by Adam Lehrer
Pessimist philosopher Emil Cioran once told a journalist how he was saved by the idea of suicide. “What allowed me to live was that I knew I always had this option.” This is the healthy way of managing the postmodern suicide.
Read Moreby Adam Lehrer
If Van Gogh was force fed his blackpill by a society at the dawn of modernism in rapid evolution, is it somehow worse to be force fed the blackpill now – by a society that doesn’t exist? The postmodern blackpill — the contemporary suicide — is given to us by the simulation of a society that isn’t real.
Read Moreby Justina Dobush
Something happened to me this year, even before the reality of the pandemic had sunk in. I lost myself, and that feeling of loss was so profound I thought I would never be able to feel like myself again.
Read Moreby Justina Dobush
Books have taught me to love everyone, to not allow thoughts of hate or revenge to corrupt my soul. Anyone who reads books knows that revenge is not an option, nor is violence, nor is supremacy of any kind.
by Oleksandr Boichenko
Translated from the Ukrainian by Oleksandra Boychenko
Appelfeld’s novel “Katerina”, translated by Viktor Radutskyi and Ivan Bilyk, has thus far not gained a whole lot of publicity in Ukraine. Which is a pity: for what it is worth, the novel is written from the perspective of a Ukrainian village woman who saves Jewish children from other Ukrainian villagers.
Translated from the Ukrainian by Oleksandra Boychenko
Long story short, 1968 was setting out to be perhaps the happiest year in the lives of all these extra-ordinary people, and the next one promised to be even better. However, one October night, having hung out at a dinner table in Slavic style, Komeda and Hlasko decided to take a walk around Beverly Hills. Nobody knows what exactly transpired that night; there was no one around. According to Hlasko’s fumbled testimony, he jokingly pushed Komeda in the shoulder and he suddenly disappeared in the darkness.
Read MoreTranslated from the Ukrainian by Oleksandra Boychenko
Ukrainian readers enjoy grumbling about contemporary Ukrainian literature. I, too, grumble sometimes. We don’t have this, we don’t have that, this is not enough… The only thing I have no complaints about is the almost complete lack of the so-called “big novels”. I do not need them. I have had enough. I consumed so many of them in my previous professional life that I am still a bit nauseated. Instead, I need at least a few books like I accuse Auschwitz by Mikolaj Grynberg.
Read MoreTranslated from the Ukrainian by Oleksandra Boychenko
No, our European neighbors mostly do not consider us to be at fault and certainly do not justify Russia’s actions. But they are tired and they are scared. Unable to convince them that Putin is a good guy, the Kremlin propaganda is ever more successfully inoculating Westerners with the idea that Putin is bonkers and, if necessary, will indeed turn their ancient cities into radioactive dust. Thus, many of them, blushing internally, are ready to sacrifice Ukraine – in order not to provoke the aggressor too much.
Read Moreby Justina Dobush
I have known it since I was seven years old. I will be a writer, I am a writer, no matter what’s going on, literature is the only answer. Since then, I have written thousands of pages—fairy tales, diaries, poetry, prose, short stories, reportages, interviews, columns, book reviews and so on. Why haven’t I been able to finish any of the books which I so badly wanted to write?
Read MoreIt lasts for more than a year: I can't read, that is, I can, but I don't want to. My appetite is already gone halfway into the book. I count every page I have read and still need to read. I can't wait for the count to show 0. Books surround me everywhere: they are my job, and without them, I am nobody. I feel like an old, impotent man among many beautiful women, none of whom he can fuck.
Read Moreby Justina Dobush
Translated from the Ukrainian by Yulia Lyubka
You read and read and read. You love some and you love others. Žižek says not to love the new hysterical left, Peterson says to love yourself, not to love feminists or the same new hysterical left. The New York Times says to read about people's rights, Trump says to read Twitter, Putin says not to read anything at all. Zuckerberg tells Cambridge Analytica to read other people’s messages, Islamists say to read the Quran, the Ministry of Justice doesn't read the constitution, the younger generation reads only Telegram and Instagram.
by Justina Dobush
Translated from the Ukrainian by Yulia Lyubka
What is left with us after we have read a book? Is it a memory without any practical appliance, names and dates, stories you will never become a part of or ideas you will never think of? Books are the infinity of human lives, which crave for being remembered. It is the only possible way to preserve every second and each personality in its incredibility.
