« previous post | next post » From " Everyday Politics in Russia ", The Eurasian Knot 4/6/2026: The podcast starts with a message from listener Amanda, who has been reading all of Dostoevsky for a workshop in Russia. In addressing the podcast's host Sean Guillory, she says (starting at 4:21.5): Your browser does not support the audio element. I sympathize with you, Sean, that you just couldn't get into him, but I've personally never felt that way about Dostoevsky. I remember trying to read the Lord of the Rings series, and I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand ten pages describing a meadow. And ever since them I've thought of fiction writing in terms of meadow-writing and non-meadow-writing. No wonder I love Dostoevsky — he has nothing whatsoever to say about meadows. "Meadow-writing" is a strikingly evocative name for a stylistic category, but I'm puzzled about its concrete reference .…