Feldman's Faves: April 18, 2022

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

I hope all of you were able to take some time to enjoy the long weekend, whether you celebrate Ramadan, Vaisakhi, Easter or Passover. It’s a rare and nice occasion when these holidays all converge at the same time.

Remember everyone that in 2019 the Raps lost their first game of their first series to Orlando. We just need 16 more wins and the title is ours….This time of year is also great, Coachella is underway, the NBA playoffs are starting and (in theory) the weather is getting better. Spring has almost sprung (you can tell because it is now leaf blower season again). BTW, for those of you who are WORDLE masters, you might want to try DUOTRIGORDLE, which is a little bit more of a challenge - https://duotrigordle.com/

No real theme this week, just topics of the day.

one day in the life of ivan denisovich By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn –As I continue to go down my Russian history rabbit hole/obsession I find myself getting more and more interested in Russian literature (as a means to better understand life in Russia). Nobody has done it better than Noble Prize winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. One of his most famous and historically significant works is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which I will discuss today. The reason this 1962 book is so important is that it was the first time the heads of the Soviet Union allowed wide distribution of a book that was critical of life under Stalin – part of Nikita Khrushchev’s short lived de-Stalinization program. As one reviewer describes the book, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, is a short novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, published in Russian in 1962 as Odin den Ivana Denisovicha in the Soviet literary magazine Novy Mir and published in book form the following year. Solzhenitsyn’s first literary work—a treatment of his experiences in the Stalinist labour camps—established his reputation and foreshadowed his masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago (1973–75). Set in the forced-labour camp in which the author was interned from 1950 to 1953, Ivan Denisovich describes a typical day in the life of an inmate. It is narrated in the direct and colourful language of an uneducated prisoner and offers a stark portrait not only of Joseph Stalin’s camps but of Russian society itself, revealed through descriptions of and conversations with fellow prisoners from all walks of life. Despite its grim portrayal of an inhumane system, and its refusal to romanticize the prisoners, the work stands as an affirmation of individual integrity.” To be honest, this book is not Solzhenitsyn’s best literary achievement – that said, he does a good job describing the daily struggle of political prisoners (scrounging for food rations, being subjected to harsh weather conditions and virtually unlivable barracks). He also does a good job in pointing out the hypocrisy of the ruling class and the inhumanity of the regime. Why this book matters is less about the quality of the writing and more about the fact that it was the first time that regular people of the Soviet Union could read a true and honest reflection of life in the Gulag, which has resonance today under Putin’s Russia where citizen are being arrested and fined (and possibly even worse) for speaking the truth or questioning government policy. I wonder who the modern day Solzhenitsyn will be but hope we don’t see a repeat of these horrible conditions for the Russians of today. Here is a good review from Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17125.One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich

TED TALKS DAILY - Elon Musk talks Twitter, Tesla and how his brain works -- live at TED2022 | Elon Musk - Elon Musk is in the news once again and his bid for Twitter is getting a lot of attention (as it should). Now that the Twitter board adopted a poison pill in response it will be interesting to see how this drama plays out. This PODCAST gets the unfiltered view from Elon himself, which once again shows how he is wired very differently from most of us. Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself: “In this unedited conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Elon Musk digs into the recent news around his bid to purchase Twitter and gets honest about the biggest regret of his career, how his brain works, the future he envisions for the world and a lot more. (This conversation was recorded April 14, 2022. If you want to hear even more, head over to The TED Interview podcast, where Musk and Anderson sat down at the new Tesla gigafactory in Texas to discuss some of the radical innovations he's working on -- including an intelligent humanoid robot, SpaceX's Starship and Neuralink's brain-machine interfaces.)”: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ted-talks-daily/id160904630?i=1000557726349

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon