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Thanks, Kevin. Similar preoccupations synchronising: https://scriptourer.substack.com/p/incompleteness

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Thanks, Adrian! From your piece, "incompleteness duly recognised is dependence recognised" shows one angle of several I hadn't taken, but to your point it is present in the idea of forgoing completion. I'm glad the essay turned out as ecumenical and full as I tried for.

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We’ll have to watch this inadvertent flocking together, Kevin. Great reformations are born from such things!

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That's the spirit!

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Thanks for the shoutout! And also for the recommendation. I hadn't heard of Vodolazkin, will definitely add him to my list! Normally I don't find plot premises of "[character] digs deep into the past and learns about x character" to be a clincher, just because a lot of novels, especially in translation, have a premise of that sort. In fact, come to think of it I wonder if there's a conspiracy against the historical novel? But it sounds like this novel is healthily sophisticated in the good sense.

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Of course, Felix! Your readings of McCarthy deserve a wider look.

I think you'll like Vodolazkin, likely for the unorthodox structures and thematic preoccupations I analyzed here. Specifically, he is not a history-mystery writer, but an artist well-versed in histories and philosophies of that study. If anything, the marketing of "historical thriller" applied to "Solovyov and Larionov" is mis-applied, given how atmospheric and particular the novel actually is. Ditto for "The Aviator." His premises seem prone to schlock but his novels are too intelligent to contain any.

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