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/lit/ - Literature

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19998131 No.19998131 [Reply] [Original]

What would be a few books to help me understand the russian mind? and the chinese mind, while we are at it

>> No.19998164

>>19998131
Unironically the short stories of Anton Chekhov and Lermontov's A hero of our time.

>> No.19998222

>>19998164
thanks

>> No.19998245

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_soul

The term "Russian soul" (also great Russian soul, mystifying Russian soul; Russian: pyccкaя дyшa, russkaya dusha or pyccкий дyх, russkiy dukh) has been used in literature in reference to the uniqueness of the Russian national identity.[1] The writings of many Russian writers such as Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky offer descriptions of the Russian soul

>> No.19999481

>>19998131
The Chinese have been progressively dumbed down since the cultural revolution and because of Orwellian control over language they only have the mental tools to understand Xi Xingping thought.

>> No.19999544

>>19999481
Xi is comfy. Westerners often mistake his conniving nature for intelligence, but he's like the whinnie the pooh of conniving he's so cute.

>> No.19999549

>>19999481
This applies to Russia too, it pays to remember that both countries murdered their thinking classes in the 20th C. The very category of person that wrote 19th C Russian literature was annihilated by Stalin. For all Americans hate on their liberal elite, eliminating your elites results in zero meaningful culture being produced.

>> No.19999555
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19999555

>>19999549
>For all Americans hate on their liberal elite, eliminating your elites results in zero meaningful culture being produced.
Not if any of those elites are producing anything in the first place lamo.

>> No.19999651

>>19999555
he probably meant the intellectual elites, people who tend to be moderately wealthy, but massively influential in the field of culture and public opinion.

>> No.20000203

>>19998131
Turgenev, "Fathers and Sons" and full tome of "A Sportsman's Sketches".

>> No.20000232

>>19998131
I'm reading May Man Prevail? by Erich Fromm (1960), if you skip to the chapters about the Soviet Union it's a fantastic breakdown and critique.

Otherwise, Dosto, Tolstoy, Gogol obviously (Gogol's really funny)

>> No.20000545

>>19999549
Americas cultural exports were produced by emigrant Jews not the "liberal elites". And America doesn't really produce culture anymore.

>> No.20000586

>>19998131
Dead Souls is probably a good start, or The Overcoat for a shorter intro.
Then, of course, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.
From there I would jump right to Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (there's a 1970 film version that nails the "soul" and atmosphere of it)

>> No.20000594

>>19998131
Nikolai Berdyaev- The Russian Idea

>> No.20000741
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20000741

>>19998131

>> No.20000749
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20000749

>>19998131
.

>> No.20000755
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20000755

>The Russian mind
>The Chinese mind

>> No.20000795

>>20000545
>Americas cultural exports were produced by emigrant Jews
Can you provide some examples?
>America doesn't really produce culture anymore.
What's your definition of culture? Because if it's anything but the most high brow shit (which we also produce) then m8, we produce the ONLY culture.

>> No.20000811

>>19998131
You don't have the read the whole thing but Tragedy and Hope by Carrol Quigley does a very good job of investigating the historical and cultural background that colors the Russian psyche. They're bipolar nihilists.