the going was tough, started writing chick lit – the weekend romance series, she signed those with pseudonym and albeit it sold well, she wouldn’t admit dead it’s her who wrote them. Nor we would admit we read them – dead or alive, that is.
Dumbing down is not democracy. Someone’s ignorance is not as valid as another’s being educated. We need elite; we need the avant-garde, because it was never the majority who ignited the progress, only individuals… and those come in all shapes and sizes and are never perpetually happy in a cheap way.
Recently two of my own statuses got numerous likes, those were:
“I get up, the world spits to my face, I clean it and say: I love you too.”
And another
“I love it when I Ching tells me off.”
The ones I like the most have to do with Tarot, riddles, heavy sarcasm and mocking Mitt Romney.
Most of my friends are indeed happy , most of the times. And so am i. And even when i am not all that happy – i remember the ancient Judaic commandment ”you must be happy” (and are allowed to fake it, until you make it ;)) – not because you are stupid and fake – but because, if you are somewhat smart and honest, over time you will realize it is all for good.
Mikhail Bulgakov , put it this way: But would you kindly ponder this question – what would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You’re stupid.”
Had i mentioned his “ Master and Margarita ” is my favorite novel of all times?
“Take these as essential ingredients: Satan, Jesus, Stalin, Pontius Pilate and Caesar’s Empire, assorted literary critics, a great Artist and the woman who loves him, life in 1930s Moscow, a poet on the bitter road to truth, and various demonic henchmen including a big black cat. They add up to one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century…” (From the review of The Master and Margarita, edition Penguin Classics )
“At the hour of the hot spring sunset two citizens appeared at the Patriarch’s Ponds”. This is the opening line of The Master and Margarita. The literary authority Berlioz and the young poet Bezdomny are debating on a bench. Subject is the existence of Jesus when a third man is joining the discussion. Later he will introduce himself as professor Woland. He predicts that Berlioz will be decapitated that very day by a Russian woman, a member of the Komsomol. And it was inevitable, because “‘Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it”.
According to the legend, they sat on the third bench from the left – its this one in the picture i took last year.
The bench is still at Patriarch’s Pond, close to Tverskaya Street in city’s center:
And oldsmobiles are still parked in the nearby cobbled alleys:
With that i am wishing you Happy New Year! L’Shana Tova! May 5773 overflow with sweetness and genuine happiness!
Lovely post, was just writing to another friend about when we both used to write on Livejournal and how different it was back then when only geeks had on-line journals and blogs were unheard of and facebook just a twinkle in some tweens eye. Back then people were a lot more intimate with things that mattered, not what was for dinner or on TV. people wrote about the cracks and not so much about the surface. We could do that cause no one who knew us in life would ever stumble upon it. Today – my mom is on facebook, and if she misses something, her friends who are on FB too will be sure to update her. I sometimes miss the recklessness of Livejournal. When people just flung it out, raw.
Lol, i know!!! I wasn’t on livejournal, but from your words i feel it felt like talking to your best friend -in privacy of your own home! As per fb – the rule of thum is – don’t post anything you wouldn’t like to see in newspapers lol! xxxxxxxxxxxx
Lena –
As always, you speak the truth with wit and abandon! 🙂
Blessings,
Bonnie
Thank you, dearest Bonnie! You are an everlasting inspiration to me! xxxx
Oh, I love that quote by Mikhail Bulgakov.
I also read Steffan Postaer’s FP post but didn’t comment because I couldn’t really understand the problem he had with Facebook. Like you, I have real friends there. They are people I know and they don’t really sugar coat much at all.
But away from that – I loved your post. Every time we turn on the news we see things that pretty well disgust us (this morning was no different when I walked out and hubby said – hey, look at this kid holding up a sign to behead people!). We will always have the shadows and the sun and together these make up the world we live in. But I like to think I’m more on the side of the sun and if people want to make me feel good in this shadowy world (or I want to make them feel good) I find absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.
Speaking of reality tv and dumbing it down – there is a movie called Idiocracy that I really like (though some others think it’s really stupid). It’s about the future and how dumb everyone becomes because of reality tv. Even though it is a ‘stupid’ movie it really gets its warning across that we are heading in the ‘devolution’ direction if we keep going the way we are.
Again – great post! 😀
Thank you, dear one!! OMG, Idiocracy – one of my favorites! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that movie!!!! Aghh, what was that saying of great minds thinking alike *fakes forgetfulness * 😉 Thank you my friend! xxxx
PHEW, I’m so glad you love that movie! Sometimes I tell people about it and they say ‘that’s just dumb’ and I feel a bit embarrassed for mentioning it! But I don’t think they get the dark warning it’s giving us all (through the hilarity of it). Great minds do think alike!! 😀 😀
Of course i love it! And it’s the furthest from dumb it gets – to the contrary, it’s a refined sarcasm and irony of a highest class! And i do have soft spot for the absurd – both in movies and in literature too! It is a warning though, and a serious one… I often quote that movie and all in all bring it up all the time – but now that you mentioned it, not so many do… It is not a block buster definitely and such “cold showers” are never too popular… But then those like you and i shun away from what’s uber-popular (think of Dan Brown ;))
Love and Light
Lena
Oh so true 😀
😉 xx
Too much information… lol.. 🙂 You are not backwards in coming forward Lena. For me personna’s are exactly that… personna’s.
So easy to develop particularly with tecnnology at the point it is at now…like if just burped loudly & longly… or farted… you know, one of those real room dispersers, how would you know ?
It’s not like we are sitting together at a table with a person or persons going for a job interview as a waiter in some high class restaurant with our best etiquette suits smothering or perhaps hiding? what we are really like, though part of a job (with others) I had once was to sift through lies & bullshit all the way to the courtroom… not saying I was or am an expert though it was interesting as well as somewhat sickening at some of the stuff that was eventually uncovered.
Anyway that’s way in the past.
I believe you are a real person & just tell the (In)Formation as it is. I do like ‘some’ of this social networking stuff, though much of it I take with a grain of salt … (I don’t even like salt..never have, though some people seem to like to have a bit of food with it).. like who the hell wants to know that?
“When the I Ching tells me off”… I remember reading that one… nice touch!
In regards to the dumbing down :
Did we stumble or were we pushed.?
You and i, my dear, stumbled and got up, were pushed, yet fought back… 😉 I always remember though it’s not i – but Something giving me a hand when i fall and holding me when i am pushed ❤
But the thing is that we are not obliged to prove anything to anyone, it's too funny this idiotic pressure to reveal of yourself what you don't want to… Nope – you are the director of your channel, if i like – i stick to it (to you), if i don't – i move on, c'mmon it is indeed that simple. Picking one's nose in public doesn't mean they are "real", it means they don't have manners 😉
❤ u xx
I am putting the pieces of the puzzle of inner and outer together for decades. Zen, Krishnamurti, Jungian thought. The particular piece by Tarnas: Is the Modern Psyche Undergoing a Rite of Passage hit me, when I read your post today, as well as watched the world news. Blessings, and Happy New Year to you!
“Human knowledge is radically interpretive. The world is in some essential sense a construct. There are no persoective-independent facts. Every act of perception and cognition is contingent, mediated, situated, contextual, theory-soaked. Meaning is rendered by the mind an cannot be assumed to inhere in the object, in the world beyond the mind, for that world can never be contacted without having already be saturated by the mind’s own nature. That world cannot be justifiably postulated. Radical uncertainty prevails, for in the end what one knows and experiences is to an indeterminate extent a projection.” Richard Tarnas, Jungian cultural historian
I am afraid I also have to show my male mind and admit I first started to chuckle on your ”too much information” line…
I sincerely wish I understood The Master and Margerita, I keep trying, its rather unnerving not grasping the full irony. But I caught the full depth of meaning to this post: the pathetic TV host/reality nonety is the tip of the iceberg I fear. And at least some of the dumbing down is deliberate distraction.
Sweet, i am far from sure i understand Master and Margarita… i simply love it. As per the dumbing down… We won’t let them. 😉 xxxx
I’ll try again then! I liked the fact you were at the park bench itself. Very nice touch. I used to know a Polish doctor who loved the book too. My soul is missing something..
it misses me? 😉 xx
Exactly Lena…”Manners”
Both on & off line, they cost nothing though a lack of them sure does cast a lot 🙂
You are surely and sorely missed between each post and comment you make, that is sure! She need not even question that!
Hi! I hope it’s OK to like your blog, even if I have no clue why it’s 5773. I’ll try to be sarcastic once in a while.
Thanks! I like your blog too, am following 😉 It’s the year 5773 by Hebrew calendar which is lunar-solar & mostly used for religious observances; at two days ago was Jewish New Year- there are both dates in the post, Western and Hebrew 😉
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