Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality.

theguvnor
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Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality. Nov 24, 2023 12:29:09 GMT

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Post by theguvnor on Nov 24, 2023 12:29:09 GMT

Hilarous moments when you realize that seven degrees of separation is all too real.

Sitting here as a pretentious Irishman trying to compose work for a thesis I started citing figures from Russian history. Then hit upon my wife's uncle as a figure to cite which was droll:

publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/R/RODICHEV_Nikolay_Ivanovich/_Rodichev_N.I..html#0001

This also hilariously means I need to now report this to the ethics committee as I am citing someone connected to me in this way. Even more hilariously his daughter who protects his heritage replied to me and noted her father's other brother is also a literary figure of note and to be careful with that. My mother-in-law had a serious falling out with this branch of the family and hadn't spoken to them for many years after a major row with her brother-in-law as a young woman but my wife contacted his daughter several years to try and smooth things over.

I will now need to fill in a form the size of a very thick thing.

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Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality. Nov 24, 2023 20:31:57 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2023 20:31:57 GMT

Did you ever get to meet Nikolai Ivanovich, guvnor?

I am sure he would be pleased anyway you were able to cite his work.

I see he was a participant in the Great Patriotic War, studied at Kiev University, and was a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. Very interesting.

theguvnor
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Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality. Nov 25, 2023 1:51:57 GMT

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Post by theguvnor on Nov 25, 2023 1:51:57 GMT

No, the man died before I met my wife Luke. He is mentioned by an author I am writing about. Thus I am forced to tell the ethics committee about the fact he is a member of my family if I mention him, albeit by marriage and not a blood relative. Given the fact he is fairly obscure in Western Europe I could probably not do so but I like to play by the rules in these matters. His brother was an artist and a poet of some note as well but I am highly unlikely to mention him as he worked with texts that have little bearing on what I am writing about.

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Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality. Nov 25, 2023 2:50:21 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2023 2:50:21 GMT

Nov 25, 2023 1:51:57 GMT theguvnor said:

No, the man died before I met my wife Luke. He is mentioned by an author I am writing about. Thus I am forced to tell the ethics committee about the fact he is a member of my family if I mention him, albeit by marriage and not a blood relative. Given the fact he is fairly obscure in Western Europe I could probably not do so but I like to play by the rules in these matters. His brother was an artist and a poet of some note as well but I am highly unlikely to mention him as he worked with texts that have little bearing on what I am writing about.

I was reading on Wikipedia RU that he mentored a few writers associated with the "village prose" genre of short stories and poetry common in the Brezhnev era of 'developed socialism'. Interesting. I have done a little research on village prose stories in the past, because it was associated with a revival of Russian nationalism in the 1970s that was to a large extent cultivated during the rule of L. I. Brezhnev but which had been sidelined by internationalism during the rule of N. S. Khrushchev.

theguvnor
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Seven Degrees of Separation in Reality. Nov 25, 2023 10:07:45 GMT

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Post by theguvnor on Nov 25, 2023 10:07:45 GMT

This is where he pops up in what I am writing about. He gets mentioned as interacting with the American science-fiction writer Frederik Pohl at a convention for writers. Pohl was of course a communist in his youth and it notes Pohl's interactions with the Soviet authors at some length.