Anna Rivina, head of the Violent Internet Project, about favorite books
IN RUBRIC "BOOK SHELF"we ask journalists, writers, scientists, curators and other heroines about their literary preferences and publications, which occupy an important place in their bookcase. Today, the head of the project" Violent.net ", executive director of the fund for helping people living with HIV, AIDS. CENTER, Candidate of Law Anna Rivina
I have always loved to read about how people overcome difficulties and succeed in spite of all obstacles. About the brave, strong-willed, kind, who confidently go to their goals. At fourteen, in a few days I swallowed two volumes of "Gone With the Wind" of six hundred pages, I just physically could not tear myself away. I clearly remember my emotions when at fifteen I read Kafka's “Castle” - it seemed that all this time I was under some kind of anesthesia.
My first literary love happened to Lermontov, I memorized excerpts from the "Demon" and was sure that only he understood me. A few years later I could not tear myself away from Gogol. Grandfather laughed so sincerely when he spoke about the characters of "Dead Souls" that I read a book with some kindred warmth and kindness to the vices of each of them. Grandmother was putting something about family and love affairs (where without her beloved "Forsyte Sagas"), mother was responsible for the detective world heritage and adventures. And my sister was always fascinated by some original books that had to be read. So, she opened the door for me to the anthropology of Frazer’s Golden Branch.
And then in my life there were several events that changed my vision of the world. The first was the preparation for the entrance exam in philosophy and the subsequent passing of the candidate exam in the philosophy of science. It was sad that it was necessary to cram everything, instead of leaving for a year with a suitcase of all these books and - read, read and read again. The second was the admission to the magistracy of Tel Aviv University in political science. And again: it is necessary to read a lot and quickly, but I wanted to live a separate life with each book. In the first diploma, I am an expert in public international law, and I realized how dry and indifferent we were declared rights enshrined in documents - not a word about the struggle for these rights, their real significance, evolutionary development, paradigm change, the possibility of error and admit your mistakes. The fact that you need to defend what you believe in, but respect others.
For me, books about the fate of Jews during the Holocaust became a separate stage in my life. Now, when I engage in human rights activities, where I have to deal with stigma and discrimination all the time, I return to my thoughts on the Jewish question from a legal and psychological point of view. At some point, this interest played a significant role in the decision to go to study in Israel. When I entered the faculty of political science, I began a new period of formation and reflection. So, the first time I got acquainted with the scientific texts about feminism, which then did not understand and did not accept.
I find it difficult to give books where the plot develops slowly, and the experiences of the characters are described in detail. I am definitely for non-fiction - it seems to me that in the world there are an infinite number of interesting people, events, phenomena, accidents, about which much has been written and has not been written yet. Now I rarely manage to read slowly and with pleasure, and if I take up books, they are devoted to history, law, politics, and changes in society. It is a bit frustrating that many books should be read at the appropriate age or condition, and I already have them in the past. I never really could read novels about timid and docile women, non-reciprocal love, about suffering, but now with sadness I understand that the majority of classical literature presents women with just such secondary ones. With these books, I am not on the way; now I read two key points in reading: information and the opportunity to reconsider my views.
Anatoly Rybakov
"Heavy sand"
I read this book at the age of fifteen or sixteen. It tells about the life of several generations of the Jewish family and what happened to this family during world wars and revolution. This book is about human cruelty, that nothing depends on you when you live in a state where your happiness does not matter to anyone. You only see how various troubles come and break everything that you have built. This book hurt a lot precisely because it describes one family, with which you have already become related to some other page. Love, laughter, children, care, work, controversy, reconciliation - all this comes to an end. I clearly remember the description of how the Germans hung people on the square, even now everything inside is shrinking.
Before Rybakov I did not come across such heavy books. Then it was already Solzhenitsyn and deep immersion in what was actually happening in our country, and not what is taught in school. I am very glad that this book fell into my hands, it influenced me greatly and professionally: I understood that lawlessness should never be allowed to happen. Yes, public international law cannot guarantee anything by itself, but before World War II it did not even exist, it did not even proclaim what is obvious today. Our task is to make such mechanisms that the rights figured not only on paper.
Gianni Rodari
"The Adventures of Chipollino"
Adventures of Chipollino were read to me, like everyone else, as a child, and everyone watched the cartoon. And I have always been very fond of this story, where very complex things about injustice and violence are simply explained. Now more and more often on the Internet there are scenes from the cartoon that compare with what is happening in our country. And this once again proves that "Chipollino" is a very true story about how easily the strong and the rich offend the weak and defenseless, as people in power are confident of their superiority.
"Gender for dummies"
The book, which explained to me the concepts of "gender" and "gender roles", when I was thus a "teapot", a hostage of stereotypes, ready to evaluate everyone through the framework of the "norm". I read it just a few years ago, when I began to realize a lot of clichés, to follow the course of my thoughts, often frightened by how programmed our society lives. The book came to me when I just started to get acquainted with the problem of domestic violence in Russia and the organizations that deal with it: I came to the Anna Center, where I was shown a lot of interesting literature. This two-part book tactfully introduced me to topics and problems that are often so radically presented in society that not a single man in the street would understand the question. Once I was just that man in the street, believing that a woman should be “feminine” and a man “masculine”.
Pavel Sanaev
"Bury Me Behind the Baseboard"
This is a very strong book. The paradox is that you read and realize: all the heroes are unhappy, they all feel bad, but because of one woman who decided for everyone how to live correctly. The main character decided to sacrifice herself, she also does not feel happy, each time suffering because of her grandson, husband, daughter. And the most amazing thing is that so many families live in our country to this day - their actions do not come from cruelty, but from the desire to make everyone better, from love and self-sacrifice.
I read this book when it was on everyone’s lips. I remember that my nephews, who were then kids, came to me, I began to read them aloud in full confidence that they would not be interested, and they read it to the end with me, and we discussed for a long time whether there was love in this family. I think that even now for me this reading would be very exciting, but I would have already paid attention to other details: fully aware of the fact of violence, but with the understanding that before the family and communication between relatives were built on a completely different system.
Samuel Phillips Huntington
"The Clash of Civilizations"
I met this book while studying at Tel Aviv University. Now there is a lot of talk about multiculturalism and globalization in the world. This book divides peoples according to the principle of civilizations, each of which pursues its own goals and interests. It is strikingly interesting to describe the influence of one civilization on another, conflicts, an aggressive religious movement as a reaction to Western hegemony.
Separately, Huntington has an Orthodox civilization, which he asks not to be confused with Russian, since this is a more general term. In stereotyping, Russia chose between the Western world and the Asian world - Huntington also claims that Orthodox civilization is also fighting for domination on the world stage, and does not see itself as an integral part of another civilization. The most curious thing is the ability to foresee various international conflicts on the basis of civilizational features and calculate them a few steps ahead.
Yuval Noi Harari
"Sapiens. A brief history of mankind"
I love books that simply explain complex processes. I believe that in our time, when higher education is not a privilege, and the information around the greatest multitude, it is very important to convey knowledge in this way. There are not so many footnotes here, the book does not claim to be a great scientific work, but it has a huge amount of curious facts about our form and evolution.
All mixed up: anthropology, biology, history, sociology, psychology, economics and finance. Perhaps this is not the book that should be referred to in research, but I am very impressed with the macro-level overview and the representation of man and the planet as a system where everything is interconnected.
Bettina Stangnet
"Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer"
I bought this book quite recently in the Jewish Museum in Paris. Often, when discussing the Holocaust, World War II, people wonder how the Germans — pedantic, benevolent, and decent — could organize death factories, with millions of inventiveness and cruelty, destroy them. "But, apparently, it always happens: the death of one person is death, and the death of two million is only statistics." The researchers know that all the work in the camps was divided according to the principle that everyone did little action in the general system - this allowed everyone not to take the blame and not be responsible for the final result.
Adolf Eichmann - one of the most terrible people of the Third Reich, he not only managed all the experiments on the prisoners of the camp, but also embodied the ideology of the regime. Back in the thirties, when he was already in the SS, he was in the confidence of the Jews, went to Palestine, he was one of the few Germans who knew the "enemy" by sight. After the fall of the Reich, Eichmann fled to Latin America, where he felt wonderful until he was found and tried in Jerusalem. The most interesting thing is that Eichmann chose the line of defense for the fact that he was just a small cog in a big car of death and nothing depended on him. Recently, I was in Auschwitz and saw the barracks, where the experiments on women on sterilization, on the change in eye color, took place. But the feeling that we were scared on earth by hell did not leave me, but here it is, an hour’s drive from Kraków - and how many more such places.
Erich Fromm
"The Art of Love"
I was persuaded to read this book for a long time, but I found reasons not to do it. For many years I wondered why children are taught to learn well, to obey adults, but nobody teaches to be happy, to live for themselves, to do what a person wants, and not what is necessary. Fromm answered me a lot of questions. I believed then, and now I know for sure that only the person who first loves himself and feels himself can love.
A sense of duty, commitment, guilt, anxiety and responsibility for not having anything to do with you - all this makes it difficult to live in pleasure and helps to justify unnecessary situations and connections. I would include “The Art of Love” in some list of mandatory readings, but with the understanding that this is a labor of the mid-twentieth century and since then many social attitudes have also had time to change.
Marzhan Satrapi
"Persepolis"
"Persepolis" is an amazing book, it covers a lot of topical and painful topics. Everything is wonderful here: a feminist agenda, multiculturalism, radicalism of religion and regime, freedom, responsibility for choice, loss, disappointment, love and family, after all. I am going to soon put this book to my little niece: she makes so many difficult and important things to think, and how easy it is written. A few years ago my good friend gave it to me for my birthday, for which I thank him very much.
Art Spiegelman
"Mouse"
"Maus" - another book in my piggy bank of knowledge about the Holocaust. I am proud of my acquaintance with Vasily Shevchenko, who translated this bestseller into Russian. This is brilliant - not just like that give Pulitzer Prizes to comics. My nine-year-old nephew immediately seized this book in the store of the Jewish Museum in Paris. She wants to read, children and adults want to know this story. And this story is about victory, about how good triumphs over evil. Only the price of this victory is very high, and there is no point in all these losses.