One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
My rating: 3/5 cats
it’s all about perspective.
yeah, ivan denisovich shukov is in a soviet labor camp, where he is freezing and has to work at bullshit tasks and is being punished for something he didn’t even get to do (because being a spy is cool, while being punished for being a spy when you didn’t even get to have the fun of being a spy is lame), and it’s all terrible with no end in sight, but come on.
he got to sleep late. his punishment for oversleeping is he had to wash some floors – indoors – instead of working out in the russian subzero nightmare. he got extra food time and time again, he didn’t get caught with his secret contraband, he networked and got some karma for future favors in his karma bank, he got some smokes and was recognized for his hard work, and he had a fever, which had to be good for keeping him a little warmer than those people who didn’t have fevers.
pretty good day all around.
me, i am not in a russian gulag, but i didn’t get to sleep late. it is nearly 7 pm and i have not had any food today, nor any cigarettes, i have not been praised for my hard work, even though i did indeed work very very hard today (you try keeping your composure when someone yells “hey” at you from across the floor and with no preamble thrusts his sweaty cell phone at you so you can talk to his friend who wants books about russian icons, but doesn’t have any titles, but commands you to just “type it in” and he will “memorize” the list. this man has very optimistic ideas about the search capabilities of the computers at barnes and noble) after work i had to go to staples because my power strip exploded, then to the hardware store and the organic market, even though all i wanted to do was go home to have the pleasure of working on my ALA presentation for the rest of my friday night. i did not network. i have no future karmic payload coming. as for the contraband… well, that’s my little secret.
still and all – i feel like karen brissetova’s day was more exhausting and less rewarding overall.
and i don’t even get to see any snow.
snow, sausage, and cigarettes sound pretty good to me, man.
