"We want to stand up on our own feet and look fair and square upon the world -its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, its ugliness; see the world as it is, and not be afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and reason, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it."
- Bertrand Russell
As you can probably note from the origin of the above quotation, I am actually a scientist by trade- a theoretical physicist, to be precise. I skipped several years in secondary school in Russia, and am currently studying Physics and Mathematics in the University of St. Petersburg. If I am fortunate, I may be able to apply to study a Masters degree in Physics in the USA as soon as I have finished my Bachelor's here.
As such, I believe physics to be the most satisfying and aesthetically glorious manner through which we can describe the nature we live in in all its myriad facets, continue on our neverending quest to understand just why she is the exact way that we perceive her, and to provide some answers to similarly ancient yet nevertheless imperative questions. The beauty of physics is truly overwhelming, although all this splendour stems entirely from the nature it studies -if nature is not worth studying, then life would no longer be worth living.
Writing, therefore, is more of a secondary or, dare I say it, recreational activity for me. Nonetheless I do take doing so creatively with complete seriousness, even if I do not intend to forge a career or a meaning of life out of it :). For me, writing, in a way similar to physics, is a tribute to the incredible complexity and splendour of the human mind, and the incandescent imagination arising from it. This may be the case with any piece of creative literature, even if it is as bad as my own. Great art, like Tolstoy's or Dostoevsky's, may also hold up a mirror to life through which we can see more clearly -though in my case it is probably more like holding a smokescreen to the sun.
As far as my own literary interests are concerned: well, I've got to be patriotic -I do think Russia has produced the greatest novelists the world has ever seen (and probably will ever see), namely Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I love both their works equally well and do not accept Steiner's position that they are fundamentally inconsistent with each other. In matters of poetry, however, although I stand in awe of Pushkin like all Russians (so no-one actually dares to write poetry anymore), I have to say in terms of 'national poets' I hold Goethe to be superior, and I also admire Shakespeare immensely. I am also fond of French verse, like Baudelaire and Verlaine.
Please read some of my works and comment on them, even if they are not at all to your taste. I only hope that my work may bring you pleasure -and bring myself out of some of the political stagnation here.
Irina Karamazova's Genres: memoire, Russian literature, Literary criticism, war, social commentary, parody, humour, romance
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