Луч тьмы в светлом царстве

This last November 2, I decided to celebrate Día De Los Muertos with my intellectual and artistic hero Sergei Eisenstein.

On an objective level, it felt like my duty as a Mexican-American Eisenstein researcher living in Moscow at this time of year to adorn the grave of one of Russia’s greatest artists who had a deep creative and emotional affinity for Mexican culture (and its traditions surrounding the dead in particular).

On a personal level, it felt like a spiritual quest to unite the strands of my inner lives. I grew up with Día De Los Muertos (although I never actually got to celebrate in a graveyard because none of my ancestors are buried near where we lived) and Mexican art. Both my parents make art that draws inspiration from Mezoamerican folk traditions, and my dad also loves and emulates early Soviet art. He was the one who introduced me to Eisenstein’s films too. And here I am now, living in Russia on a research scholarship for a project deeply tied to Eisenstein’s work.

I hope that some day, the powers that be here will allow for a dedicated group of Eisenstein’s spiritual heirs to give him the full ofrenda and late-night grave party treatment. This year, Novodevichiye Cemetery closed as usual at 5 pm so I just left a modest offering of paper marigolds (handmade with love by me after I realized that it was not possible to find live marigolds in Moscow in November) and incense.

¡Feliz Día De Los Muertos, Serguéi Mijáilovich!

С днем мертвых, Сергей Михаилович!

No really, compare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qq1B5na--s

to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqup_vtEPz4

The Oprichnik intermezzo is situated between the final scene of Act II, in which the protagonist Andrei swears a dread oath to serve in tsar Ivan the Terrible’s personal guard, and the opening scene of Act III, in which the people of Moscow lament the hard times that have befallen them since the tsar went into (implicitly homoerotic) seclusion with his personal guard. The tsar never appears onstage in the opera, but exists as an ominous, all-powerful, sexually deviant/threatening force controlling the fates of the characters from just out of sight. Exactly like DIO in most of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 3 (“Stardust Crusaders”) .

It’s also worth noting that composers for films and especially for cartoons have been borrowing melodies from Tchaikovsky since the very beginning.

Mezzo-sopranos in the role of Fedor Basmanov, favorite of Ivan the Terrible, in Tchaikovsky’s opera Oprichnik (1872). From top to bottom: M. I. Dolina, E. I. Zrubeva, N. A. Fride, A. V. Kravets, L. G. Zviagina, T. S. Liubatovich. Late 19th-early 20th centuries.

The role of Basmanov is the only so-called “trouser role” (a male role written to be performed by women) in Tchaikovsky’s operas. The queer sexual subtext surrounding the character is quite overt and caused trouble for both Imperial and later Soviet censors. We stan a legend.

I fell out of sync with this platform during grad school, but I want to try using it again as it really was a great way to connect with people over shared interests outside of academia...and I’m feeling extremely burned out on academia now that I’ve reached the dissertation phase of grad school...

...And the dissertation I’ve set out to write has some of its weird roots in Tumblr interactions! I wish I had put more effort into continuing these interactions alongside pursuing traditional academic relationships. Now that I’m adrift from the academy and figuring things out on my own, I am looking for alternatives and different paths...and I think it’s worth returning to whatever’s left of the platform that gave me so much inspiration.

So, Tumblr, I am now living in Moscow on a yearlong grant to research a dissertation on queer artistic interpretations of Ivan the Terrible and the oprichniki. Basically, I’m seeking out every piece of Russian-language historical fiction in any genre/medium that references Ivan’s sexual relationship with his oprichnik Fedor Basmanov and reading them all through an academic queer theory lens. In my best moments, I aspire to something grander: experimentally re-constructing an alternative lineage of queer creative expression within the Russian national mythos. Most of the time, I just want to get the hell out of grad school and find a way to make meaningful contributions to international queer culture through translation and art that don’t require me to constantly beg for money from massively evil institutions... At any rate, what I really want to do here is meet and spend time with other people interested in queer history and art and maybe collaborate on a project or just hang out and watch silent films set to synthpop albums...

...HAS ME IN IT!!!!!!

Letters column has a photo from the WicDiv Support Group: Boston chapter big Goth meeting (doubled as a wake for a certain OTP)!!!! All thanks to the amazing @elusive-j !!!