Diaboliada
Continues.
“He’s happy in whom
not once
The spirit of joy was
extinguished,
And even though he suffers
all his life,
He forgets his sorrows
In one merry hour.”
M. Yu. Lermontov.
I
cannot but marvel at Bulgakov’s way of thinking, and cannot fail to compare his
works to the scholarly works of scientists treating the same theme, but in
different variations and under different angles.
Korotkov’s
rescue from the psych-ops, due to his fit of neurasthenia, travels to Master and Margarita’s case of
Varenukha, whose fainting spell prevents him from feeling the kiss of Gella,
which transforms him into a vampire.
On
a funny note, how can we ever forget Ivanushka in Master and Margarita, who, even though in the psychiatric clinic he
was not putting an emphasis on the cat, yet Master, coming to visit him was
greatly amused by the story how “the cat was trying to pay the fair to the
ticket master, and he was literally choking with laughter, watching how Ivan,
excited by the successful reception of his tale, would softly jump on his
hunkers, portraying the cat with a dime near his moustache.”
Now,
in- Diaboliada,---
“‘Documents stolen!,’ wildly
looking around replied the torn-apart Korotkov,--- and the cat appeared. ‘Has no right!’”
Compare
this to Master and Margarita’s: “‘Ah, that’s how it
is?!’ wildly and looking around like someone hunted down, said Ivan. ‘Well, then, so be it! Farewell!’”
Well,
in both these cases the words used, such as “wildly looking around,” “torn
apart,” etc., don’t they apply more naturally to an animal, such as a cat,
rather than to a human being? By the way, this is a second time that Bulgakov
in Diaboliada compares Korotkov to a
cat:
“Throwing himself at the walls and scratching… he eventually
fell upon a white spot…”
And
that was before “Kalsoner roared: ‘Help!’ changing the
thin voice to his original copper basso. Stepping back, he thunderously fell
down, hitting the back of his head. The blow did not pass without consequences.
Turning into a black cat with phosphorous eyes…”
This
scene echoes the transformation of Begemot from cat to man in a split second.
However,
we cannot ignore the transformation of Kalsoner shaven into Kalsoner
bearded, and back. Bulgakov shows this very skillfully, that’s why the
voice change may pass unnoticed, but with the change in voice, Kalsoner’s whole
persona changes as well.
Next
we note how “the aunt in Poltava” of the “brunette” who seduces Korotkov,
pretending that it was he who seduced her, changes in Master and Margarita into Berlioz’s “uncle in Kiev.” Which shows
that the psych-ops were blackmailing Korotkov by his relatives. Specifying the
“latitude” and “longitude” (I have an aunt in Poltava, under 43rd degree
latitude and 5th longitude’)
the “brunette” was spelling out the address of Korotkov’s aunt, which he had to
know very well.
And
now, how can we forget the famous foxtrot?
“The wall in front of Korotkov’s eyes fell apart, and thirty
typewriters on the desks, ringing their bells, started playing a foxtrot.
Swaying their hips, lasciviously moving their shoulders, kicking up the white
foam with their creamy legs, thirty women started moving around the desks in a
parade-allez…”
Because
Bulgakov is habitually faithful and constant in his characters and images, this
has to be the Hallelujah foxtrot,
which we find three times in Master and
Margarita.---
1.
The first time a
foxtrot is played by the “Famous
Griboyedov Jazz.” And we find out that this is not just any foxtrot, but
specifically the Hallelujah Foxtrot,
written by the American popular music composer Vincent Youmans (1898-1946) in
1927.
(“…And precisely at midnight…
something thundered, rang, poured, jumped. And immediately a thin man’s
voice foolhardily screamed to the music of Hallelujah…
Then suddenly at one of the tables the word ‘Berlioz’ flew out. Then the jazz
fell apart and stopped… And they started jumping up, started screaming…”)
In
a nutshell, the first time the Hallelujah
Foxtrot is played, it is a harbinger of the news about the death of
Berlioz.
2.
The second time
the Hallelujah Foxtrot is played, it
comes from the gramophone in the home of Professor Kuzmin when he sees how---
“…A lady was running across the yard,
dressed in nothing but a nightshirt, and at the same time he heard a sparrow
chirping. He turned around and saw a large sparrow on his desk… Taking a closer
look, the professor immediately realized that this sparrow was no ordinary
sparrow. The mischievous sparrow was limping on its left leg, surely clowning,
dragging it in syncopated rhythm, in one word, it was dancing a foxtrot to the
sounds of the gramophone, like a drunk at the bar. It was as rude as one could
be, glancing at the professor cheekily… Meanwhile, the sparrow sat down on the
gifted inkstand, pooped into it (I am not joking!), then it flew up and hung in
the air, then with a great force, as though its beak was made of steel it
pecked the glass of the photograph of the full University class of 1894,
shattered the glass into tiny pieces, and only then it flew away for good.”
The reader knows already from the sub-chapter Sparrow of the chapter Birds that it was Azazello in the guise
of a sparrow. In fact, Azazello changed his appearance three times in the house
of Professor Kuzmin: He was also---
the little black kitten, who badly scratched the head
of the buffet vendor, the brave and manly Andrei Fokich Sokov, brought by greed
into the wolf’s den of Woland;
and the woman with a purse, wearing the head scarf of
a registered nurse.
Once again the foxtrot forebodes the death of
Professor Kuzmin himself, as Azazello shatters the professor’s photograph. As
we know, Azazello is a demon-assassin, and he never appears without a reason.
3. And now the third and the most mysterious performance
of the Hallelujah Foxtrot, in which
the conductor, the “virtuoso jazz-bandist is Woland himself, as evidenced by
the red swallow-tailed tuxedo, (We are talking about this in the subchapter Swallow of the chapter Birds. Thus, unrecognized even by
Margarita, Satan himself greets her at Satan’s Ball. The red color is of course
Satan’s traditional color, and the bifurcated swallow-tail of the tuxedo points
to the devil’s bifurcated hoof. In this case too, the Hallelujah Foxtrot forebodes the death of Margarita. She dies in
both novels: in the realistic “spy novel,” the best ever written, and in the
fantastic novel as well.
To
be continued tomorrow…
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