#‘The Master And Margarita’ - Novel by Mikhail Bulgakov

[t-jfh]

Mark Leonard Winter performs in Belvoir St Theatre's 2023 production of The Master and Margarita.

(Photo supplied: Brett Boardman / Belvoir St Theatre)

Of the many themes swirling around the text, Flack argues the novel's "central idea" is the damage wrought by misguided beliefs.

(Photo supplied: Brett Boardman / Belvoir St Theatre)

Anna Samson and Amber McMahon in Belvoir St Theatre's 2023 production of The Master and Margarita.

(Photo supplied: Brett Boardman / Belvoir St Theatre)

The Master and Margarita cast in rehearsals.

(Photo supplied: Brett Boardman / Belvoir St Theatre)

Gareth Davies and Jana Zvedeniuk star in Belvoir St Theatre's 2023 production of The Master and Margarita.

(Photo supplied: Brett Boardman / Belvoir St Theatre)

Master and Margarita, the Russian masterpiece by Mikhail Bulgakov, is adapted for the stage by Belvoir St Theatre

By Nicola Heath for The Stage Show / ABC Arts

ABC News - 27 November 2023

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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov has entranced readers, some of whom spend a lifetime plumbing its mystery and message.

(Illustration: Antra Svarcs / ABC RN)

Visitors to the Bulgakov museum leave graffiti and quotes from the novel in the staircase of the building. (Photo: Getty / Wojtek Laski)

A colourised photo portrait of Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, 1928.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Master and Margarita's enduring literary legacy inside Russia and beyond

Stalin wouldn’t let this book be published. Decades on, it’s still changing lives.

By Rosa Ellen for The History Listen / ABC RN

ABC News - 1 August 2020

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[escapingpurgatory]

just ordered the master and margarita novel! it comes tomorrow, I'm so excited. But I kinda wish I would've waited to watch the movie before I start reading the book, but whateverrr

[rwpohl]

[adobongsiopao]

I bought this "The Master and Margarita" novel by Mikhail Bugalkov last week to read other Russian novels. The good news is that I managed to finish reading it this week. While I had difficulty memorizing many names of the characters here, the story is actually great. I kept continue reading this because it has a surreal story. The villains there who are the demons are interesting because they have complex personalities. While their tricks are mortifying, their motivations are not typical compare to other demons in literature. The title itself tends to be hard to understand until the middle part of the book. It's a really good novel. If you want to try reading a story that is mix with horror, fantasy romance and social satire then "The Master and Margarita" is worth a read.

[lisystrata]

Woland-Gaft. The Master and Margarita

In my opinion, the film adaptation with the participation of Valentin Gaft in the role of Woland was by no means the most successful of all known productions based on this novel (1994). However, the very image of Woland, embodied by Valentin Gaft, seems ideal to me. This is the iconic Woland. Better than him to play the role of Messire could only Conrad Veidt, probably.

He was wearing an expensive grey suit and imported shoes of a matching colour. His grey beret was cocked rakishly over one ear; under his arm he carried a stick with a black knob shaped like a poodle's head. He looked to be a little over forty. Mouth somehow twisted. Clean-shaven. Dark-haired. Right eye black, left — for some reason — green. Dark eyebrows, but one higher than the other. In short, a foreigner.

Then the writers long and unsuccessfully wonder what country he came from and who he is by nationality:

`A German...' thought Berlioz. `An Englishman...' thought Homeless (Ivan Besdomnyi). 'My, he must be hot in those gloves.'

'Excuse me, please,' the approaching man began speaking, with a foreign accent but without distorting the words, 'if, not being your acquaintance, I allow myself... but the subject of your learned conversation is so interesting that...'

Here he politely took off his beret and the friends had nothing left but to stand up and make their bows.

'No, rather a Frenchman ...' thought Berlioz.

'A Pole? ...' thought Homeless (Ivan Besdomnyi).

'You've been invited here as a consultant, Professor?' asked Berlioz.

'Yes, as a consultant.'

"You're German?' Homeless (Ivan Besdomnyi) inquired.'I? ...' the professor repeated and suddenly fell to thinking. 'Yes, perhaps I am German ...' he said.

After the death of Mikhail Berlioz in a tram accident, Ivan Besdomnyi tries to pursue Woland and his entourage:

Ivan gasped, looked into the distance, and saw the hateful stranger. He was already at the exit to Patriarch's Lane; moreover, he was not alone. The more than dubious choirmaster had managed to join him. But that was still not all: the third in this company proved to be a tom-cat, who appeared out of nowhere, huge as a hog, black as soot or as a rook, and with a desperate cavalryman's whiskers. The trio set off down Patriarch's Lane, the cat walking on his hind legs. Ivan sped after the villains and became convinced at once that it — would be very difficult to catch up with them. The trio shot down the lane in an instant and came out on Spiridonovka.

Director of the theater Variety Styopa Likhodeyev (Stephen Evildoer), Mikhail Berlioz's neighbor in communal apartment number 50, wakes up hungover and sees a stranger in front of him. Subsequently, the stranger will be Woland:

'Professor of black magic Woland,' the visitor said weightily, seeing Styopa's difficulty, and he recounted everything in order. Yesterday afternoon he arrived in Moscow from abroad, went immediately to Styopa, and offered his show to the Variety.

In the end, Woland's entire retinue appears in apartment number 50: the jesters Koroviev-Kletchatyi-Fagot (Koroviev-Checkered-Bassoon) and Behemoth the Cat (Cat Behemoth), as well as the demon Azazello:

Before the Satanic Ball:

'Hella, it's time,' said Woland, and Hella disappeared from the room. 'My leg hurts, and now this

'Allow me,' Margarita quietly asked.

Woland looked at her intently and moved his knee towards her. The liquid, hot as lava, burned her hands, but Margarita, without wincing, and trying not to cause any pain, rubbed it into his knee.

Finale of the ball in May in a Moscow apartment:

Woland was in some sort of black chlamys with a steel sword on his hip. He quickly approached Margarita, offered her the cup, and said imperiously: 'Drink!'

Margarita became dizzy, she swayed, but the cup was already at her lips, and voices, she could not make out whose, whispered in both her ears: 'Don't be afraid, Queen ... don't be afraid, Queen, the blood has long since gone into the earth.

On the balustrade of a Moscow house shortly before leaving the city:

'And what is that smoke there on the boulevard?'

That is Griboedov's burning,' replied Azazello.

'It must be supposed that that inseparable pair, Koroviev and Behemoth, stopped by there?'

'Of that there can be no doubt, Messire.'

Again silence fell, and the two on the terrace gazed at the fragmented, dazzling sunlight in the upper-floor windows of the huge buildings facing west. Woland's eye burned like one of those windows, though Woland had his back to the sunset.

Visit of Matthew Levi:

But here something made Woland turn his attention to the round tower behind him on the roof. From its wall stepped a tattered, clay-covered, sullen man in a chiton, in home-made sandals, black-bearded.

'Hah!' exclaimed Woland, looking mockingly at the newcomer. 'Least of all would I expect you here! What have you come with, uninvited guest?''I have come to see you, spirit of evil and sovereign of shadows,' the newcomer replied, glowering inimically at Woland...

[facts-i-just-made-up]

How will I die?

Not unreality cuz I can't think of a funny reply but I'm reading "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov right now and it opens with a prediction of exactly how someone will die and it's an amazing novel with a very fun and horrifying brand of chaos that some demons wreak across Soviet Moscow and there's a demonic cat named Behemoth and the guy who did those Little Critter books did one of the early cover illustrations and it's one of my favorite images ever so I just wanted to share it:

[witchcraftandgeekness]

I think we are at this point in BSD manga when I should give fandom fellows who are not into Russian classic literature a quote from classic Soviet novel, 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov:

"Dostoevsky's dead," said the citizeness, but somehow not very confidently. "I protest!" Behemoth exclaimed hotly. "Dostoevsky is immortal!"

No elaboration, I'm just laughing too hard whenever I remember this part of the book and the recent BSD chapters.

[librarycards]

hello all, and welcome to your favorite book rec series! :) here are my favorites of the first quarter of 2024. it was, as always, a tough choice, and several 5-star books had to be left out. to see all of my book reviews/follow my reading life, add or follow me on goodreads (and check out my forthcoming novel on goodreads and storygraph while you're at it). I also recommend all kinds of media on my newsletter, which a couple hundred people seem to like!)

with that, here are my top 9 books (in no particular order) of jan-march 2024!

Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks

Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

Megan Milks, Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms

Carla Sofia Ferreira, A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us

Sam Sax, A Guide to Undressing Your Monsters

C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

Ulrich Jesse K Baer, Deer Black Out [I was lucky to get an ARC of this one; it drops in April!]

tagging people who are or might be interested below - but feel free to do this for yourself and tag me, i read every single one i'm tagged in and update my tbr accordingly! thanks for reading & loving this series as much as i do :3

@heavenlyyshecomes @communicationissues @fluoresensitive @gwenderqueer @capricornpropaganda @discworldwitches @stephen-deadalus @materialisnt @boykeats @growtiredofpublicvulnerability @flameswallower @closet-keys @fatehbaz @trans-axolotl @bioethicists @aldieb @petesdragon @passerea @lesbianlizzybennet @slowtides @felgueirosa @sadhoc @sawasawako @candiedsmokedsalmon @tirragen @punkkwix @feypact @abstractlesbian @crippleprophet and anyone who wants to!

[magpiefngrl]

2024 Book Review

In 2024 I read 80 books (including my current read); sort of average for me. My challenge this year was to 1. read the Vorkosigan saga, and 2. To read no (or very few) US authors besides Bujold, and I succeeded in both. The word I'd use to describe many of the books mentioned below is unusual. It wasn't intentional but a lot of these reads were weird (complimentary). I also reread a lot of books, such as CaPri (again!), Dark Rise/Heir, the first two novels of Lymond Chronicles and a great deal of KJ Charles romances.

The Vorkosigan Saga

A sci-fi space opera series of 16 novels plus several novellas, published from the 90s onwards. I read all of them, except one novella. Go me! It's a fantastic series and its reputation is well deserved. Some books were more exciting or to my taste than others, naturally, but they were all easy to read, well paced and well characterised. The stretch of books from Brothers in Arms to Civil Campaign was my fave. I tore through those novels in a few weeks. Mirror Dance, Memory and A Civil Campaign are some of my fave reads of the year.

9 other books that stood out

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. JFC. What a novel. What a mindfuck. I didn't know what was happening most of the time but it sure was compelling. The story was weird as fuck, incomprehensible at times, with trippy magic, full of body horror and a menacing mood and dark academia vibes, and it was unlike anything I've read. It's a fantasy but not a typical one; it resists defining and needs to be experienced.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera. The second most exciting book of the year. An unusual, mesmerising fantasy with incredible worldbuilding and lush prose.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Finally read this celebrated novel and it was nothing like I'd expected. Though, idk what I expected. Definitely a book that stays with you. I'm sure a lot of the references to the time period flew over my head. One to reread.

Faithful Place and The Secret Place by Tana French. Grouping these together as they feature the same characters. Tana French is a huge favourite of mine and I can't imagine reading a novel of hers that doesn't end on my fave-books-of-the-year list. Gorgeous prose and a deep dive into characters make her books less than typical murder mysteries.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski. An atmospheric, mesmerising read about young queer love, with beautiful, lyrical prose and a hefty dose of history. I loved the portrait of Poland in the 70s-80s.

The Will of the Many by James Islington. A fantasy novel I devoured within days. Some of its elements are very traditional fantasy (secret identity of main character, tough academy to attend, end of graduation big event to complete, Roman inspired architecture and names) but the worldbuilding with the Will as a measure of power and the Pyramids is unique and fascinating. This is a hefty 600+ page novel, but easy to read and briskly paced. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang. A Kafkaesque novel, layered and deep, with an ambiguous ending. The kind of work that leaves one unsure, full of questions and barely-glimpsed thoughts like silent things swimming in dark water. I'm keen to read more from this author.

Dark Heir by CS Pacat. Last but not least is the sequel to Dark Rise. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first novel; and in fact, I immediately went back and reread Dark Rise and enjoyed that one more the second time round--and then I read Dark Heir again, just days after my first read. To say I'm gagging for the third novel is an understatement. This one got under my skin, guys.

KJC Sad War Boys reread

On a discord I used to belong to, some fans took all the characters KJC has created that used to be soldiers and ranked from least sad to most sad. I thought that was a perfect idea for a reread, and so I started with the Henchmen of Zenda (what a fun novel! And Jasper isn't much cut up about his army service) and moved on accordingly towards the one with the saddest war boy, which is also, as it happens, possibly my fave KJC romance.

Other Notable Reading Accomplishments

Finished The Witcher series! Hooray!

Finally read Aliette de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series, which I'd bought many years before. I can't say I loved the 3 main novels (though the worldbuilding was interesting) but I did enjoy the two novellas featuring a fab new ship: Stab Husband and Dragon Husband. I love these two so much. (The novellas are: Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, and Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances)

Read THREE new KJ Charles novels. We've been blessed this year.

I read 6 novels by Keigo Higashino, who writes murder mysteries unlike any I've read. Superbly plotted and always unusually structured.

Finally got around to reading my pal's (and former drarry author) YA novel, Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues, which was as delightful as I'd expected.

Some stats

I might have read 80 novels but not by 80 authors. I went over my spreadsheet and saw a lot of the same names popping up. I thought I'd make a count, so here goes: I read 19 books (novels and novellas) by Lois McMaster Bujold, 15 books by KJ Charles (mostly rereads), 6 by Keigo Higashino, 5 by Aliette de Bodard (plus a short story), and 5 by CS Pacat.

Onwards to 2025!

Previous years:

2015 2016 2019

first half of 2020 top 5 books of 2020

2021 2022 2023

[rowanthestrange]

The Master And Margarita Jacket

(Matthew Sweet’s Doctor Who version…but with a frisson of Bulgakov’s)

It’s done! With every bit of unphotographical glittery metallic paint that I can’t capture on camera even if my iphone skills weren’t rubbish.

@spoonietimelordy, @rearranging-deck-chairs, @bearinabandana and everyone else who Did The Reading of that one ‘I Am The Master’ novel but I’ve forgotten to tag because i’m so sleep deprived i can’t think any more but hopefully other people will, assemble!

Detailed closeups and explanations (with some spoilers) below:

Starting front top right side (face on). -Margarita herself, biting a mushroom. A more Cockatoo beak than Macaw, with red face instead of white, to make what exactly she is more mysterious. -The Master Who logo here is just gold, any shading didn’t look right when it was so thin.

Front top right pocket. Purple, of course.

-Next section down are these three. The ‘Never Stop Growing’ patch is my second favourite patch of the bunch. So many Master Themes, and plot relevant. -Then the little ‘Best Buds’ with the heart in the middle. I was inordinately proud of that idea. (Buds, budding, bigenerated vibe). -And then ‘Obscene Lotus’. That’s mentioned early in the book, and while it’s just described as a big purplish lotus, there’s so much sexual charging in that scene that, well, you gotta.

Me, reusing the ‘budding’ pun in a different capacity? It’s more likely than you think.

-The cover of the Penguin Clothbound Classic version of the original The Master And Margarita, that took multiple days to complete and so much agony. -The patch is a blank one that I bought, then painted the design to look like one of those stamps people sometimes put in books. Painted the border the same colour, then tea-stained it to look like old paper. Certainly in real life the colour comes out nicely. I couldn’t find his autograph (and sadly there’s an unrelated artist with the same name lol) but he got his doctorate in Wilkie Collins so I just looked up examples of that guy’s writing and tried to give it a bit of that vibe. Hopefully it’s the thought that counts. But hey, if anyone ever meets him and gets me a signature sample I can just redo it.

General mushroom patch - I like the fire kind of vibe and the looming.

To the other side!

So. You’re asking what’s with the daisy theme. Fair. So Margarita is also another name for a daisy in some languages. I choose to lean into that because it’s also the widely known symbol of Three - with that scene where he talks to Jo and recounts how a hermit living on a mountain helped dispel his depression by getting him to focus on the beauty of the flower (“and it was the most daisiest daisy”). Given that Three is essentially a character in the book, this felt like the vibe we’re going for. It’s perennial. It also is a healer of bruises and wounds, how can that not be relevant meta wise too to the Master’s new companion, hm? And okay yes, Mikhail does say he’s not a botanist, but if you can think of another way to get that message across other than botanical illustration page…

I like the patch because lightbulb, idea, full of mushrooms etc.

-‘I Am The Master’ being the name of the book the story is contained in, plus Fun With Identity. -Next the one bit of Real Art that I attempted to copy in glittery acrylics - Magritte’s ‘The Treachery Of Images’ or more commonly known ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’. The story not only of the Master’s experiences recently, but the story’s themes of hallucinations and deceptions; as well as being the symbol of Russian!Brigadier. -This patch is great isn’t it? A play on the Master’s apparent alcoholism or Russian blending in as you prefer, and of course, The Lighthouse of Martin!Doctor fame.

-Mikhail’s guitar for playing Brown Sugar and other ominous inference songs. -The formula triangle of Love, Food, and Music (I couldn’t think of a self-evident way to show his approach to food - Russian dumplings are, well, not exactly distinct). On its side so the glittery pink triangle points in a certain direction because he’s escaped places and I can do ominous inferences too Sweet. -Maybe controversial? There is a failed love story component in here though, that I just couldn’t leave unmarked. The Doctor, K’vo, and Jo all have their parts to play in that.

Now for the arms:

Here’s the right-side looking-on arm. -I repainted this mushroom patch to be the orange and green of K’vo’s. -You’ve already seen the long image of it above, so here’s just a snippet closeup of the motif that goes along both arms. Daisies linked in a chain with the words ‘daisiest daisy’ (if you wonder why everything’s outlined by the way, a) i like the style, and b) it makes glitter infinitely more legible and clearer to see if there’s a dark matt border around it breaking it up, especially with something as variable coloured as denim). There’s the sunflower in the middle because Margarita loves her sunflower seeds.

This is the other arm. Margarita holding a margarita in a margarita. What’s more to add? I used my shittest white (mixed with my fabric medium as everything else has been at every step) rather than @yesokayiknow’s excellent suggestion of Liquitex, which has saved me everywhere else, including those light patches. But here shitty kids basics acrylic is translucent enough to do some excellent work pretending to be glass and ice. The parrot patch has been altered to make the beak entirely black and her face red instead of macaw white, to keep her species ambiguous as literary theme demands.

To the back!

This Master Who logo is bigger, so it has the Master’s purple highlights like bruising.

Here is a small UNIT patch I modified to be a Russian one, globe focused on their continent (roughly). Sweet just translated the word ‘unit’ for Russian!Brigadier’s group, and the text is the re-cyrilliced version of that.

Skipping to the bottom…

Here referencing O’s collection of Doctor Information, Sweet adding to that with having distinct scrapbooks. ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’ is a line from Bulgakov’s The Master And Margarita (spoken by Satan in fact, mhmm) and became something of a rallying cry for oppressed Russian artists. I have ‘Author Unknown’ for the obvious meta with his and the Doctor’s memories, and likewise, the fact that flames are clearly present and burning lets the viewer come to whatever conclusion they like. #133 was chosen for the simple fact that in my copy of Bulgakov’s novel, and the one depicted on the front of the jacket, it is page 133 which starts the chapter The Hero Enters, where we meet The Master who has renounced all other names (who is very much, as Interference notes, the Doctor). They are glitter paint titles done on Hemline repair patches, black, brown, white, and navy blue. I know anything too painty on that area of the back will risk a lot of wear, and these are easily replaced when necessary (if still hours of lettering).

To the left most side…

This was the most expensive patch I bought, £12. But worth it. The mushroom stalk is silk.

Here I depicted in silhouette the scene of the Master climbing up to the Doctor on the giant mushroom. I chose silhouette so as not to draw the eye too much. I also added some 2ply black-black glitter cotton as part of his climbing equipment, attached on by some silver stitches for the…things I can’t remember the name of. It gives it a bit more 3D effect, but also keeps the thread close enough it shouldn’t pull on anything.

And at its base we have a reference to Mikhail’s chosen middle name. I chose to believe it’s relevant, Sweet’s too deep into this for it not to be. This is a cover I edited to highlight the namesake who actually travelled Russia and collected the tales of this book, and indeed, it does include the story of Koschei The Deathless. I edited the robe to be red instead of its original yellow, and added the quintessential Time Lord collar. But I think it’s perfectly passable. This is iron on transfer paper (dark) onto a very light grey polycotton to turn it into a patch. It…*cough* hasn’t had its edges finished or strictly been attached yet, but that’s a bit of handwork I can do as and when.

So finally back up to the middle

I’ve expanded out @spoonlesss-artbook fantastic angel-winged Margarita’s Master art. The Redbubble bag was only that big as it was (hemmed with bostik fabric glue like a true pro and attached as a panel) so it cut off a little, and it didn’t go the whole way anyway, so now we get some endings of the feathers, some all the way up to the arm of the jacket. I tried to blend it into the fire, one creature of both. And trying to get a multidimensional feel, boundary breaking. And again, very glittery irl so plays very well with the fire theme. It was fun when it came to colour-matching particularly the blue wing at the top, because the glitter gives it a bit of a sheen. I blunted it with a few careful washes of black so it still sparkles but is the right colour in most angles.

The Redbubble edit cuts @spoonietimelordy’s signature, so I copied it from the original and moved it over to the left side in some sparkly silver. Also internet doxxing my real life self on the bottom of the back as my own signature.

Doesn’t look like the sort of thing that would take weeks when you see it all together, but I’m really happy with it. I’m so grateful for everyone who’s shown their brilliant art to me and shared posts about painting all these years, cus it allowed me to absorb stuff and let me come out of the gate swinging! It feels thoroughly addictive. Even if I only know ‘use tiny brush’ for almost everything and glitter metallic is great for hiding sins. (And a ‘Ha!’ in the face of my mother keeping me away from it my whole life because of mess - I never got even a single speck on any clothes that wasn’t this jacket. I could’ve been doing this for years rather than just picking up a brush at the age of thirty-damn-one. But at least I’ve got it now).

And thanks to Matthew Sweet for feeding the worms in my brain too.

[t-jfh]

Photograph by Alexander Yanenko (Russian)

Untitled, 1985

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Related YouTube video regarding photographer Alexander Yanenko, the provenance of this photograph (above) and associated references:

YouTube video >> Zach Dobson Photography - Mystery Solved: The Truth behind the Viral Photo "Black Cat and His Kid" [Released 11 November 2023 / 3mins.+38secs.]:

In Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, the black cat Behemoth character has a penchant for chess, vodka, pistols and obnoxious sarcasm.

Illustration by Christopher Conn Askew

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. New York. 1967. Harper & Row. Translated from the Russian by Michael Glenny. 394 pages. Hardcover. Jacket art by Mercer Mayer.

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A colourised photo portrait of Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, 1928.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

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[loonexists]

I don't know if I'm getting anywhere at all with it but I just can't help thinking.

Achtung! You can disagree with me regarding my 'The Master and Margarita' theory but I really don't want to argue with anyone ever so if you think I'm wrong PLEASE don't tell me.

My theory and spoilers for S4E3 under the cut

In the novel 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov there're several storylines that compose the novel. One of the storylines takes place in Ancient Judea, the city of Yershalaim and the main characters of this storyline are Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri. I've been through some tense discussions regarding whether or not Yeshua is The Jesus we all know (imo he obviously is). There are several hints in the text that the story from the Bible differs from the one we read about in the novel because the events were written down with some significant changes by Yeshua's follower Matthew.

So long story short: in the novel we read about the events that were then edited by a third party and turned into the Bible as we know it.

Ok now to my main point. I've been thinking about the scene with Marmite and Warren arguing about which instrument Gordon played. And Marmite is like a bit too confident about it for someone who's never even met Gordon. And considering the literal cult they have going on... I can't help but wonder if that's what happened to Gordon or more so to the idea of him. Is he believed to be someone else? Is he believed to have done the things he never did? And don't even get me started on the fact that bringing him back is one of the main goals. Because right now Gordon is a Schrödinger's cat and bringing someone like him back to the reality where there's a CULT built around him... Well, it would be a little too close to resurrection, wouldn't it.

Anyway, I hope Gordon isn't going to become the next Jesus, it would be fucked up. But well. Yeah. I believe that Warren is right about the bass and it's not him being an asshole who knows nothing about his best friend, it's actually the cult being weird.

In conclusion, 'The Master and Margarita' is an amazing piece of literature and I'm an idiot who's just spent 2 hours writing this.

[moistvonlipwig]

Books I Read in 2024

In addition to the books listed below, I also reread As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, both of which are as amazing as I remember (Cash Bundren and Behemoth the cat, my beloveds!). So that brings me to a total of 14 books for the year -- less than I'd hoped, but still more than last year. I'm slowly but surely reading a little more each year. These books are listed in the order in which I finished them:

Into the Light by Mark Oshiro. Firstly I must extend my gratitude to Mark -- I had pre-ordered a personalized signed copy but didn't see the part of the order form that let you put in personalization details, so when my book arrived, it was signed but not personalized, and Mark very kindly sent me an extra personalized copy when I reached out to them. As for the book itself, I thought it had a bold and interesting premise for a YA novel, and I enjoyed the experimental writing style and the twists and turns of the plot. The atmosphere in particular was built up very well to be nicely creepy, and I hope Mark does more horror and horror-adjacent stuff in the future.

Holes by Louis Sachar. I'd never actually read this book as a kid, even though I loved Sachar's Wayside School series. It's a fun book! I like that, aside from just being a fun and satisfying story, it also has things to say about racism and the juvenile prison system. I'm glad I finally read it.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. This was an incredible read. The frame story is so well-done and interesting, the story inside the story is gripping and beautiful, and the prose is a delight to read. One small detail I really found fascinating about the book is how, when characters would be mentioned to be eating certain foods or drinking certain beverages or wearing certain clothes, the book would go into detail -- without feeling like it was going off-topic -- about how those foods/beverages/fabrics/etc. were produced and transported (often involving the exploitation of others) so that the character in question had access to them. There's a trend in fantasy and sci-fi works, I think, where characters just Have Access to things like coffee or silk or corn without any reflection on the narrative's as to how that happened, which mirrors how Americans take these things for granted in real life with often very little reflection on the historical & current exploitation and oppression that manufactures these things and transports them to us.

Anyway, I just think details like that really made the society of the book feel visible and tangible and weighty. The tortoises, too, were another utterly fascinating bit of worldbuilding -- how they both served the interests of empire but were also regarded as completely disposable tools, whose god was ultimately seen as no more than something to be consumed. And the characters were also great -- Keema, Jun, the Defect, Araya, the First Terror, the Third Terror (and none for the Second Terror BYE)...just a fantastic line-up of personalities. Plus, it's a Story About Stories, which is always a plus for me. This is a very ambitious book -- I fear I'm underselling it, to tell you the truth -- and IMO it completely delivers. A really great read. (And it's a fun coincidence that both this book and Holes have a cathartic scene towards the end where it finally starts raining after years of drought as a metaphorical representation of healing.)

(I will say, I've seen a lot of people really praise the romance in this book, and while I have nothing bad to say about it at all, I also think that it was by far the least interesting thing going on? Like, I have no critiques of the romantic arc, but I do kind of wonder what I'm missing that has everyone else gushing about it so much.)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. When I was reading The Spear Cuts Through Water, I was thinking to myself that that surely had to be the best book I would read all year. Then I read The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida and was like. Well. Actually. I don't know anymore. This book is equal parts fun and moving and politically biting. Maali is such an incredible main character who I loved through all his flaws, and the book's structure, which is anchored in conversations he has with other ghosts, makes for such an interesting read. The prose was gorgeous, witty, and full of personality, and I loved the twists and turns of the story and the novel's commitment to its themes. Just an utterly lovable book. I'm going to read more Karunatilaka for sure.

Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić. This book is maybe Stanišić's best. I'm not sure; it has stiff competition. But God. This book. Okay. So it's autobiographical and about his family's history in Yugoslavia and how he emigrated to Germany during the Bosnian War, except that also sometimes he just makes things up, and blends things together, and remembers things wrong, and all this is juxtaposed against his grandmother suffering from dementia in the present day and slowly losing her memory and grip on reality more and more. And then at the end it turns into a choose-your-own-adventure book about how the story of his grandmother ends, and some of the options feature dragons. This, like The Spear Cuts Through Water, is very much a Story About Stories, and here the stories are both a way of keeping the memory of a family and culture alive and also a way of trying to interact with someone who no longer has a working memory. Reading this in the same year that my own grandfather's dementia worsened so significantly -- my grandfather who, by the way, is my only real living tie to the part of my family from Yugoslavia, who he hasn't heard from since before the war -- was uh. Rough! But in a way it was healing as well. I really can't recommend this book enough, it's such a unique experience and definitely one of my favorite books ever.

Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Barbara J. Fields and Karen E. Fields. Yeah, so, this book is required reading as far as I'm concerned. If you want to understand or talk about racism in the U.S., or frankly racism anywhere, you NEED to read this book. It will challenge you and deepen your understanding of why racism was invented, how racism functions, and what racism is and isn't. It maddens me that people waste their time reading pop anti-racism self-help books when books like this exist. Read this book!!!

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. Baba Yaga time!!!!! It's funny because when I was reading this book I was thinking to myself, "You know, the best way to describe this book would be as a Rollicking Good Time," and then I looked at the back of the book and Lemony Snicket had endorsed the book specifically as "rollicking." So yes, it's safe to say this book Rollicks. But it's also deeply affecting and parts of it are hard to read (in a good way); towards the end I almost cried reading it on the bus. I really appreciate how playful and beautiful the prose is in this book; I love when I get to have fun with not just the story of a book but the writing itself. Great stuff.

Moira's Pen by Megan Whalen Turner. This was such a fun collection of stories, a couple of which I'd read before but most of which I hadn't, and it was also really interesting to see MWT talk about some of the real-life historical inspiration for various worldbuilding aspects of the Queen's Thief books. My favorite story was probably "The Cook and the King of Attolia"; it was exactly the kind of story I wanted ever since finding out the cooks had been putting sand in Gen's food. I knew the head cook HAD to be an old friend of his, lol. No one can ever be fed up with Gen quite like the people who actually like him. Annoying king <3 (literally) (he is literally a king) (and also annoying. God[s] bless <3)

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor. I really loved the worldbuilding in this book -- Okorafor is always so creative with the sci-fi futures she builds, and I loved getting to read a sci-fi book centered on the use of wind energy. I loved the central characters as well and really enjoyed their journey together. That said, the edition I read seriously needed another editing pass -- it had a distracting amount of typos and there were a couple of places where information was repeated as if we were learning it for the first time in a way that did not feel like an intentional choice. That's not Okorafor's fault, to be clear, it's the editorial team's for not fully doing their job. But it's too bad because the story itself is really great.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. For a long time I wasn't planning to read this book because I heard it was a Popular New Release and I'd been burned before by certain Popular New Releases (*cough*Babel*cough*). Then I realized it was written by Adjei-Brenyah, author of the incredible Friday Black, and then I read the actual summary (it's about a near-future U.S. where prisoners fight to the death for their freedom for mass entertainment), and I was like, oh okay I need to read this book actually. And I'm so glad I did, because Adjei-Brenyah's still got it. This was a tough and hard-hitting and heartbreaking book, with a biting satirical edge that comes out at just the right times.

The characters were fantastic. My favorite was, of course, thee Hurricane Staxxx, who else, but Hendrix Singer, Loretta Thurwar, and Rico Muerte hold special places in my heart as well. And part of what I appreciated so deeply about this novel was how incredibly full of humanity every single character felt, even the despicable ones. The novel has two main characters and some major supporting ones, but it also shows us perspectives from all over society, and I appreciated the way the narrative offered up these perspectives for our own consideration and judgment and painted all these people with humanity -- both the best and worst parts of it. Adjei-Brenyah does not shy away from the reality that some people are in prison for committing serial murder, hate crimes, domestic violence, and rape; yet those characters are imbued with the same humanity as everyone else by his pen. Nor does he shy away from the reality that a lot of very mundane and normal people would probably come to accept a program like this and enjoy watching enslaved prisoners murder and torture each other; and yet those characters, too, are granted full humanity by the narrative.

That does not mean the narrative does not take a side -- it very much does, and there's a particularly incisive bit towards the very end that I loved, which implicates not just the characters but the reader as well. But it does so without asking you to hate any of the characters, even though you almost certainly will, and I admire that. I appreciated also that the book did not shy away from how awful and ugly violence is. The book acknowledges that violence can be necessary in self-defense or against oppression, but it does not try to pretend that violence is cool or beautiful or empowering. Instead, it makes you sit with violence of all kinds, and forces you to reckon with how repulsive it really is. There's a boldness in that, and a maturity too, that I greatly admire and think we could use a little more of in our fiction.

I'm of two minds about the footnotes that sometimes pop up helpfully telling the reader facts about the real American prison system and how it relates to what's happening in the novel. As someone who is not ignorant about the subject, I found them to be sometimes intrusive and stating the obvious. But I acknowledge that there are many people who would not know a lot of these things about policing & prisons in the U.S. and who would think the book was exaggerating more than it actually was without these footnotes. And unlike in certain other books I've read -- okay, I'm vagueblogging Babel again, it's a habit -- the footnotes did not come across like the author thought I was stupid and needed everything explained to me like a little baby. So that's good, at least.

Honestly, my biggest critique of the book is that I think it could've been longer and included more perspectives and more of the broader world Adjei-Brenyah created. As I mentioned, I appreciated that Adjei-Brenyah did not shy away from the difficult reality that there are many people in prison who have done legitimately very bad things and have committed violence against women, while also being sure to show how women, especially women of color, who are victimized by sexual and domestic violence are often re-victimized by the carceral system. That said, I do think the book would've benefited from exploring the point of view of the victims of some of these characters, or their families' victims -- for instance, one of the characters, Sunset Harkless, is a rapist and murderer but is very popular on the show and is viewed as a martyr when he's killed. How would his rape victim feel about his gaining popularity through a show he is only on because of what he did to her -- or, if his rape victim and murder victim are one and the same, how would her family feel? I feel like this is an angle that kind of begged to be explored and, while I appreciated that Adjei-Brenyah did not demonize victims' families or their feelings, I think more inclusion of them would've only strengthened the book.

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt. I read this novella on the recommendation of physics YouTuber Angela Collier, and I really liked it! The writing style is so simple yet effective, and the protagonist has such an interesting perspective that brings a lot to the story and its themes. Definitely worth a read.

King Lear by William Shakespeare. I've seen King Lear -- I've seen most of Shakespeare's plays -- but until recently I'd never actually sat down and read it. I really do think it's one of Shakespeare's best and I want to chew on it more this year. Also Edmund my beloved ❤️❤️❤️ I literally forgot about him...what an iconic bitchy king. When he made fun of everyone else in the play for believing in astrology...lmao. His haterism is unparalleled. Love you Edmund.

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

If you’re looking to explore Russian literature, here are ten of the most influential and celebrated Russian authors whose works have shaped both Russian and world literature:

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky

Known for his psychological depth and exploration of existential themes, Dostoevsky’s masterpieces like Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Notes from Underground examine guilt, faith, morality, and the human psyche.

2. Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are known for their intricate character studies and sweeping portrayals of Russian society. His work addresses themes of family, love, faith, and the search for meaning.

3. Anton Chekhov

A master of the short story and a pioneer in modern drama, Chekhov wrote works like The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull, capturing the subtle complexities of everyday life with nuance and insight.

4. Alexander Pushkin

Often called the father of Russian literature, Pushkin’s works, including Eugene Onegin and his poetry, helped establish Russian as a literary language and influenced nearly every Russian author who followed.

5. Nikolai Gogol

Gogol’s satirical novels and stories, such as Dead Souls and The Overcoat, mix the surreal with social critique, providing sharp commentary on Russian bureaucracy and societal absurdities.

6. Ivan Turgenev

Known for his novel Fathers and Sons, Turgenev depicted the generational clash between conservatives and liberals in Russian society. His lyrical prose and realistic style have made him a key figure in Russian literature.

7. Mikhail Bulgakov

Best known for The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov’s works are full of satire, humor, and mysticism, exploring themes of faith, power, and the corrupting influence of bureaucracy.

8. Boris Pasternak

His novel Doctor Zhivago offers a poignant portrayal of the Russian Revolution and its impact on individuals. Pasternak’s work reflects the struggle between personal freedom and political oppression.

9. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A Nobel laureate, Solzhenitsyn’s works like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich expose the brutal realities of Soviet labor camps, exploring themes of survival, resilience, and morality under oppression.

10. Vladimir Nabokov

Although he later wrote primarily in English, Nabokov’s early Russian novels, like The Gift and Invitation to a Beheading, as well as his later Lolita, showcase his distinctive prose style, wordplay, and insight into human psychology.

These authors capture the vastness of Russian history, culture, and philosophy, offering readers profound and often challenging insights into the human experience. Each of their works invites readers to explore Russian literature’s rich traditions and lasting impact on world literature.

Source: English Literature Society  

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

3/5 stars (★★★)

"He does not deserve the light, he deserves peace."

This was an oddly enjoyable read for the Christmas season. Before I read The Master and Margarita, I had zero idea what the book was about and 412 pages + a lot of reviews later I still can't exactly say what even happened here. The Gogolian influence was very persistent in Bulgakov's prose, so I highly recommend reading some of Nikolai Gogol's stuff before getting into TMaM. That being said, I agree with people that it's a novel that stands on its own in spite of its heavy context. I did some background research into Bulgakov's biography, the ten-ish years it took for him to write the book, Stalinist Russia, and the 25-year gap between when he finished the manuscript (which don't burn!) and the actual publication of it after his death. Critics seem to be unanimous in agreeing that the Master is a self-insert of Bulgakov himself, which I really felt to be most fitting during the scenes in the hospital where he discussed with Ivan the Homeless his philosophies on art and the current social order. I appreciated Bulgakov's harrowing criticism on Soviet Russia without actually being too grave about it; the dark humor is good because the "dark" is the adjective that informs the noun, not vice versa like a lot of "satire" plots which I feel fail in comparison. The magical realism was a good kind of wacky (although I wouldn't exactly call it magical realism, but that may be just because I'm more used to its South and Latin American literary uses). I liked Woland and all the beheading episodes. Bulgakov's tongue-in-cheek treatment of citizens "disappearing," private executions, political censorship of the Soviet intelligista, and the air of general repression felt in all people, especially artists, during the time were spot-on (though that's coming from someone who never experienced Stalinist Russia and have only done humble research into it). I think TMaM is a great testament to the political and social climate of Russia in the 20th century. Bulgakov captured everything so well whilst still retaining a sense of wonder, folkloric absurdism, and, at times, tender humanity.

Personally, I didn't like the scenes set in Yershalaim with Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri, though I appreciate their symbolic meaning and narrative weight as a whole. I honestly found myself falling asleep, especially during the infamous conversation between Pilate and Jesus. That being said, I found Bulgakov's portrayal of Jesus very intriguing, as well as his decision to refer to ancient Jerusalem by an alternate transliteration from the Hebrew quite bold. It gave a sort of distancing effect to the otherwise well-known Biblical places that separated their religious (over)-associations with actual historic (and fictionalized) context. I like that Jesus became "Yeshua," with the name obviously coming from the Aramaic word for "the Lord is salvation." Bulgakov making Jesus' last name "Ha-Nozri" meaning "of Nazareth" specifically was quite beautiful to me, as it places him as coming explicitly coming from the town of Galilee (north of Palestine), which Jesus was said to have lived in before he began his ministry. Instead of "Jesus Christ" or "King of Israel," which are common ways he is referred to, Bulgakov opted to name him according to his native Palestinian roots first and foremost. There's a lot of literary analysis you can take from that, but it's inherently a very defiant decision that I appreciate Bulgakov for making, and I'm saying that as a reader in 2024. Bulgakov, amongst other subtle cultural references, also mentions the keffiyeh ("kefia") in his novel a handful of times, most strikingly in the scene when Matthew Levi essentially curses at God because he was too late saving Yeshua from crucifixion. Bulgakov here is writing almost 100 years ago from where I am with zero idea of the political climate happening now in my world (although Zionism was still obviously present in early 20th century Russia). Matthew Levi's keffiyeh was one of the book's most resonant images for me, even if Bulgakov didn't exactly intend it to be as jarring as it is since he couldn't have predicted the genocide happening in Gaza right now. However, this small link I've noticed between the past and now is just an example of literature transcending time and space by acting as a bridge for human connections. Long ago, one man from Palestine disrupted Jerusalem and Rome's established (tyrannical) order and then centuries later a writer in early 20th century Russia adapted Jesus' story to criticize the cruelties and ridiculousness of the Stalinist regime, and then I in 2024 am reading this as the mass killings are happening in Palestine. Through this one book, three generations -- three timelines -- are somehow connected.

My final comment is that TMaM, particularly that connection I've personally drawn as a modern reader, reminds me why humanities, reading, history, literature, the arts, etc. are so timelessly and universally important. I know I may sound crazy and "you're just trying to be deep," but it really honestly is the truth. Bulgakov explicitly highlighting Jesus as Palestinian in Soviet Russia as a form of political protest and me in 2024 reading this book just as Jesus' same homeland is being massacred during Christmastime ... it's so haunting. The book being finished in 1940, meaning it and Bulgakov's very Palestinian Jesus is older than the "state" of Israel is an even more damning fact in and of itself. Even though I gave the book 3/5 stars, it's surely a story I will remember. That final image of the four "horsemen" riding off into the distance just as another dawn is breaking over a dictatorial empire history knows is doomed to crumble that concludes the novel will stay with me.

[ladyofmelk]

How love saved The Master and Margarita

(aka Bulgakov and Nyurenberg's story)

Mikhail Bulgakov and Elena Shilovskaya (née Nyurenberg) met for the first time in 1929 when they were both married - to Lubov Belozerskaya and Yevgeny Shilovskiy respectively.

To quote Elena herself, "I was simply the wife of lieutenant-general Shilovsky, a wonderful, very noble man. It was what they call a happy family: a husband with a high position, two beautiful sons. In general everything was fine. But when I met Bulgakov I knew that this was my fate, in spite of everything, in spite of the incredibly difficult tragedy of separation. It was fast, unusually fast, at any rate for me, love to last my whole life."

She tried everything to avoid him; but then, when they met a year and a half later, the first thing he said to her was "I can't live without you." They began an affair.

In February 1931, Elena's husband found out about their relationship. He demanded they broke it off, and for the sake of their children she never spoke to Bulgakov again for almost a year.

When he met her again, in June 1932, their love was renewed. Elena ran away with him and her children. Bulgakov wrote to Shilovskiy begging him to let Elena go, and after much persistence he finally accepted.

Elena's older son went to live with his father, while her youngest stayed with her. Bulgakov took him under his wing and cared for him like his own child. He divorced Lubov Belozerskaya in October 1932 and married Elena on the next day.

During their honeymoon, while the couple was staying at a hotel in Leningrad, Bulgakov told Elena about a novel he had begun to write years before and that he had burned down in 1930. He had lost all hope for this book, until Elena entered his life. Then, his inspiration had returned. He picked up pen and paper, and started scribbling. When Elena asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was rewriting the book. It was all in his head. But this time, he wanted to add a new character to the story.

Despite being rich and beautiful, Margarita Nikolaevna is not happy at all. Her life is boring and meaningless, until she meets a troubled nameless writer, for whose sake she'll make a deal with the Devil himself. Elena had become the prototype for one of his main characters.

Bulgakov finished editing The Master and Margarita a few weeks before his death with Elena's help. He had been sick and bed ridden for a long time. After he passed, Elena wrote in her diary; "March 10th, 1940. Misha has died."

Elena - who had become Bulgakov's personal secretary and biggest supporter - fought to see her husband's latest, most brilliant work published. She knew it was an impossible task, considering the contents of the book, and their friends tried to discourage her, but she wasn't going to give up on Bulgakov.

First, she tried publishing it on a popular literary newspaper, the Moskva. But the abridged, censored version that got printed was so awful that she eventually stepped back.

Elena kept the manuscript under lock and key for years, and then, in 1967, she finally got it published in France. The first complete version of the novel was released in the Soviet Union in 1973, but illegal copies of it had already been going around for years.

The Master and Margarita was an immediate success. Everyone from all over the world was praising its genius and wit. Eugenio Montale, one of Italy's most important poets and translators of the time, called it "a true miracle".

Margarita - the real Margarita - had once again saved her Master, not letting his name fade away in the mist of time.

The manuscript hadn't burned.