:-)

Smart guy. The interviewer is sharp too. He challenges Yuri appropriately.

No wonder I couldn’t explain.

There are a number of places where English has two words and Ukrainian just one.

monkey, ape == mavpa
pumpkin, squash = harbuz

There are a number of places where it’s the opposite

blueberry, wild blueberry == chronytsia, loxyna
strawberry, wild strawberry == polunytsia, sunytsia
cherry, sour cherry == chereshnia, vyshnia

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8E_%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%8F%D1%82%D1%8C

ное 28 ноября 1866 года поэтом Фёдором Тютчевым:

This famous line is from a quatrain written in 1866 by Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev.

Умом Россию не понять,
Аршином общим не измерить:
У ней особенная стать —
В Россию можно только верить.

It ends “in Russia, you can only believe.”

Their bias against understanding is deep seeded.

If you want to see some crazy pictures, do a Google image search for Умом Россию не понять.

Fascinating! # of books published per year per capita in Europe.

Britain and Spanish are expected leaders — publishing for the entire English / Spanish market.

Czech, Belarus and Slovenia (!?) are surprisingly prominent.

Ukraine is last :-(. The market here is probably served by Russian and Belarussian publishers — same reason that Belgium ranks poorly — it’s served by German or French publishers.

https://jakubmarian.com/number-of-books-published-per-year-per-capita-by-country-in-europe/

voda = water
vodychka = little water

sobaka = dog
sobachka = little dog

lampa = lamp
lampochka = light bulb?!

Word of the Day for me: INIQUITY

immoral or grossly unfair behavior.
“a den of iniquity”

http://zbruc.eu/node/38963

Now many Russian speakers in Ukraine — who live primarily in the country’s east and in large cities — are demonstratively turning to Ukrainian as a badge of self-identification. A concise tutorial on how to switch from Russian to Ukrainian, written by a Kiev blogger, has earned thousands of shares and reposts. Patriotic Russian-speakers in Kiev and big eastern cities are pledging on social networks to speak Ukrainian to their children, hoping to make the next generation more fluent and natural speakers of their native tongue.

For the first time in decades, speaking Ukrainian is seen as fashionable rather than backward.

For the first time in decades, speaking Ukrainian is seen as fashionable rather than backward.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/26/why-ukrainians-are-speaking-more-ukrainian/

http://www.dubrova.if.ua/pro-galitski-matyuki/

http://shadowsofaforgottenworld.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-archaic-language-of-ukrainian.html

I think the point here is that Russian tends to be the odd one. I’m not sure how representative a set this is, though it certainly appeals to my intuition. :)

http://mova.ga/test/455/%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D2%91%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0-%D0%B0-%D1%87%D0%B8-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%B8-%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B7%D1%83%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%94%D1%82/

I’m memorizing this prayer (http://viranadiylybov.blogspot.com/2012/07/blog-post_3021.html), a version of the Nicene Creed, in preparation for becoming a god father. :)

Ugh. Agonizing literary interview.

How long will it be possible for censoring, dogmatic liberals to celebrate their victory over the censoring, dogmatic church via pornography? Isn’t it painfully obvious that the secular religion of post-modernism is guilty of all the same intolerance but without the excuse of being eugenic and civilization building.

http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/kevin-birmingham-the-most-dangerous-book-the-battle-for-james-joyces-ulysses-part-i

(off topic)

In an interview with French paper La Croix, Engdahl said that the “professionalisation” of the job of the writer, via grants and financial support, was having a negative effect on literature. “Even though I understand the temptation, I think it cuts writers off from society, and creates an unhealthy link with institutions,” he told La Croix. “Previously, writers would work as taxi drivers, clerks, secretaries and waiters to make a living. Samuel Beckett and many others lived like this. It was hard – but they fed themselves, from a literary perspective.”

Engdahl, who together with his fellow members of the 18-strong academy is preparing to select the winner of this year’s Nobel literature award, and announce the choice on Thursday, 9 October, said it was on “our western side that there is a problem, because when reading many writers from Asia and Africa, one finds a certain liberty again”.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/07/creative-writing-killing-western-literature-nobel-judge-horace-engdahl

Even though the Iowa Writers’ Workshop made for two of the best years of my life, I agree with his criticism:

“[The system of academic grants] cuts writers off from society, and creates an unhealthy link with institutions.”

If you don’t have exposure to the market, you don’t have exposure to the real world. The problem is probably exacerbated by academia’s religious devotion to errant ideologies.

“Every man who does not have a trade must eventually become a rogue” ~ Baruch Spinoza

“…as a practitioner, my thinking is rooted in the belief that you cannot go from books to problems, but the reverse, from problems to books.” ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

” Learn a trade so that you experience the real world. Identify a problem that exists in the real world. . . . Otherwise you invent a mystical hammer and go on and endless search for the appropriate nails – which you seem to find all over the place.” ~ Curt Doolittle

http://book-ye.com.ua/rozmova-z-pysmennykom-i-eks-kapitanom-desantu-ssha-romanom-skaskivym-na-temu-vijna-z-nastupnoji-storinky-rozmova-pro-afhanistan-irak-i-krym-lviv/