Time spent with ex-pats, both in alive and written form.

This morning I went to the recording studio at Sadovaya to help William out -- even though he is currently at a hunting lodge in Scotland, rumor has it -- and record some articles for the CD for the next issue of Cool! English. This will now be the second issue that you can hear my lovely (oh god how I hate to listen to recordings of myself) voice reading out loud witty and "cool!" articles written by native English speakers. This is in addition to all those podcasts that are supposedly up on the Cool! English website already. Supposedly. [Oh, wait, after that snide second supposedly I checked the website and they are there. You can hear me on Podcast #8.]

But as William was out of town, another Northern British man was in charge -- Peter -- and in the process I got to meet two other ex-pats who William ropes into recording sometimes -- Alice and Doug. Peter has been in St. Petersburg for twelve years and used to work at the consulate and now lectures sometimes but is currently involved in voicing a Russian miniseries about Peter the Great going to English or something. He told us that his character got murdered at one point and it was quite the acting challenge (though you don't see Peter in this serial, he just does the voice for the Russian actor who, you know, has a Russian accent). Doug is from New York and looks and reminds me of Bobby Evans from FI -- how strange are the likeness I find in this city, today I also saw the Russian version of Melissa Weihmayer, and I've already seen a Russian Eddie Gallese and Will Widen ("one of those random likenesses as pointless as a bad pun" -- Nabokov, Pnin, see below) -- and is a "long term" resident of Petersburg, owning and operating a bar in the city according to Peter. As for Alice, she is a soft-spoken British woman has been in Russia on and off for two years, teaching English in Irkutsk and working as an editor for Cool! English for a while. Talking to them all was so interesting to me because I can't hear enough stories of how the most random, eclectic group of ex-patriots leave their various countries and end up in St. Petersburg. Russia isn't exactly one of those countries that people just pick up and move to and start a new life like that. It's also never gets old for me to hear about how people started studying Russian in general; often it's just "well, I liked Russian literature...." but sometimes you get some really wild reasons.

So that was my morning. My afternoon involved разговор class and then doing some work at Smolny during the afternoon because I get so distracted trying to do work at home when I have photos to edit and upload and tea to drink and Russian to speak with Olga. I did my grammar homework there, okay, whatever, boring, no offense Ludmilia Petrovna, but then I started reading Pnin by Nabokov which I have to read for Bakhtin class on Friday afternoon and.... !!!!

I am ashamed to admit as a Russian language and literature major -- especially one at Wellesley College, where he founded the Russian department -- that I still had not read any Nabokov until I started Pnin this afternoon. Well. Well. WELL. I certainly see what all the fuss is about. You know, for all I have been reading lately I haven't really hit anything that I literally have not been able to put down in a while, but this afternoon I became totally engrossed in Nabokov's style full of beautiful little details that are more observant and perceptive and pure than any writer I have maybe ever read. I am in love. I took Lolita out of the 416's library to start reading immediately after I finish Pnin tonight -- which I will finish tonight, I don't care if I am up until 5am, though I don't think will be the case as I only have about 40 pages left. The way Nabokov decribes such ordinary, plain things is so gorgeous -- especially how his descriptions are not flowery and romantic, but straightforward and simple. Things such as describing Professor Pnin swimming with a "rhythmical splutter" or describing insomnia as "when the insomniac longs for a third side after trying the two he has." And he is FUNNY, especially when it comes to details about Russians trying to speak English or English-speakers trying to pronounce Russian names or things about Russian/American culture which I find especially hilarious now that I understand them so intimately. And just all the intensely specific details he chooses to include -- such as full names of students in the class or the definition of the word "heart" as according to the dictionary found in Pnin's bag -- please me so much. I am so happy reading this. I love it. I am in love. AND AND AND AND AND the best part is that Nabokov -- or at least his characters in this novella -- LOVE TOLSTOY. TAKE THAT, BAKHTIN CLASS. I can't wait to talk about that on Friday and see what all the ardent "Tolstoy-is-so-bad-it's-good-like-Videodrome" Dostoevsky fans have to say about that. SO THERE. Nabokov has made me so happy to be a Russian major again, even though he wrote both Lolita and Pnin in English originally -- which brings me to another thing. Lauren and I were talking today about how beautiful Nabokov's language is in the things we have read, but what we have read has only been what he originally wrote in English and he supposedly described writing in English as "writing with one hand cut off." If he felt so stifled writing in English, can you even comprehend what his Russian writing must be like? Oh my god. I am in love. I have never been so proud to be part of the Wellesley College Russian department before in my life. I can't wait to take Weiner's Nabokov class when I return senior year.

Yeah, so enough writing about Nabokov. I'm going to go finish Pnin. Farewell. But first I am going to leave you with some Nabokov quotes I found on the internet. God, I have become such a fangirl in my old age.

"Caress the detail, the divine detail."

"Genius is an African who dreams up snow."

"A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual."

"The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind."

"Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know." TRUE. Maybe I'll mention this one on Friday.