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Comment by ReptileMan | Hacker News Reader

Russian literature is based on suffering. Someone always suffers - either the protagonist, the author or the reader. If all of them are suffering you have a masterpiece of Russian literature.

I guess it is because it prepares you quite well to suffer endless corporate memos.

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> suffer endless corporate memos

I think classic russian literature can be everything, but not an exercise in formal double-speak incantations.

True. But reading low density, dry material that you don't want to and feeling mental and physical exhaustion from the process sums up both war and peace and corporate communications.

Very droll.

It does unfortunately fit most of the examples I can think of. Even in comedy like Gogol people suffer.

I understand where you coming from, but both Russia classics Soviet and modern authors have decent comedy pieces.

Not to mention works that are just not about suffering but life.

Yes, but the people that have read Moscow 2042 count in the numbers of fingers on the hand of carefree bandsaw user compared to the people that have read Crime and Punishment. Which when I read it I understood that I was punished, but had not idea what my crime was.

The only widely known fun book outside of Russia is Master and Margarita.

>The only widely known fun book outside of Russia is Master and Margarita.

I pretty sure Chekhov (as an example) is widely known outside of Russia and he's master of short fun stories, no?

In fact I'd even say he's somewhat more popular in the West than in Russia.

I would say that Checkhov is mostly known for his plays, not for short fun stories.

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