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Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

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Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#31

Post by varjag »

rimliu wrote: post #29
vl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full quote is a bit better: (Location/time: early days of Soviet Russia, old and young doctor talking at dinner) "If you care about your digestion, my advice - do not discuss bolshevism and medicine at dinner. And, god be with you, never read soviet newspapers before dinner." "But... there are no any other." "So, don't read any. You know, I performed 30 experiments at my clinic. And you know? Patients, that don't rea…

This is from the amazing book A Dog's Heart (Собачье сердце). There is an equally amazing movie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHySar4EoY ), but I am not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. For me it's one of the best Soviet movies. To be fair it was created near the end of the USSR—in 1988. The novel itself was officially published for the first time only in 1987.

It was on the list of anti-Soviet literature for a long long time before that, and possessing it could get you into real trouble.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#32

Post by closeparen »

aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

There's nothing actionable in the news if you live in Russia. But if you live in a democracy, I hope you'll take your responsibility as a citizen seriously enough to pay attention to what's going on, from time to time, lest your community meet the same fate.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#33

Post by jacobush »

rimliu wrote: post #29
vl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full quote is a bit better: (Location/time: early days of Soviet Russia, old and young doctor talking at dinner) "If you care about your digestion, my advice - do not discuss bolshevism and medicine at dinner. And, god be with you, never read soviet newspapers before dinner." "But... there are no any other." "So, don't read any. You know, I performed 30 experiments at my clinic. And you know? Patients, that don't rea…

This is from the amazing book A Dog's Heart (Собачье сердце). There is an equally amazing movie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHySar4EoY ), but I am not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. For me it's one of the best Soviet movies. To be fair it was created near the end of the USSR—in 1988. The novel itself was officially published for the first time only in 1987.

I have not seen many Soviet movies but https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091341/?ref_=nv_sr_1 is amazing in many ways. Also I can't help but wonder how it could be made. I find the last decade of the Soviet union incredibly interesting, probably because I was a child at the time.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#34

Post by Tomte »

habosa wrote: post #3
peatmoss wrote: post #2

The Master and Margarita is indeed a fantastic read, but there’s a dark subtext. For example, the supernatural happenings and bumps in the night from the neighboring apartment are likely Bulgakov making commentary on the purges. Bulgakov layered things. On the surface, lightheartedness. Underneath, a very bleak and tortured soul.

I read a version with enough footnotes to help me understand that underneath a funny and beautiful book is an attempt to use satire to say something serious about the regime that Bulgakov lived under. Part of what makes this book so great is how it is effective at this goal but also just fantastic literature. I'm a heavy reader but bad at reviews. All I can say is read this one. One of the best books I've ever read a…

I've read/skimmed two academic books commenting on The Master and Margarita and it lessened my enjoyment.

There was lots and lots of "Woland is obviously not the devil, unlike everyone assumed" and much lofty discussion that I couldn't follow at all.

I'd strongly advise to leave that out, but read a more conventional commentary like the web site linked somewhere in this thread.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#35

Post by a_imho »

mynegation wrote: post #7

For a context: Russian, read several Bulgakov's works as a teenager, as it was part of a school program. To provide an alternative view: I did not like "Master and Margarita", especially compared to "Heart of the Dog" and what I consider Bulgakov's best novel "The White Guard". Part of this has to do that with the fact that author chose religion and mysticism as literary vehicles and I am not a big fan of either. The…

Master and Margarita is high school material here as well and most did not even like it, let alone consider it special.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#36

Post by varjag »

tzmudzin wrote: post #4
peatmoss wrote: post #2

The Master and Margarita is indeed a fantastic read, but there’s a dark subtext. For example, the supernatural happenings and bumps in the night from the neighboring apartment are likely Bulgakov making commentary on the purges. Bulgakov layered things. On the surface, lightheartedness. Underneath, a very bleak and tortured soul.

... that already realized there's nothing it can do to stop the terror machine. When you're robbed of everything, and things get worse every day, gallows humor is the only freedom you can enjoy. End even that only in private. "It is extraordinary that Bulgakov managed to write a novel that is so full of humor and wit and lightness of tone when he was living through this period", writes Groskop. I guess she missed the…

Yep, there are many scenes where you have to know the zeitgeist to understand the gravity of situation. Like when NKVD finds 400 dollars in the janitor's apartment. It's set up like a sitcom scene but the guy's going to die.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#37

Post by TeMPOraL »

sveme wrote: post #28
aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

In today's world, we should change it to "... never read reddit/youtube/twitter/newspaper comments before dinner". Most of it is just digestion-disturbing outrage and a repetition of the same narratives over and over and over and over. Newspapers with a certain quality, a long-term perspective and in printed form is fine though if limited to weekends.

I think GP really meant newspapers, not newspaper comments. If they didn't, then I believe they should have.

I remember when I first consciously decided to stop reading mainstream news. I was in high school then; I had my Firefox configured to put RSS feed from national newspapers as a drawer of bookmarks under the address bar (oh, the days you could do that in a browser...). Took me a while to realize the reason why I feel so sick in my stomach on mornings and evenings was that just looking at the headlines disturbed and depressed me. I unsubscribed from the feeds, killed the bookmark drawers, and after a short period of FOMO, I started to feel better.

The "Newspapers with a certain quality, a long-term perspective and in printed form" are few and far between. If you can find those, by all means, stick to them.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#38

Post by fivre »

rimliu wrote: post #29
vl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full quote is a bit better: (Location/time: early days of Soviet Russia, old and young doctor talking at dinner) "If you care about your digestion, my advice - do not discuss bolshevism and medicine at dinner. And, god be with you, never read soviet newspapers before dinner." "But... there are no any other." "So, don't read any. You know, I performed 30 experiments at my clinic. And you know? Patients, that don't rea…

This is from the amazing book A Dog's Heart (Собачье сердце). There is an equally amazing movie ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHySar4EoY ), but I am not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. For me it's one of the best Soviet movies. To be fair it was created near the end of the USSR—in 1988. The novel itself was officially published for the first time only in 1987.

Prime Video has it with English subtitles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071PF4WCM

The official Lenfilm YouTube account has it also, but for some reason only with French subtitles. It looks like less of their catalogue there is English subbed, compared to Mosfilm, which has English subs for basically everything.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#39

Post by TeMPOraL »

kemitchell wrote: post #22
mynegation wrote: post #7

For a context: Russian, read several Bulgakov's works as a teenager, as it was part of a school program. To provide an alternative view: I did not like "Master and Margarita", especially compared to "Heart of the Dog" and what I consider Bulgakov's best novel "The White Guard". Part of this has to do that with the fact that author chose religion and mysticism as literary vehicles and I am not a big fan of either. The…

There should be a law in Russia that if a novel is considered great enough, it should never be assigned involuntarily to schoolchildren ever again. Making 15-year-olds read a novel is a wonderful way to ensure they will not really appreciate anything in it or related to it until at least age 35, if indeed they still read by then. On a related-unlrelated note, it has been too many years since I was in country. Which i…

I believe many of us will say that such a law should also be passed in our own countries. It's just sad how the school system destroys great works, just by virtue of making them assigned reading.

Re: Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

#40

Post by barrkel »

aleyan wrote: post #6

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it t…

There's nothing actionable, except for longer term investments like where to live and how to plan your spending vs saving. Brexit is horribly fascinating in this respect, as the outcome controls whether I'll need do leave.

Definitely true for tribal politics though.

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