Monsters of Russian Literature

[Elena Gapova]

I believe, Preobrazhenskii's monstrocity is not about his search for
innovation, but about his thinking that he can, in fact, has the right to
make experiments on human/living beings, changing them according to his
ideas of what they should be like just to see what comes out of it and, when
things do not go the right way, denying them their autonomy (for Sharikov,
though really a melkaya mraz', is now autonomous) and in fact, depriving
them of their human (however unpleasant) soul and existence.

e.g.

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Tatyana Buzina
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 3:10 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Monsters of Russian Literature


Preobrazhenskii is your average scientist (well, not so average, but that's
beside the point) who does things first and considers their implications
later if ever. Their standard defense is that if you stop to consider
possible moral implications of an experiment before you carry it out it will
spell the death of science. I've heard that argument more times than I care
to count. If Preobrazhenskii is a monster so is the larger part of modern
scientists. A sad thought, really. On the other hand, Preobrazhenskii is
another character in the line that goes back to Mary Shelley and earlier
even though there's a a major difference between Preobrazhenskii and
Frankenstein: Frankenstein's monster at least has some potential for good
and his fall from grace and goodness is a longer and more convoluted story.
At least Shelley gave her monster a chance, Bulgakov never did that for
Sharikov. He seems to have been biologically determined to be a monster.
This opens up a large field for thoughts none of which are too pleasant
regardless of whom we're thinking about. No one comes out a snow white
including Bulgakov himself, which is a very sad thought as well.

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