"Their aim is to distort judgements and divert public attention to trivia. And this does not merely affect cultural life. It affects every important aspect of life. Have you seen today's Newpaper?"

A massive tome of anti-communist satire with an annoying, perhaps even horrifying, amount of relevance today. I thought it might be smaller on the inside as it had a decent sized font and margins but its actually bigger on the inside.
Made up of small chunks of genuine sociology, little scenes of life and a ton of satire. Most pieces are only a page or two with maybe some extensions to 4 or 5 pages towards the end.

If i arbitrarily divide it in 4, the first quarter is the funniest and lightest. A perfect blend of high and low-brow humour mostly revolving around the building of a latrine.
The second quarter is the hardest, a lot of heavy sociology although most is given a dumbed down explanation or examples aswell.
The third part feels the most personal. It made me wonder who the people behind the satire really were and made me miss the fact that i know so little about soviet russia.
The last quarter is the darkest. Dealing with the most brutal aspects of communism aswell as projecting into a future where the great Ism has taken over the world, hence my putting it on my dystopia shelf.
Having divided it in 4 let me go back and say that those are only the broad outlines and theres a constant intermixing of comic sketches and deep thoughts.

Reminded me of Dilbert :lol, with its incompetent leadership and frustrating bureaucracy in which talent is stifled and stupidity rewarded. Dilbert, if your boss could also have you killed :( .
Its a LOT and really depressing ;) , but i'm still giving it 4 stars, which is worth a lot more than 4 stars spread over 250 pages :P .

"What fantasies, what myths define
The dreams that sooth my brow?...
...The scientist who's in control?
...The footballer who scores a goal?
Must we on them rely?
Alas, there is no other choice.
The fairy tale has died,
Their heroes vanished, stilled their voice,
There's nothing left beside." ( )

De in 1922 geboren en in 1978 naar het Westen geemigreerde Russische filosoof Zinovjev stelt in dit lijvige prozawerk op ironische en sarcastische wijze de feilen en gebreken van de totalitaire Sowjetmaatschappij aan de kaak. Zijn satirisch werk heeft een filosofische teneur en onderscheidt zich hierdoor van het literaire werk van dissidenten als Solzjenitsyn en Maximov. Het verhaal is gesitueerd in de niet-bestaande stad Ibansk, die alle trekken vertoont van de statische, inefficiente en corrupte Sowjetmaatschappij. Een belangrijk deel van het boek bestaat uit discussies over kunst, wetenschap, persoonlijke vrijheid, sociale wetten enz. Deze zijn vervlochten met de persoonlijke ervaringen van een aantal personen, die vaak als sleutelfiguren moeten worden beschouwd.

Van alle tijden ( )

Romanzo satirico e disperato, come può essere disperato uno scrittore russo nel filone della satira contro il potere sovietico e la società che generò. Scuola di Ilf e Petrov, ma anche con un occhio a Gogol.