Disease in Dostoevsky

 

Disease in Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky pulls art out of his own diseased inner organs. So many of his works are replete with physical and mental illness—their very spirit is diseased. The malaise of the works communicates itself to the reader, so that in reading Dostoevsky, you experience a spiritual, and sometimes even a physical indisposition.

 

While imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1849, awaiting trial for sedition, Dostoevsky “suffered from grotesque nightmares and a visceral sensation of the floor heaving like a ship at sea.” But he made use of his emotions, working feverishly on his writing. As he said in a letter to his brother Michael, “When such a nervous time came over me formerly, I used it for writing. In such a condition you always write better and more, but now I restrain myself, so as not to do myself in altogether.”

[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]

Dostoevsky's Dark Humor: The Toothache Moaner

 

Dostoevsky’s Dark Humor: The Man Who Moans With Toothache

“He knows better than anyone that, in so moaning and carrying on, he only lacerates, irritates himself and others in vain; he knows that the audience for his performance, his whole family, listens to him now with loathing, believes him not even for a second. Deep down they all understand that he could moan in a different way, more simply, without all the trills and flourishes, and that in moaning with such vehemence he is only indulging himself, moaning for sheer spite.”

Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground

 

Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground features a self-proclaimed "sick man," the narrator. He is sick in both body and spirit, and proud of it. Dostoevsky's works teem with sickness, but they also can be extremely funny in places. Dostoevsky is the supreme dark humorist of Russian literature.

Magnolia Blooms and Senescence

 

How The Aged Walk, And Stand, and Stare

You amble down the street, limping and hobbling, and the magnolia blooms are standing tall and white on the southern magnolia trees in the Florida sunshine, and you halt your slow, unsteady traipse to stand staring at them, those blooms, for there is so little left to live for and hope for, and you wish you could stare at the blooms long enough to stare their stark whiteness into your palsied head, your withered arms, your very self, imbue your once vital, now senescent flesh with fresh whiteness. But you can’t.

[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]

Translation of Poem by A.K. Tolstoy, А.К. ТОЛСТОЙ, "Бывают дни, когда злой дух меня тревожит," "Now and Again An Evil Spirit Plagues Me"

 

А.К. ТОЛСТОЙ
(1817-1875)

 

Бывают дни, когда злой дух меня тревожит
И шепчет на ухо неясные слова,
И к небу вознестись душа моя не может,
И отягченная склоняется глава.
И он, не ведая ни радости, ни веры,
В меня вдыхает злость – к кому, не знаю сам –
И лживым зеркалом могучие размеры
Лукаво придает ничтожным мелочам.
B кругу моих друзей со мной сидит он рядом,
Веселость им у нас надолго отнята,
И сердце он мое напитывает ядом
И речи горькие влагает мне в уста.
И всё, что есть во мне порочного и злого,
Клубится и растет всё гуще и мрачней
И застилает тьмой сиянье дня родного,
И неба синеву, и золото полей,
В пустыню грустную и в ночь преобразуя
Всё то, что я люблю, чем верю и живу я.
 
1858
 
d

                                               Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

Now and again an evil spirit plagues me,
He whispers in my ear words blurred, obscure;
My soul no hopes of heaven can foresee, 
Poor head is bowed, for spleen there is no cure.  
And he, who knows no joy, no saving faith,
Instills in me pure spite—toward one unknown,
In lying mirror refracts scenes that scathe,
That craftily enlarge minute things shown.
Amidst my dearest friends he takes a seat,
All merriment he’s long from souls unwrung,
He soaks my heart in venom and deceit, 
And words most bitter places on my tongue.
And all in me most vicious and perverse
Swirls up and grows e’er dark and more emboldened,
The day’s bright glow in shadows doth immerse,
My skies of blue, the fields idyllic, golden,
Transmogrifying, rending bleak thereby 
All things that I believe in, love and live by.

 

 

Book on Gogol's "DEAD SOULS": ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ (TABLE OF CONTENTS)

 

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

ВМЕСТО ПРЕДИСЛОВИЯ

PREFACE                                                                                                                   2                                                                                                             

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                         5

 

ПО-РУССКИ ПИШЕТ ПИСАТЕЛЬ, КОТОРЫЙ НЕ УМЕЕТ ПИСАТЬ ПО-РУССКИ

A WRITER OF RUSSIAN WHO CANNOT WRITE IN RUSSIAN                                             27

 

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«Мертвые души»

 

НАЧАЛО

THE BEGINNING                                                                                                         28

 

ГРОТЕСК

A WORD ON THE GROTESQUE                                                                                     32

 

СОВЕТСКАЯ ТОЧКА ЗРЕНИЯ

THE RUSSIAN SOCIO-POLITICAL SCENE AND SOCIAL CRITICISM                                      33

 

ИРОНИЯ и САТИРА

IRONY and SATIRE                                                                                                      37

 

СМЕХ В «МЕРТВЫХ ДУШАХ»

THE LAUGHTER OF DEAD SOULS                                                                                  42

 

ЛЕЙТМОТИВЫ: СНЕДЬ

LEITMOTIFS: FOOD                                                                                                    56

 

ПРАВДОПОДОБИЕ

THE SWINDLE: COULD IT WORK?

THE TIME FRAME, VERISIMILITUDE                                                                             63

 

МЕТАФИЗИКА «МЕРТВЫХ ДУШ» И МЕРТВЫХ ДУШ

THE METAPHYSICS OF “DEAD SOULS” AND DEAD SOULS                                               69

 

ЛЕЙТМОТИВЫ: САПОГИ

LEITMOTIFS: BOOTS                                                                                                   79

 

 

ПОРУЧИК РЯЗАНЬ

P.S. ON BOOTS: LT. RIAZAN                                                                                         82

 

ОМНАСТИКА-ГИМНАСТИКА

OMNASTICS GYMNASTICS                                                                                          85

 

“СОВСЕМ НЕ ПОДЫМАЕТСЯ ПЕРО”

MISOGYNY                                                                                                                100

 

МЕТАФОРЫ ВДРЕБЕЗГИ

METAPHORS RUNNING AMUCK                                                                                  103

 

ЛЕЙТМОТИВЫ: ЛОШАДИ, ПОВОЗКИ, ДОРОГА

LEITMOTIFS: HORSES AND CARRIAGES;

VEHICLES; THE ROAD                                                                                                 107

 

ОТСТУПЛЕНИЯ

DIGRESSIONS                                                                                                            115

 

ПАТЕТИЧЕСКИЙ/БАТЕТИЧЕСКИЙ

GAMES OF PATHETIC/BATHETIC                                                                                  130

 

МУЗЫКА

THE MUSIC                                                                                                                132

 

НОЗДРЕВ

NOZDRYOV, THE EMBODIMENT OF VULGARITY

(AND CREATIVITY)                                                                                                      136

 

МЕГАЛОМАНИЯ

MEGALOMANIA                                                                                                         141

 

ЛЕЙТМОТИВЫ: СНОГСШИБАТЕЛЬНОСТЬ

LEITMOTIFS: DUMBFOUNDED                                                                                    146

 

ЛЕЙТМОТИВЫ: П. С.

P.S. ON LEITMOTIFS                                                                                                   148

 

СКАЗИФИКАЦИИ

SKAZIFICATIONS                                                                                                        149

 

ВРЕМЯ И ВРЕМЕНА ГОДА

TIME AND SEASONS, SPACE, DISTANCES                                                                      158

 

 

ТЕМА ТВОРЧЕСКОГО ВООБРАЖЕНИЯ

THE THEME OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION                                                               163

 

ВЫДУМЩИКИ

MORE ON LIARS AND LYING                                                                                       175

 

СОЧИНИТЕЛЬ И ЕГО ЧИТАТЕЛИ

THE WRITER AND HIS READERS:

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION OF DS                                                                 180

 

ПРОЛЕПСИС (ПРЕДВОСХИЩЕНИЕ ВОЗРАЖЕНИЯ)

THE WRITER AND HIS READERS: PROLEPSIS                                                                 182

 

ЧИЧИКОВ И БРАК

CHICHIKOV AND MARRIAGE                                                                                       194

 

“Я САМ ПО СЕБЕ”

CHICHIKOV AS INDEPENDENT CHARACTER                                                                  195

 

ЧИЧИКОВ КАК ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЬ САТАНЫ

CHICHIKOV AS SATAN’S REPRESENTATIVE                                                                    198

 

ОКОНЧАНИЕ

THE ENDING                                                                                                              200

 

CONCLUSION: DEAD SOULS AND DEAD SOULS THEN AND NOW AND NEXT                     208

 

ОПТИМИЗМ

THE OPTIMISM OF DEAD SOULS                                                                                  217

 

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ВМЕСТО БИБЛИОГРАФИИ

APPENDIX ONE: IN LIEU OF A BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                               219

 

«Мертвые души» на английском языке (переводы)

                      APPENDIX TWO: TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH                                         220

 

Introduction                                                                                                             220

 

THE TEXTUAL COMPARISONS                                                                                      222

 

The Opening Passage of the Novel                                                                              222

 

On Food                                                                                                                   228

Who Is Drunk?                                                                                                          230

Feminine Hypocrisy and Cant                                                                                     231

Sobakievich on Scoundrels                                                                                         234

The Scottish Conundrum and Where to Slap with the Back of a Boot Heel                      236

 

Smash-Mouth Bashings and Back-of-the-Noggin Clouts                                                239

Skaz Narration Within the Narration                                                                           241

More Problems with Women: the Pen That Won’t Stand Up                                         244

Haberdasheries                                                                                                        246

Cute                                                                                                                         250

Noses Stuffed with Hussars                                                                                        251

Nineteenth-Century Russian Invective                                                                        253

Translating Lofty Rhetoric                                                                                          255

 

A Light-Gray Jacket Works as Scrivener, and Occiputs Untranslated                                               262

 Magpies and Nuts (and Testicles)                                                                                265

Эй, ухнем! (Hey, heave-ho!)                                                                                      268

Pecking Orders                                                                                                         272

The Conclusion of the Book                                                                                        282

Final Thoughts                                                                                                          293

[book now available for purchase on Amazon.com]