Journalist Anna Savina about favorite books
IN BACKGROUND "BOOK SHELF" we ask journalists, writers, scholars, curators, and other heroines about their literary preferences and publications, which occupy an important place in their bookcase. Today, Anna Savina is sharing her favorite book stories with Setka’s editor and the creator of the weekly newsletter Your weekly dose of reading.
I started reading quite early - but I didn’t particularly like this activity. I remember how in three years I opened the "Snow Queen" with beautiful illustrations and realized that I understood the text. For a long time I liked only one book - “Lyapiki and Evil One” by S. A. Wakefield about the war between good-natured round creatures (in the illustrations they resembled Russian Kolobok) and their enemies similar to huge crocodiles. More recently, I learned that this work is a classic of children's Australian literature, and the opposition of the main characters symbolizes the struggle between eco-activists and those who pollute the environment. Of course, at the age of five I did not understand this - I was just captured by the names of fantastic creatures. I also loved the series "The Wizard of the Emerald City" and "Harry Potter". Nothing more, I didn’t seem to be hurt, although I was growing up in a house with hundreds, if not thousands of books: we had libraries of my grandmother and great-grandmother, who taught English and always read a lot.
At thirteen years old, I went to the hospital for the first time in my life: it was terribly depressing, so I read Jane Eyre for a couple of days, which I took with me. I clearly remember how I closed the book and realized that I didn’t want to stop, because I don’t know anything at all about foreign literature. That year I read a lot of English and French prose of the 19th century: "Madame Bovary", "Dear Friend", Jane Austen and Dickens. Around that time, I began to read a lot in English - from my grandmother I got a lot of adapted classics in fragile, but very beautifully decorated books of the 50s.
In high school, an excellent teacher appeared in my school who always found a way to turn a lesson into a conversation not only about literature, but also about life. I remember how we analyzed “We” and talked about totalitarianism, or read Pasternak and discussed his love poems. Since then, I have read a lot. Probably, thanks to the school, I can endlessly return to Lilianna Lungin’s “Subscript” - I studied in the same place where she learned about Oleg Dorman’s film and the book of memoirs at one of the school jubilees. A couple of times a year I open the preface to the "Subscript" - there Lungina says that the most terrible things can turn into incredible happiness. This thought really helps in difficult situations.
At fifteen, I entered the School of the Young Journalist, where I immediately liked everything: it was not considered strange to read Ulysses in the tenth grade. At the journalism department, too, everything around them read mountains of books: discussing lists of compulsory literature and their incredible volume was a favorite activity for everyone. We didn’t have much time to read anything besides the program, and it was easy to find a common topic for conversation even with someone you don’t know well: everyone complained about unreadable Old Russian literature or remembered the most fun stories from the Decameron. Unfortunately, we did not succeed in everything, and because of the rush before the exams, a lot was quickly forgotten - I hope someday I will have the opportunity to reread a lot, especially ancient literature.
In recent years, I have written a lot about technologies: before - for the media, then I was engaged in content marketing for startups. Now I am responsible for communications at Setka, which creates internal tools for digital media. To understand the context, I read a lot of foreign non-fiction about business, technology and design. I mainly learn about work-related books from specialized publications. I like the site about marketing and creating digital products Inside Intercom - by the way, they are also releasing e-books. I also read Medium a lot: Backchannel publications (its editor-in-chief Stephen Levy is one of the best technology writers) and entrepreneurs and investors blogs.
I try to learn more about editorial work. Recently, I read Viktor Shklovsky's Technique of Writing Craft and In the Laboratory of Lydia Chukovskaya's Editor and Elements of Style by Elvin Brooks White. All this is not new work, but it seems to me that they are unlikely to ever become obsolete. The authors try to thoughtfully answer the most important questions about working with text: how to articulate their thoughts, how to build the correct structure of the article, what mistakes should be avoided, etc. In the era of social networks and chat bots, this is no less important than before.
Recently, I deliberately read more works written by women - it seems to me that the world’s view often diminished in the world literature, and I don’t want to fall into this trap. This applies to both fiction and non-fiction: I read Zadie Smith's works of art or, for example, Ursula Le Guin, Joan Didion's essay and feminist theory, queer and sociological research. I learned about several writers thanks to The New Yorker - from the stories in the magazine you can always understand whether you like the author or not and whether you should read it further. I rarely rely on the advice of friends and choose books, guided by the recommendations of authors I already know, or by reading reviews in the media. Many feminist researchers refer to each other's work, and I learned about Ursula Le Guin, for example, from an interview with Zadie Smith.
Evgeny Morozov
"To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism"
When I was the chief editor of Apparat, my colleagues and I thought a lot and talked about the impact of technology on everyday life, about how technology companies interact with the state. Then the conflicts of Uber and Airbnb with the authorities were just beginning, and no one really talked about it - everyone discussed only the incredible growth and success of the new technological giants.
It seems to me that Yevgeny Morozov was for a long time the only one who offered an alternative to techno-optimism. He invented the term "resolutionism" to describe the confidence of IT entrepreneurs that all problems of humanity can be solved using applications and online services. In his book, Morozov explains why some new technologies are not at all as useful as they seem: for example, I remember a passage about the shortcomings of tracking applications. Morozov argues that over time, the rejection of the use of certain trackers or the reluctance to share personal information online will be perceived with suspicion - it seems to me that this prediction has already become a reality.
Steven johnson
"Where the Ideas Come From: The Natural History Of Innovation"
Among the opponents of Morozov, I like most of all Stephen Johnson - a writer who takes a more optimistic view of technology, for which there are no horrible scenarios from Black Mirror. All his arguments in favor of technology are pretty obvious, so I advise his work "Where Good Ideas Come From" - in it he draws parallels between technology innovations and evolutionary processes that contribute to the emergence of new species. I like this comparison, and, moreover, there are many good examples in the book - as about the invention of the Babbage analytical machine, the predecessor of modern computers.
Alexander Etkind
"Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience"
The book, which helped me better understand many of the phenomena of the modern Russian economy and politics. Psychologist and cultural scientist Alexander Etkind analyzes the history of the Russian Empire through the prism of postcolonial research and claims that our country was a colonial power - but unlike European states, it colonized not distant continents, but its people, and this often led to horrible consequences and inhuman social experiments. In addition, Internal Colonization explains how our country became dependent on raw materials and how it affected the actions of politicians over many centuries.
Sarah thornton
"Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital"
An excellent study of sociologist Sarah Thornton about club cultures in England in the 90s. The book has many interesting details that are particularly interesting to read now, when this decade is so popular in fashion and film. Thornton introduces a very capacious term "subcultural capital" - a set of advantages recognized within the subculture, which helps its owner to gain weight within the framework of the "parent" culture. This term explains, for example, why some DJs who perform at small subcultural parties become music celebrities over time: their “capital” accumulated inside a group of like-minded people helps them move faster along the social scale. I also always advise everyone Thornton's book “Seven days in art” - it is very clear how the different types of art institutions are arranged: a museum, an auction, a gallery, and so on.
Ariel levy
"Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture"
The book of my favorite correspondent The New Yorker. Unfortunately, she writes for the magazine quite rarely, but this is the case when each text of the author deserves attention. Her article "Thanksgiving in Mongolia" is probably the best I've ever read in The New Yorker. "Female Chauvinist Pigs" is devoted to the culture and fashion of the null, on which many have grown and for which they are nostalgic now: reality shows, Britney Spears and crazy outfits. Levy doesn’t have a completely sociological approach, but she manages to convincingly explain how at that time vulgarity became synonymous with liberation and empowerment and why these beliefs had no relation to feminism. I especially liked the analysis of the American show of the time "Girls Gone Wild" - a sobering reading for someone who grew up on similar MTV programs (for example, "Let's argue"). Of course, even as a teenager, I understood that there was something wrong with such programs, but it’s great to read their criticism at a conscious age.
David graber
"Debt. First 5000 Years of History"
Another book, in which, as in the "Internal colonization", deals with the history of one phenomenon, through which the current state of affairs is explained. Talking about the attitude to debt at different times and in different cultures, anthropologist David Graber explains why some countries are pulled out ahead, and some still remain "developing." There are many interesting reflections in the book: for example, why the theory of the appearance of money proposed by Adam Smith, which is quoted by all modern textbooks on economics, is wrong. Consistently refuting misconceptions like this, the author shows that the basis of the world economy is debt and that it has become the most effective lever of political pressure in the modern world.
Zadie smith
"The Embassy of Cambodia"
One of my favorite books is Zadie Smith. I like the fact that a British writer chooses a strong main character - a refugee from Ghana who works in a family of wealthy Londoners - and tries to show her attitude to a foreign city. Fatou lives in the Willesden area - in the same place where the writer herself grew up. Mother Smith is from the island of Jamaica, and her father is British, and although the writer has always lived in London, it seems to me that Fatoo looks at Willesden through the eyes of the author and therefore sees all his contradictions and funny features.
Considering the migration crisis in Europe and the recent UK decision to leave the European Union, Smith's story becomes even more important: the writer reveals many city flaws, but in London from the Cambodian Embassy there is still a place for immigrants and refugees. I also like Smith in "Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays" - a collection of essays about her favorite literary works, writing and life.
Oliver sacks
"On the move: A Life"
A beautifully written autobiography of Oliver Sachs - he is equally interesting in talking about motorcycle trips around America and his complex scientific experiments. The scientist wrote this book shortly before his death - while working on the work, he knew that he had cancer. Especially great that throughout the book Saks remembers those with whom he had occasion to communicate, only with gratitude and respect.
The writer finds positive aspects in almost all the events that happened to him (in this sense, the book resembles my favorite “Interlinear” by Lilianna Lungin), although his life was not simple: for example, he lived alone for about thirty years and only shortly before his death met his partner, NYT writer and columnist, Bill Hayes. I read this book shortly before my first trip to San Francisco and the whole trip recalled how Sax described the city of the 70s - it was interesting to compare his impressions and the current situation, when the area turned from a counterculture center into a technological hub.
Metahaven
"Black Transparency: The World Of Mass Surveillance"
The authors of this book are the cool Dutch team Metahaven, whom I have been following for a long time: they make very beautiful works on cool themes. For example, they recently released a film about Russian propaganda, which looks like a cool video art, and not a boring documentary with "talking heads". A couple of years ago, Metahaven, by order of WikiLeaks, developed the design of souvenirs that the organization used to collect money.
Black Transparency tells the story of this project, and also talks about transparency, surveillance and privacy. Much has been written about this, but the book benefits from the fact that its authors are not journalists, but artists and designers. For example, a separate chapter is devoted to the WikiLeaks logo: Metahaven members recall how they searched for its author, and analyze that images of two Earth maps flowing into each other speak of an organization’s mission. In addition, the book is very pleasant to hold: I mostly read on the Kindle, but I bought this one because of the cool cover and inserts with the very project for WikiLeaks.
Elena Zdravomyslova, Anna Temkina
"12 lectures on gender sociology"
A textbook on gender sociology, written by excellent Petersburg researchers Elena Zdravomyslova and Anna Temkina. He helped me streamline the fragmentary knowledge related to women studies, queer studies and others. I figured out what views were held by participants of different waves of feminism, why Andrea Dvorkin opposed pornography, who was her opponent, what is Marxist feminism, and so on. I like that the authors speak not only about foreign, but also about the Russian context - it is especially interesting to read about the post-Soviet period and the "conservative turn" in modern Russia. The book clearly explains why feminism in our country has such a bad reputation and how modern politics and appeal to “traditional values” influence the position of women in society.
Maxim Kotin
"And nerds are doing business"
"And the botanists do business" is dedicated to the first project of the founder of Dodo Pizza, Fyodor Ovchinnikov - before creating a huge network of pizzerias, he worked in the bookshop "Power of mind" in Syktyvkar. Probably the best non-fiction book about business in Russian: just written, witty and honest. The author talks about local realities: finding employees in a city where there have never been intellectual literature stores, negotiating with merchants who earned their capital in the early 90s, working with them and much more.
Kotin understands that setting up a business in the Russian outback is not at all like building a company in the USA, and is not trying at all costs to compare the success of his character with some millionaires of Silicon Valley. If the author draws parallels, it is very thoughtful: for example, I remember the story of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who opened his second store only seven years after the first one appeared - his patience can be an example for businessmen all over the world.