I...okay. All right. So. This book.
Master and Margarita...is...a book that is loved by very many people. About the Soviet Union, and Satan coming to Moscow. And some people seem to really really love the cat demon, because he's featured on every damn version of the cover.
I feel like, much like how some people only can capture a displeasing soapy taste when they try cilantro, some people are made for Russian literature and others are not. I am inclined to think I am in the latter category, if only because while one can go on about context needed, etc, I still find Restoration comedies enjoyable/sometimes horrifying, and I'm sure I miss out on at least 50% of their references.
Not that I enjoyed none of this book! Satan's Grand Ball was v. interesting. Mainly because it had historical figures in it. I liked Natasha muchly. But I thought the cat was annoying as shit, the Pilate chapters were insanely boring, and the Master kinda sucked. ALSO THERE WAS RACISM. Which, y'know, 1930s, okay, but I'm concurrently reading some 1940s and '50s short stories by Shirley Jackson, and they are like "Racism, I hope you get eaten by BEES."
What I'm saying is Shirley Jackson is better than Bulgakov The End.
WHAT DID YOU THINK. Are you glad we read it? I am. Now we can speak about it like we know things! But still. Man. Hm.
Master and Margarita...is...a book that is loved by very many people. About the Soviet Union, and Satan coming to Moscow. And some people seem to really really love the cat demon, because he's featured on every damn version of the cover.
I feel like, much like how some people only can capture a displeasing soapy taste when they try cilantro, some people are made for Russian literature and others are not. I am inclined to think I am in the latter category, if only because while one can go on about context needed, etc, I still find Restoration comedies enjoyable/sometimes horrifying, and I'm sure I miss out on at least 50% of their references.
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| but they usually look like this, so that helps |
Not that I enjoyed none of this book! Satan's Grand Ball was v. interesting. Mainly because it had historical figures in it. I liked Natasha muchly. But I thought the cat was annoying as shit, the Pilate chapters were insanely boring, and the Master kinda sucked. ALSO THERE WAS RACISM. Which, y'know, 1930s, okay, but I'm concurrently reading some 1940s and '50s short stories by Shirley Jackson, and they are like "Racism, I hope you get eaten by BEES."
What I'm saying is Shirley Jackson is better than Bulgakov The End.
WHAT DID YOU THINK. Are you glad we read it? I am. Now we can speak about it like we know things! But still. Man. Hm.
I found your blog because I was looking for fanfic of Lady Audley's Secret (I do NOT think that a piece that's really Watson/Holmes will satisfy that), and I loved your reading of that so much I'm plowing through everything you've written. I just have to say, I love me a lot of Russians, pre- and post- Revolution, but I HATED Master and Margarita, every pretentious mean-spirited smug self-congratulating misanthropic faux-clever word of it, so don't think not getting along with Bulgakov means you're doomed to avoid all Slav writers...
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