http://swanlakesambagirl.disqus.com/enWed, 10 Oct 2007 14:00:15 -0000http://www.tonyaplank.com/swan_lake_samba_girl/2007/10/03/kavanagh-on-nureyev-part-i-a-i-a/#comment-4549376<p>Eep! That quote about abuse - and Kavanagh's insistence that it's not true - strikes me as naïve at best. Beating/abuse seems to be something that has deep, deep roots in Russian culture, as I found out when I started reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394730909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0148988-3500659?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1192038986&amp;sr=1-1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Fairy-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394730909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0148988-3500659?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1192038986&amp;sr=1-1">this collection of Russian folk and fairy tales</a>. Wife-beating is accepted as an everyday activity, and there are a lot of stories that have domestic abuse as a major part of the plotline. (with absolutely no observations on it being wrong or even questionable!)</p><p>I've also run across casual references to domestic abuse in 19th-c. Russian novels and short stories, although I'm blanking out completely on where... But I'm thinking Gogol, Tolstoy and Chekhov for starters.</p><p>Either way, there's no reason for RN to have been lying about the abuse, and to my mind it makes sense re. some of behavior later on in life. Poor guy - and his poor mom.</p>e2cWed, 10 Oct 2007 14:00:15 -0000http://www.tonyaplank.com/swan_lake_samba_girl/2007/10/03/kavanagh-on-nureyev-part-i-a-i-a/#comment-4549375<p>Well, most of the drama is probably just PROJECTION on my part--I have a blog post up about it. But I wish you could have been there too--as Elle Woods would say, it would have made everything so much funner!</p>James WolcottThu, 04 Oct 2007 23:00:07 -0000http://www.tonyaplank.com/swan_lake_samba_girl/2007/10/03/kavanagh-on-nureyev-part-i-a-i-a/#comment-4549374<p>Oh wow, hi Mr. Wolcott! Oh my gosh, thanks so much for commenting on my blog!! Her party sounds fabulously dramatic -- oh how I wish I would have been there!</p>tonyaThu, 04 Oct 2007 16:38:46 -0000http://www.tonyaplank.com/swan_lake_samba_girl/2007/10/03/kavanagh-on-nureyev-part-i-a-i-a/#comment-4549373<p>As if the book itself were not eventful enough, last night's party for Julie K at Tina &amp; Harry's was abrim with drama, intrigue, more drama, and free drinks that the guests didn't dare spill, for fear ninja waiters would drop from the ceiling. They run a tight ship over there at Sutton Place.</p>James WolcottThu, 04 Oct 2007 15:31:27 -0000