I'm looking to being reading the works of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but not sure where to start. I'm looking at either "The Gulag Archipelago" as a non-fiction start, or at "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" for fiction.
Are either of these good starts for him? What would be a general path to take in reading his works? If there's a chart out there somewhere, that would also be appreciated.
Yea those are good starts, then continue with 200 years with them
Two Hundred Years Together*
lol translation never
It's supposed to be out next year
Let’s hope it isn’t corrupted, where passages are obfuscated or outright removed from the book. I hope that maybe there could be some russian guy out there who can could verify if the translation is legit/accurate to the original 200 Years Together, because otherwise, we wouldn’t really know.
Is the edition by "The Incorrect Library" shit?
Just read what he wrote in chronological order. Stop being obsessed by reading orders and fricking charts, this site has infected your brain.
The problem is that sometimes an author may have a preferred order different from the order in which they wrote them. Think Asimov and the Foundation series, for instance. I don't know if that would have been the case with Solzhenitsyn, but it wouldn't hurt to have asked.
Why don't you check Solzhenitsyn's website? Maybe he made a blog post about his preferred reading order.
Just go read Cancer Ward. It's a good book.
ok, thanks
Cancer Ward is my favorite book of all time. Read it, anon, you won’t regret it. I would suggest you read One Day in the Life first if you’ve never read prison camp literature, but if you have already had your fill and want something different, I would absolutely suggest Cancer Ward. Either way, eventually get to Cancer Ward.
I think with everything considered from this thread, I’ll just buy One Day and Gulag Arch to start, and then read Cancer Ward or 200 Years Together at some point afterwards. Thanks to all.
>
His corpus is not that big though. If you are looking for a quick fix BC you have to sign in essay in a week, I'd say go with Gulag Archipelago. Its defining, solid and a page turner too. If not, I'd say start with GA anyway. One day in a life seemed somehow bleak though.
I suppose that was the intent, right? I'm also a really big fan of Dostoevsky, so melancholic Russians don't repel me.
I started with The Gulag Archipelago, and despite seeming heavy both due to subject matter and due to sheer size, I think it's a nice gateway to his writing. The reason is that The Gulag Archipelago early chapters are an exceptionally good introduction to the rest of the book.
Within the first 60 pages or so, you're introduced with the central thesis of the book, the history surrounding it, and Solzhenitsyn's conclusions about human nature. You get a healthy dose of the half-black humour and wit that he was well-known for, and plenty of obscure Gulag jargon to whet your whistle. The rest of the book just takes its sweet time in catching up.
So that's what I would recommend. Read the early chapters of The Gulag Archipelago. Once you do that, you'll probably already have figured out whether you like him as a writer or not, whether you're interested in Gulag history, or would rather read one of his fictions, etc.
Sounds like solid advice anon, I'll start with Gulag Archipelago then. Thanks.
Read the Gulag, then read The Oak and the Calf.
Шaлaмoвa лyчшe пoчитaй
Этo
>Just read 'and quiet flows the don'
Also a great suggestion
OP here, I just got back from a walk and MAN do I have a story for you guys:
> be me, going on a walk this afternoon
> walk down by the beach
> beach has one of those "give a book, get a book" things where there's a bunch of benches
> nice.png
> walk over to check it out and at first glance it has nothing special
> double take
> pic related is tucked neatly into the back on the bottom right
> holy shit
> immediately grab it
> open IQfy on my phone to post this
> do captcha
> says I'm banned for 20 days from all boards for making a post in /lgbt/ and trying to "evade ban"
> wtf.mp3
> finish my walk
> just get home right now
Guys, I just made this thread a day ago asking for Solzhenitsyn books to read, get told to read The Gulag Archipelago and I agree to read at 11 am today and then 4 hours later I find this book literally sitting on a shelf waiting for me to take it for free. Is this a sign, IQfy?
The range ban policy is somehow too strict, they should have used some kind of cookie based network metadata fingerprint. BC here in Europe everyone's using mobile internet, and although there's some IP address circulation, I usually after device reboot end up with range ban resulting from dilation troonpost on /soc/ . but mods would never change this BC it would make buying IQfy pass obsolete.
Yeah probably
I found One Day in the Life in one of those but didn't read it
Nice one, Anon. Baader-Meinhof shenanigans. Reality is stranger than fiction. Enjoy.
We do a IQfytle trolling
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, is a massive disappointment, it's really boring, compared to the gulag archipelago, so just read that.
It's a long read but it's fantastic
D'you think I'd get a better similar experience from Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead?
>Solzhenitsyn
Seeing how r̶e̶d̶d̶i̶t̶o̶r̶s̶ ̶ communists try and discount Solzhenitsyn is hilarious.
I just found a hardback of GA part 2 in the second hand store
>"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
Great book, and you could literally have read it twice over in the time this thread's been up.
Kind of a weird question as he has a very straightforward style. You can start anywhere. Personally I usually don’t go with a 1000 page book by an author I’ve never read but hey, that’s just me.
I think the anon who posted
has a good point: if he's right and the first 60 or so pages are the deciding factor as to whether I'll like him as an author at all, then I'll just put my eggs into that basket, and if it doesn't work out then I'll try One Day in the Life.
Cancer Ward and First Circle are better starting points. I'd suggest reading First Circle first because this is Solly's position vis-a-vis his society. Then Cancer Ward for the general function of the society. Then Day to understand how Solly differs from the average zek. Then finally read his fictional poetry of archipelago, but understand that it is a mythic hell for orthodox.
I love how this is quoted so approvingly, as if it isn't on the same level as some vapid Live Love Laugh prostitute would post on Facebook.
If you can't tell the two apart I don't what to tell you man
Everything looks equally shallow to a bugman.
>bugman.
I've gone from seeing this word a few times occasionally in 2018-2022 then suddenly I see it posted in every other thread.
Any reason for this?
Bunch of 'alt right' streamers/content creators picked up the term around 2 years ago. Their description of the term makes sense to me; lots of people enjoy blind consoomerism and reject anything that's difficult or has real meaning.
I love solzhenitsyn quotes because he got his way politically and as a direct result you can easily find thousands of videos of slavs blowing each other into chunks of meat in Ukraine. There's nothing quite as poetic as pairing "the maturity of the human soul" with the reality of telegram channels where dirlewanger sympathizers jack off to images of dead chechen conscripts.
>There's nothing quite as poetic as pairing "the maturity of the human soul" with the reality of telegram channels where dirlewanger sympathizers jack off to images of dead chechen conscripts.
I must say I enjoy the pairing of material prosperity whilst millions perish agonisingly slowly from starvation tbqhwyf
Whose material prosperity are you talking about here?
Gluing israeliteels on the sulcata in your family's pleasure garden doesn't really constitute physical work in my opinion.
It was created in reference to silicon valley technocrats who wanted to live in pods, but then the mentats decided that silicon valley is at least somewhat based because of Peter Thiel. The word shifted briefly to referring almost exclusively to chinese people, but then they decided that China was also somewhat based so now it's just pejorative for "liberal" or "outgroup member"
>slavs blowing each other into chunks of meat in Ukraine
>novelty
Anon, this must be bait but 'slavs killing off themselves' is nothing new, its as old as the world. Just read 'and quiet flows the don' or something. It has nothing to do with philosophical stance. More so with Solzhenytsin, a petit bourgeoise. I personally like him BC of similar values, BC I like to live peacefully and find amusement in physical work and book reading. I do not gamble, fight or engage any radical movement . But the bloodlust is for masses. Its really the irony of fate how muricans baited the slavs in this reciprocal killing spree without much effort.
>One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Good choice. I found it hugely therapeutic. I was suffering some chronic insomnia at the time, and thought I'd lose my marbles and my job. Alex put my pissy little problems into perspective. He'll do the same for you too.
I dont get why he called it "Gulag" archipelago, and not "prison" archipelago.
Its like naming your book "the JRCF archipelago" because you went to this place: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest_Joint_Regional_Correctional_Facility.
It's unnatural. Maybe he wanted it to sound more intimidating? For a guy with ukrainian ancestory, this sounds moronic.