The Talnikov Family by Avdotya Panaeva (w/ translator Fiona Bell)
Cameron sits down with Fiona Bell to talk about her translation of Avdotya Panaeva's The Talnikov Family, covering its deployment of defamiliarization, the Russian racial imaginary, and purported universality.
Office Hours - Is Tolstoy still relevant?
Major themes: Raskolnikov the rap god, The future of art, Tricking PBS
The UnSimple by Taras Prokhasko
Major themes: We can never escape Benedict Anderson, Bai-narrative, Quasi-history
Office Hours - Why don't straight men read novels?
Major themes: A.I. bait, straight men and novels, TikTok killed the author-star
Strike! (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein
Major themes: Cow slaughter, Influencing the audience, Everything is montage
The Tears & Smiles of Things by Sodomora (w/ translators Dr. Roman Ivashkiv and Sabrina Jaszi)
Major themes: Reading antiquity, Tears and smiles, Translating translators