h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Mikhail Bulgakov - A848298
Author: Tobes - U205774

Hello all,

I hereby present m'third Entry, concerning Mikhail Bulgakov, for Peer Review. I'd appreciate opinions on whether the Entry would be better with, or without the "But what does it mean?" analysis section. I mean, I don't want it to seem too much like a lecture, you know?

Hi Tobes

A very interesting and absorbing entry - well done. The exegesis at the end is very valuable - do leave it in!

I just think the opening para needs modifying a bit. Get rid of the header and write a short intro to the man. Something like:

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) worked as a journalist in Moscow, where he wrote several outspoken plays, novels and short stories during the Stalin era. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, he studied medicine... etc

-- Just an idea, do feel free to use, abuse or disregard it!

I believe that Belaya Gvardiya was rewritten as a play - that might be worth a mention.

Great stuff!

Bels

Great entry about a great author. I love it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of Diaboliad anywhere. Hopefully one will turn up one day, I only very recently found and read The White Guard and the Notebooks.

I had little or no knowledge of this person (other than his name) before I read this entry. A fascinating read. Well done

Gosho, you should definitely read The Master and Margarita - I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't love it.

I'll look out for them next time I'm in Half Price Books

Cheers Bels, you're absolutely right, the opening header was a clunker. I've edited accordingly. Not sure whether to mention 'Days of the Turbins' (or 'White Guard - the Stage Spectacular!!') though - there's not really a convenient point in my ramblings at which to introduce it.

Dogster - 'Diaboliad' was published by Harvill, translated by Michael Glenny who's also responsible for most other readily available Bulgakov translations. Unlike most other readily available Bulgakov translations, it doesn't seem to get reprinted very often, which is a shame. Still, worth looking for.

Hi...

At home my wife's the expert for Bulgakov, she really likes his work. She tried to convince me too, but I think I am kinda blunt towards this kind of literature... Well, not my cup of tea, nicely written etc. but somehow I thought it's something for insiders, people who really know to read between the lines and the soviet context etc....

Anyhow. I think this Entry is really well-written, informative and to the point. Like it should be.

One minuscule thing though... scientists... That could not possibly have been a laser beam. It must a be a light beam. The acronym Laser (A597215) was coined by Gordon Gould in the 1950s so Bulgakov couln't have known this. Not even in principle. I'd suggest you to use 'red radiation' instead - in the 20s a huge radiation frenzy was going on.

OK enough geek-stuff... Great Entry. Thank you.

HELL

Good entry- like his and your work
I would suggest adding a footnote to the NKVD reference stating that it later became the KGB, as that is better known and the terror of being researched by the NKVD/ KGB doesn´t really translate if you don´t know about this.
Also I was thinking maybe flesh out something about his personal history. I´m not sure that that is where you want to take this entry, but you already mention that he was addicted to morphine as a young doctor. Did he have children with any of his wives?
back to read it all better and to comment again later if necessary
cheers ismarah

Sassa-frassin' scientific accuracy... Hell, you are a star; you're a pedant, but you're a star too I've substituted "light ray" accordingly (it's kind of easy to read the Russian for "red ray of light" and mentally think "laser"... it is, though...).

Volcano-Keeper - thanks for your suggestions. Bulgakov died childless, a fact which I've now added to the Entry ('cos, y'know, it just adds to the poignancy of it all... oh, the humanity...). I've also footnoted "NKVD" as per.

Lastly, since I was editing anyway, I've taken the opportunity to replace a couple of translatory footnotes I took out while I was trying to persuade the GuideML on this one to work. Waste not, want not, etc. Tell me if I'm getting too retentive, and I'll take 'em out again.

didn´t realize that I´d be referred to as Volcano-Keeper when I added this to my name. Hmmm. maybe I´ll have to change that again
cheers ismarah

Great work, Tobes!!

My only suggestion would be to amend the entry's title so that it differenciates between him and any (possible) astronauts / five star cooks / basketball players by the name of Mikhail Bulgakov.

Perhaps 'Mikhail Bulgakov, author and dramatist' would do?

Hello, Tobes,

very nicely written . This theory of Master being Gorky is very interesting, I have to look after it in the Russian sites.

Anna Banana, not really an expert, just a fan.

PS. What about an entry about mysticism in the Russian literature? Gogol´, Pushkin, etc.

Anna Banana again, dear Tobes,

I also think it would be better to precise a bit who Bulgakov was. The most people don´t know anything about him and are not really interested to read anything about a mate with a difficult Russian name.

Why are you interested in Bulgakov´s work? We´ve spoken with Hell today about the Russian literature and the main difficulty, of comprehension for Western readers, we have found out, are the unreadable, never mind pronounceable Russian names. Unfortunately it belongs to the literary tradition in Russia to use the so-called 'talking' names, names with a certain meaning who make the psychological effect stronger. What difficulties did you have while reading?

Sincerely yours Anna Banana

This entry has been picked by a scout! And may I add my own congratulations too - great entry. It's ready to go in now - Tobes, do you want to add anything in light of Anna's comments? I think she's right. A few words at the beginning... 'Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev... is one of Russia's most respected modern-day authors...' or something like that.

Anna, welcome to the site! I haven't read any Pushkin; can you recommend some to me? I'm reading Dostoyevsky's 'Idiot' at the moment and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

Great entry with excellent feedback. Well done all.

Congratulations!

Ahm, Sam, it was not me, but Sir Bossel(chen), who suggested to write a little intro and to change a title for more comprehension. 'Idiot' is very nice and as deep as a Russian soul , as for Pushkin the best thing is to learn Russian and to read 'Onegin' in the original language. The problem is that it is very difficult to translate poems, but Pushkin also wrote delightful tales like 'Tales of Ivan Petrovich Belkin' and unfortunately unfinished 'The tsar´s moor' about Pushkin´s grand-grandfather.

Anna Banana (still without banana smiley)

Reading 'Onegin' in the original may pose a few problems for me, however, a translation of 'Tales of Ivan Petrovich Belkin' sounds like a grand idea! Thank you for the tip!

Hi all,

Ismarah - sorry about the "Volcano-Keeper"...

Woohoo, Scout pickage ahoy!

Erm, I'm not sure there is anything much more I'd want to add. To be honest, Sir Bossel, I'm not aware of any astronauts, chefs, basketball players or anyone else famous by the name of "Mikhail Bulgakov" - it's not exactly a common name. And it's fairly well associated in the public forum with Bulgakov the author, so I don't think the deceased has much to fear from any future Bulgakovs that might steal his limelight, at least not for a few years yet.

Anna Banana - I'm not being funny, but I thought I already had explained who Bulgakov was? I'd say I've given a fairly comprehensive level of detail, and let's face it, people are more likely to hear about Bulgakov and then go and look him up, than to stumble across this Entry. I'd hope that, should a general Entry on "Famous Russian Authors" or similar exist or appear in the Guide, a link might be provided that would allow people to browse to the Bulgakov Entry, but that's another matter.

Regarding Russian names - well, some of them can look a little difficult, but they're really not all that bad. After all, millions of native Russians manage with them on a daily basis. "Bulgakov" is, I hope you'll agree, one of the easier names (pronounced exactly as it's written, with emphasis on the "a"). The character names may be trickier - "Preobrazhenskii" certainly looks it, but again it's not as bad as it looks. It literally means "Mr Transfiguration", which I suppose fits in with the story of 'The Heart of a Dog'. "Persikov" roughly translates as "Mr Peachy" - a suggestion of the character's round, peach-like figure and his furry, peach-like face. As for "Woland" in 'The Master and Margarita', I'm not aware of any significance at all, except that it allows Bulgakov to play on the character's speech impediment.

"Talking names" are really more specifically a hallmark of Gogol's work, although he certainly doesn't have the monopoly on them.

And an Entry on "Mysticism in Russian Literature" would have to run to the length of a university thesis, and I suspect it would be beyond my abilities/knowledge. Still, you never know.

Your entry is going into the Edited Guide. Congratulations Tobes.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

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