i have gotten three spam emails in the last three days. well, i mean, i've gotten a lot more than that, but only about three have beaten google's impressive spam filter and made it all the way to my inbox. what has been weird about them (they were all viagra ads) is that they are all quoting famous russian novels. it is strange how you can tell that it's russian just from the flow of the narrative. maybe it is the way they translate it. or maybe (and much more likely, now that i think about) it is just my relatively limited exposure to world literature. the second one was from the brothers karmazov. this last one was from Mikhail Bulgakov's the master and margarita. who would've figured that junk email purveyers would be so well read.

... scheming, quarrelsome, sycophantic swine.' 'He's absolutely right! ' thought Stepa, amazed at such a truthful, precise and succinct description of Khustov. The ruins of yesterday were piecing themselves together now, but the manager of the Variety still felt vaguely anxious. There was still a gaping black void in his memory. He had absolutely no recollection of having seen this stranger in his office the day before. 'Woland, professor of black magic,' said the visitor gravely, and seeing Stepa was still in difficulties he described their meeting in detail. He had arrived in Moscow from abroad yesterday, had immediately called on Stepa and offered himself as a guest artiste at the Variety. Stepa had telephoned the Moscow District Theatrical Commission, had agreed to the proposal (Stepa turned pale and blinked) and had signed a contract with Professor Woland for seven performances (Stepa's mouth dropped open), inviting Woland to call on him at ten o'clock the next morning to conclude the details. ... So Woland had come. When he arrived he had been met by Grunya the maid, who explained that she herself had only just...

postus scriptus - the subject line (also about a character from russian literature) is from a mountain goats song called 'love love love'. listen, it is a recent favourite of mine.