A blast from my past into your present
Sep. 18th, 2004 02:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lapsedmodernistOh my god I am so happy right now. I found this website that has, like, all of these Russian and Soviet books that I grew up reading in English translation either available for free download or just in plain text on the server. I am especially happy that one of those books is Old Genie Hottabych, a particularly insane Soviet fairy tale about a young Pioneer named Volka who rescues an Arabic genie named Hottabych from his bottle captivity. The genie then starts regarding him as his master and fulfilling his wishes. The genie is good-hearted but reactionary and praises Allah a lot, and the young Pioneer educates the genie in the values of camaraderie, atheism and communism-building.
In the following excerpt, the young Volka learns an important lesson about cheating, when the genie offers to help him ace a geography exam he has not studied for.
Volka finally took the first slip his hand touched. Tempting his fate,
he turned it over very slowly, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he
was to speak on India. He knew quite a lot about India, since he had always
been interested in that country.
"Well, let's hear what you have to say," the principal said.
Volka even remembered the beginning of the chapter on India word for
word as it was in his book. He opened his mouth to say that the Hindustan
Peninsula resembled a triangle and that this triangle bordered on the Indian
Ocean and its various parts: the Arabian Sea in the West and the Bay of
Bengal in the East, that two large countries-India and Pakistan-were located
on the peninsula, that both were inhabited by kindly and peace-loving
peoples with rich and ancient cultures, etc., etc., etc., but just then
Hottabych, standing in the adjoining classroom, leaned against the wall and
began mumbling diligently, cupping his hand to his mouth like a horn:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher...!"
And suddenly Volka, contrary to his own desires, began to pour forth
the most atrocious nonsense:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher, is located close to the edge of
the Earth's disc and is separated from this edge by desolate and unexplored
deserts, as neither animals nor birds live to the east of it. India is a
very wealthy country, and its wealth lies in its gold. This is not dug from
the ground as in other countries, but is produced, day and night, by a
tireless species of gold-bearing ants, which are nearly the size of a dog.
They dig their tunnels in the ground and three times a day they bring up
gold sand and nuggets and pile them in huge heaps. But woe be to those
Indians who try to steal this gold without due skill! The ants pursue them
and, overtaking them, kill them on the spot. From the north and west, India
borders on a country of bald people. The men and women and even the children
are all bald in this country. And these strange people live on raw fish and
pine cones. Still closer to them is a country where you can neither see
anything nor pass, as it is filled to the top with feathers. The earth and
the air are filled with feathers, and that is why you can't see anything
there."
"Wait a minute, Kostylkov," the geography teacher said with a smile.
"No one has asked you to tell us of the ancients' views on Asia's geography.
We'd like you to tell us the modern, scientific facts about India."
Oh, how happy Volka would have been to display his knowledge of the
subject! But what could he do if he was no longer the master of his speech
and actions! In agreeing to have Hottabych prompt him, he became a toy in
the old man's well-meaning but ignorant hands. He wanted to tell his
teachers that what he had told them obviously had nothing to do with modern
science. But Hottabych on the other side of the wall shrugged in dismay and
shook his head, and Volka, standing in front of the class, was compelled to
do the same.
"That which I have had the honour of telling you, 0 greatly respected
Varvara Stepanovna, is based on the most reliable sources, and there exist
no other, more scientific facts on India than those I have just, with your
permission, revealed to you."
"Please keep to the subject. This is an examination, not a masquerade.
If you don't know the answers, it would be much more honourable to admit it
right away. What was it you said about the Earth's disc by the way? Don't
you know that the Earth is round?"
Did Volka Kostylkov, an active member of the Moscow Planetarium's
Astronomy Club, know that the Earth was round? Why, any first-grader knew
that. But Hottabych, standing behind the wall, burst out laughing, and no
matter how our poor boy tried to press his lips together, a haughty smirk
escaped him:
"I presume you are making fun of your most devoted pupil! If the Earth
were round, the water would run off it, and then everyone would die of
thirst and all the plants would dry up. The Earth, 0 most noble and honoured
of all teachers and pedagogues, has always had and does now have the shape
of a flat disc, surrounded on all sides by a mighty river named 'Ocean.' The
Earth rests on six elephants, and they, in turn, are standing on a
tremendous turtle. That is how the world is made, 0 teacher!"
The board of teachers gazed at Volka with rising surprise. He broke out
in a cold sweat from horror and the realization of his own complete
helplessness. The other children could not quite understand what had
happened to their friend, but some began to giggle. It was really funny to
hear about a country of bald people, about a country filled with feathers,
about gold-bearing ants as big as dogs and about the flat Earth resting on
six elephants and a turtle. As for Zhenya Bogorad, Volka's best friend and
one of the class pioneer leaders, he became really worried. He knew that
Volka, as chairman of the Astronomy Club, at least knew that the Earth was
round-if he knew nothing else. Could it be that he had suddenly decided upon
some mischief, and during an examination, of all times! Volka was probably
ill, but what ailed him? What kind of a strange, unusual disease did he
have? And then, it was very bad for their pioneer group. So far, they had
been first in all the exams, but now Volka's stupid answers would spoil
everything, though he was usually a disciplined pioneer!
If you want to read the whole thing, go here
In the following excerpt, the young Volka learns an important lesson about cheating, when the genie offers to help him ace a geography exam he has not studied for.
Volka finally took the first slip his hand touched. Tempting his fate,
he turned it over very slowly, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he
was to speak on India. He knew quite a lot about India, since he had always
been interested in that country.
"Well, let's hear what you have to say," the principal said.
Volka even remembered the beginning of the chapter on India word for
word as it was in his book. He opened his mouth to say that the Hindustan
Peninsula resembled a triangle and that this triangle bordered on the Indian
Ocean and its various parts: the Arabian Sea in the West and the Bay of
Bengal in the East, that two large countries-India and Pakistan-were located
on the peninsula, that both were inhabited by kindly and peace-loving
peoples with rich and ancient cultures, etc., etc., etc., but just then
Hottabych, standing in the adjoining classroom, leaned against the wall and
began mumbling diligently, cupping his hand to his mouth like a horn:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher...!"
And suddenly Volka, contrary to his own desires, began to pour forth
the most atrocious nonsense:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher, is located close to the edge of
the Earth's disc and is separated from this edge by desolate and unexplored
deserts, as neither animals nor birds live to the east of it. India is a
very wealthy country, and its wealth lies in its gold. This is not dug from
the ground as in other countries, but is produced, day and night, by a
tireless species of gold-bearing ants, which are nearly the size of a dog.
They dig their tunnels in the ground and three times a day they bring up
gold sand and nuggets and pile them in huge heaps. But woe be to those
Indians who try to steal this gold without due skill! The ants pursue them
and, overtaking them, kill them on the spot. From the north and west, India
borders on a country of bald people. The men and women and even the children
are all bald in this country. And these strange people live on raw fish and
pine cones. Still closer to them is a country where you can neither see
anything nor pass, as it is filled to the top with feathers. The earth and
the air are filled with feathers, and that is why you can't see anything
there."
"Wait a minute, Kostylkov," the geography teacher said with a smile.
"No one has asked you to tell us of the ancients' views on Asia's geography.
We'd like you to tell us the modern, scientific facts about India."
Oh, how happy Volka would have been to display his knowledge of the
subject! But what could he do if he was no longer the master of his speech
and actions! In agreeing to have Hottabych prompt him, he became a toy in
the old man's well-meaning but ignorant hands. He wanted to tell his
teachers that what he had told them obviously had nothing to do with modern
science. But Hottabych on the other side of the wall shrugged in dismay and
shook his head, and Volka, standing in front of the class, was compelled to
do the same.
"That which I have had the honour of telling you, 0 greatly respected
Varvara Stepanovna, is based on the most reliable sources, and there exist
no other, more scientific facts on India than those I have just, with your
permission, revealed to you."
"Please keep to the subject. This is an examination, not a masquerade.
If you don't know the answers, it would be much more honourable to admit it
right away. What was it you said about the Earth's disc by the way? Don't
you know that the Earth is round?"
Did Volka Kostylkov, an active member of the Moscow Planetarium's
Astronomy Club, know that the Earth was round? Why, any first-grader knew
that. But Hottabych, standing behind the wall, burst out laughing, and no
matter how our poor boy tried to press his lips together, a haughty smirk
escaped him:
"I presume you are making fun of your most devoted pupil! If the Earth
were round, the water would run off it, and then everyone would die of
thirst and all the plants would dry up. The Earth, 0 most noble and honoured
of all teachers and pedagogues, has always had and does now have the shape
of a flat disc, surrounded on all sides by a mighty river named 'Ocean.' The
Earth rests on six elephants, and they, in turn, are standing on a
tremendous turtle. That is how the world is made, 0 teacher!"
The board of teachers gazed at Volka with rising surprise. He broke out
in a cold sweat from horror and the realization of his own complete
helplessness. The other children could not quite understand what had
happened to their friend, but some began to giggle. It was really funny to
hear about a country of bald people, about a country filled with feathers,
about gold-bearing ants as big as dogs and about the flat Earth resting on
six elephants and a turtle. As for Zhenya Bogorad, Volka's best friend and
one of the class pioneer leaders, he became really worried. He knew that
Volka, as chairman of the Astronomy Club, at least knew that the Earth was
round-if he knew nothing else. Could it be that he had suddenly decided upon
some mischief, and during an examination, of all times! Volka was probably
ill, but what ailed him? What kind of a strange, unusual disease did he
have? And then, it was very bad for their pioneer group. So far, they had
been first in all the exams, but now Volka's stupid answers would spoil
everything, though he was usually a disciplined pioneer!
If you want to read the whole thing, go here
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-18 09:07 am (UTC)Maybe the freak-me-out aspect only comes from the perspective I have that neither the genie nor the dogmatic militant secular People's Science has all the answers.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-18 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-18 09:38 am (UTC)heh. okay, point taken.
But that moral only makes sense when you have an insane thousand-year-old magical being animating your oropharynx. I think most kids struggle with allegory; I loved the Narnia books but didn't appreciate any of the Christian messages until they were pointed out to me in high school -- and I still didn't get the hint that Aslan died for our sins.
And being possessed by a medievalist genie is scary! Somehow the story doesn't seem to notice how terrifying it would be to be forced to speak nonsense you don't believe -- or the irony of that concept, coming from the Soviet intellectual establishment.
I'm not trying to disagree, just to put my finger on why this story feels so surreal. Maybe it's just the difference in perspective I have now compared to the kids it was aimed at.