Steve Stillwell

The excerpt I read from The Portable Twentieth Century Russian Reader by Penguin Classics described orchestral musicians setting up in a glade - the author expresses his utter delight and then narrates that the musicians are then mowed down by mowers wielding 12 handled scythes or sickles. The narrative itself is simple, deceptively so for it will lead into the dream state which at times is also an analogy. The mowed down musicians retire to a "bower" of cool springs and singing birds - I could not help but hear the echo of Keats' Endymion: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." There is, of course, no such thing as a "12 handled scythe" or sickle? The fine artists mowed down by a collusion of the Russian Orthodox Church (12 apostles) wielding the sickle of the infamous Hammer and Sickle. I found it a delightful read and reminiscent of Nabokov at his best, who is also my favorite American or Russian author.