did you guys know that gavriil glikman made a bust of shostakovich the day before going to war and the whole time he was at the front thought of it as his guardian angel ?
the bust went missing though so he never saw it again and never told shostakovich about it even though he went to moscow and visited dmitry dmitrievich in february 1945 during his transfer to the first belarusian front
“On the eve of the day I was supposed to report to the military registration and enlistment office on the date assigned to me by my summons, I went to the sculpture museum of the Academy of Arts (I was then in my third year) and, choosing a piece of soft stone, carved the head of the young Shostakovich. It was soft, pliable alabaster. I worked in a state of unbridled inspiration. Beyond the walls of the museum, damp even in summer, the vast city, already shaken by war, breathed. I remembered the structure of the composer's face very well, and, already in the twilight, having finished this head protruding from the stone block, I inscribed on it one word: "Fatum." Looking at my creation, at the face of Dmitry Dmitrievich, in those moments I believed that I would emerge alive from the terrible meat grinder of war.
“Returning to Leningrad after the war in 1946, the first thing I did was run to the sculpture museum. Everything there was painfully unchanged: the dusty plaster casts, the vaulted ceiling, the damp smell, the same dim light streaming through the windows (it was also afternoon). From the windows I could see the distant vista of the Neva, the embankment parapets, the yellowing trees on Senate Square. Holding my breath, I approached the wall to the left of the window, where five years earlier I had left the bust with the inscription "Fatum." Everything was in its place: the dried old clay, the scalpel, a few sketches I had sculpted in the last days before the war... But the bust of Shostakovich was gone, yes, it was nowhere to be found. I didn't speculate or look any further. I was terribly disappointed. This bust was something very, very personal for me... Now, sometimes, remembering it, I console myself with the thought that, probably, somewhere, someone has it, it still exists and, maybe, I’ll see it again someday, who knows!
haven't seen anyone talk about it but they are so very dear to me
I recently made a post pointing out how it's possible Steve and Jonathan have a shared past no one except the two of them knows about.
Here are three more instances possibly hinting at this.
Steve: I always took you for a queer,
but I guess you're just a little screw-up like your father.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
that house is full of screw-ups.
You know, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised.
A bunch of screw-ups in your family.
[...]
I mean, your mom I'm not even surprised what happened to your brother.
When Steve is trying to provoke Jonathan in the alleyway he does so by progressively getting more and more cruel. It's almost like he knows how to push Jonathans buttons which in itself would not be a surprise if he's been bullying him.
There is one tiny detail about this which does stand out to me tough. When Steve starts insulting Jonathans family he starts by comparing him to his father who's a screw-up. We as the audience know of Lonnies awful deeds and how badly he treated Joyce, Jonathan and Will because we've seen it first hand. He's an abuser. This is not news to us.
It might however be news to the town though as Lonnie seems to be very well regarded amongst the townspeople. When Earl gets interrogated by Hopper about Wills disappearance he first associates Will with Lonnie. To him Will is Lonnies kid first and foremost. Not Joyce's. This is noteworthy as Lonnie hasn't been around for while and yet Earl still thinks of Will as Lonnies kid instead of belonging to the person who actually takes care of him now.
We get to see something similar happening at Wills funeral. Again, it's Lonnie who gets all the condolences by everyone else (including Karen and Ted) while Joyce just stands to the side and gets ignored as if she's someone who should better be avoided. This indicates that to the people of Hawkins it's not Lonnie who's the screw-up. It's Joyce.
Steve however isn't comparing Jonathan to Joyce at first. He's comparing him to Lonnie who seems to be a (at least somewhat) respected person in the public eye. So why exactly is it that Steve seems to know Jonathans family situation better than almost everyone else? How could he even have any insight into this?
I think he's known Jonathan and they've been at at least friends for while if not more. It's why Steve goes from broad insults ("I always took you for queer" because he might have some insider knowledge on this too? Possibly first hand experience?) to comparing Jonathan to his father (Jonathans worst fears) and then going after the final kill by insulting Joyce and Will who mean the most to Jonathan. Steve knew all of this and then used it against Jonathan to get some reaction out of him.
This would of cause be extremely awful of Steve. I'm not gonna deny that and I am also to blind to the fact that if Steve and Jonathan knew each other before the show started, it'd make Steve's overall behavior towards Jonathan in S1 so. much. worse. Because then he wouldn't just be a bully but a bully towards someone who at one time and on some level trusted him enough to tell him some personal things and then got all that trust smashed in his face in the worst way possible.
Going from one of the worst things to come out of their past relationship (if it existed) to one of the better ones.
When Steve is on his spy mission with Dustin he notices three things. Two guys laughing, two guys consuming food and two (probably) former classmates talking. I think all of these tell us something important about him as a character. Steve craves laughter (with another man,) food (eating with another man) and he wants Jonathan to talk to him again but also thinks he doesn't deserve it because of his past actions. (Look here and here)
It's the first part of this which strikes me if I put it in combination with what he later tells Robin in the bathroom stall. Part of the reason why he fell for and considered Robin a possible partner (very late into the story; I don't think he had any real interest in her before it really looked like she was in love with him but that's besides the point right now) was that she made him laugh in a way he had not experienced in a very long time.
This carries the implication that there was once a time where he used to laugh just as much if not more than he did with Robin. It's unclear when that happened or with whom but considering this is the same scene where he expresses regret about having put so much importance on the opinion of the likes of Tommy H (and Carol) I doubt he's referring to them. Likewise it's not Nancy either as he also claims how he's not in love with her anymore and neither have we seen them laughing a lot when they were together.
It's unclear who this is referring to, yes, but I wonder if this could have also been part of his former relationship with Jonathan. They had fun, they laughed a lot and trusted each either enough to tell the other about their personal issues. This would also come as a bit of a surprise as Jonathan is not presented to us as a funny person but if it's true that they had a past relationship they both couldn't easily forget it also must have given them something worth clinging to. Good things like laughing a lot when they were together.
Steve: I just wonder sometimes you know, if... some other girl had given me a proper thump before we'd met, would things have been different?
Like, if we were meeting together for the first time right now, part of me... I dunno, part of me thinks we would've made it.
Steve says these words to Nancy but are they truly about Nancy? Like he only considered Robin as a possible partner after it looked like she was truly in love with him, I think he also only considered Nancy as a possible partner after Eddie told him how it must have been true love which motivated her to jump after him at the lake.
He also uses the word "thump" four times in this entire conversation with Nancy which is an interesting choice if we consider that Jonathan is a fan of Thumper.
Would things be different if someone else had given him a proper thump before he met Nancy? Would things be different if he were to meet his special someone now instead of back then when he was still such an awful person?
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