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The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

thecritic.co.uk

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Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#21

Post by inglor_cz »

ojnabieoot wrote: post #12

The “political incorrectness” angle is really an unnecessary and very stupid aside that tarnishes an otherwise decent piece: > Nor could [Office Romance] be much less politically correct. One can only imagine what a modern HR-manager would make of Office Romance, of its “power-imbalances”, “problematic” attitudes and “inappropriate” behaviour. That said, the same HR-manager should at least pause to wonder what, in do…

An already dead veteran of pair counseling here in Czechia once wrote that of 400 randomly chosen cases of marital infidelity that ended up in his office, 397 started in the workplace.

People spend a lot of time together in the workplace, more than with their family. It is likely that sex will continue to happen there. No doubt some of it is really exploitative; but nowhere nearly all of it.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#22

Post by idoubtit »

Among the Russian films with a strong political innuendo I've seen, "Welcome, no trespassing" was the sharpest and one of the most enjoyable. It's about a scout camp where the the director oppresses the children with stupid formal procedures, patriotic ceremonies, and abuses of power. I could not understand why this film was allowed, since the camp is an obvious metaphor of the USSR.

I'm also surprised one of the most famous Russian comedies, Sauna Blues, was not in this article. Even more since its main actor died this year. Sauna blues is a funny romance, yet it depicts Russian cities were buildings and furniture are similar and spiritless, so much that people can't recognize their apartment or their street.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#23

Post by Veen »

ben_w wrote: post #2

I find it curious how the phrase “politically correct” entered western political language as as self-critical satire by the left (presumably in reference to Soviet political officers), before being transformed into criticism by right-wing commentators, to the situation of being surprised that the Soviets didn’t care about power imbalances and what we would now regard as inappropriate behaviour. Such linguistic shifts…

Something similar happened with "social justice warrior," which was originally used by people on the left.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#24

Post by Veen »

ojnabieoot wrote: post #12

The “political incorrectness” angle is really an unnecessary and very stupid aside that tarnishes an otherwise decent piece: > Nor could [Office Romance] be much less politically correct. One can only imagine what a modern HR-manager would make of Office Romance, of its “power-imbalances”, “problematic” attitudes and “inappropriate” behaviour. That said, the same HR-manager should at least pause to wonder what, in do…

> And the facts are that many supervisor-subordinate relationships are exploitative

It's also a fact that many happy marriages began as a relationship between superior and subordinate.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#25

Post by watwut »

inglor_cz wrote: post #21
ojnabieoot wrote: post #12

The “political incorrectness” angle is really an unnecessary and very stupid aside that tarnishes an otherwise decent piece: > Nor could [Office Romance] be much less politically correct. One can only imagine what a modern HR-manager would make of Office Romance, of its “power-imbalances”, “problematic” attitudes and “inappropriate” behaviour. That said, the same HR-manager should at least pause to wonder what, in do…

An already dead veteran of pair counseling here in Czechia once wrote that of 400 randomly chosen cases of marital infidelity that ended up in his office, 397 started in the workplace. People spend a lot of time together in the workplace, more than with their family. It is likely that sex will continue to happen there. No doubt some of it is really exploitative; but nowhere nearly all of it.

That however says nothing about how many of those that went on between boss ans employe were exploitative, coerced or massive nepotism where boss is giving goods to those that will couple.

It is orthogonal thing.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#26

Post by paganel »

rektide wrote: post #3

any more suggestions would be most welcome

The Soviet mini-series that adapted Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" [1] is really nice, it's from the mid-'80s, a time that supposedly was bleak because of Chernobyl and the post-Andropov and post-Chernenko years, but nevertheless to kid me the TV series seemed full of optimism and of endless opportunities and marvels. That's from where I got the nickname I use on this website, too.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088635/

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#27

Post by mycologos »

Veen wrote: post #24
ojnabieoot wrote: post #12

The “political incorrectness” angle is really an unnecessary and very stupid aside that tarnishes an otherwise decent piece: > Nor could [Office Romance] be much less politically correct. One can only imagine what a modern HR-manager would make of Office Romance, of its “power-imbalances”, “problematic” attitudes and “inappropriate” behaviour. That said, the same HR-manager should at least pause to wonder what, in do…

> And the facts are that many supervisor-subordinate relationships are exploitative It's also a fact that many happy marriages began as a relationship between superior and subordinate.

> It's also a fact that many happy marriages began as a relationship between superior and subordinate.

I'm curious about what fraction of superior-subordinate relationships you think culminate in happy marriages, and how low that fraction has to go before you decide that forbidding superior-subordinate relationships is a lot easier than negotiating the messy world of allowing it? My guess is that the fraction is pretty low, and the world of HR standards in the west has already been through this calculus.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#28

Post by paganel »

gumby wrote: post #9
rektide wrote: post #3

any more suggestions would be most welcome

I’d be interested in pointers to Soviet equivalents of the James Bond books or films.

> James Bond books or films.

I've just read an interview with a Russian book editor that mentioned Lev Ovalov [1], which is I think the closest thing to what you wanted (in terms of books, anyway):

> Soviet writer, author of detective stories about the Chekist-counterintelligence officer Major Pronin .

(...)

> It was for this magazine that the story "Blue Swords" was written - the first in a cycle about Major Pronin, after which six stories about the hero were published in 1939-1940 in the magazines " Vokrug Sveta " and "Znamya" , then came out as a separate publication in the series " Library of the Red Army ", and in 1941 were included in the collection" The Adventures of Major Pronin ".

(...)

> On July 5, 1941, Lev Ovalov was arrested on charges of divulging classified information and convicted, after which he spent 15 years in labor camps and exile. There, the writer worked in his main specialty - a doctor, and met the nurse Valentina Klyukina, with whom they began to live together in the late 1940s .

[1] https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE...

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#29

Post by Veen »

mycologos wrote: post #27
Veen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the facts are that many supervisor-subordinate relationships are exploitative It's also a fact that many happy marriages began as a relationship between superior and subordinate.

> It's also a fact that many happy marriages began as a relationship between superior and subordinate. I'm curious about what fraction of superior-subordinate relationships you think culminate in happy marriages, and how low that fraction has to go before you decide that forbidding superior-subordinate relationships is a lot easier than negotiating the messy world of allowing it? My guess is that the fraction is pret…

> the world of HR standards in the west has already been through this calculus

HR's calculus is dominated by considerations of risk to the business, something about which I care not one jot. The standards of American corporate HR departments certainly should not be society's standard for what constitutes acceptable behavior.

As for what fraction of such relationships are "happy marriages," I don't know. I do know that my parents met that way, as did several couples of my acquaintance.

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