Subject
Pushkin's Birthday (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
The problem -- it always seemed to me -- with celebrating
Pushkin's birthday in June (despite its calendar accuracy) is that for
*him* his birthday was always on May 26, which was for that reason a
special date, like a birthday is for all of us. I recently read a
letter James Joyce wrote to a Soviet apparatchik who asked him, in 1932,
to respond to the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution to be
celebrated on November 7. He responded, obviously tongue-in-cheek, since
his Russian secretary Paul Leon was writing the response, by asking them
how come if it was an October Revolution they were celebrating it in
November? I sort of feel the same way about adjusting Russian writers'
birthdays.
Galya Diment
The problem -- it always seemed to me -- with celebrating
Pushkin's birthday in June (despite its calendar accuracy) is that for
*him* his birthday was always on May 26, which was for that reason a
special date, like a birthday is for all of us. I recently read a
letter James Joyce wrote to a Soviet apparatchik who asked him, in 1932,
to respond to the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution to be
celebrated on November 7. He responded, obviously tongue-in-cheek, since
his Russian secretary Paul Leon was writing the response, by asking them
how come if it was an October Revolution they were celebrating it in
November? I sort of feel the same way about adjusting Russian writers'
birthdays.
Galya Diment