Their Four Hearts by Vladimir Sorokin | BOOK REVIEW (feat. Max Lawton)
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- “Their Four Hearts” by Vladimir Sorokin, translated by Max Lawton
BUY IT HERE: amzn.to/3OlMvaX
First published until the title Сердца Четырех by Конец Века, 1994
First published in English by Dalkey Archive Press, 2022
Paperback, 209 pages
ISBN: 9781628973969
Goodreads: bit.ly/3A5k1Ov
Storygraph: bit.ly/3NkVsA6
Today's Episode in Audio: spoti.fi/3xYQraq
Sections:
00:00 Preamble
03:29 Vladimir Sorokin: A Brief History
07:38 Publication History
09:13 Plot & Satirical Intent
14:59 The Russian De Sade (feat. Max Lawton)
01:07:44 On Violence and Libido
01:15:21 The Aesthetics of Resistance
01:21:59 End Notes
Readings from p. 72, 116
Secondary Resources:
1. Vladimir Sorokin: bit.ly/3u1HlZI
2. The Shock Jock of Russian Letters: bit.ly/3OKtD5o
3. Moscow Conceptualists: bit.ly/3niUHNi
4. He Envisioned a Nightmare […] Living in One: nyti.ms/3ndQx9v
5. Vladimir Sorokin - Сердца Четырех: bit.ly/3AlbY0b
6. Socialist Realism: bit.ly/3NmN0jB
7. Interview with Max Lawton: bit.ly/3uq7oKj
8. Vladimir Putin […] Power: bit.ly/3xXMmmY
9. Camille Paglia - Sexual Personae: bit.ly/3HZOxeA
10. Long Live Socialist Realism: bit.ly/3NrbqZb
My thanks to Dalkey Archive Press for the review copy, and to Max Lawton for his time and attention.
Max Lawton on Beyond the Zero: bit.ly/3NnyaJQ
Terra Nostra Group Read Discord: / discord
INSTAGRAM: / wastemailinglist
TWITTER: / wastemailing
EMAIL: wastemailinglist@gmail.com
SUBSTACK: wastemailinglist.substack.com/
ANCHOR.FM: anchor.fm/wastemailinglist
BEYOND THE ZERO INTERVIEW: bit.ly/36vqoyd
Music: “I Hate That” by ThisKidsNoGood
/ thiskidsnogood
This was absolutely fantastic, Seth. Well done. Thank you both for such a great discussion and analysis! This definitely helped me wrap my head around T4H and only made me more excited for Telluria, etc.
Telluria is one I'm keen to chase down as well! I'm hoping to see more of his transgressive work find an audience as well. Appreciate your viewership Sean!
Thanks for going the extra mile and interviewing Max for this. I love how the channel has grown. You're really going the extra mile.
Thank you for the kind words! Interviews aren't going to be the default for this channel, but I plan to include them where I feel people could benefit from there. I have two more lined up for the near future to keep an eye out for.
Curiosity officially tickled. Got Day of the Oprichnik on my shelf but I well definitely get my hands on T4H as soon as I can. Wonderful conversation.
Thanks Mateo! I'm glad you got something out of it. It was a privilege to get someone who worked so closely on the novel in for a chat. Max is incredibly intelligent and helped me understand the book much better myself.
@@wastemailinglist726 T4H arrived this week in the mail and I have been completely sucked in by it’s oddly addictive whatthefuckness. The insights offered in this video have MOST DEFINITELY enriched the reading experience but I still feel like there is a depth beneath the dire disgust that is just about escaping me. A critical work on T4H and Sorokin’s oeuvre in general would be an absolute gem, if there is any available.
@@mateojaramilloamaya4048 "Whatthefuckness" is an excellent way to characterise it. The critical work I would point you toward is Ilya Kalinin's paper "The Blue Lard of Language". While it's mainly addressing his other novel Blue Lard, the author examines the most substantive modus operandi that underlies his body of work as a whole. I'd highly recommend it. It's available on Academia .edu for free. Just need a free account - no uni institution login necessary
I found Sorokin last summer while looking for authors from the latter part of the Soviet Union. There's a wealth of translated Socialist Realist books from the 20s and 30s but it's been hard to find good stuff from the 70s and 80s. At the beginning of the year I decided to make reading Sorokin a priority for this year. I read Day of the Oprichnik and Ice Trilogy before really realizing how much the rest of the world would take an interest in Sorokin as well. Learning of all of these new translations from Max has been great and I'm highly anticipating reading Their Four Hearts and Telluria. Seeing others talk about him online has been great to help get a better understanding of him as an author and I really appreciate this interview. Sorokin has also become a sort of Russian cultural authority since the Russian War on Ukraine began. Reading his article in the Guardian or seeing his appearances on DW News show his influence as a sort of ambassador for the west. 2022 really has been the year of Sorokin and it feels like it's only the beginning.
I have incredibly high hopes for him acting as a bastion of contemporary Russian literature to the English speaking world. I want to read Ice badly but I'm going to wait until I've finished a few of his other books before I tackle that one. Appreciate your insights!
Привет. I'm from Russia. Thank you very much!
A Vegemite jumper ? Now I’m listening closely
I follow you on the Twitters and was curious if you were going to do a review on "The Unauthorized Biography of Ezra Maas"
Most definitely. In the next couple of videos. With a very special guest as well
who’s the writer that lawton mentions at 0:30:44? ive been trying to discover more transgressive lit and sorokin definitely fits the bill, but lawton’s namedrop flickered a curiousity in me that i can’t shake. lmk
Guyotat :)
To bring some owls to Athens - there's a great study about Russian/Soviet socialist realism:
Katerina Clark (Yale) - The Soviet Novel: History As Ritual (3rd edition ISBN 978-0253060488)
A truly fascinating read which has greatly enhanced (better: corrected) my understanding of this genre - the "realism" part of the term can be very misleading. I cannot recommend the book enough.