Voicelessness and Emotional Survival > Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Rejection
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi Ann3,
Thank you again for your encouragement! (I’m sorry, but for some reason I didn’t see your comment until now…) On top of my desk in my office I keep a copy of…….(no, not Freud)…. Chekhov short stories! It’s the famous old edition, translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. It’s falling apart, so I can’t really read it for the umpteenth time, but I’ve had it since I was a sophomore in college when I took a year of Russia literature. My patients see the book every time they come in and know well my love for Chekhov stories/plays. His famous advice to budding writers is something that I will forever appreciate: “Tell the truth.” (I just saw a great production of “Death of a Salesman” onstage at the Lyric Theater in Boston—Chekhov’s saw, I’m sure, Arthur Miller knew well and followed…)
Anyway, thanks in part to your and Hop’s encouragement, I’m plowing on ahead: the newest 10-minute comedy (?) I’m working on is tentatively called: “Suicide Squeeze (an existential crisis at third base)”. (I told my brother that maybe I should write a psychology book rather than another play—he said, why would you waste your time/talent doing that?). We’ll see where it takes me…
Thanks again for your kind words (and in the true spirit of providing voice to the voiceless—getting it!),
Richard
ann3:
Hi Dr. G,
Chekhov is probly one of my favs too. Thanks for mentioning the Avrahm Yarmolinsky translations because there's a bit of a stink about the Constance Garnett's translations. I'll look for the Yarmolinsky.
The interesting thing about your reaction to Chekhov is that in The Body Never Lies by Alice Miller, she basically portrays Checkhov as having suffered from Voicelessness, the very topic of this wonderful board which you have created. His father mistreated him & he died very young.
From Amazon: "Miller traces the relationship between inadequate or tyrannical parenting and adult bodily illness, depression and suicide in pithy biographies of Dostoyevski, Chekhov, Kafka, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and many others."
I'm glad you're pursuing the writing. “Suicide Squeeze (an existential crisis at third base)” is a great title. I agree with your brother and it's so wonderful that he said that. Hope you'll give us a heads up when you're ready.
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Thanks, Ann3—I’ll take a look at the book. I’ve never read about Chekhov’s relationship with his family! BTW, one of my friends, Herb, just sent me a link to an article by Thomas Mann about Chekhov that you might enjoy:
http://www.newrepublic.com/book/review/the-stature-anton-chekhov
I thought it was terrific…and there’s a lot about narcissism, particularly among authors (e.g. Tolstoy), in it.
Richard
ann3:
Hi Dr. G,
Excellent article by Mann & I got the Yarmolinsky Chekhov, so thanks for both. I totally agree w/ Mann about Chekhov's use of the short story: less is more, kinda like a 15 minute play!
Yup, in retrospect, seems Tolstoy was a bit of a phony, as Holden Caulfield mite have said.
IMO, Chekhov uniquely stands alone and is not a member of one particular group or another, altho various groups could claim him as a member/supporter, kinda like Camus.
Holy carp! Talk about Ns: I finally read A Moveable Feast; My jaw dropped 3 times when I read what Hemingway wrote about Stein & Fitzgerald, plus Sherwood Anderson. But the Fitzgerald thing takes the cake! Hemingway was the king of Ns (but so was Stein)! For an N vs. N fite, read about Hemingway vs. Stein.
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi TT,
I do know. And I'm a big fan of tongue in cheek!
Richard
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