I took a pretty massive break from Substack to come back and see you BLOWING UP! Congratulations on the success on that post but also congratulations on being so good at setting your own personal boundaries where said post is concerned. As you said, at a certain point things you send out into the void (read: the internet) become public domain, but it takes a certain brand of strength to not let yourself get swept up in the wide range of responses.
I’m salivating at the mouth over that Saltburn piece you’ve apparently been cooking, by the way. I recently read a book that I think you’d love, that also engages with the concept of class and elitism in a similar (yet, still, unique) way. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang!!! It was a solid 4 star read for me.
omg Chioma it's so good to see your name here :'))) I've been waiting for YOUR next piece!! Ty for the rec, I will 100% check that book out (I've definitely heard of the author), and I am now extra motivated to follow through on my Saltburn review lol
I love your writing!! also I love when people follow up about things like this and share their feelings and reactions, it’s always so fascinating to see how someone processes an experience like that. you’ve got a lifelong reader in me bestie 🩵
This is a wonderful piece reflecting on your experiences since. Interesting too, that the owners of Substack subsequently reached out and you were able to discuss it.
I was one of the people who came across your piece/your work via Notes a couple of weeks ago. And you made me chuckle with iCarly and pear phone reference 😂
This is a beautiful body temp take, which I’m using to mean that it feels like you sat with it long enough that you came into balance/equilibrium/peaceful awareness before sharing with others, but not waiting so long that the fire in your belly doesn’t come through.
I understand now that for men such as I a blow is needed, a blow of fate, to catch them as with a noose and bind them by an external force. Never, never would I have risen by myself! - Dimitri
Ah Dostoevsky, writing that needs reading twice or three times to understand and then one still re-thinks what was read.
Try reading Oblomov, (Russian: Обломов; [ɐˈbɫoməf]) novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, a little lighter fare.
As to your prior post, you are now waffling, a fish flapping in the bottom of the boat attempting to breathe again the insight you experienced on a red eye flight.
I much prefer Bulgakov to Dostoevsky, he's by far the more modern writer, though much less known in the west. I think if he were still alive, he would have plenty to say about the times we're in. The Master and Margarita is probably one of the great novels of the past century.
Same, and I hadn’t even heard of him until I was much older than you , so you have a head start! Say hello to Caltrains and Caltrain etc. for me, I spent thousands of hours of my life on them in the past.
Russian here. Bulgakov is funny AF but I reeeeeally wouldn't put him in Dostoyevsky's league. Master and Margarita, at least, only makes sense in a Soviet context.
Well, of course Doestoevsky is grand and sweeping in a Dickensian sort of way if you want to say blah blah, but I find Bulgakov’s writing dripping with HUMANISM, in a very modern, funny, perceptive, and touching way—at least in translation. Yes, master and margarita references the times he lived in, but so do all writers. And it is the favourite book of all time of a Russian friend of mine. Personally, I actually love some of his smaller books even more—Black Snow, A Country Doctor’s Notebook. It’s just some of the most self aware and perceptive writing I’ve ever come across.
It's not hard to be a humanist in a totalitarian regime. I mean, it takes a massive emotional toll obviously but your alternatives are humanism or total sociopathy.
Sociopathy, selective ignorance, I think are the common responses—I used to live in China and my partner’s parents immigrated from there in the 80s as well and it’s a similar dynamic, living through the cultural revolution. Don’t mention anything about the government or a litany of other things or they freeze up.
Techno-feudalism ahah, that’s so spot on
I took a pretty massive break from Substack to come back and see you BLOWING UP! Congratulations on the success on that post but also congratulations on being so good at setting your own personal boundaries where said post is concerned. As you said, at a certain point things you send out into the void (read: the internet) become public domain, but it takes a certain brand of strength to not let yourself get swept up in the wide range of responses.
I’m salivating at the mouth over that Saltburn piece you’ve apparently been cooking, by the way. I recently read a book that I think you’d love, that also engages with the concept of class and elitism in a similar (yet, still, unique) way. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang!!! It was a solid 4 star read for me.
omg Chioma it's so good to see your name here :'))) I've been waiting for YOUR next piece!! Ty for the rec, I will 100% check that book out (I've definitely heard of the author), and I am now extra motivated to follow through on my Saltburn review lol
I love your writing!! also I love when people follow up about things like this and share their feelings and reactions, it’s always so fascinating to see how someone processes an experience like that. you’ve got a lifelong reader in me bestie 🩵
This is a wonderful piece reflecting on your experiences since. Interesting too, that the owners of Substack subsequently reached out and you were able to discuss it.
I was one of the people who came across your piece/your work via Notes a couple of weeks ago. And you made me chuckle with iCarly and pear phone reference 😂
Looking forward to reading whatever comes next.
lol I’m so glad someone caught that
This is a beautiful body temp take, which I’m using to mean that it feels like you sat with it long enough that you came into balance/equilibrium/peaceful awareness before sharing with others, but not waiting so long that the fire in your belly doesn’t come through.
Thank you! That’s a really cool way to put it, and totally how I feel
I understand now that for men such as I a blow is needed, a blow of fate, to catch them as with a noose and bind them by an external force. Never, never would I have risen by myself! - Dimitri
Do keep going with the random meandering blogs...
Ah Dostoevsky, writing that needs reading twice or three times to understand and then one still re-thinks what was read.
Try reading Oblomov, (Russian: Обломов; [ɐˈbɫoməf]) novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, a little lighter fare.
As to your prior post, you are now waffling, a fish flapping in the bottom of the boat attempting to breathe again the insight you experienced on a red eye flight.
A lunch with power often reels the fish in.
I much prefer Bulgakov to Dostoevsky, he's by far the more modern writer, though much less known in the west. I think if he were still alive, he would have plenty to say about the times we're in. The Master and Margarita is probably one of the great novels of the past century.
I am indeed a westerner who has never heard of Bulgakov - I'll check him out!
Same, and I hadn’t even heard of him until I was much older than you , so you have a head start! Say hello to Caltrains and Caltrain etc. for me, I spent thousands of hours of my life on them in the past.
Russian here. Bulgakov is funny AF but I reeeeeally wouldn't put him in Dostoyevsky's league. Master and Margarita, at least, only makes sense in a Soviet context.
Well, of course Doestoevsky is grand and sweeping in a Dickensian sort of way if you want to say blah blah, but I find Bulgakov’s writing dripping with HUMANISM, in a very modern, funny, perceptive, and touching way—at least in translation. Yes, master and margarita references the times he lived in, but so do all writers. And it is the favourite book of all time of a Russian friend of mine. Personally, I actually love some of his smaller books even more—Black Snow, A Country Doctor’s Notebook. It’s just some of the most self aware and perceptive writing I’ve ever come across.
It's not hard to be a humanist in a totalitarian regime. I mean, it takes a massive emotional toll obviously but your alternatives are humanism or total sociopathy.
My folks left in the 80s. They're... not OK.
Sociopathy, selective ignorance, I think are the common responses—I used to live in China and my partner’s parents immigrated from there in the 80s as well and it’s a similar dynamic, living through the cultural revolution. Don’t mention anything about the government or a litany of other things or they freeze up.