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May 3, 2005
Why is O Henry so popular in Russia?
Translation as tragedy and farce, by Mischa Gabowitz.
In terms of cultural exchange, the old adage that Russia is both a European and an Asian country is clearly false: it is definitely European - a provincial European country, to be exact, since non-European literatures are much better represented in the United Kingdom, France or Germany than in Russia.
I give you also Vladimir Dubisskiy's Living On The Edge, an homage to his uncle Nick, who died in his Chernobyl laboratory - tangentially relevant, because he loved O. Henry, and because I was always amused by the ubiquity, in Russian bookstores, of O. Henry anthologies and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. (I suppose the Soviets encouraged the translation of these works because they contained the least possible amount of politically sensitive material. Also, O. Henry does seem to deal inordinately with the miserable lives of the capitalist poor.)
Posted by michele at May 3, 2005 3:21 PM