Just take a look at the literature…

Dear Readers-

There is a lot of coverage of the Ukraine crisis, but what I found interesting this week was an observation on one of the Bloomburg talking head shows…

“You know, all revolutions in Russia began in one place. Ukraine.”

I had no idea. I’m not a historian by any stretch of the imagination, and those that have read any of my Pair of Normal Girls stories would be quick to point that out. But his statement got me thinking - what would have been the tell-tale signs of an impending revolution ? I mean, Russia is Hell-bent to get the country back into the fold, there had to been something out there which was just simmering below the surface.

Then it hit me - just take a look at the literature. And not only any literature - look at horror. So I decided to look backwards and find the movies which would have been derived from literature. A quick Wiki search brought up one horror movie.

One.

In 2020.

Let it Snow. God I hate Elsa.

That could not be it, I thought. Google provided a further “10 Best” (link here) which included the above movie that should not be named since next to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, it is the most infectious song causing earworm, and this is a horror blog damnit ! In looking at the list, there isn’t anything kicking around before 2013. Most of the list are strongly linked by local folklore (Synevir , Qarakoz , The Gateway , ) or government bureaucracy (DAU. Degeneration).

In Volha Isakava’s 2014 Horror Genre in National Cinemas of East Slavic Countries (link here), they point out the linkages between several aspects of the horror cinema of the age, reminding that the Ukrainian culture is split along the camps of pro and anti-imperialism, pro and anti-nationalism. Horror cinema itslef is a new art form within the Eastern Slavic countries and points to the references within the study that to successfully entertain the horror story “local” by contemplating and interpreting national history
and complex relationship of past and present.

Given that the horror cinema is new, doesn’t necessarily mean the literature is too, does it ?

H.P. Lovecraft is noted in Lovecraft’s Guide to Writing; A Collection of Essays that the horror tale is as old as human thought and speech themselves. He points to the origin of the horror tale being folklore, then moves into concepts of the Gothic tale - itself characterized by fear instituted in the environment. Generally, the events in this type of fiction are metaphors for social conflict. In Przemyslaw Lis Markiewic’s 2020 The Development of the Ukrainian Horror Fiction on the Background of European Gothic Traditions: A Brief Overview (link here) , the author notes that the Ukrainian state was only recognized by international law in 1991. Prior to this, Gothic literature was associated with the bourgeoisie and censored by the Soviets. Much like the later cinema, the feature of the Gothic horror is folkorism and mythology (demons, witches, devils, nymphs, vampires, etc.) and some cases where the Ukrainians point to the secretive governmental agencies. The author concludes that :

a characteristic genre distinct from Gothic literature and encountered only in Ukrainian literature is chimeric prose, which was often a means of opposing the Communist ideology and de-nationalisation of Ukrainians in the periods of enslavement.

Are we looking at another one of these periods ?

I hope not. It seems this nation was just starting.

-S

Five Miles Downrange.

Nothing this week. Praying for Ukraine.