And Quiet Flows the Vodka, or When Pushkin Comes to Shove: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature and Culture, with The Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas: Alphabetical Reflections on the Loathsomeness of Russia, American Academia and Humanity in General by Alicia Chudo Andrew Sobesednikov (review)

Abstract

740 SEER, 79, 4, 200I the Belgrade Film Academy (p. I8o). Once one such inconsistency has been discovered, the reader begins to wonder which others might have slipped through unnoticed, and this undermines the book as a whole. Nonetheless, TheBFI Companion toEastern European andRussianCinema is a worthwhile book to own and should certainlybe held in any librarydealing with Russian and East European culture, as well as in film studies libraries.It is an unenviable task to compile such a volume and the editors are to be thanked, despite the few oversightsI have unkindlyhighlighted. London MILENA MICHALSKI Chudo, Alicia. And QuietFlowstheVodka, or WhenPushkinComes to Shove.The Curmudgeon's Guide toRussian Literature andCulture, withTheDevil'sDictionary ofReceived Ideas.Alphabetical Reflections ontheLoathsomeness ofRussia, American Academiaand Humanityin General.Edited by Andrew Sobesednikov. Northwestern University Press,Evanston, IL, 2000. Viii + 249 PP. Illustrations .Appendices. $14.95: ?I 2.95. HUMOUR is, of course,knownforitsindividualappeal orlackof it. Fewreaders of this eclectic compendium, however, will fail to be amused, at least, from time to time by the cornucopia of reflections, commentaries, pictures and poems offeredfrom what for this reviewerwas a very unexpected source. On the other hand perhaps only such an impressivescholaras Gary Saul Morson could allow himselfnot one pseudonym, but two. The first part of the book comprises a chronological review of Russian literature in thirteen chapters. An obvious comparison is Io66 andAll That, but Chudo/Morson has a very distinctive manner. From 'Beginnings: The PrimarySchoolChronicle and Prince Vladimir' to 'Notes on the Twentieth Century' via,to take a few examples, 'The Hilarious Sermon', 'Gogol, with His Story "Kleptonasia"', 'Dostoevsky'sUnfinished Novel, Torture (from the Notebooks to TheIdiot): With Commentary', and 'Scene from Chekhov'sPlay 7The Dodo'.Amongst the items from the twentieth century may be mentioned the first,on 'the age of pseudonyms', which begins thus:'The early twentieth centuryis sometimesknown as the age of meaningfulpseudonyms, a tradition initiated by Maxim Gorky (Bitter).Imitators included the writers Irritated, Annoyed, Pissed-of, Angry, Outraged, Grumpy,Dopey and Sneezy. It was at thisperiod that the Russiansdiscoveredsex, and severalwriterschose a nomde pube. The name Friedrich Semenov, for instance, expressed its author's ambition to "mix Nietzsche with semen"' (p. IO3).The section on Bakhtin and the three new storiesby Daniil Kharms are requiredreadingfor acolytes. The book is adorned with illustrationsbased on 'Malevich's'black and white oblong shapes;among themaretwoof thewhite ones, describedasillustrations to DeadSoulsand Tolstoi's SnowStorm; a black one is labelled 'Stalin Prize winner, 1937, Striveforthe BrightFuture!'. 'Appendicitis'comprises 'The Awful Russian Language', 'Key Dates in Russian History', 'ClassifiedReclassified:Advertising Russian History', and 'Chudo's FamiliarQuotations from Russian Culture'. It was Bernard Shaw who said that the truthwas the funniestjoke in the world, and Chudo seems REVIEWS 74I to agree: in the second and the fourth of these appendices, all but one of the dates and quotations are genuine. The other two have no such credentials:a sample of the first appendix is: 'Twelve adjectives were sentenced to labor camps,andtwopreviouslycommon particlesbecame unpropositions'(p. I39). The spoof classified ads, arranged by years, particularly appealed to this reviewer:example, 'I740. If you my husband have seen, please to contact me in Frankfurt.Missing since 1726' (P.I47), or 'I864. Spiteful old lady, life worth less than a cockroach, needed for social science researchproject.If you know one, contact RR' (p. I49). The conclusion to this section is entitled 'Two Dialogues of the Dead on EssentialRussianness'(p. 157). 'The Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas'goes beyond Russiato American (and, doubtlessother)academia:for instance, 'academicjournals. A place for blind reviewing of dumb writing. "This article's a pile of rubbish." "It footnotes you three times, John." "Publish."' (p. I7I). Another example could be 'Comintern. Soviet physician. The public healthjust took a turn / For ill. Send for the Comintern' (p. I83). Finally, 'pseudonymous.Authored byBakhtin' (p. 2I9). This is a curate'segg, but curatesand eggs (leaving Russianpuns aside)are also far from standard. The present reviewer, whilst considering the verses much of a muchness, has attempted to choose a selection of good ratherthan weak examples. The quotations, genuine and spoof alike, may appeal to literature and history teachers setting exams, and to students seeking points for their essays.Literaryscholars,in...