Any time you have a dual story, the invitation to draw parallels exists.
Tom Send a noteboard - 10/08/2010 05:56:23 PM
Is the Master like Jesus? Is Margarita his "Matthew"? Is Woland like Pilate, or rather, an inversion of Pilate? You don't have to see a 100% correspondence, but whenever there is a dual novel, there is a tendency to compare characters in each. After all, the two stories are together for a reason.
Pilate certainly talks in language similar to Stalin's at times, though he seems to be less of an absolute evil than Stalin. On the other hand, for Bulgakov, Stalin was definitely a figure who "wished evil but ended up doing good", at least from Bulgakov's perspective. His enemies frequently ended up repressed, arrested, interred in Gulags or shot. And yet no one touched him. When he was at risk of having nothing, Stalin called him on the phone and appointed him as director of the Moscow Academic Artistic Theatre and gave him a job that allowed him to survive.
So perhaps Stalin is present after all, in the figure of Woland?
Pilate certainly talks in language similar to Stalin's at times, though he seems to be less of an absolute evil than Stalin. On the other hand, for Bulgakov, Stalin was definitely a figure who "wished evil but ended up doing good", at least from Bulgakov's perspective. His enemies frequently ended up repressed, arrested, interred in Gulags or shot. And yet no one touched him. When he was at risk of having nothing, Stalin called him on the phone and appointed him as director of the Moscow Academic Artistic Theatre and gave him a job that allowed him to survive.
So perhaps Stalin is present after all, in the figure of Woland?
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
The Joint Book Club: Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
- 15/07/2010 08:36:47 AM
1591 Views
Things you liked
- 15/07/2010 08:37:57 AM
996 Views
The Passion interludes and Margarita's witchification and night flight.
- 23/07/2010 11:19:59 PM
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Things you didn't like
- 15/07/2010 08:38:20 AM
904 Views
Things that didn't make sense to you
- 15/07/2010 08:38:54 AM
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The murder of Judas.
- 23/07/2010 11:13:58 PM
914 Views
Does it make more sense if Aphranius is seen as...
- 26/07/2010 12:39:46 AM
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See, that seemed obvious to me.
- 28/07/2010 02:55:02 AM
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Oh, so that was them making up a story to tell anyone else if needed? *NM*
- 28/07/2010 08:29:10 AM
528 Views
The walls have ears. Nobody would know that better than Aphranius and Pilate.
- 31/07/2010 07:32:09 PM
1047 Views
Also, who was Koroviev supposed to be?
- 23/07/2010 11:44:28 PM
930 Views
Characters (ordinary)
- 15/07/2010 08:39:53 AM
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Characters (supernatural)
- 15/07/2010 08:40:36 AM
909 Views
Behemoth was hilarious. I love the idea of him being a large mischievous cat.
- 23/07/2010 11:22:01 PM
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I'm reserving a spot for my comments but not posting them just yet.
- 15/07/2010 03:46:34 PM
989 Views
*NM*
I had a very interesting conversation about the novel yesterday.
- 16/07/2010 02:44:53 PM
1066 Views
Re: I had a very interesting conversation about the novel yesterday.
- 21/07/2010 12:22:28 PM
960 Views
I haven't collected my thoughts on the experience of reading the novel yet, but I wanted to share...
- 16/07/2010 02:50:03 PM
1070 Views
My thoughts
- 20/07/2010 04:50:06 AM
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Does this story translate well?
- 20/07/2010 06:27:50 PM
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About evil in this book.
- 21/07/2010 07:14:59 PM
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There is a Russian author who believes Margarita was Gorky's girlfriend.
- 22/07/2010 03:15:13 AM
1039 Views
Aha. There's the question I was going to ask:
- 31/07/2010 10:32:17 PM
856 Views
To the devil with this. I don't care if I am showing my ignorance.
- 31/07/2010 10:52:54 PM
1232 Views
Any time you have a dual story, the invitation to draw parallels exists.
- 10/08/2010 05:56:23 PM
969 Views
For all the expressed interest, this book club discussion is languishing. *NM*
- 21/07/2010 02:07:23 AM
494 Views
An anniversary, a birthday, and a successful job interview do tend to slow me down somewhat 
- 21/07/2010 02:08:10 PM
913 Views
- 21/07/2010 02:08:10 PM
913 Views
Vacation and all the stuff associated with it. Will try to write something, but it might be a while. *NM*
- 23/07/2010 02:03:57 AM
497 Views
Give me a day or two to catch up on things and finish the book. *NM*
- 24/07/2010 11:14:17 PM
477 Views
Names.
- 21/07/2010 07:16:23 PM
1002 Views
They're not common.
- 22/07/2010 03:08:55 AM
992 Views
The Damnation of Faust has been steadily moving up on my list of books to read. So many
- 26/07/2010 05:42:41 PM
961 Views
Why do you think Bulgakov chose to wait so long before introducing us to Margarita?
- 24/07/2010 12:05:59 AM
883 Views
Have any of you heard of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia?
- 25/07/2010 09:01:30 PM
1025 Views
Unfortunately do to my eye surgery I could not participate.
- 28/07/2010 12:36:28 AM
1035 Views
I "read" it in audiobook form, in the car and on the move.
- 29/07/2010 02:55:50 PM
1028 Views
I wonder if having the words in front would have helped Ivanovich's dream make (more) sense.
- 29/07/2010 10:37:27 PM
814 Views
I've finished.
- 28/07/2010 02:39:57 AM
979 Views
I am about 2/3 of the way through the book and it sounds like my feelings on almost all of it are
- 28/07/2010 05:48:07 AM
841 Views
Civil Rights? You do realize that Russia never imported slaves, right?
- 28/07/2010 01:52:12 PM
1091 Views
It felt like two different books.One part I felt like I was wading through a meaningless fluff.
- 31/07/2010 10:45:52 PM
979 Views