Great article! It gives so much insight into whole this obsession with tzarist Russia. I, personally could not read Shadow & Bone as all the names gave me instant cringe in English and in Russian they look even more bizarre. But if books are obsessed with tzars, Russia in movies is obsessed with much darker stuff. If it’s woman, then it’s stereotypically tall, blond, blue eyed seductive woman of questionable profession or with a dark criminal past. Always a negative character. And if it’s a man, it’s either not intelligent criminal or scientist who turned into criminal or a spy. Again, always a negative character. And even the whole country is always portrayed as 24/7 snow, dark, negative country. Growing up watching such movies I was always confused and saddened by it and it took me quite a long time to realize that what is shown or written about Russia by non Russians are not necessarily the truth. There is a lot of controversy in the past and current and all the ways in between that are hard to understand even for Russians themselves, let alone western people.
Great article! It gives so much insight into whole this obsession with tzarist Russia. I, personally could not read Shadow & Bone as all the names gave me instant cringe in English and in Russian they look even more bizarre. But if books are obsessed with tzars, Russia in movies is obsessed with much darker stuff. If it’s woman, then it’s stereotypically tall, blond, blue eyed seductive woman of questionable profession or with a dark criminal past. Always a negative character. And if it’s a man, it’s either not intelligent criminal or scientist who turned into criminal or a spy. Again, always a negative character. And even the whole country is always portrayed as 24/7 snow, dark, negative country. Growing up watching such movies I was always confused and saddened by it and it took me quite a long time to realize that what is shown or written about Russia by non Russians are not necessarily the truth. There is a lot of controversy in the past and current and all the ways in between that are hard to understand even for Russians themselves, let alone western people.