A good find, many thanks. Will stop by again. This tied in nicely with my current reading of Invented Reality (a nice companion piece to Chomsky's Manufactured Consent). The only complaint I have with Oblomov is the position of privilege he was able to utilise to assume his 'position' of rest. His needs all met, he had the time to contemplate and consider. I get the message nevertheless and will find a copy and read it. Again, thank you this, a real post-christmas treat
A good point about his privilege: having Oblomovitis certainly implies a certain amount of privilege--or maybe privilege is a precursor to the full-blown "disease." And thanks for the tip on Invented Reality! I'm a fan of Manufactured Consent :)
It's easy to never leave a project unfinished. You can successfully not start one, if you lounge around in pajamas all the time. Two line items that cancel out. If you ignore the other ones, they also won't matter. No problems, therefore no worries.
My love of 19th century Russian literature and the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m dating Oblomov; I now understand why the algorithm brought me here. And I think in our new techno-feudalist state, we will be able to appreciate the concepts of serfdom illustrated in this novel. Thank you for the recommendation!
@@AisleofMisfitBooksIt already has. We in the 95% own nothing like the serfs, and work our whole lives for the profit of the rich ruling class 5%. Our democracy has devolved into a corrupt pantomime that serves to camouflage the privilege of the wealthy ruling oligarchy. Serfdom has made a return. We own nothing of substance and lease more and more all the time. We can barely buy a physical book copy (like Oblomov) anymore these days without someone trying to coerce us to choose digital “IP” instead. We’ll own nothing … and be happy 😮
I haven't read the novel and I'm unlikely to because my attention span and focus has been decimated by my compulsive use of the internet for novel information. However, Oblimov's point about all this frantic striving and achieving being for the purpose of some day relaxing resonates with me. I'm not sure if the novel refutes this, or his friend does in that conversation, but it seems to me to be a pretty valid point. My life is not entirely unlike Obli's, through a bit of fate and some work (but not too much) I have just enough to get by without doing much. When I think about what I believe about the universe I don't see much point in doing anything I'm not inspired to do from within or forced to do by circumstance. I do have motivation to do some things and I have an internal motivation that makes me want to finish things I start- but sometimes even that doesn't work out. In 50,0000 years how much will anything I do matter to any other living being? In fact my actions now may have effects that ripple out that long, but chaos and the rule of unintended consequences says that I cannot predict what the consequences would be. So in the end, why do anything that doesn't make you happy? I do think maybe he should have told his girlfriend that "we'll try this till you get sick of me and then I will set you free". That seems like a better approach to me.
I’m glad it resonated with you-it certainly does with me. You’re so right-we have all this information & entertainment at our fingertips, but at the cost of our attention spans. His relationship with Olga is the most frustrating part of it for me, he doesn’t truly give it a chance-but that’s part of him, part of his Oblomovitis. Thanks for sharing! :)
Oblomov is an outstanding but simultaneously so pessimistic novel that I had to force myself to get to the terrible end of that amoeba-like person. But I agree that it is as relevant today as it was in the 19th-century Russian Empire.
(before I get censored!) The Cure? ANSWER - one or two hours with a Romanian Gypsy girl. (For the benefit of Americans, and Romanian Gypsies, This is a joke)
Oblomonove is fantastic a modern semi equivalent is the confederacy of dunces both brilliant. In both books both parents were semi responsable for lives lived in both books . PS what was the other book you showed please?
You’re right, Confederacy is similar in a lot of ways-and brilliant! The other book is my all-time favorite novel, Anna Karenina (sorry, thought it was clear). Didn’t want her getting miffed with me :)
It does! Also oblivious, which he often is, and obstinate, which he definitely is. I don't know Russian but apparently it means, or at least shares a root with, "fragment."
But dude!!! We’re the serfs. We are not Oblomov; 14:50 Oblomov is a member of the aristocratic ruling class of middle 19th century Russia; a lower member of this class for sure. But he is one nevertheless. Russia during Oblomov’s time was not yet industrialized or even significantly capitalist. It was a highly static rigid economically hierarchical society with a social class structure that firmly separated the peasant 95% that did all the work from the rich and powerful. Kind of like today; but without our pantomime of capitalist moderated democracy. Oblomov is a member of the landed aristocracy; the Russian economic ruling class. Most readers of the book today under U.S. lead neoliberal capitalism aren’t members of the economic ruling class at all. We’re the working class serfs … the 95% that own little or nothing; we just live in a ruling class bourgeois culture. We don’t own land or other property; most of us don’t even have enough saved to last two weeks without a job. If we’re alienated like Oblomov it’s because of the nature of the soul destroying capitalist work we do which we toil away at but achieve little or nothing of lasting value from doing. It’s not because of the fact we don’t need to work at all, like Oblomov. He doesn’t need to do anything even to feed himself; his land produces his income and his serfs and servants tend to him. It’s possible to become alienated from existence in this life one can see from Oblomov; but it’s not the same at all as what we today experience as working class people who own nothing, have not savings, and certainly have no serfs or servants. Come on. Get a grip. We are not Oblomov. We can relate to some of his emotions; but we are not privileged like he is by any means. It’s irresponsible to say we are. Unless of course you’re part of the economic ruling class today … people of the top 5% of wealth holders … people whose worth can be measured on the multiples of millions of dollars or more. That is who Oblomov is. Not working people; no matter how alienated we might feel. We’re more like the serfs which we never hear from in Oblomov. Please don’t equate us with him or say Elon Musk has a point about people who want to lay on their couches are lazy. The f****r. There’s tens of thousands of rich Oblomovs to be found … the feckless sons and daughters of rich men lazing about on yachts and in exclusive resort towns around the world sending out the occasional Instagram photos of themselves in expensive clothes you run across … and wonder who they are or what they do. That’s today’s Oblomov. Not a working class person with no girlfriend who hates his job.
Oof, it's true, what you're saying is true. Being a Russian novel from the 19th century, Oblomov of course doesn't map directly to 21st century western society. When I say "he's me, he's you," I meant more in the personal sense, of how motivation to take action, to change--be it personal, or political--can be hard to come by, for any one. Like you said, "we can relate to some of his emotions, [even though] we are not privileged like he is." Trying to entice a reader to take a chance on a pretty obscure book. Did not mean to offend, or to assume that all viewers are from a certain economic background or privilege. I had a section that got cut due to time where I said that the truly lazy thing for Oblomov to do would be to conform, do what's expected of him, maximize profits from his estate ("passive income... in 1-2 hours a week!"), buy a government sinecure, buy a box at the opera and a villa on the Crimea, get married, have kids, etc. But he does none of that, and when he tries to follow Stolz around for a week, at the end he's like, f this, no way. Not because it's hard, but because it's so superficial. I might argue that the personal "self-sabotage" in his relationship with Olga is due to an internal guilt--I'm not worthy of this love, any more than I am worthy of this privilege. But that might be reading into it a bit much... :) Great points, thank you for making them!
Commenting for the algorithm. I am a long time oblomotivis sufferer , so of course I could not be bothered to write more.
Haha, been there myself, all too often-I appreciate the effort! :)
my serfs respect me just fine
Haha--then you have my respect as well! Cheers
A good find, many thanks. Will stop by again. This tied in nicely with my current reading of Invented Reality (a nice companion piece to Chomsky's Manufactured Consent). The only complaint I have with Oblomov is the position of privilege he was able to utilise to assume his 'position' of rest. His needs all met, he had the time to contemplate and consider. I get the message nevertheless and will find a copy and read it. Again, thank you this, a real post-christmas treat
A good point about his privilege: having Oblomovitis certainly implies a certain amount of privilege--or maybe privilege is a precursor to the full-blown "disease." And thanks for the tip on Invented Reality! I'm a fan of Manufactured Consent :)
Всем привет! С вами славный друже Обломов!
добро пожаловать. Welcome! :)
It's easy to never leave a project unfinished. You can successfully not start one, if you lounge around in pajamas all the time. Two line items that cancel out. If you ignore the other ones, they also won't matter. No problems, therefore no worries.
Oh no! You have it!! ;)
great video
Thank you! Glad you liked it
My love of 19th century Russian literature and the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m dating Oblomov; I now understand why the algorithm brought me here.
And I think in our new techno-feudalist state, we will be able to appreciate the concepts of serfdom illustrated in this novel.
Thank you for the recommendation!
You're very welcome--and yeah, let's hope serfdom doesn't make a comeback... Good luck dating Oblomov! ;)
@@AisleofMisfitBooksIt already has. We in the 95% own nothing like the serfs, and work our whole lives for the profit of the rich ruling class 5%. Our democracy has devolved into a corrupt pantomime that serves to camouflage the privilege of the wealthy ruling oligarchy.
Serfdom has made a return. We own nothing of substance and lease more and more all the time. We can barely buy a physical book copy (like Oblomov) anymore these days without someone trying to coerce us to choose digital “IP” instead. We’ll own nothing … and be happy 😮
Best intro yet!
Hehe thanks! It was fun to make :)
Cool video, would have never found thid book if it wasn’t for this
Awesome, glad to hear it! That’s the aim of the channel :)
I haven't read the novel and I'm unlikely to because my attention span and focus has been decimated by my compulsive use of the internet for novel information. However, Oblimov's point about all this frantic striving and achieving being for the purpose of some day relaxing resonates with me. I'm not sure if the novel refutes this, or his friend does in that conversation, but it seems to me to be a pretty valid point.
My life is not entirely unlike Obli's, through a bit of fate and some work (but not too much) I have just enough to get by without doing much. When I think about what I believe about the universe I don't see much point in doing anything I'm not inspired to do from within or forced to do by circumstance. I do have motivation to do some things and I have an internal motivation that makes me want to finish things I start- but sometimes even that doesn't work out.
In 50,0000 years how much will anything I do matter to any other living being? In fact my actions now may have effects that ripple out that long, but chaos and the rule of unintended consequences says that I cannot predict what the consequences would be. So in the end, why do anything that doesn't make you happy?
I do think maybe he should have told his girlfriend that "we'll try this till you get sick of me and then I will set you free". That seems like a better approach to me.
I’m glad it resonated with you-it certainly does with me. You’re so right-we have all this information & entertainment at our fingertips, but at the cost of our attention spans. His relationship with Olga is the most frustrating part of it for me, he doesn’t truly give it a chance-but that’s part of him, part of his Oblomovitis. Thanks for sharing! :)
Oblomov is an outstanding but simultaneously so pessimistic novel that I had to force myself to get to the terrible end of that amoeba-like person. But I agree that it is as relevant today as it was in the 19th-century Russian Empire.
I didn’t find it quite as pessimistic, but totally get where you’re coming from. Thanks for sharing!
Oblomov sounds depressed to me. Intriguing video, will definitely read this!
Then I've done my job! :) Thank you!
(before I get censored!) The Cure? ANSWER - one or two hours with a Romanian Gypsy girl. (For the benefit of Americans, and Romanian Gypsies, This is a joke)
hehe, I can neither confirm nor deny!
Oblomonove is fantastic a modern semi equivalent is the confederacy of dunces both brilliant. In both books both parents were semi responsable for lives lived in both books . PS what was the other book you showed please?
You’re right, Confederacy is similar in a lot of ways-and brilliant! The other book is my all-time favorite novel, Anna Karenina (sorry, thought it was clear). Didn’t want her getting miffed with me :)
Thanks happy new year to you .🙂peace.
@ Happy new year!
Oblomov sounds like oubliér the French word for "to forget".
It does! Also oblivious, which he often is, and obstinate, which he definitely is. I don't know Russian but apparently it means, or at least shares a root with, "fragment."
@@AisleofMisfitBooks Fragment --> Obliviate --> Oblivious...
I didn't check this, it just "feels right".
3/6
hehe--better than 5/6! :)
But dude!!! We’re the serfs. We are not Oblomov; 14:50 Oblomov is a member of the aristocratic ruling class of middle 19th century Russia; a lower member of this class for sure. But he is one nevertheless. Russia during Oblomov’s time was not yet industrialized or even significantly capitalist. It was a highly static rigid economically hierarchical society with a social class structure that firmly separated the peasant 95% that did all the work from the rich and powerful. Kind of like today; but without our pantomime of capitalist moderated democracy. Oblomov is a member of the landed aristocracy; the Russian economic ruling class. Most readers of the book today under U.S. lead neoliberal capitalism aren’t members of the economic ruling class at all. We’re the working class serfs … the 95% that own little or nothing; we just live in a ruling class bourgeois culture. We don’t own land or other property; most of us don’t even have enough saved to last two weeks without a job. If we’re alienated like Oblomov it’s because of the nature of the soul destroying capitalist work we do which we toil away at but achieve little or nothing of lasting value from doing. It’s not because of the fact we don’t need to work at all, like Oblomov. He doesn’t need to do anything even to feed himself; his land produces his income and his serfs and servants tend to him. It’s possible to become alienated from existence in this life one can see from Oblomov; but it’s not the same at all as what we today experience as working class people who own nothing, have not savings, and certainly have no serfs or servants. Come on. Get a grip. We are not Oblomov. We can relate to some of his emotions; but we are not privileged like he is by any means. It’s irresponsible to say we are. Unless of course you’re part of the economic ruling class today … people of the top 5% of wealth holders … people whose worth can be measured on the multiples of millions of dollars or more. That is who Oblomov is. Not working people; no matter how alienated we might feel.
We’re more like the serfs which we never hear from in Oblomov. Please don’t equate us with him or say Elon Musk has a point about people who want to lay on their couches are lazy. The f****r. There’s tens of thousands of rich Oblomovs to be found … the feckless sons and daughters of rich men lazing about on yachts and in exclusive resort towns around the world sending out the occasional Instagram photos of themselves in expensive clothes you run across … and wonder who they are or what they do. That’s today’s Oblomov. Not a working class person with no girlfriend who hates his job.
Oof, it's true, what you're saying is true. Being a Russian novel from the 19th century, Oblomov of course doesn't map directly to 21st century western society. When I say "he's me, he's you," I meant more in the personal sense, of how motivation to take action, to change--be it personal, or political--can be hard to come by, for any one. Like you said, "we can relate to some of his emotions, [even though] we are not privileged like he is." Trying to entice a reader to take a chance on a pretty obscure book. Did not mean to offend, or to assume that all viewers are from a certain economic background or privilege.
I had a section that got cut due to time where I said that the truly lazy thing for Oblomov to do would be to conform, do what's expected of him, maximize profits from his estate ("passive income... in 1-2 hours a week!"), buy a government sinecure, buy a box at the opera and a villa on the Crimea, get married, have kids, etc. But he does none of that, and when he tries to follow Stolz around for a week, at the end he's like, f this, no way. Not because it's hard, but because it's so superficial.
I might argue that the personal "self-sabotage" in his relationship with Olga is due to an internal guilt--I'm not worthy of this love, any more than I am worthy of this privilege. But that might be reading into it a bit much... :)
Great points, thank you for making them!