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Jul. 3rd, 2006 06:30 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
superslayer18.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
learn_russianHas anyone here read the book for Ночьной Дозор (Nochnoi Dozor, The Nightwatch)? I watched the movie last night, and I liked it a lot, so i decided that I wanted to read the book. Granted, my Russian isn't very good so I'm wondering if it's something that i shouldn't attempt with just a dictionary lol. Basically, is it a difficult book to read or could a student with about a years experience and a good dictionary handle it?
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Date: 2006-07-03 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-07-04 12:33 am (UTC)it is about 380 pages. I think it will be difficult even with a good dictionary.
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Date: 2006-07-04 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-07-04 01:14 am (UTC)However, it emphasizes pretty heavily on Russian and Soviet realities, so some fine details might be lost if you're not familiar with it. Like, say, constant inclusions of Russian rock music from 80'es, when the main character speculates whether the authors were Others or not.
BTW, English translations is scheduled to this fall, IIRC, in UK, so you might have a chance to compare your own reading experience with professional translation.
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Date: 2006-07-04 03:09 pm (UTC)Can you give more examples of the emphasis of how the book draws on Soviet details that most people wouldn't pick up on?
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Date: 2006-07-05 03:02 pm (UTC)From the top of my head I can not remember any real emphasis on Soviet-life in Nightwatch. But there is many ties to post-Soviet period. That is one of huge pluses of the book - it is going on in a very realistic description of Moscow-90's with magic-users behind the scene.
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Date: 2006-07-05 07:08 pm (UTC)I found an interesting e-book (http://books.google.com/books?id=oFLAhboVnXEC&pg=PP11&lpg=PP11&dq=Soviet+influence+on+Russian+Entertainment&sig=zct_l8tfolwNstuYPfnk-TSjfuo) on the topic, in case anyone is curious.
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Date: 2006-07-06 01:54 am (UTC)One example might be older Soviet satire, which oftem plays on a scarcity and poor quality of consumer goods in Soviet Union due to bureaucratic mishaps and overall concentration on heavy industry. Now it looks even funnier -- just by contrast.
And while the book itself doesn't play on this too hard, it's main point is indeed contrast between everyday city life, with all its troubles like crowded sub trains, traffic jams, problems at the work and so on, and adventures of magic users, which often cause the very same troubles.
But the point is that to fully see this contrast, you have to know what contrasts with what, so you'd better to really feel all that details -- a common problem with things that play by athmosphere.
For example, if one doesn't know that Moscow subway is most heavily loaded subway in the world, and you hardly can ride it without good elbow work, the descrtiption of sudden open space around the mage can easily be lost on him.
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Date: 2006-07-06 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 04:57 am (UTC)Wasn't that the greatest movie? XD
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Date: 2006-07-04 05:35 pm (UTC)can I read a copy as well
Date: 2006-07-05 12:41 pm (UTC)My husband reads anyand all sci-fi that falls his way, let this be my little present to him :) - this is nothing he'd find on his usual sites with russian sci-fi
I promise not to let this go any further than myself and my husband :)
thanks
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Date: 2006-07-07 02:58 pm (UTC)I advice you to read "Тень Спрута" (http://neurosoc.ru/lib/sprut1.rar) by
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