8 ms·
In the Face of Constant Censorship, Bulgakov Kept Writing
- acomjean 9y agoI read the The Master and Margarita for a literature class at University. It was a fascinating but confusing book, but lots of references which made it ideal to get some help by someone who scope and historical context (USSR being at its end when I read it). Of course now with the internet there is help from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
- throwaway7645 9y agoDid u enjoy it? I started reading it, but stopped early on.
- alexott 9y agoI think that you need to know context well to enjoy it. I believe that translation may kill a lot from it
- defen 9y agoI tried reading the Ginsburg translation and didn't get very far. Found it to be wooden and stilted. Recently I started reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation and I'm having a much better time of it. It has footnotes that explain some of the references, and I'm just finding it much easier to read from a prose-style standpoint.
- notzorbo3 9y agoAccording to my russian wife who studied both russian and english literature, the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation is by far the best. Not only does it provide a great introduction and footnotes, it also manages to capture the spirit of the original. I found it a highly enjoyable book and, while I'm sure I missed many references, it gave me better understanding of what it must have been like living in the USSR in those times.
- acomjean 9y agoI think it would be hard to get through without the discussions and some guidance. The professor (real not in the book) was pretty good at making it more interesting. I'm not a great reader though and read mostly non-fiction now. I go slow. I tried to read the "sound and the fury" by Faulkner once and didn't get past the first chapter.
- cgh 9y agoI don't know much about Russian history beyond the usual stuff and I thought it was great. Some of the crazy surreal set pieces are unforgettable.
- CalChris 9y agoI read M+M in college. Later I had a Russian girlfriend and found that I didn't have a clue what it was about. Understanding Animal Farm is pretty easy because we get the references. But understanding M+M without a Russian history background is impossible. Still, even without that background, it's a fun read.
- smsm42 9y agoDon't feel too bad though about not fully understanding it - M+M is one of my favorite books, and I've re-read it may times, and have read tons of comments, and still I recently found a lecture course on it that showed me I haven't properly understood several important aspects of it. That's how it goes with great literature - it works on many levels.
- pvg 9y agoThere is much more extensive and better (and pre-wikipedia vintage, to boot) help at http://cr.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/public_html/ http://cr.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/public_html/
- acomjean 9y agoThats excellent. I'm going to go though it later when I have more time. Old school web design is so fast. thanks!
- dmitrygr 9y agoThe mini-series from a few years ago is very good and the English subtitles for it were pretty good. (I read each of the 3 major english translations and the Russian version as well and I think the mini-series is better than all 3 english ones).
- abecode 9y agoThe Master and Margarita also has a lot of details from biblical history that help making sense of it... I read it when I was taking a class from a Dead Sea Scroll archaeologist about how the bible was written and modern interpretations of it. So we read some of Gilgamesh, Old Testament, Dead Sea scrolls, Paradise Lost, and The Master and Margarita, among others (here's some version of the syllabus: http://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20111/60056.doc http://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20111/60056.doc)
- aleyan 9y agoReaders may find the Master and Margarita website[1] to be very thorough in providing the background information, plot and character summaries, and other supplementary materials. It is the best resource I know on the subject There is also an active Bulgakov facebook page [2] with things like fan art and informations about upcoming adaptations. As a matter of disclosure, I created the facebook page in 2008, but it has been run for many years now by Jan Vanhellemont, the man who is also responsible for [1]. I consider him to be the foremost fan of Master and Margarita on the English language internet. [1] http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ [2] https://www.facebook.com/m.a.bulgakov/ https://www.facebook.com/m.a.bulgakov/
- lobster_johnson 9y agoI often wish for interactive, annotated, "hypertextual" versions of books -- technologically it should be trivial to build. M&M is an obvious example; there are many (Tolstoy, Dumas, Conrad, Zola, Proust and, in more modern times, Patrick O'Brian) where historical, biographical and technical annotations would be hugely useful and fun. In the case of translations, concurrent access to the original would also be awesome. One of the earliest web versions of this that impressed me was a "Web 1.0" hypertext version of T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland, which is a poem constructed almost entirely out of allusions, and which makes little sense without the necessary annotations. Do any of the eBook formats support anything like this? Have anyone done this in a way that's accessible in any meaningful way on a Kindle?
- rodgerd 9y ago> I often wish for interactive, annotated, "hypertextual" versions of books -- technologically it should be trivial to build. Heavily annotated books pre-date the Internet - my edition of M&M footnotes and endnotes the hell out of the book for context.
- lobster_johnson 9y agoOf course. I was referring to digital e-books.
- idlewords 9y agoThis is a contender for the greatest work of Russian literature in the 20th century. The Bergin/O'Connor translation is a good one. Even if you don't get the references or historical context, you'll still enjoy reading it. Giant talking cat! As pvg points out, Kevin Moss's notes (http://cr.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/public_html/ http://cr.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/public_html/) will reveal whole new layers of the onion when you re-read the book.
- StavrosK 9y agoI'm an hour away from finishing the book, and goddamn I cannot get into it at all. It's just a bunch of random stuff happening without much connection. What is the appeal?
- idlewords 9y agoThe twist ending! It's hard to answer this question. Is there any Russian literature you've read and enjoyed?
- StavrosK 9y agoOops, there's a twist ending? I might just skip this thread and come back in a few days, then... I'm afraid I haven't read much other Russian literature, as I prefer scifi, so the closest I got to the Eastern bloc is Lem... I think my main problem with Master and Margarita is that I don't know much about the context of the era, and it feels like most of the book is subtle jabs at the society and political climate of the time.
- gonubalabala 9y agoIs the translation that important? I'm writing a piece of fiction that occasionally quotes M&M, and consider using a yet another translation if it's so controversial...
- idlewords 9y agoThere are some translations that leave a lot out (because the book was heavily censored). Others don't capture Bulgakov's clever style. Go with Bergin/O'Connor.
- lobster_johnson 9y agoFor one, many of the translations are just terribly wooden. But Russian is also very hard to translate to English, for several reasons; it's a heavily idiom-based language, full of common phrases (that every Russian knows) that an author can turn into puns or allusions. If the translator chooses to rewrite using the equivalent English idiom, the original meaning may be lost; whereas if it's translated literally, the reader won't know that it's a common saying that the author has subverted. The same thing goes with words that have multiple meanings, where the ambiguity itself resonates within the phrasing, or where the word has historical subtext or whatever. But translators also often get stuff wrong. Plenty of people have pointed out very clear errors in the Pevear-Volokhonsky translations that are based on misunderstandings of the original text. Bulgakov also frequently writes on several levels (there's a lot of subtext and humour), and it's often hard to replicate the intended meaning, so translators end up with something that isn't quite right. Here [1] is some discussion with concrete examples. [1] http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/translation_wars_once_more_into_the_breach_edition/#20224 http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/translation_wars_on...
- smogcutter 9y agoFor those looking for more Bulgakov, or who found M+M too opaque but are still curious, The White Guard is a hell of a book. Sharp, beautifully told story about a monarchist family in Kiev in the early days of the revolution.
- glangdale 9y agoHeart of a Dog is also very accessible relative to M+M, and considerably more fun. It also features Bulgakov in at what seems to be peak "Honey Badger" mode - you read it, then check the date in disbelief... how he figured he'd get away with writing a book like that in 1925 beggars belief.
- pvg 9y ago1925 wasn't 1935. He'd already published White Guard and staged a play based on it.
- madaxe_again 9y agoAlso, The Fatal Eggs, and Journal of a Young Country Doctor are fascinating reads for different reasons - the former is a scathing allegorical attack on the Soviet Union (the eggs being the ideals of communism, the things which hatch from them being the praxis), and the latter is a riveting insight into the pillories of daily life in rural soviet Russia. Along with Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn also offers deep insight into the soviet mindset, between his better known works (Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, Ivan Denisovich) and his lesser known works (Incident at Krechetovka Station, Matryona's House). One thing that both excelled at was getting their work published, not purely through samizdat, by making their allegorical allusions clear to those who knew what they were looking for but utterly opaque to the poorly educated soviet censors.
- smsm42 9y agoThe 20th were the times of NEP [1] (New Economic Policy) where a lot of restrictions were relaxed to boost the economy and the morale after the civil war years. That also made a lot of cultural and public figures to accept new regime more, since it looked as if things kinda getting more normal, maybe not exactly the same as before but Bolsheviks are getting more and more reasonable and wartime excesses are winding down. Little did they now... After Lenin's death and the ascension of Stalin in late 1920th, though, the program was dismantled and the restrictions returned in both economics and public life. And then amplified to the peak of Great Terror in the 1930th. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy
- smsm42 9y agoDidn't expect to find discussion of my favorite writer here at HN. I wonder how does it translate to English... Now I want to get all those translations and compare them. Thanks HN!