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Post by Bartbär on Jul 5, 2009 19:34:50 GMT 2
You are welcome. Yeah, indeed, and it is all such a shame too. We can only imagine how many wonderful pieces of our history have been destroyed, on purpose or on accident. I think sometimes about the fire at alexandria and all the historical documents it took with it. Just to think that some of those scrolls and writings were the only ones of their kind, and by some simple event they are lost in history forever with no possibility to be recovered... Even if they are reworkings and guesses, it would be nice to read, even if as a type of "science-fiction" book. I think that it is impossible even with well preserved myths like Norse ones to have been kept completely in-tact over the years. But Heathenism is a shaping belief system, it does not stay hard and rigid in one area without progressing, it moves along with the times and over the ages whatever changes are made to the structure are only natural. Granted to go back a thousand years and hear the tales of the Gods from a Skald or the like would be an absolute dream... My apologies, I have indeed received your message. I have just been so busy that I've only been able to come on the forum here briefly. It will be coming shortly after the few major events that are going on this week pass through.
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jul 6, 2009 14:11:05 GMT 2
Maybe once I'll make an English translation of those (indeed I have nothing to do for the whole summer, except the exams), but then you will buy me a beer if we ever meet! OK, thank you for explaining, I knew that you're very busy so excuse me for that.
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Post by Bartbär on Jul 12, 2009 17:25:29 GMT 2
Heck, I'll buy you 50 beers! It would be great to see an English translation of those tellings, no matter how "inacurate" they are from the originals which were lost years and years ago. I know that people here would love to see such things. We only have a handful of books on Russian fairy tales, but nothing really towards the Mythos of the Slavic pantheon. It could be totally based around your own fantasies and ideas, but keeping the same concepts of the Pantheon in order, and people here would probably eat it up. I've always wanted to be a translator, there are so many books that I would love to have the oppurtunity to work with simply to translate. I think it would be a wonderful thing, and not for money but for the experience.
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jul 12, 2009 22:23:44 GMT 2
OK, I'll try to find them... Thank christians, we have no myths, only mainly forged late works. We have to re-construct the elder weltanschauung as by grains of sand - and because of the neo-heathens, who write their own manuscripts and then say that those are ancient and authentic, and then they organize sects and churches only for making money, we can't say where the truth lies. The only debris of true heathenism are in folk traditions - and in christian "writings against the demon worship". I read Boris Rybakov's "Ancient Slavic Paganism" and "Ancient Paganism of Rus" - those are the most full works. Only theory, no myths... We hadn't got any Sturluson or Lönnrot here...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2009 0:24:34 GMT 2
But you can be a contemporary Sturluson if ya wish ;D Ok, down to serious business: Julian Barnes, that English author whom I admire and respect more and more. I've read these days more of his journalistic writings and I can only say I love his sharp mind, strong irony and his good knowledge of european sociopolitical ,,conditions".
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jul 14, 2009 11:42:04 GMT 2
I wish, but then I have to get a scientific degree for working on all that, or my works won't be interpreted as serious science works... And it seems that I've read nearly all Pratchett's Discworld books that were ever translated to Russian.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2009 15:17:27 GMT 2
Or... I have another solution, Crocster,one with no need of a degree: start from the scrolls and write an epic fantasy or sth similar. Be a russian Pratchett, malchik! So that in a few years we'll open a thread named ,,the latest book you've wrote". Me, I'm starting J.Barnes - Arthur and George. Details after reading it
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jul 14, 2009 15:21:07 GMT 2
If I were more creative, I'd do sth like that... but definetely not now.
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Post by Bartbär on Jul 15, 2009 0:51:02 GMT 2
Croc, degrees mean nothing towards truth. Although indeed most people do not even care to read something if it doesn't have "Phd" after the author's name. The best books out there are not from degrees, but from passionate individuals whose studies are serious. Indeed your studies are serious, and thus with your background you will be taken seriously no matter what. I've grown tired of seeing the way people have become about degrees. Now degrees are your "status" and it is just a shame. Universities started out to help bring higher education to people, sure some elitism ensued, but now it is just ridiculous. I've seen people around me that go to community college (not that I'm knocking community college, in fact they can produce better professors and students than the top-name universities out there) for one year, and after that year they act like they know everything about the world, and constantly hold it over your head. "Well, you wouldn't understand, you didn't/aren't going to college." Hopefully that is only more of an american attitude. Anyways, indeed it would be a lot of devotion, but if you ever did it I'm sure it would be absolutely wonderful. I'd much rather read a book by you than by some unknown author, or even well-known author whose only merit is the title upon his name. "What books have you wrote lately" I love that idea! Would be wonderful to see that come up one of these years. hehe! On my end, still reading Tolkien, and no elaboration is needed there. I'm also trying to study some German, since I don't know when I can afford to go back to college, and once I do I can't be sure I'll be able to take higher level German classes, so I must try to stay up to speed on my own. Not to mention have to start Finnish and Icelandic, side-by-side since doing one language at a time just takes too long. Besides, how else am I supposed to become a Polyglot? Wish me luck!
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Post by Mighty Croc on Jul 15, 2009 12:12:10 GMT 2
Good luck to you in becoming a Polyglot, brother! Maybe once you'll know all the main languages as your first one! I also had an idea to study German and Finnish, because I like the sounding of German... and also the sounding of Finnish. And I think I will visit Finland often, when I'll have my own vehicle (I think it will be a motorbike).
And the degrees - in Russia it is not really like that, but when you'll write a research work about Slavic heathenism while not having a degree, no one will treat it as a serious thing. They'll better take on trust works of some guy who doesn't know anything about it and says "Before christ-insanity Slavic people didn't know even how to write, lived in a forest and were primitive, and then the Normanns came and started to rule over Rus" (that's a generally accepted point of view), if that guy is an academic or something else like that.
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Post by Bartbär on Jul 15, 2009 18:48:22 GMT 2
Thanks, I will need plenty of Luck! I watched a video on youtube of this Polyglots channel I am subscribed to, in which he shows his daily routine. WOW! 15 minutes reading this language, 15 minutes writing another one, 30 minutes studying grammar of another language, coming back to writing the first language, etc. and he was going on about how he could "easily do this all day!" Perhaps I don't want to be THAT much of a Polyglot! I do love languages, but I also love many other things, and with my mind I can't stay in the same place for so long doing just one thing, depending on what it is! I recommend learning German, it is a beautiful language and the Logic of it is so amazing. Not to mention reading the German poems and German writings of the great authors of the past is something truly wonderful. Finnish indeed would be great to learn! And I would travel there often had I lived in Russia or even anywhere remotely close. That is just a shame. It is similar here with what views are accepted and what views are not. It is easy to show people a generally accepted point of view without showing them truth. It is hard to find truth because no matter how many scientists claim to be "unbiased", we are all biased and see the world and it's evidence based upon our backgrounds and what we have predisposed into our thoughts. Sadly though this makes it hard to challenge such beliefs. Of course Slavic people and every other tribe from these times were not at all "primitive". Look at all the beautiful things that came from their age? Look at the fact that scientists to this very day, do not even know what many things they used were for or are just now learning about them, and seeing how sophisticated they really were. Hopefully that will help make this generally accepted view of whatever area of human understanding become malleable so that it can be changed more towards general accord of the natural history.
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Crystiannia
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"Here is the deepest secret nobody knows..."
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Post by Crystiannia on Jul 20, 2009 18:45:48 GMT 2
Am still waiting to pick up "Mysteries of Udolpho" that someone recommended. ;D None of our local shops had any in stock so I have to wait and hit Amazon or another site. Until then I've been going through my older books and have rediscovered one of my most beloved collections. There was a series of books put out by TimeLife titled, "The Enchanted World" and had gorgeous bound volumes on topics such as mythology, knights and valor, night creatures... retold old tales and the most beautiful styles of art. I inheireted the books (after much begging) from my aunt before I could really read -- they were just so desireable! I don't have the entire collection and the bindings are falling apart on some from constant use. I used to actually sleep with a few of these books, especially the "Legends of Valor" edition and it shows as the pages all fall out! I'm certain they are around somewhere. Should you have a chance to look through any, they are just so much fun and wonderful. They have tales that cover just about every culture and mythology. I've just gone back through "Legends of Valor" for the millionth time and it has some of the most adventurous and romantic tales and illustrations!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2009 19:10:44 GMT 2
If it matters I also recommend ,Misteries of Udolpho" ,tis a sort of classical in the genre. I put everything on ice tonight, in what l read that is, as I saw Rilke's ,Die Sonette an Orpheus' on my bookshelf,and l think l haven't read it in years. I own a bilingual edition, so a bit of German for me tonight
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Crystiannia
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"Here is the deepest secret nobody knows..."
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Post by Crystiannia on Jul 22, 2009 4:51:22 GMT 2
Ah! Double recommendations from such reliable sources! Now I know I must make more effort!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2009 17:05:19 GMT 2
,Arthur &George" by Julian Barnes. A true case of justice doing injustice. Racism, hypocrisy and Victorian prejudices. Arthur? The one and only Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. George? An lawyer with pars ascendances accused for crimes he never commited. An intrigue Barnes wrote again in great style keeping the border between reality and fiction at its place. He never writes 2 books alike,each one is so different in topic, in manner and style. I hail that!
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