Aren't The Russians Wonderful?

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_ Aren't the Russians marvelous people!

We're been taking up Diaghileff in a serious
way -- our little group, you know -- and
really, he's wonderful!

Who else but Diaghileff could give those lovely
Russians things the proper accent?

And accent -- if you know what I mean -- accent
is everything!

Accent! Accent! What would art be without
accent?

Accent is coming in -- if you get what I mean --
and what they call "punch" is going out. I always
thought it was a frightfully vulgar sort of thing,
anyhow -- punch!

The thing I love about the Russians is their
Orientalism.

You know there's an old saying that if you find
a Russian you catch a Tartar . . . or something
like that.

I'm sure that is wrong. . . . I get so MIXED on
quotations. But I always know where I can find
them, if you know what I mean.

But the Russian verve isn't Oriental, is it?

Don't you just dote on verve?

That's what makes Bakst so fascinating, don't
you think? -- his verve

Though they do say that the Russian operas
don't analyze as well as the German or Italian
ones -- if you get what I mean.

Though for that matter, who analyzes them?

One may not know how to analyze an operate, and
yet one may know what one likes!

I suppose there will be a frightful lot of imitations
of Russian music and ballet now. Don't you
just hate imitators?

One finds it everywhere -- imitation! It's the sincerest
flattery, they say. But that doesn't excuse it,
do you think?

There's a girl -- one of my friends, she says she
is -- who is trying to imitate me. My expressions,
you know, and the way I walk and talk,
and all that sort of thing.

She gets some of my superficial mannerisms . . .
but she can't quite do my things as if they were her
own, you know . . . there is where the accent
comes in again! _

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