| Sunday, April 29, 2007 1:22PM | | | | The bird in the crocodile's mouth | Posted By: Catherine Texier
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| Tags: Putin; Yeltsin, Leo Tolstoy, Alexei Tolstoy, The Matrix, yacht | David Remnick opened his interview of Tatyana Tolstaya with Churchill’s famous words about Russia: “It is a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma,” and introduced Tolstaya as a member of the great Russian literary dynasty that produced Leo Tolstoy (her great grand uncle), and Alexei Tolstoy (her grandfather). She is the author of the story “On the Golden Porch”, a “literary masterpiece,” Remnick added, and “Pushkin’s Children,” a collection of essays. Tolstaya splits her time between the States, where she teaches creative writing, and Moscow, where she hosts a tv show called The School for Scandal.
Remnick and Tolstaya met in Moscow in 1988 when Remnick was a correspondent for the Washington Post. Boris Yeltsin’s legacy was the first topic Remnick tossed at Tolstaya, reminding her how angry she used to be at him. Obviously Tolstaya had mellowed since their first meeting. “I don’t have bad feelings toward him now,” she said. “We parted completely with our communist past with Yeltsin. But he drank a lot. His decisions were blurred by alcoholism, and he lost control, while people around him took over. He didn’t not act up to his greatness.” Still, she credits him for being more of a straight shooter than Gorbachev.
The conversation went on to writers and censorship. With a wry sense of humor, Tolstaya recalled the censorship that still existed in 1983, when she published one of her first short stories, under Gorbachev. It was the story of a little boy who was in love with an older woman, who drank too much, but he didn’t realize it because he was too young. The problem was not political at all. The problem was that Gorbachev was waging a campaign against alcohol, and he wouldn’t allow any mention of the words “glasses” or “bottles” for fear they might allude to alcoholic beverages. Then, after 86, it became easy to be published, but there were still caveats. “You were supposed to be against everything. For instance, editors would complain: “There’s not enough rape, not enough violence…”
She did admit that growing in such an illustrious literary family protected her from persecution. “In the 70’s it was dangerous to read samizdats, and even to read Russian novels published abroad. People could be arrested for having books by Nabokov in their home.” But her family wasn’t harassed. Tolstaya alludes to a species of bird who eats inside the crocodiles’ mouth. “My grandfather was like that. Eating in the crocodile’s mouth.” Of course, there was always the risk that the crocodile would quickly shut his mouth before the bird had a chance to escape.
Of her experience teaching in America versus her life in Russia as a tv host, Tolstaya has a measured view. She suggested that she learnt more from teaching – which improved her English, disciplined her and made her read – than her students did taking her classes. She was sarcastic about her students at Skidmore College, who had to be woken up from their slumber and indifference. Her teaching jobs in America helped her support her two sons and her family in Russia, but the trade-off was that she lost 10 years of Russian history.
Tolstaya is concerned about what will happen after Putin. She compared the Russian political system with the movie The Matrix. “Even if you get rid of one, they multiply. You don’t know what you’re getting next. There are people who are worse than Putin.” Right now she believes that journalists are perceived as more of a threat to the regime than the literary writers. “Noone cares about literature. People are only interested in money. They don’t read. They enjoy life in a physical, material sense. All they are thinking about is: My yacht is bigger than yours.”
“It’s the yacht complex,” interjected Remnick, and every one laughed.
Curiously, Tolstaya thought that it was rather a good thing that writers have no impact on Russian life right now, that they are ignored and left alone. She told this story about a group of writers being invited to go to Paris at the same time as Putin. One of the writers, a man in his 40’s, finding himself close to Putin, leaned forward and asked him: “Mr. Putin, what kind of books do you like to read?” Putin immediately quipped back: “If I tell you what book I like to read, you’ll start to write them.”
There was an audible gasp in the New School audience.
Tolstaya waited a beat, then added with typical sarcasm: “He was right, of course!”
Another gasp ran through the audience.
“Of course it was an insult,” she said. Then she deplored how young writers are more interested in currying favor from the government than in taking a stand. She mentioned that a group of young writers were meeting with Putin at a round table, and even though they opposed him, politically, all they managed to say was that the state should give grants to young writers to help them get published – proving that Putin’s insult, sadly, may have been well deserved.
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