Demons: Day 1
I hadn’t expected it to be funny. Demons opens at a time of intellectual ferment: there are rumors that Russia’s serfs will be emancipated soon, and the province of Skvoreshniki is abuzz with talk of change. One of the most esteemed persons in the province is Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky, who relishes his position as a “persecuted man”. In the guise of lionizing this worthy individual the author proceeds to mock him. Stepan Trofimovich is vain, pompous, a drama queen; he lives off his friend Varvara Petrovna, widow of the general Stavrogin, and at one point he suspects she has designs on him. This causes him to make an ass of himself, in the tradition of men who imagine they are adored.
Were previous translations as funny as the Pevear/Volokhonsky? Apparently the Garnett-Yarmolinky was grave. What if Dostoevsky is really a comic writer, misrepresented as a depressing one?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 2nd, 2010 at 20:18
I thought his French translations of some Russian expressions were amusing. A drama queen, indeed. :D
February 2nd, 2010 at 21:25
Yeah, I know what you mean. I call it the “douchebag effect”. There was this one time, in high school, this girl from another school unknowingly did me this huge favor, but I know I couldn’t get to meet her because she was too smart for me and too popular and stuff, so I called her up on the phone and played prank calls on her and tried to annoy the crap out of her, in a (rather valiant) effort to be unlikeable (a sociopath at work). Boys will always annoy girls they know they couldn’t talk to. If women find Trofimovich’s situation hilarious, I just find it depressing because it’s true.
Thank you so much for this discussion. I honestly couldn’t find anyone to talk to about Russian Lit. I’m getting a little desperate here for some release.
February 2nd, 2010 at 23:22
Maarte si Stepan.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:29
Funny naman talaga si Dostoevsky. I remember splitting my sides in laughter as I read through Notes from Underground. His male protagonists are usually neurotics caught up in an emotional vortex, but Dostoevsky adds so much humor in his portraits (unlike the deathly serious Kafka who also was obsessed with neurotic types in his writings).
If he were alive today, I’d think he’ll make a great late night show host. Palit s’ya kay Conan!
February 4th, 2010 at 08:35
I have to admit, this is my first time reading Dostoevsky’s Demons. I have always associated his works with darkness but his depiction of Stepan Trofimovich (I am so glad he didn’t assign a nickname for him such as Pyotr Stepanovich becomes Petrusha, Darya Pavlovna as Dasha and so forth) is humorous. Stepan is indeed such a drama queen and his relationship with Varvara Petrovna is indeed a strange one. His relationship to her is akin to that of host and parasite and he even describes himself as “a mere sponger and nothing more”.