Despairing accurate of the here and now.

This concise statement seems to capture a profound essence. It implies that the description or perception of the present moment is one that is filled with despair and yet is astonishingly accurate.

So this is social realism. Social realism is a genre or approach that aims to depict the harsh realities of society as they truly are. It doesn't sugarcoat or romanticize. Instead, it confronts the viewer or reader with the unvarnished truth.

In this case, the "despairing accurate" nature of the here and now might refer to various aspects of modern society. It could be the economic hardships faced by many, the social inequalities that persist, or the sense of hopelessness that pervades in certain communities.

Social realism serves an important purpose. It forces us to look at the world around us and acknowledges the存在 of problems that need to be addressed. By presenting these realities in an accurate and often unflinching way, it can inspire change and encourage us to work towards a more just and equitable society.

Overall, the combination of "despairing accurate" and "social realism" creates a powerful image that makes us think deeply about the state of our world and our role in it.

Before Zweig, my favorite writer was Gorky, and this book marks a return to him after a long time. I have said many times that realism attracts me more. Especially when we consider the many points where we overlap with the Russian people of that era, it is a beautiful return.

The stage of our story consists of ordinary people, no czars, no princes, no intellectuals. Everyone's concern is to fill their empty stomachs and find shelter under a roof in the cold. So much so that when someone dies on the street, the cold numbs them rather than freezing their blood, and the game continues as if nothing has happened. As Natasha said, \\"...the life of everyone I see is terrible.\\"
\\"Lies are the religion of slaves and masters.\\"

**Original Article**: This is a simple article. It has some basic information.

**Expanded Article**:
This is a rather simple article.

It contains some basic information that is presented in a straightforward manner.

The content may not be overly complex or detailed, but it serves its purpose of providing the necessary facts.

Perhaps it is meant to be a quick introduction or a summary of a particular topic.

Despite its simplicity, it can still be useful for those who are looking for a basic understanding.

It may lack the depth and sophistication of a more elaborate piece, but it gets the job done.

Overall, this simple article with its basic information has its own value and can be a starting point for further exploration or study.

Four stars for the play "The Lower Depths", and two more for the excellent translator.

At first, I was a bit confused by the sudden appearance of all the characters at once, but as I flipped through its pages, I was completely drawn in.

Despite the harshness of the events, I followed them with great interest. The name of the play refers to the stage that Russia had reached before the revolution, where ten people lived in a single cramped room, each representing the dregs of life. Despite their different levels, some were famous actors, barons, former thieves, locksmiths, and so on. And each of their lives had taken a different path to the dregs, yet they came together, although there was clearly hatred among them.

Then, a glimmer of hope appears in the novel, the old man Luka, who tries with his deep faith to lead each of them to a more hopeful point in their lives. And despite his many teachings and experiences, faith requires more than just persuasion; it requires a desire for healing and the ability to do so.

When evil is at its greatest, when suffering is the only option available, the creative Gorky tells the story and makes you want to listen.

We are all human beings!

Even if one tries to show oneself as someone else and lies in life, a human being who is born as a human will die as a human!

I look at people and everyone is in the effort to look smarter and more interesting...

Even if they live beneath everyone, they want the best of everything...

Actually, we see that not much has changed from that day to today.

No matter how much I cannot get used to reading the game, it is a different work with the naked reality it shows among the Standing Ones.

It makes us think about the true nature of humanity and how we often strive for appearances rather than being true to ourselves.

We should perhaps take a step back and reflect on our actions and desires, and try to find a more genuine way of living.

Maybe then, we can break free from the cycle of trying to be something we're not and truly embrace our humanity.

After all, it is our humanity that defines us and gives meaning to our lives.

**"Young Gorky and Arabesk Years Later"**

In this article, we are evaluating Gorky's early period short stories. These stories (Gorky, 1902) include:
1. "In the Steppe"
2. "Our Gang and One More"
3. "One Autumn Night"
4. "Couldn't Afford an Axe"
5. "The Green Kitten"
6. "Road Companions"
7. "His Sweetheart"
8. "Chelkash"
9. "Friends"

The predominant motif in young Gorky's stories is the motif of the outcasts. The main characters are the poor, those on the verge of starvation, workers, smugglers, thieves. In young Gorky, since the event and the personality are in the foreground, the places where the narrative takes place do not have much importance. The 1st and 2nd stories focus on the event; the 3rd and 4th stories focus on the personality. In these stories, socialist realism has not yet been fully developed; therefore, why the poor are poor is not dealt with and the stories do not have a function such as awakening the consciousness of the oppressed. In the second story, the main character is a worker and the "we" language is used in this story. In socialist realism, generally, the "we" language and the "they" language are predominant. Therefore, this story is the story where young Gorky comes closest to socialist realism. Those who can identify with Gorky's first four stories are the outcasts. The fact that the word "Gorky" as a pseudonym means "bitter" is meaningful; because in these stories, young Gorky is doing arabesk; he is the "Muslim Father" of Russia in the 1890s. He is verbalizing the outcasts' sense of being oppressed, unloved, and excluded.

Arabesk is the expression of being outcast and has a class basis; Ahmet Kaya, who was criticized by some as "doing revolutionary arabesk", was actually trying to open a transformative channel from this class basis - consciously or unconsciously. Ahmet Kaya was always more beloved (popular) than the revolutionary groups and will be; because while revolutionary groups generally make songs that only revolutionaries can identify with; Ahmet Kaya made songs that the outcasts could identify with, whether he was revolutionary or not. In Ahmet Kaya and young Gorky, the pain is mostly individual. In old Gorky, however, the workers are shown in the midst of struggle. Some of Ahmet Kaya's songs are close to young Gorky; some are close to old Gorky.

In young Gorky's first four stories, the author appears in the story as a narrator in a distinct form; but he is not in the foreground and it is not said that the narrator is the author. In these stories, the narrator is not the main character; the narrator has the quality of a presenter who presents other characters to the reader. The fact that the narrator is not the main character in young Gorky's stories affects the identification mechanisms. The reader can identify with the character being told about rather than the one telling the story. But the problem in this case is: Why would the reader want to listen to what is being told?

Some of these stories are interesting (Young Gorky's understanding of narrative is in the form of selecting the interesting ones from the real events; many of the stories are autobiographical; they are reflections of his own wretched life); some of the ideas in the stories are noteworthy; however, they are not as memorable as Gorky's later works. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories are not very引人注目except for being interesting stories that happen to a wretched/wandering person on the verge of starvation. Also, the fact that the 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories are told as if they happened to or through the wandering narrator on the verge of starvation gives the book unity. Therefore, the stories also carry an atmosphere like "The Thousand and One Nights" where "tomorrow is another day". It is worth noting that there is no clear identity in young Gorky's stories. However, due to the Nietzschean pessimism of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories, an identity like "the oppressed always lose" can be mentioned. Therefore, to the extent that these stories are not stories of hope, they are not socialist realist; they are arabesk. In the 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories, there is a conflict between the individual and society. In socialist realism, however, the conflict of the community (the workers, the oppressed) with the community (the rulers, the oppressors) is dealt with. This is another example of young Gorky's stories not being socialist realist.

What makes arabesk arabesk is that it does not end with a happy or hopeful ending. Arabesk has the identity of "such is life". The commercial narrative generally ends with a happy ending; the revolutionary narrative ends with a hopeful ending. In these two, even if the main characters are defeated, the possibilities of winning in the future are hidden. Young Gorky is arabesk because he writes stories based on "such is life". If we quote from the title of Aziz Nesin's autobiographical book, the revolutionary narrative says, "such is life (but) it doesn't end like this". The revolutionary narrative says, "the account of Sivas (even if it has not been asked yet, it will be asked in the future)" while the arabesk narrative says, "the account of Sivas was not asked yesterday and will not be asked in the future". The revolutionary narrative (for example, Brecht) aims to disturb; the arabesk and commercial narrative soothe. The oppressed, by listening to arabesk, validates his pessimistic view; the commercial narratives, with their happy endings, convey the idea that "there is a solution to every problem", but what they give is an empty hope. In the commercial narrative, there is a happy and empty-hopeful ending; in the revolutionary narrative, there is an unhappy and hopeful or happy and hopeful ending; in the arabesk narrative, there is an unhappy and hopeless ending. In the arabesk narrative, there is not even empty hope; arabesk is as realistic as the depressed.

Returning to Gorky, in young Gorky, except for the first four stories, the others are such ordinary stories that they do not require a detailed evaluation. The autobiography of the wandering deceiver in "Couldn't Afford an Axe" uses the motif of decline. In this story, we see the process of a theater actor turning into a wandering deceiver due to difficulties. This autobiography can also be evaluated as a motif of personality transformation. "Couldn't Afford an Axe" is young Gorky's best story, but it is not very, very good either. "The Green Kitten" is young Gorky's weakest story. The narrator who watches the convicts from his window witnesses a kitten being painted green by the convicts in the prison yard. The "I" and "he" languages are intertwined. There is neither an ending nor a beginning; no part of this story is worth reading/listening to. Although the main character of this story is a convict, it can be said that "there is no plot at all". If this painting event had also affected the narrator or led to some frictions with the administration, a more qualified story could have emerged. The theme of the story "His Sweetheart" is writing a letter to a non-existent sweetheart. This is also an ordinary story. Young Gorky, although he is telling (classic) stories about the wretched, likes to talk and wander around with a lot of details. The most concrete example of this is the story "Chelkash" where he deals with two sea thieves or smugglers. This story is full of a lot of unnecessary details and gives the impression of being stretched to fill the pages. The story "Friends" which deals with two thieves and the story "Road Companions" are plotless, have the atmosphere of a short theater play, and are full of dull dialogues. In "Friends", a thief is dying of illness; in "Road Companions", two travelers turn out to be childhood friends in the end.

In young Gorky, the questions come late. In the 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories, the main question is in the form of "how will the main character feed his stomach?"; but this is not a very exciting question. It comes late anyway. Young Gorky, like many classic structures, has a beginning without a hook. Moreover, there are no surprising endings. When the stories end, they make you say "so what happened?". Young Gorky's strength comes from the impressive ideas he weaves into the events. There is this strong element in many classic structures. Chelkash was evaluated as a masterpiece by critics at the beginning of the 20th century; over the years, the evaluation criteria have also changed. In today's works, however, the element of event and surprise comes before the idea. From the perspective of literary history, Gorky's telling the stories of the outcasts instead of the nobles is an important innovation. Since the Greek tragedies and comedies, in tragedies, the nobles were dealt with; in comedies, the people were dealt with. In tragedies, we were asked to share the pain of the nobles; in comedies, we were asked to laugh at the "foolishness" of the people. However, in the following centuries, because there were many stories of the outcasts, dealing with the oppressed is no longer considered an innovation. [Writing the pessimistic narratives of the oppressors instead of the pessimistic narratives of the oppressed (for example, the rulers' succumbing to hopelessness by saying "the feet will rise") may be more interesting today.] Young Gorky's stories also have an aim such as telling the world about the sufferings endured by the poor; however, this is also an effort that is often shown in the age of the viewer (television) and the general public (internet).

In young Gorky, there are no symbolic references, there is a straightforward narrative. Old Gorky also did not have a symbolic narrative. But on the contrary, "Potemkin's Armor" is a work that is distinct from both young Gorky and old Gorky as it is attached to both a symbolic narrative and socialist realism.

What makes a work classic is that it is still worth reading/watching even when it is approached with the "mistake of the historian". [The "mistake of the historian" can be defined as "evaluating history by dressing it in the criteria of today".] The classic work has exceeded the approval of its own era and is also liked with today's criteria. We cannot say the same for young Gorky's stories; however, it can be said easily for old Gorky's works that have survived to this day. For example, "Mother" is still a fundamental read for the youth.
Young Gorky's stories are not worth reading/teaching. Fortunately, Gorky did not die in 1902 and by developing his art, he far surpassed these youthful stories. He himself later admitted that these stories were not socialist realist; because the history of socialist realism actually begins with what he wrote after these first stories.

**Related Source**
Gorky, M. (1902). Tales from Gorky (trans. R.N. Bain). London: Jarrold & Sons (4th ed.).

**"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"**

The play "The Lower Depths", translated as "In the Depths of Society" by Abdolhossein Nushin, is a realistic play in the socialist realist style, written by the famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky. This play is Gorky's first work that was staged at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902 and made him famous even outside the Soviet Union, and he was recognized as the founder of social realism in the world.

When "In the Depths of Society" was first staged, it was met with quick and different criticisms from the critics but was successfully received by the audience. In fact, this play was so popular among the people that its printed version in 1903 became the best-selling book of the year with a sale of 40,000 copies. This play was about a group of poor people from the lower class of society who lived in a house by the Volga River. The play was actually devoid of a main plot and a traditional story and presented a realistic picture of the people in this part of Russian society. A picture that, contrary to the usual habit of playwrights in romanticizing the life of the lower classes of society, was created. While some critics criticized the moralizing and educational tone in "In the Depths" and were opposed to Gorky's position and his presentation of a bleak and unpromising view, other critics were not satisfied with the ambiguity of the moral message about the human condition and the unusual structure of the dialogue around this subject. But most people in society believed that the character designs in the play were powerful and震撼ing and had depicted a true picture of Russian society.

The play "In the Depths" was first performed at a time when romantic plays were in vogue by depicting the aristocratic class and depicting the realistic life of the lower classes of society was considered an avant-garde act. Also, this theater is of great importance in that it is the first play that, by bringing the oppressed and downtrodden class of Russian society to the stage, has taken a step towards revealing and social protest. Critics consider "In the Depths" as the precursor of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and the driving force of the protest movements that later led to the fall of Tsarism in 1917.

As a realistic work, in the play "In the Depths", the characters, plot, and stage have special importance. The style of this play is socialist realism, which requires a realistic picture of the behavior and speech of the characters in order to convey a political message. In this play, the characters speak and act in a piecemeal and realistic manner, and what they do and say is not to arouse romantic emotions in the audience. Rather, their different words and behaviors, although unappealing, dry, and unfriendly, are written with the aim of being realistic and stimulating the desire for change or revolution. In this play, some of the characters arouse a sense of contempt, and others a sense of pity, but the general feeling at the end of the play is that social change is a necessary and inevitable thing.

For example, when Nastya complains about feeling superfluous and Bubnov confirms that everyone is superfluous, the response of the reader or audience is that there must be a world where people do not feel superfluous.

The theme of "truth" versus "consoling lies" is the main philosophical theme of the play "In the Depths", and Gorky has tried to show the virtues of facing the truth as opposed to hearing and telling consoling lies and false hopes. In this play, Luka is the embodiment of this philosophy that people need consoling or useful lies as a crutch in the face of the hardships of life. The first case in which he shows this belief is when he consoles Anna, who is dying, with the promise of peace after death. His conversation later with Bubnov and Pepel shows that he does not believe in such a life after death, but rather considers himself committed to consoling someone who is suffering. The discussion about this topic, that is, the superiority of "truth" over "consoling lies", continues even today, and most of the audience believes that although the play has shortcomings in character development, it is considered a masterpiece and still engages the audience and researchers in such a way that even after more than a century since its first performance, it is still staged around the world and is received widely by the people.

My rating is 3/5 ⁠(⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤⁩ And thanks to my like-minded friends.

I firmly believe that this book is an extremely successful one when considering the specific period and conditions, and the profound impact these conditions and order have on people. It vividly shows how those who were once wealthy and filled with hope could transform into a rabble.

Life indeed treats each and every one of us differently, and it is far from being fair. People turn out to be good or bad, happy or unhappy, largely due to what life imposes upon them. This book encompasses a wide range of human emotions, along with philosophical ponderings on life, belief, truth and falsehood, and the essence of being human.

Although it may not possess the poetic charm of Shakespeare, it is at least as fluent and has a striking impact. This is precisely what I cherish the most about Gorky. The depth he infuses into his stories and the immense power of the dialogues are truly remarkable. To such an extent that this concise book has even inspired me to explore the plays that have been adapted from it.

All people have gray souls — all like to put on a little red...

This statement implies that within each of us, there is a certain dullness or neutrality in our souls, perhaps a reflection of the various experiences and challenges we have faced. However, we also have the tendency to add a touch of color, a bit of excitement or passion, to our otherwise gray existence.

It could be that the "red" represents our desires, our dreams, or the things that make us feel alive. We strive to find those moments that bring a spark of vividness to our lives, to break free from the monotony and add some zest.

Whether it's through pursuing a hobby, falling in love, or taking on a new adventure, we are constantly seeking to infuse our souls with that little bit of red. It is this combination of the gray and the red that makes us human, that gives our lives depth and meaning.

So, while our souls may have a base of gray, it is the addition of that precious red that allows us to shine and make our mark in the world.

In the drama of social realism "At the Bottom" by Gorky, the harshness of life is presented with a wide palette of colors from the margins of society. Their daily life consists of bare survival, mutual accusations for their own failures, and a constant diminution in the light of the future.

The characters in this drama are trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. They struggle to make ends meet, constantly facing the challenges and hardships of life. The relationships between them are often strained, as they blame each other for their misfortunes. Instead of working together to improve their situation, they engage in bitter arguments and recriminations.

Despite the bleakness of their circumstances, there are also moments of hope and humanity. Some of the characters show a glimmer of kindness and compassion, and there are hints of a possible redemption. However, these moments are fleeting, and the overall tone of the drama remains one of pessimism and despair.

"At the Bottom" is a powerful and poignant portrayal of the lives of the downtrodden and marginalized. It forces us to confront the harsh realities of poverty and social inequality, and to question the values and priorities of our society.

I had to read it for a college essay, and it was the biggest headache of my weekend.

The task seemed simple at first, but as I delved into the material, I realized how complex and convoluted it was. The text was filled with jargon and technical terms that I had to look up and understand.

I spent hours poring over the pages, highlighting important points and taking notes. However, I still found it difficult to make sense of the overall argument.

By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted and frustrated. I had hoped to have a clear understanding of the topic and be able to start writing my essay, but instead, I was left with more questions than answers.

Despite the headache, I knew that this was an important part of the learning process. I would have to continue to work hard and do more research to be able to complete my essay successfully.

I don't think there is a conflict in Gorky's play. "At the Bottom" is only composed of the dialogues and monologues of the heroes about various life problems.

The language of Gorky doesn't appeal to me. There are many folk expressions and coarse words.

***

Update:

I read this play within the framework of the Russian literature course. At that time, it was boring and I had to pass the exam! So I'm going to read it again with new perspectives and even in Arabic.