Far and Away: Reporting From the Brink of Change

by Solomon, Andrew

  I thank Tamara Ward and Laura Scher for always being in my corner, full of both love and fun.

  I thank Blaine Smith, whose radiant and judicious presence has kept me steady when things looked stormy, and whose quiet insights help me to grow in beautiful ways.

  I thank Oliver Scher, Lucy Scher, Blaine Solomon, and George Solomon. No one else could root me to the world as they have.

  Finally, I thank my husband, John Habich Solomon, who has accompanied me on both outward and inward journeys. There’s no one with whom I’d prefer to see the world, nor to live in it. He is my north and south poles, my equator, my Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, my seven continents and seven seas.

  © TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS

  ANDREW SOLOMON is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, president of PEN American Center, and a regular contributor to the New Yorker, NPR, and the New York Times Magazine. A lecturer and activist, he is the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, which has won thirty additional national awards, and The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, which won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has been published in twenty-four languages. His TED Talks have been viewed more than 12 million times. He lives in New York and London and is a dual national.

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  ALSO BY ANDREW SOLOMON

  The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost

  A Stone Boat

  The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

  Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

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  Notes

  Dispatches from Everywhere

  2 The US Army’s Standards of Medical Fitness (Army Regulation 40-501) call for referral to a Medical Evaluation Board for “pes planus, when symptomatic, more than moderate, with pronation on weight bearing which prevents the wearing of military footwear, or when associated with vascular changes.” Mild and moderate cases of flat feet would not disqualify one from military service.

  4 Erika Urbach’s obituary can be found on the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers website, at http://norwegianbachelorfarmers.com/lakewoodrock/stories/Erika.html.

  4 This delightful collection is still in print: Frances Carpenter, Tales of a Korean Grandmother (1989).

  8 The ruins of Ingapirca—also known as the “Inca wall”—are currently being restored; see “En Ingapirca continúa proceso de restauración en piedras,” El Tiempo, April 8, 2015.

  11 The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is described in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Chernobyl: 20 years on,” BBC News, June 12, 2007. For a striking collection of photographs of the site at the time of the reactor fire and over the following twenty-five years, see Alan Taylor, “The Chernobyl disaster: 25 years ago,” Atlantic, March 23, 2011.

  11 In Chekhov’s 1900 play, The Three Sisters, youngest sister, Irina, yearns for the family’s return to the city of her birth. Act 2 closes with her plaint “Moscow . . . Oh, Lord. Could we go to Moscow”; see Anton Chekhov, The Three Sisters: A Play by Anton Chekhov Adapted by David Mamet (1992).

  12 Sotheby’s first auction of contemporary Soviet art, conducted July 7, 1988, was recounted in my first book, The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost (1991).

  13 Nikita Alexeev’s statement (“We have been preparing ourselves to be not great artists, but angels”) occurs on page 283 of Solomon (1991), ibid.

  14 For the Russian edition, see The Irony Tower. Советские художники во времена гласности (2013).

  16 Tennyson’s “Ulysses” may be found on page 88 of Poems by Alfred Tennyson in Two Volumes: Vol. 2 (1842).

  16 The earliest known instance of the quote attributed to St. Augustine (“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”) occurs on page 2 of John Feltham, The English Enchiridion (1799).

  16 Christian Caryl is author of Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century (2013), and dozens of insightful pieces of political journalism; see, e.g., “The young and the restless,” Foreign Policy, February 17, 2014; and “Putin: During and after Sochi,” New York Review of Books, April 3, 2014.

  18 For more background on the shifts in Cuba’s official stance regarding religion, see Rone Tempest, “Pope meets with Castro, agrees to a Cuba visit,” Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1996; and Marc Frank, “Cuba’s atheist Castro brothers open doors to Church and popes,” Reuters, September 7, 2015.

  18 I reminisce about my Cuban New Year’s Eve party at greater length in my article “Hot night in Havana,” Food & Wine, January 2002.

  22 See Robert S. McNamara and Brian Van De Mark, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (1996).

  24 The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum continues to welcome visitors; its website is at http://www.jmuseum.lt.

  24 The quote from John Ruskin (“It is merely being ‘sent’ to a place . . .”) appears in the essay “The moral of landscape,” anthologized in The Works of John Ruskin, Vol. 5 (1904), pages 370–71.

  25 The quote from E. M. Forster (“When I got away, I could get on with it”) comes from an interview by P. N. Furbank and F. J. H. Haskell, “E. M. Forster: The art of fiction no. 1,” Paris Review, Spring 1953.

  25 The quote from Samuel Johnson (“All travel has its advantages . . .”) occurs in Boswell’s Life of Johnson (1887).

  27 The “paper architects” were the subject of my article “Paper tsars,” Harpers & Queen, February 1990.

  29 Walter Pater’s advice can be found in the “Conclusion” to The Renaissance and appears on page 60 of Selected Writings of Walter Pater (1974).

  29 Zhou Enlai’s quip about the French Revolution is disputed, but is nonetheless “a misunderstanding that was too delicious to invite correction”; see Richard McGregor, “Zhou’s cryptic caution lost in translation,” Financial Times, June 10, 2011.

  32 See Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (2001); and Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (2012).

  33 For a recent tally of countries permitting same-sex marriage, see Freedom to Marry, “The freedom to marry internationally,” Freedom to Marry, 2015.

  33 For an up-to-date summary of overseas legislation pertaining to homosexuality, see International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, “The lesbian, gay and bisexual map of world laws,” ILGBTIA, May 2015.

  34 News coverage of my wedding includes Eric Pfanner, “Vows: Andrew Solomon and John Habich,” New York Times, July 8, 2007; Laurie Arendt, “A toast to her brother,” Ozaukee Press, September 30, 2007; and Geordie Greig, “My big fab gay wedding,” Tatler, October 2007.

  34 For a report of the UN sessions on abuses committed by terrorists against gays, see Lucy Westcott, “Gay refugees addresses [sic] U.N. Security Council in historic meeting on LGBT rights,” Newsweek, August 25, 2015.

  34 Terrorist atrocities against gay people in Syria and Iraq are documented in James Rush, “Images emerge of ‘gay’ man ‘thrown from building by Isis militants before he is stoned to death after surviving fall,’ ” Independent, February 3, 2015; and Jamie Dettmer, “The ISIS hug of death for gays,” Daily Beast, April 24, 2015.

  35 The execution of Makwan Moloudzadeh is reported in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Iranian hanged after verdict stay,” BBC News, December 6, 2007.

  35 For background on the charges against twenty-six men arrested in a raid on a Cairo bathhouse, see
John McManus, “Egypt court clears men accused of bathhouse ‘debauchery,’ ” BBC News, January 12, 2015.

  35 The arrest of guests at a gay wedding in Egypt is reported in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Egypt cuts ‘gay wedding video’ jail terms,” BBC News, December 27, 2014.

  35 A Saudi Arabian court’s draconian 2007 sentence of two men for sodomy is reported in Doug Ireland, “7000 lashes for sodomy,” Gay City News, October 11, 2007.

  35 On the deplorable situation in Russia, see Tanya Cooper, “License to harm: Violence and harassment against LGBT people and activists in Russia,” Human Rights Watch, December 15, 2014.

  35 Entrapment of gay men in Kyrgyzstan is documented in Anna Kirey, “ ‘They said we deserved this’: Police violence against gay and bisexual men in Kyrgyzstan,” Human Rights Watch, January 28, 2014. Recent proposals for antigay legislation in Kyrgyzstan are the subject of Hugh Ryan, “Kyrgyzstan’s anti-gay law will likely pass next month, but has already led to violence,” Daily Beast, September 18, 2015.

  35 Human consequences of the Indian court decision recriminalizing homosexuality are discussed in Andrew Buncombe, “India’s gay community scrambling after court decision recriminalises homosexuality,” Independent, February 26, 2014.

  35 For a catalogue of homophobic laws in Africa, see Global Legal Research Directorate, “Laws on homosexuality in African nations,” Library of Congress, June 9, 2015.

  35 For an exhaustive review of persecution of gay people in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, see Thomas Probert et al., “Unlawful killings in Africa,” Center for Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge, 2015. The chilling effects of Nigeria’s anti-gay legislation are documented in Katy Glenn Bass and Joey Lee, “Silenced voices, threatened lives: The impact of Nigeria’s anti-LGBTI law on freedom of expression,” PEN American Center, June 29, 2015.

  35 The sentencing of Roger Jean-Claude Mbede and the ordeal of two other Cameroonian men jailed for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts are discussed in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Cameroon ‘gay sex’ men acquitted,” BBC News, January 7, 2013; see also David Artavia, “Cameroon’s ‘gay problem,’ ” Advocate, July 7, 2013.

  35 For more details on Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s dramatic condemnation of homosexuals, see South African Press Association, “Mugabe condemns Europe’s gay ‘filth,’ ” IOL News, April 14, 2011; Obey Manayiti, “Mugabe chides homosexuals again,” NewsDay (Bulawayo), July 25, 2013; and Dan Littauer, “Mugabe promises ‘hell for gays’ in Zimbabwe if he wins,” Gay Star News, June 17, 2013.

  35 The Ugandan legislature’s crusade against gays has entered a further round; see Saskia Houttuin, “Gay Ugandans face new threat from anti-homosexuality law,” Guardian, January 6, 2015.

  36 Protests against surreptitious censorship of translated works by Chinese publishers are covered in Alexandra Alter, “China’s publishers court America as its authors scorn censorship,” New York Times, May 28, 2015; and PEN America, “Publishers’ pledge on Chinese censorship of translated works,” PEN America, October 15, 2015.

  36 See Bettina Zilkha, “Andrew Solomon named President of PEN,” Forbes, March 5, 2015.

  37 “Words are no deeds” occurs in William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, act 3, scene 2, line 152.

  37 Emma Lazarus’s oft-quoted saying, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free,” originally appeared in “Epistle to the Hebrews,” a series of columns published in the American Hebrew from November 3, 1882, to February 23, 1883; see the centennial anthology, An Epistle to the Hebrews (1987), page 30.

  37 Aung San Suu Kyi’s entreaty served as the title to her 1997 op-ed, “Please use your liberty to promote ours,” New York Times, February 4, 1997.

  38 In relation to Dima Prigov in the living room, I am thinking in particular of Luis Buñuel’s brilliant 1972 film, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

  38 See “Reporter Daniel Pearl is dead, killed by his captors in Pakistan,” Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2002.

  39 Proposals by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and other conservatives to staunch the entry of Muslims into the United States and routinely subject Muslim Americans to surveillance following the November 15 terrorist attacks in Paris are discussed in Jenna Johnson, “Conservative suspicions of refugees grow in wake of Paris attacks,” Washington Post, November 15, 2015; Jose DelReal, “Donald Trump won’t rule out warrantless searches, ID cards for American Muslims,” Washington Post, November 19, 2015; and Patrick Healy and Michael Barbaro, “Donald Trump calls for barring Muslims from entering U.S.,” New York Times, December 7, 2015.

  39 See Brigitte Vittrup Simpson’s dissertation, “Exploring the influences of educational television and parent-child discussions on improving children’s racial attitudes,” University of Texas at Austin, May 2007. I became aware of her work via Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, “Even babies discriminate: A NurtureShock excerpt,” Newsweek, September 4, 2009.

  40 The quote from Jung (“If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool”) occurs on page 125 of his alchemical treatise, Mysterium Coniunctionis (1977).

  44 The quote from Rainer Maria Rilke (“We need, in love, to practice only this . . .”) occurs in “Requiem for a Friend,” in Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1984), page 85.

  The Winter Palettes

  57 Recent surveys of the art scene in Russia include Anna Kaminski, “In Russia, contemporary art explodes from Soviet shackles,” BBC News, February 23, 2014; Kelly Crow, “Moscow’s contemporary art movement,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2015; and Ekow Shun, “Moscow’s new art centres,” Financial Times, March 15, 2013.

  57 For more background on art fairs in Russia, see Alexander Forbes, “Manifesta 10 succeeds despite controversy,” Artnet News, June 27, 2014; Masha Goncharova, “Cosmoscow: A fair for the Russian art collector,” New York Times, September 17, 2015; Rachel Donadio, “Museum director at Hermitage hopes for thaw in relations with West,” New York Times, May 14, 2015; and Zoë Lescaze, “An abbreviated Moscow Biennale unites scrappy performances, bourgeois spiders, and one former Greek finance minister,” ARTnews, October 16, 2015.

  57 Quotes from members of the “art-anarch-punk gang” Voina come from Marion Dolcy, “Russian art anarchists explain themselves,” Don’t Panic, December 20, 2010; see also Taryn Jones, “The art of ‘War’: Voina and protest art in Russia,” Art in Russia, September 29, 2012.

  57 The quote by Andrei Klimov occurs in Sasha Shestakova, “Outcry: Ten recent art exhibitions that caused a storm in Russia,” Calvert Journal, July 29, 2015.

  57 This broad range of art controversies, including those relating to the exhibitions with LGBT content, are reviewed in Shestakova, op. cit.; and “Moscow venue refuses to host pro-LGBT teen photo display, cites police pressure,” Queer Russia, June 13, 2015.

  58 For a comprehensive analysis of the art market in Russia, see Renata Sulteeva’s dissertation, “The market for Russian contemporary art: An historical overview and up-to-date analysis of auction sales from 1988 to 2013” (Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2014).

  58 Vladimir Ovcharenko’s comment on artists in the kitchen was originally published in Emma Crichton-Miller, “Young Russian curators tap into country’s recent art history,” Financial Times, June 27, 2014.

  Young Russia’s Defiant Decadence

  79 “A Stewardess Named Zhanna” was a 1996 hit for pop singer Vladimir Presnyakov. These days, his fans can find him on Facebook, SoundCloud, and Instagram.

  97 For obituaries of and memorials to deceased Russian artists featured in “Young Russia’s Defiant Decadence,” see Kathrin Becker, “In memoriam Timur Novikov,” Art Margins, May 23, 2002; “Poslednyi Geroi: Georgy Guryanov (1961–2013),” Baibakov Art Projects, July 20, 2013; and “In memory of Vlad Mamyshev-Monroe, 1969–2013,” Baibakov Art Projects, March 22, 2013. Herwig Höller pays tribue to Petlyura in “Aleksandr Ilich Lyashenko known as Petlyura: A controversial protagonist
of Russian contemporary art,” Report: Magazine for Arts and Civil Society in Eastern and Central Europe, June 2006. Petlyura participated in the One-Man Picket at the 2015 Moscow Biennale; see Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, “One-man picket.” The story of Garik Vinogradov’s persecution at the hands of the mayor of Moscow is told in Konstantin Akinsha, “Art in Russia: Art under attack,” ARTnews, October 1, 2009. Valera Katsuba describes his most recent project, “Father and Child (Отцы и дети),” at http://katsuba.net.

  97 Boris Grebenshchikov’s musical career is the subject of Aleksandr Gorbachev, “Meet Boris Grebenshchikov, the Soviet Bob Dylan,” Newsweek, May 25, 2015; and Alexandra Guryanova, “Boris Grebenshchikov: The founding father of Russian rock,” Russia and India Report, October 19, 2014.

  97 MC Pavlov’s observations on musical trends in Russia appear in Lisa Dickey, “Moscow: Rap star MC Pavlov,” Russian Chronicles, Washington Post, November 2, 2005.

  97 Artyom Troitsky’s sartorial protest against electoral fraud is described in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Moscow protest: Thousands rally against Vladimir Putin,” BBC News, December 25, 2011.

  97 Yuri Begalov’s business dealings are discussed in Nadezhda Ivanitskaya, “As a State Duma deputy and businessman Yuzhilin Kobzar built a billion-dollar business,” Forbes Russia, October 22, 2011; and his marital split in “Татьяна Веденеева расстается с мужем (Tatiana Vedeneeva has divorced),” DNI, June 2, 2008.

  97 Aleksandr Kiselev’s profitable resignation is reported in “Киселев после увольнения из ‘Почты России’ получит почти 3 млн руб (Kiselev after the dismissal of ‘Mail of Russia’ will receive nearly 3 million rubles),” RIA Novosti, April 19, 2013.