Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov is our April 2023 New School Classic Group Read.

This is the Spoiler thread.

I'm starting chapter VII now:

Quite a quick read. Some of the satirical elements are fun, like the emphasis on papers:

"How can you do without documents? Excuse me . . . you know it yourself, a man is strictly forbidden to exist without documents"

I imagine this would have been particularly true in Bulgakov's Russia, but this emphasis on petty beauracracy and identity documents crosses cultural barriers too. It applies to most if not all modern societies to some degree.

Still piecing together the more overarching satire of Sharik's transformation and predicament. More on that after I finish I'm sure.

But as an aside, I found chapter VI as a whole wildly entertaining, all those conversations between the now "Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharokov" and his "dad." Too funny! Poor Professor Probvachensky is at his wit's end!!

The Soviet movie based on the story, with English subtitles, is available free on Youtube. The movie is much much better than the book.

I'll check for the movie on youtube Dayra, but for myself, I enjoyed the book immensely! The second half especially was great once it got going.

I like that it has a "happy" ending where Sharik is stopped. I was worried he was going to run amock unchecked in the end.

And the social/political commentary is hard to miss. Like this one, warning against what happened multiple times in real life as successive regimes took revenge on the former ones:

"But the point is that Shvonder is the worst fool of all. He does not understand that Sharikov is a far greater menace to him than he is to me. Today he does everything to sick him on me, without realizing that if anyone should then turn him against Shvonder himself, nothing would be left of him or his.

Copy-paste from the non-spoiler tread:
Full movie in Russian here with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIkim...

…. but why “heart”?

I read the story of the dog being the beaten down Soviet man, elevated to the level of a professor or doctor by the revolution, but clearly not as cultivated and capable. It is left to the reader to think about a society made out of Sharikovs, and how that would function.

The story reminded me strongly of a Sherlock Holmes story (title: (view spoiler)[The Adventure of the Creeping Man (hide spoiler)]). And there is a reason for that: Serge Voronoff was a French surgeon of Russian origin who gained fame for his practice of xenotransplantation of monkey testicle tissues onto the testicles of men as anti-aging therapy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_V...

He inspired both Conan Doyle and Bulgakov.

According to Wikipeadia: “The name of the donor of the human implants, an alcoholic and bum, is Chugunkin ("chugun" is cast iron) which can be seen as parody on the name of Stalin ("stal" is steel).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_o...

Seen with today’s eyes that was beyond brave towards dumb. But the story was written in 1925, where Stalin only just had taken over. Also there are some statements about the sausage being from horse carcass and the cats skins sold as squirrel. That and many other small details admits an economy not in the best shape.

I also enjoyed reading about the formation of a kommunalka. A rich person's many room apartment was given to many families that moved into it, typically one room per family. All shared the use of the hallways and kitchen. Kommunalkas are still in use in Russia today. I have seen one. It was mostly students living similar to the dorm I was in in Denmark as a student – just more run down.

Wikipeadia on kommunalkas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communa...

After the end of the Civil War, Russia's economy was in ruins. People ate what they could find; stoves were fired by furniture and books. Black market and natural exchange - product for a product, passing the money stage - thrived. Under 'all people are equal,' communism meant 'all people are equally poor.'
That's why NEP (New Economic Policy), with its limited private property and encouragement of free trade, was introduced in 1921. Unfortunately, Soviet economists and Lenin, and, after them, other functionaries hadn't understood the main principle: if a person is not interested in the result of his work, he will not work hard.

I don't remember if there is such a phrase in the book. In the movie, the professor says to Bormental that Sharik, after his transformation, has a human heart, and that's a big tragedy. Sharik, as a dog, is not guilty.

In fiction, these times are very well described in The road to Calvary by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, The Republic of ShKID by Leonid Panteleyev and Григорий Белых, and 'Konduit and Shvambrania' by Lev Kassil

Thank you for all the links.

Darya Silman wrote: "'Konduit and Shvambrania' by Lev Kassil, ..."

Could it be this one:
The Black Book and Schwambrania by Lev Kassil

https://archive.org/details/TheBlackB...

The Republic of ShKID (Russian: Республика ШКИД) is an adventure, partly autobiographical children's novel by L. Panteleyev and Grigori Belykh written in 1926 and printed in 1927.

The book is about the fate of Russian street boys (besprizorniks) who landed in the Fyodor Dostoyevsky School-Commune for Difficult Teenagers. "ШКИД" (ShKID).

In 1966 Lenfilm produced a movie The Republic of ShKID based on the novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rep...

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Thank you for all the links.

Darya Silman wrote: "'Konduit and Shvambrania' by Lev Kassil, ..."

Could it be this one:
The Black Book and Schwambrania by Lev Kassil..."

That's the one, though I don't understand why Konduit (a name of a fictional country) was translated as The Black Book

Darya Silman wrote: "I don't remember if there is such a phrase in the book. In the movie, the professor says to Bormental that Sharik, after his transformation, has a human heart, and that's a big tragedy. Sharik, as a dog, is not guilty"

There is something somewhat similar:

"The whole horror, you see, is that his heart is no longer a dog's heart, but a human one. And the vilest you could find!"

On a practical level, his heart is becoming more like his particular human donor, a completely vile criminal. But on a philosophical level, yes, an animal might do wrong but not with calculated intent so as you say, animals can never really be guilty in the way that human beings can.

There is a purity of intent with animals that doesn't exist in us, or that rarely exists in us because we are complex creatures, who can easily decieve ourselves to believe many different contradictory things at the same time.

J_BlueFlower wrote: "I read the story of the dog being the beaten down Soviet man, elevated to the level of a professor or doctor by the revolution, but clearly not as cultivated and capable. It is left to the reader t..."

For sure, this is in there; I completely agree!

Philip Philippovich passionately argues this point more than once, that people are educated for an expertise that not everyone can do and that not everyone is trained for.

". . . if I begin to sing in chorus in my apartment every evening instead of operating, it will lead to ruin."

What's interesting for me though, is that there's a lot about human behavior here that crosses cultures and times; it isn't only applicable to one particular moment in Soviet history. If it only applied to that one historical moment, eventually the novella would be only a historical curiosity. But Bulgakov's vision is more complex than a particular political agenda. And it's a pretty entertaining story as well!

I have partially read the story. I just read the part where the "Managers" are attempting to subdivide an apartment but Philip Philippovich out maneuvers them. I can't help but think of Dr. Zhivago here. I am just seeing the first hints of an Island of Dr. Moreau sort of story.

LOL This quote reminds me of my mother. Her rule was only pleasant conversation at the table:

If you care about your digestion, my advice is - don't talk about bolshevism or medicine at table. And, God forbid - never read Soviet newspapers before dinner.'
'M'mm . . . But there are no other newspapers.'
'In that case don't read any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic and what do you think? The patients who never read newspapers felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read Pravda all lost weight.'

Lynn wrote: "LOL This quote reminds me of my mother. Her rule was only pleasant conversation at the table:"

Ha ha, it's a good rule Lynn! :)

Lynn wrote: "I have partially read the story. I just read the part where the "Managers" are attempting to subdivide an apartment but Philip Philippovich out maneuvers them. I can't help but think of Dr. Zhivago..."

I can definitely see echoes of both of those

This is my first time to read Mikhail Bulgakov, albeit in translation. I am impressed with the author's ability to get me to care for the dog at the beginning of the story, yet my opinion and feelings change so much as I continue to read. I am surprised that the likable, good qualities of the dog seem to completely disappear while the annoying cat-hating is intact.

I am in the last few pages of the book now. I wonder how those of you who read it would characterize the book, which genre. I would definitely say it is fantasy, but perhaps not horror in the same way that Frankenstein is. I have seen others bookmark it as humor or satire. This is where I want to hear opinions.

I suppose the chasing cats and breaking water pipes could be slap-stick humor. It is more obviously satire in the ridiculing of the committees, in my opinion.

I would say satire for sure.

I don't know if I'd call it fantasy even though it has fantastical elements. Maybe magic realism or maybe a sort of fable?

Greg wrote: "I would say satire for sure.

I don't know if I'd call it fantasy even though it has fantastical elements. Maybe magic realism or maybe a sort of fable?"

In the tags Satire is one of the first few,,,Science Fiction comes later, and right after that Fantasy.

Lynn wrote: "In the tags Satire is one of the first few,,,Science Fiction comes later, and right after that Fantasy.."

It's so hard to categorize. I get why it has sci-fi because like you said earlier it's along the lines of other sci-fi like The Island of Doctor Moreau. But the prime focus is definitely on social/political satire, more along the lines of Animal Farm I guess.

However you categorize it, I did very much enjoy it, especially the second half!

I had the usual Russian book problems of taking some extra effort to keep the different names straight. Sometimes the same characters are referred to by different parts of their name or by nicknames. But I don't mind - it's not hard to get over with a little effort to write them down to keep things straight.

Russian scholars categorize it as social/political satire.

Greg, thank you for making that extra effort to remember the names. I know this problem to be difficult to overcome for English speakers: Russian names have a lot of diminutive forms, plus they have patronymic names, ending in -ich (for men) and -vna (for women), that are often confused with surnames

I just finished a couple days ago - I really enjoyed it. The humor made me laugh out loud at times even though the book was written over 100 years ago. What a gem! I found myself wanting to learn more about that time in Russian history so I could better place the story in its proper historical context.

I do agree this is more political satire than science-fiction although I wouldn't argue against those who do categorize it as sci-fi. The story is certainly not meant to be taken literally, any more than Animal Farm should be constructed to say that animals can actually talk and govern themselves.

I've gotten to read a few of the Russian masters for the first time this year - the Strugatsky Brothers, Turgenev, and now Bulgakov - and next month I'm hoping to get to "that book by Nabokov" for another group read.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I just finished a couple days ago - I really enjoyed it. The humor made me laugh out loud at times even though the book was written over 100 years ago. What a gem! I found myself wanting to learn m..."

I laughed out loud as well RJ, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, but I was very pleasantly surprised!

I really enjoyed this! As far as genre or style, I felt like I was caught between Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and Monty Python. And, a bit of R.L.Stevenson with the doctor creating a "man" who reveals their true self, including the negative aspects, as in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The satire and humor kept me giggling, the content kept me intrigued about the Russian history of the times and portrayed in other books.

I haven't much to add. I see a lot of Gogol in Bulgakov and that rough jarring quality to the prose gives me trouble in translation where I would probaly find it more natural in the native language. I am also missing the closer details of the satire from not having a better grasp of the culture. There has been at least one stage adaprtation of this and I think we can see the theatrical quality to the writing. Has anyone seen this on stage?

I am late to the party. Started this last night in Russian. It was not easy for me, so I only ended up reading one chapter. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man was much easier for me in Russian.
In any case, I will refrain from reading the comments until I am done.

I nominated this book because I read The Fatal Eggs after someone nominated it several months back. I really enjoyed the story and the satire. I had more trouble with this book. Thanks for all the comments. They helped a lot.