tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post1314658098569292230..comments2023-09-26T03:53:17.142-04:00Comments on Pentimento: The Conversion of Al LevinePentimentohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-61562819084840248312020-07-02T22:14:55.443-04:002020-07-02T22:14:55.443-04:00Pavel Chichikov was the central character in DEAD ...Pavel Chichikov was the central character in DEAD SOULS. say hello to AL if you ...have never forgotten him...Thomas McGoniglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05262994278231611143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-9319322446194635802020-07-02T22:12:16.499-04:002020-07-02T22:12:16.499-04:00thank you for being in touch..of course Pavel Chic...thank you for being in touch..of course Pavel Chichikov was the central character in the DEAD SOULS by Gogol.... I still think of Al....and if you can send me any poems etc. say hello to him..i vaguley remember talking about Catholicism with him---- he was a sort of protege of Richard M.Elman. <br />Thomas McGoniglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05262994278231611143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-88431758387686425852020-07-02T20:04:31.240-04:002020-07-02T20:04:31.240-04:00Is it nine years ago already? Hard to believe. Tha...Is it nine years ago already? Hard to believe. Thank you for your comment!<br /><br />By now, I know that your uncle and Pavel Chichikov are the same person. I found out unexpectedly when a friend sent me an audio clip of an old interview with him from the EWTN program "The Journey Home," which features converts to Catholicism. He speaks openly about his conversion, about what seems to have been his leaving poetry to work for US intelligence in Russia, and about the fact that he now writes under the pseudonym Pavel Chichikov.<br /><br />If you do get in touch with him, could you please tell him how much his early poetry meant to a lonely and sensitive seven-year-old girl? The poem I quoted in the post opened world upon world for me; it was a revelation.<br /><br />All the best,<br />PentimentoPentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-88546622309441091992020-07-02T18:10:15.438-04:002020-07-02T18:10:15.438-04:00Al Levine (aka Pavel Chichikov) is my uncle, marri...Al Levine (aka Pavel Chichikov) is my uncle, married to my mother's sister. I'm also pretty sure that he was born in 1939. Although he lives a mere 6 miles from me, I don't know him very well. He is, shall we say, extremely aloof and not exceptionally prone to extroverted merriment. That having been said, I am quite familiar with his poetry and the poem that you posted above does indeed feel very much in line with what I know of his particular style. <br /><br />I know that you had written this some 9 years ago, but if you're still interested in knowing the answer to your question I can try and press him on it. No guarantees, however. He is intensely private and I don't think he has very many affections for me - or others for that matter. Aside from my aunt, anyway. But, yeah, I'll see what I can do.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02109923103061001125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-84063861663928767522019-09-26T13:30:38.569-04:002019-09-26T13:30:38.569-04:00I knew Al Levine at Columbia and years later met h...I knew Al Levine at Columbia and years later met him in DC have you heard anything sinceThomas McGoniglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05262994278231611143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-89710386443750860352012-10-06T14:05:09.106-04:002012-10-06T14:05:09.106-04:00Pentimento-I regret that I have nothing to contrib...Pentimento-I regret that I have nothing to contribute to your quest for poet Al Levine. Instead, I share an interest in his work which I discovered as a 22 yr old aspiring poet who subscribed to the New Yorker and encountered Levine's The Bottle in the May 6, 1972 issue. I loved the smart aleck irony of the piece and how he teased about the mechanics of belief. Eight years later when I gave up Lit as a vocation and went to B-School for a Masters, Levine's street smart wisdom found a central place in my organizational change management practice. It all makes more sense now that I know of 'Pavel's' interest in the process of conversion. Thanks for your curiosity, and energy for the search!peregrenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17317577228460292076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-29213564965701325692012-10-06T13:53:13.260-04:002012-10-06T13:53:13.260-04:00Pentimento-I regret that I have nothing to contrib...Pentimento-I regret that I have nothing to contribute to your quest for poet Al Levine. Instead, I share an interest in his work which I discovered as a 22 yr old aspiring poet who subscribed to the New Yorker and encountered Levine's The Bottle in the May 6, 1972 issue. I loved the smart aleck irony of the piece and how he teased about the mechanics of belief. Eight years later when I gave up Lit as a vocation and went to B-School for a Masters, Levine's street smart wisdom found a central place in my organizational change management practice. It all makes more sense now that I know of 'Pavel' interest in the process of conversion. Thanks for your curiosity, and energy for the search! peregrenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17317577228460292076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-58093814724195566822011-08-07T06:59:18.071-04:002011-08-07T06:59:18.071-04:00Thanks, Ex-New Yorker. I don't know why I cou...Thanks, Ex-New Yorker. I don't know why I couldn't find it on the archives using the same search terms. The archives are sort of unwieldy, and incidentally they generate a scanned pageview of the actual piece you're searching, which is pretty hard to read.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-27731873007067685202011-08-05T13:07:41.276-04:002011-08-05T13:07:41.276-04:00For Martha:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&am...For Martha:<br /><br />http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=740&tbm=bks&q=%22following+darknesS+thinking%22&oq=%22following+darknesS+thinking%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3366l6514l0l8199l9l9l0l0l0l0l163l946l4.5l9l0<br /><br />Can't see much of anything of it on Google Books though, other than that it looks like it was 1981. Hey, is more than one person actually allowed to use those New Yorker subscriptions? :) I might actually have free access to a lot of stuff on my college account, but I always forget that exists... no idea if New Yorker archives are included.ex-new yorker who doesn't feel like signing in to Google right nownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-75337780882199681352011-08-04T12:50:12.012-04:002011-08-04T12:50:12.012-04:00Martha, I searched using several permutations of t...Martha, I searched using several permutations of the text you cite, but all I found was a music review from 2010. Do you remember anything else from the poem?Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-23212661310191853842011-08-04T11:42:06.896-04:002011-08-04T11:42:06.896-04:00Thanks for posting this, Pentimento. I have been r...Thanks for posting this, Pentimento. I have been reading the New Yorker since I was 15 and subscribing since I graduated college. It is my favorite magazine of all time.<br /><br />If you still have that online search thingie for the New Yorker, could you please search (in poems) for the words "I am always following darkness / thinking it is the road"? I read those lines sometime in the late 1970s in a New Yorker ... and I have no idea who the author was/is.Martha Silanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16486148374821966457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-50860604607416160182011-07-29T07:22:31.404-04:002011-07-29T07:22:31.404-04:00Carla, my degree is a D.M.A. -- Doctor of Musical ...Carla, my degree is a D.M.A. -- Doctor of Musical Arts -- even less useful than a Ph.D. and a lot less than a J.D.! <br /><br />Praying for you and little Henry.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-56994637349684097632011-07-28T20:37:26.704-04:002011-07-28T20:37:26.704-04:00I think we are twins separated at birth...
I coul...I think we are twins separated at birth...<br /><br />I could also read at 3, my mom saved many of the poems, stories and fables (I loved Aesop) I began writing at ages 4 and 5...<br /><br />I did choose law school over the PhD, but hey, no one is perfect ;-)<br /><br />And now we are both waiting for our first adoptions at the same time...<br /><br />Carla<br />www.bringinghenryhome.blogspot.comCarla Dobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13774997165220926432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-40056108332927911672011-07-28T11:07:35.132-04:002011-07-28T11:07:35.132-04:00I agree about the Gilman book. I thought it was f...I agree about the Gilman book. I thought it was fascinating and sympathetic, but it seems there was a great deal of will and willfulness involved in his de-conversion.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-68802959076860654952011-07-28T11:01:04.762-04:002011-07-28T11:01:04.762-04:00I've read that Gilman book--picked it up at a ...I've read that Gilman book--picked it up at a library sale or something because it looked interesting, not knowing anything about the author. A strange book, with a strange sexuality wrapped up in his conversion. The de-conversion was rather sad.Machttp://lightondarkwater.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-85436082002980708072011-07-25T16:47:36.509-04:002011-07-25T16:47:36.509-04:00Lydia, if you post another comment here and includ...Lydia, if you post another comment here and include your email address, I will not publish the comment, and will email you privately. Thanks.Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-81495091507629216592011-07-25T15:13:34.859-04:002011-07-25T15:13:34.859-04:00Pentimento, is there any way I can contact you pri...Pentimento, is there any way I can contact you privately? I may be able to help. My husband is a friend of Pavel Chichikov.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-67618325565407088062011-07-25T11:16:57.565-04:002011-07-25T11:16:57.565-04:00Thanks for your invaluable critical and sleuthing ...Thanks for your invaluable critical and sleuthing help, Rodak.<br /><br />It's possible that we may never know the truth about Al Levine, though of course I'd like to. One of the reasons, beyond satisfying my curiosity, is that I'm very interested in conversion, and I wonder if my attraction to this virtually unknown poet as a child might in some strange way be connected in some way with my own reversion to the Catholic faith as an adult. Things like that have happened before (as we've also seen in the case of Gilman).Pentimentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17161146891505294679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5554498168264477884.post-2951087155927102182011-07-25T11:00:00.316-04:002011-07-25T11:00:00.316-04:00Very nice piece, Pentimento. I think that you'...Very nice piece, Pentimento. I think that you've provided as much evidence as can be uncovered on this literary mystery, lacking the cooperation of the known poet, Chichikov. It is unfortunate that he is apparently unwilling to say Yea or Nay, once directly questioned on the matter. (His silence, of course, would seem to confirm your suspicions, since, if the two are not the same man, there would be no imaginable reason not to say so.) It was fun investigating this with you! Maybe somebody with more information will come across this somehow and provide some answers.Rodakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00077919085157653816noreply@blogger.com