fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2580 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2580 ⌋

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So, Russia is like, enormous. What kind of feelings of nationalism, or "togetherness" do people feel? Is everywhere "just as Russian" as other areas? Are there stereotypes of people in certain areas?

That's a really difficult question, mostly because I'm a bit wtf about the concept of patriotism. I do appear to be an exception, but I can never understand the idea of "national pride"... or "togetherness"... I'm a single person, an individual, I share no part of myself with total strangers who happen to speak the same language. Sometimes it is literally the only thing we have in common.

But of course the language does have its peculiarities, and, though I'm no fan of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, these peculiarities are often undeniably cultural. This is, for example, a kind of culturual/linguistic environment that produced three dictionary volumes worth of obscene words, a dozen of wonderful obscene "Eugene Onegin" pastiches, the Barkoviana cycle, and a dude who got his PhD by studying toilet graffitis. The Russian brand of humour is rich in obscenities. It is partially due to the Soviet legacy, I guess - swearing is like a harmless form of revolt against the system. Speaking of which: the Soviet cultural legacy is a huuuge thing. The tropes unique to the Soviet cinematograph and literature, people's experiences, some attitudes (often reshaped and reinterpreted).

And they say that the essense of everything culturally Russian - our ame slave - is Dostoevsky. Meaning that the Russians have this flair of emotional tension about them and sometimes act like they're in a Greek tragedy.

But if we are speaking of patriotism as such? The kind of patriotism I've seen is really crude and weird. I tend to avoid it. I can understand cultural pride, certainly (we did have the pure awesomeness that was Pushkin <333 And a hellton of obscure 20th century writers <33), and the feeling of being a member of a "club" who sees all the hidden implications that have to do with culture and mindset, but patriotic feelings in their pure form kind of scare me.

When people ask me as to what these "hidden implications" are, btw, I always think of Tale of Tales - an animated film by Yuri Norshtein. This is a story about a war childhood. To understand this, IMO, you have to be Russian. (the Soviet cultural legacy, remember? And literature allusions.)

DA

Oh wow, I saw part of Tale of Tales last month as part of an animation exhibit touring the US. It was part of the exhibit with partially-open booths that played different works on a loop, so I came in somewhere in the middle and couldn't quite parse what was going on. But then the dance hall scene happened and... wow. (One set of grandparents lived in a small town that became Axis-occupied, so while I'm living a comfortable distance away from that, it gave me a similar chill to the stories we were told.) Even though I don't doubt I lost a broad level of interpretation without having a Russian cultural or literary background, what I saw was intensely memorable.

Aw, I'm happy you liked it :)) It is obviously possible to enjoy even without having the full understanding of the context (and of course there are many nations that were affected by the War, so there are similar cultural motifs to be found elsewhere). Plus, Norshtein is my favourite film-maker.

SA

And as to stereotypes - no, not really. In our mind, we are more or less the same nation. Although the Moscow citizens do have these archetypal images of "rural folks" in their imagination - the kind of folks who stress every "o" in their speech (whilst the Muscovites usually leave it unstressed so that it sounds like "ah"), paint their lips bright (in the case of women), dye their hair with bad dye, and can't behave themselves.

[ SECRET POST #2580 ]

Re: Russia (seems like we're doing countries)

Re: Russia (seems like we're doing countries)

Re: Russia (seems like we're doing countries)

Re: Russia (seems like we're doing countries)

Re: Russia (seems like we're doing countries)