Pictures from Russia - Of Little General Interest

Dateline: St. Petersburg and Points North

Twenty-two academics, in an effort to increase international understanding, to strengthen collegial bonds and to "move beyond our comfort zone," traveled to northern Russia in June 2013.  Here are a few scenes from that journey.

                     Travelers in their natural habitat.

Our "Sine qua non."  (Group Leader Alex, not the vodka.)

Beautiful St. Petersburg.  The Russians call it Peter, not St. Pete.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood - named for and built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in St. Petersburg.

Icons in the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood.  I learned that these sacred images are much more important in the Russian Orthodox religion than is generally understood.  I also learned the word "iconostasis," which, if I remember correctly, describes a form of paralysis suffered by tourists who have seen too many icons.



There is a reason for the Orthodox crosses to have a lower crossbar that points up to the left and down to the right.  This symbolizes the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus, the one to the viewer's left having accepted him and the one to the right having mocked him.  One was heaven bound, the other was not, as this painting illustrates.

At the Smolny Convent.

                                        Artist at work

                                         Artist at play.

                                   Artist totally losing it.





 Russian restaurants represent the finest cuisines from around the world...

                                    Japanese

                                       Mexican

                                 Middle Eastern

                               and American.

                       Doing St. Petersburg by bus.

At Dostoevsky's home - one of them, anyway.

Oh, Raskolnikov, your tortured soul touches us to our very depths.  You know you cannot hide your sins beneath a stone! 

(From the Dostoevsky Museum in St. Petersburg)

                 A Dostoevsky-themed restaurant.

       Travelers moving outside their comfort zone.

              Peterhof - just outside St. Petersburg.

                     Peterhof fountains

Peterhof - some of the fountains are designed to catch the careless wanderer by surprise.

                      Peterhof garden walkway.

Peterhof - interior.  Some of the czars' hangouts were downright palatial.

Inside the Grand Palace...

Booties.

Outside the Peterhof Palace, guy with a cool barn owl!

Guy with cool barn owl telling foreigner with camera to piss off.





Back in St. Petersburg - dinner at a groovy rooftop cafe/art studio.

Digging the scene at the rooftop cafe (with iPhones).





Later we went to another artsy place.  It was called the Hermitage and it had paintings in it like this one by some French guy....

                                          So much red!

Some of our breakfasts were outstanding.  Especially the ones that included champagne.

                            Russian T-shirts.

                           Russian youth - крутой!


Time to leave St. Petersburg for the north.  Overnight train travel - not as glamorous as North by Northwest had led us to believe.

Of course the prudent traveler will carefully consult his or her ticket to be sure of locating the correct berth...

A rainy day on the bus - still heading north.

A stop at the Kivach Waterfalls.  (Under Stalin, Kivach produced 78% more water than previously!)

At a rest stop on the road, restrooms with helpful illustrations for the confused traveler:

In the forests of deepest Karelia, a pre-sauna shashlyk dinner.  We enjoyed the food while the mosquitoes enjoyed us.  A little outside of our comfort zone, that.

 Then, a visit to Kizhi Island, where some fantastic wooden homes and churches still stand.

The trip to Kizhi Island was a good boat trip.  The good boat trips sometimes included good food, like this delicious borscht.

In addition to Kizhi Island, we also visited the eastern shore of Lake Onega where stone age petroglyphs can be found.

Russian scholar explains the ancient symbols.

                          From the Neolithixxx.

              Another good boat trip on Lake Onega.


Then...there was the trip that kicked our comfort zone's ass...Solovetsky Island.

The Boat of Evil.  On this trip, which crossed part of the White Sea, we learned what it is to suffer in the Russian style.

Here we are, nestled in the hull of The Boat of Evil like a band of happy little lambs.  Then, the voyage began and the smiles faded.  Soon we were being tossed about like so many Yahtzee dice.  Puking was widespread as well as the question of "What the hell are we doing here?"  By going out on deck one could relieve the seasickness, but this meant confronting the sea-sprayed chill of a near freezing ocean wind.  Though we did survive, there were moments when this prospect was in doubt.  (Photo by JQ)

Cold and miserable, the survivors huddle on the shore after the boat ride from hell.

 One survivor kisses the earth in gratitude.

Some required extra comforting.  Or maybe they just liked the attention...

On Solovetsky there is a cool monastery (once visited by Peter the Great) and an old, Stalin-era labor camp.

               The Solovetsky Island Monastery.

This was a "You want a piece of me?" kind of monastery.

                        Oh, yeah!  Iconostasis!




Just before our hellish boat trip, we had an opportunity to visit a lovely Russian village called Kinerma, and we were met there by Betsy, a native of Toledo, Ohio, who has married a local Russian and who is raising her children there.

           Betsy and two of her children in Kinerma.


Finally, back in "Peter," we visited a polytechnic university to meet with the faculty there.

Chinese language instructors from Russia and the U.S. compare notes.

On the Polytechnic University bookshelf, an echo from the past: Kim Philby-Superspy KGB.



These pictures offer only a small part of all that we saw and experienced in Russia.  While we were getting to know Russia, we spent a great deal of time together and really got to know each other as well.  Nevertheless, the trip was truly worthwhile. 



The perpetrators.

(JQ)

Spasibo, Alex!

Funny or Fascist

On a scale of 1 to 10, how funny would you say the following cartoon is?


 
"Good shootin', son. I'm pretty sure that was a squirrel."
                     (By Tom Toro in The New Yorker)



I'm giving it a 9.5 at least, because I find it hilarious.

Of course, you may not find it funny at all, in which case you are probably a fascist.

JK, IG.

What?  An explanation is called for?

OK, what gives this cartoon its ultimate bite is the social comment it makes about Americans of a certain mentality.  These Americans, sometimes described as “gun nuts,” hold one or both of the following opinions:

(a)    the U.S. Constitution gives ordinary citizens a sacrosanct right to wield assault weapons,

(b)   wielding such weapons is a good idea.

These are views with which I adamantly disagree, and, when I am in a cheerful mood, I often refer to people whose views clash with mine as fascists.

But Where Does Funny Come from, and Why Does It Sometimes Die at Cultural Boundaries?

When I showed this cartoon to a Chinese friend, she didn’t get it, even though she is a bright young woman who speaks English well and who has lived here for two years.  What gives?

It has often been said that humor is one of the most difficult things to translate across cultures, and, though this may be true, I haven’t heard any good explanations as to why this should be. 

In the case of this cartoon, I believe, the humor depends on an understanding of America’s ongoing gun-law debate, and is further augmented by a degree of frustration with the reasoning that is often offered in support of gun ownership. This “reasoning” boils down to a sentiment that says, “I love - yes, LOVE - my implements of death, and if you can’t sympathize with my devotion, you just better shut up.”

It is in this emotional hothouse that points (a) and (b) cited above grow roots.

Obviously, someone from China might have difficulty picking up on the humor of Tom Toro’s clever cartoon, depending as it does on a viewpoint embedded in contemporary cultural ideals.

Three factors are said to underlie humor: incongruity, superiority and release of tension.*  Different authors emphasize one or the other of these, but I believe each can contribute to funniness.

In the Toro cartoon, incongruity rules.  We see it in the horrendous destruction rendered by the boy’s shootin’ and in the very idea of hunting with an assault weapon, especially hunting a small creature like a squirrel.  But adding greatly to the hilarity is the incongruity between the madness of assault-weapon hunting and the calm demeanor of the Dad – a man who talks as though he were quietly commending his son on his fly-fishing or hoop skills.  A man who talks, in other words, as though he and his son weren’t doing something insanely violent.

But there’s more, and this is where the “release of tension” theory comes into play.  For me, the very idea that assault weapons should be readily available to whoever wants them is so destructive and so irrational, that hearing this position argued as though it were reasonable is frustrating.  And yet we do hear this argument being made on a daily basis.  Having the lunacy of this idea so beautifully skewered is, for me, downright therapeutic.  Laughing at the incongruity here is one thing, but thinking about the crazy people who might say “there is no incongruity here,” adds to the hilarity.

So how would someone from a less gun-crazy country like China understand this?  They probably would not, unless they were keeping a close eye on America’s gun debate, and unless they too felt stymied by the bizarre ideas that are offered by the gun lobby as normal.   

Culture boundaries: where laughter goes to die.

OK, next time, maybe I’ll find a Chinese cartoon and try to see why Americans might not get it.

Until then, 再見.

____________________________________

*See Culture World January 6, 2013 for more on humor theory.