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Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

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Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#61

Post by thelastidiot »

Insanity wrote: post #60

Since I don't understand Russian, is there any English translation that you'd recommend over another? I've only ventured slightly into Russian litarature (English translations thereof) with "The death of Ivan Ilych" and "the dream of a rediculous man". I consider the former to be one of the best books I have read this year, and would like to give TMaM a try but always have trouble deciding on a translation.

I read that one and I was happy with it:

The Master and Margarita Paperback – March 19, 1996 by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Diana Burgin (Translator), Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translator)

Of course, Amazon will provide reviews for all translations in one big bucket so it's hard to know which one gets the best review.

You can go to sub reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1lngmm/which_the_mas...

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#62

Post by dmortin »

aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

> There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility

For long term money planning, where to put your money, which areas of the world have problems, the news are important. You can skip your local gossip, but knowing what happens in the world is important for long term planning.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#64

Post by FabHK »

barrkel wrote: post #40
aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

There's nothing actionable, except for longer term investments like where to live and how to plan your spending vs saving. Brexit is horribly fascinating in this respect, as the outcome controls whether I'll need do leave. Definitely true for tribal politics though.

In my view, these kind of actionable news you can get from reading the news once a month or (my favourite) from The Economist every weekend.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#65

Post by rimliu »

jacobush wrote: post #33
rimliu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is from the amazing book A Dog's Heart (Собачье сердце). There is an equally amazing movie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHySar4EoY ), but I am not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. For me it's one of the best Soviet movies. To be fair it was created near the end of the USSR—in 1988. The novel itself was officially published for the first time only in 1987.

I have not seen many Soviet movies but https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091341/?ref_=nv_sr_1 is amazing in many ways. Also I can't help but wonder how it could be made. I find the last decade of the Soviet union incredibly interesting, probably because I was a child at the time.

This is so cool: that exact movie is an another one in my short "amazing Soviet movies" list. I still remember the first time I saw it. I was a teenager, it was a summer. I was on my way out, but the movie started and I decided to see what it's about. I don't think I moved for the entire duration of it. It was so different and so captivating.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#66

Post by Y_Y »

fivre wrote: post #38
rimliu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is from the amazing book A Dog's Heart (Собачье сердце). There is an equally amazing movie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHySar4EoY ), but I am not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. For me it's one of the best Soviet movies. To be fair it was created near the end of the USSR—in 1988. The novel itself was officially published for the first time only in 1987.

Prime Video has it with English subtitles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071PF4WCM The official Lenfilm YouTube account has it also, but for some reason only with French subtitles. It looks like less of their catalogue there is English subbed, compared to Mosfilm, which has English subs for basically everything.

In fact it's readily available with English subtitles:

https://sovietmoviesonline.com/comedy/87-sobache-serdce.html or https://www.reelhouse.org/vintagefilmclub/the-heart-of-a-dog...

To each according to their need etc.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#68

Post by freddie_mercury »

dmortin wrote: post #62
aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

> There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility For long term money planning, where to put your money, which areas of the world have problems, the news are important. You can skip your local gossip, but knowing what happens in the world is important for long term planning.

I disagree strongly that reading the news is necessary for investing successfully. Do you have evidence or arguments? Since your position contradicts research by Nobel prize winner Gene Fama, I'd be curious to see the evidence for the other side of the argument.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#69

Post by Y_Y »

aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

As an honest question, how well does this apply to Hackernews? I know that BBC News is bad for my health and does nothing for my career. Holistically I'm not sure about hn.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#70

Post by 80801 »

Insanity wrote: post #60

Since I don't understand Russian, is there any English translation that you'd recommend over another? I've only ventured slightly into Russian litarature (English translations thereof) with "The death of Ivan Ilych" and "the dream of a rediculous man". I consider the former to be one of the best books I have read this year, and would like to give TMaM a try but always have trouble deciding on a translation.

Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky. Since they get so much praise, anything russian I have read was translated by them.
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