Ask Baba Yaga

Ask Baba Yaga is a numerous and enlightening dialogue of questions asked to the Oracle Baba Gaga.
This book is filled with wisdom and insight.

The Hairpin is one of those sites I always mean to read more, then don't. I've read some interesting pieces there, and some that are too hipster for my taste. Apparently one long-running feature of the site was an advice column, featuring the typical everyday problems of life, love, loss, and existential dilemma, only with a twist - they were answered in the voice of Baba Yaga, the famous fairytale villain and forest-dwelling witch of Russian fairytale and folklore. That's enough to get your attention.

As author Taisia Kitaiskaia introduces this well-known character from the Russian wilderness with some background:

"...My parents told me fairy tales about this ancient trickster witch - sometimes cruel, sometimes generous, always dangerous. In one tale, the young maiden Vasilisa risks her life to seek guidance from the human-eating Baba. Vasilisa knocks on the door of the strange hut, which stands on chicken legs. Vasilisa is lucky, and instead of cooking her in a cauldron, Baba presents the brave girl with a human skull. The skull, glowing mysteriously from the inside, serves as a lantern. It saves Vasilisa, illuminating her forest path through the dark night, taking her where she needs to go."

Kitaiskaia communed otherworldly answers from her own idea of Baba Yaga, somewhere deep in the forest of the mind but eager to talk and tell it straight. "Indifferent and immortal, Baba offers no comforting pats on the back. But she can extend - with her gnarled, clawed hand - a glowing skull lantern. If you keep your nerve, that eerie light might just guide you through."

Her dispensed advice of the last few years from the column plus some new answered questions are collected here and punctuated with some absolutely gorgeous, old-Russian style illustrations. The artwork is a truly lovely bonus.

The advice is humorous, stark, sometimes opaque, often grim, tongue-in-cheek, and draws on what's known, or imagined, of Baba Yaga in the popular culture of her homeland (and I think this is one Russian story that's made its way into other cultures as well.) The advice, and I would suppose the concept, is jokey as a whole but it finds some surprisingly serious and meaningful moments.

And sometimes, it surprisingly strikes a chord in you, not necessarily for the topic that someone's begged guidance on, but for the strange, unsettling but understandable images or truths the voice of a fairytale witch imparts. Funny how an imaginary cannibal witch from Russian folklore has the power to reach down through history and hit you in the heart on modern issues.

Some favorites - 

On an issue of anxiety: "There's always something making clicks and clacks behind us, pushing us forward with a somewhat fear. No one's road is silent."

On letting go of painful memories: "Each memory is a bright fish you drop into the black sea. It is no longer yours; it lives its own life, jumping from the water at its will. Many of us are so haunted by one fish or even a school of such. But know this: even ghost fish meet their end. Next times you see that bright lurk in the waves, say this spell: One day you will age, / You little wretch, / Sicken & stop beating. / I'll be here, on the shore, / When you are picked / Apart by sea-worms."

On how to stop hating everyone after too many bad things happen: "In every being, now, you see their eyes as glinting black seeds, their limbs as sleeves of the dark roots and branches their bodies hold. Every creature now is a cloak over an evil plant, growing, wish you ill or buckling from rot. Everywhere you look you see the clawing wasteland of your nearest time. And time, coming, will ungnarl the shapes you see."

On if moving will heal what hurts you: "Mortals think the next stump will make a better seat. But soon the woods thrush with the same sounds, the wind bites as before...Stop the search. Stumps are stumps, and you will always be yourself birds, beasts, sun, moon, & the river that listened to your sorrow."

On the hole left in your life after a devastating loss: "Everywhere you go, you will wake up next to the hole, fall asleep with it watching you. Burning down your trees will only leave the land more barren, so that the hole looks larger. Fire or no, the land will keep pushing out new beings. It hurts to hear the forest growing as the hole stares into you. But it is the sound and vision left to you, here and elsewhere."

And a vividly evocative yet strangely peaceful image that one can hold in mind when remembering a disturbingly terrible boss from the past was particularly delightful.

There's certainly an uncanny sense of calm that comes with some of these obscure suggestions. But many didn't reach such impressive heights of wordplay or striking that emotional chord, and the gags of Baba Yaga's personality and quirks got repetitive.

For some reason, any form of the word "your" is always written as "yr" and it was maddeningly annoying. I liked some of the other stylistic flairs that created a separate, distinct voice for Baba Yaga, but I guess she's also a semi-literate angry internet commenter deep inside. The witch's words are clacked out on a typewriter and come complete with some purposeful typos and odd punctuation, and as I said it's visually beautifully executed. It's also a quick read, so even when a particular piece of advice doesn't speak to you, it doesn't linger long.

A very unique and unusual twist on the age old concept of advice columns, it's worth it for a few gems.

An intriguing book with lovely illustrations, Ask Baba Yaga is filled to the brim with sagely advice from the notorious with herself.

A curious, humorous little advice book, written "in the words" of Baba Yaga, an ancient and wise Russian witch. The questions asked are ones that most humans have wondered a time or two; the answers are mostly helpful (occasionally too obtuse) and delivered in bits of parable and metaphor that make sometimes difficult truths easier to digest.

My one big criticism: The bizarre punctuation and use of "yr" instead of "your" is a bit distracting,

I was interested in this book, because I briefly studied Slavic fairy tales in school and found Baba Yaga to be a really fascinating recurring character. Having her write, essentially, an advice column is such an interesting conceit, and I think Kitaiskaia captures her voice perfectly. Yaga's responses are sharp and poignant, sometimes pushing, sometimes encouraging readers, but always poking and prodding at the bones of what really makes them.

I loved the old typewriter-written feel of the typeface and the character it brought to the book, as well as the lovely, minimalistic illustrations interspersed throughout. There are a lot of (intentional) misspellings and type errors meant, I think, to give Baba Yaga's responses a more authentic flavor and possibly to harken back, again, to the days of typewriters when it wasn't quite so easy to fix mistakes. The abundant use of commas in particular was the one that occasionally tripped me up in my reading. For the most part, this didn't really bother me, but I could see how it might really bother some readers.

This is probably a book best consumed in small chunks and when the reader is in the right mood for it. Too much, and it starts to look like so much mumbo jumbo--this is advice from a witchy wood oracle, after all. BUT, in small doses, all the disparate and interesting elements come together to make something truly unique. All in all, a very fun read that--if you let it--might actually make you consider yourself and the world around you with a little more backbone, a little more bite, and a little more magic.

Yes, baba Yaga's spelling and grammar leave something to be desired, but it was purposefully done to achieve a rustic, folktale-y vibe. I for one, enjoyed her nature-centric advice.

A very illustrative book that answers random questions many people ask daily. Baba Yaga is some sort of sage/ fairy godmother/ metaphysical woman who gives answers questions in a creative and witty fashion.

It was quite an easy but insightful read. Not all answers make sense to me but the ones that do make you think about certain circumstances you may have found yourself in.

Baba Yaga does not indulge in sugar coating stupidity and cuts to the chase in giving answers to those who dare ask.

Favourite quote: “As if lost, you have been standing by one tree, waiting. Don’t you know you are not lost? Walk out from your imagined captivity and cross paths with grander kinships.”

Rating: 3/5

Oh, how I love this book. There's enough to love in the typewritten notecards, intentional typos and poetic language – but underneath that there's genuine wisdom. I learned a lot from Baba Yaga, and her advice continues to resonate in my daily life.

This is one of my favourite books of the year (and my all-time favourite book of self-help advice from a fairytale witch).

I love everything about this book - the concept, the art style, the writing ... everything was right up my alley from the very beginning! As a small child one of my favourite story books was an illustrated collection of folk tales from around the world, and the drawing of Baba Yaga's house on chicken legs was my ABSOLUTE favourite. I love the idea of such a weird combination of folk figure plus advice column, and the author pulls it off perfectly!

The writing as Baba Yaga is magical and supernatural and surprisingly poignant, and I found myself re-reading a few of her turns of phrase just to really let the imagery sink in. I've already got a handful of friends in mind who I know will love it immediately once it comes out!

Entertaining and witty. It was a nice discovery and highly recommended.