Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
облезлом теле, можно было судить о ее ветхости
Антон Павлович Чехов • Рассказы. Повести. 1888—1891 (Russian Edition)
Chekhov, a practicing doctor during his short but prolific career as a playwright and master of short fiction, famously said that medicine was his wife and literature was his mistress.
Suzanne Koven • Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life
What I admire most about Chekhov is how free of agenda he seems on the page—interested in everything but not wedded to any fixed system of belief, willing to go wherever the data takes him. He was a doctor, and his approach to fiction feels lovingly diagnostic. Walking into the examination room, finding Life sitting there, he seems to say, “Wonderf
... See moreGeorge Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
Chekhov and Tolstoy,
Amor Towles • A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
But Chekhov chose to make Marya a person unhappy because of the monotony of her life. Out of the mist of every-story-that-could-possibly-be, a particular woman has started to emerge.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
The story has made us expect this, because, so far, we have not seen Olenka consider and then reject someone—whomever Chekhov introduced, she loved. But Chekhov asks (is alert to the value of asking), “Okay, but what if she doesn’t settle for Trot?” This sort of narrative alertness is one of Chekhov’s prime gifts. That is, he’s alert to the full po
... See moreGeorge Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
Ashley Zhang • Surrender control over your stories
He is in the clean and well-lit prison of one idea: he is sharpened to one painful point.