Crisis 22

Table of Contents

Crisis 22 is a literary look at the crisis surrounding the Ukraine War.

  1. A Literary Premise

~ approaches & arguments ~

🟢 Preface: Nine Novels ~ a general overview - From Moscow to Jakarta - Pushkin’s Brethren - The Global South - War: Poems & Novels

🍏 Introduction: Rivers & Apples ~ on the arguments in each section - 1. A Literary Premise - 2. Waking Up - 3. Cunning Plans - 4. Puppet Masters - 5. Fearless Leaders - 6. Coda

🍎 The Road to Damascus ~ on ▸ my personal view of the crisis and ▸ the dangerous game played by both Russia & the U.S. - Who’s to Blame? - Apples of Discord - Changing Course

☕️ Politics and the Language of Literature ~ on ▸ my view of political literature and ▸ my brief travels in Russia - The Bitten Apple - Coffee in St. Pete’s

🌗 With Open Eyes ~ on sections 1 & 2 - 1. A Literary Premise - 2. Waking Up

🌘 Gogol & Co. ~ on section 3 - Plans & Puppets - 3. Cunning Plans

🌒 Down South ~ on sections 4, 5, & 6 - 4. Puppet Masters - Rushdie - 5. Fearless Leaders - 6. Coda

🗝 The Time is Out of Joint ~ on vicarious experience in Gogol & Shakespeare - At the Tea Table - The Play’s the Thing

📺 Vicarious Experience ~ on literature & empathy in Hamlet, Russian resistance, and The Year of Living Dangerously - In a Dream of Passion - Pianoman - Cameraman

🪞 Mirrors ~ on depth of perception in poetry and drama - Poetry - Tragedy & Comedy - Achilles & Arjuna

📚 4 Types of Narrative ~ on depth & complexity in novels - Nine Novels - Four Types

💥 Exceptional Violence ~ on the present mess - Chiaroscuro - Chiaro - Scuro - The Present Score: August 19, 2024

🟢 Fog & Shadow ~ on the difficulty of knowing - August 20, 2024

🌏 The Global South ~ on rethinking the world

2. Waking Up

~ the shock of war ~

The Ghost of Crises Past ~ on the old fears - Two Sonnets - The 1980s - Lines - Chaos

✈️ Dream Vacation 2005 ~ on a Russia that might have been - St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladímir, & Suzdal

Rip Van Winkle ~ on the long sleep before the storm - Mojitos & a Cigar - El Profesor - Blissful Ignorance - Reveille

🥕 The Carrot ~ on political inactivism - La Carotte - To MSF and All the Others - Court & Commons - Black Florentine - La Vie en Rose - Nightmares of the Iraq War Variety

❤️ Caritas ~ on dipping the toe in political water - Caritas - Avenida de los Presidentes, 2014 - The Hotel Nacional - Makoko - Guilt on an Oversized Sofa - Currents

🌉 Jovanka on the Bridge ~ on blessing bombs - Jovanka (July 22, 2023) - Q & A (October 8, 2023)

☯️ Both In and Out of the Game ~ on getting critical distance - Options - Ostrichism - Ukraine 101 - Realism - Whitman

❄️ Political Modes of Being ~ on opting in & out - Connections - Keats - Eliot - Aurelius - Pseudaurelius - Eyes - Religion - Violence

3. Cunning Plans

~ Gogol, Dostoevsky, & Bulgakov ~

🧥 Two Novels and an Overcoat ~ Dead Souls & Year - Gogol’s Overcoat

😵‍💫 Russian Souls ~ A Cunning Plan - The Russian Soul - Belinsky

✒️ Literature & Subversion ~ The Integrated Threat - Exceptionalism - Gogol & Bulgakov

💰 Selling the Scheme — not yet online

🧛🏻‍♂️ The Immoralities of Marmeladov and Raskolnikov

🚓 Crimes and Punishments

4. Puppet Masters

~ postcolonialism: a multipolarity that already was ~

🎭 Behind the Scenes ~ Five Points - The Wayang Kulit

☯️ Unified Sensibilities ~ The Political Uses of Literature - The Fractured Mirror - T.S. Eliot - Koch’s Year

⚔️ The Dangerous Years ~ Years - Puppetry - James Bond - Daughter of Darkness - Spoiler Alert

🌪 The Eye of the Storm ~ The State of Things - What Then Must We Do?

The Dark Which Has No End ~ Strata Casting: Akasha & Accumulation - From Lamp to Lamp

🎙️ Words of Folly and Wisdom — not yet online

⚔️ Battle of the Puppets

🇮🇳 India & the Many-Headed Monsters

🇵🇰 Pakistan & the Fall of the Poet

5. Fearless Leaders

~ war & rhetoric ~

Fearless Leader of the Global South ~ Overview - The New Bung Karno - Les Humiliés - Global Sing-Along

🇺🇦 Golden Bridges (July, 2022) ~ Past & Present - Blame - The Past - Solution - Sanctions - Action - Coda - Anthem

🇺🇸 / 🇷🇺 Exceptionalism (Dec. 2, 2022) ~ The Mad Cartographer (Aug. 2024) - Dec. 2022 - The Unmentioned History

🗽 Our Lady of the Harbour ~ Arms Race to the Grave (2023) - Questions - Setting Sail - Our Boys (2003)

☮︎ War: A Brief Playlist of Songs & Poems

6. Coda

~ “This is the end, / beautiful friend” ~

🎸 The Algorithmics ~ on the dangers of following your bliss & anger - Dec. 10, 2023 - Marilyn - Bubbles - Algo Something

🦋 The Tao of Putin (April, 2022) ~ on mysticism vs. violence

🍒 Macaron, Not Macron ~ on luxury amid the carnage

AD / BC (July, 2022) ~ on the worst possible outcome

⚔️

Next: 🍏 Preface: Nine Novels

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