Oblomov

July 17, 2010

Memoirabilia & Margaritaville

Gaspar says he is writing his memoirs. He says the purpose is to help him explain himself to himself. A lot of my friends spend a lot of time doing that; but I’m not sure there’s more about myself I’d like to know. Assuming there is more to know.

I am boring, the inessential man . . . the inconsequential man . . . What’s the correct term? I’m afraid my most recent foray into Russian literature included only Turgenev, a bit of Gogol — and the one delicious strike into The Master and Margarita.

Bulgakov’s father was a theologian. One of Tom Nashe’s one-time lady friends, Venitia Pettice, claims to have read him. I think the son was, too, like the Jesus of the parables in their original versions, before Matthew, Mark and Luke took the tangents, the tangles, the tartness, and the sting out of them.

     I thought I might become a theologian once. But instead of a novelist, I became a convention (a pundit rather than a prophet or poet). I say convenient things: “There’s gotta be a way, right?” — as if meant as encouragement, not a snide remark.*

 

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* There’s an interesting word.  The Online Etymological Dictionary (one of my favorite sites [almost as good as www.poison-ivy.org]) has this to say: “1859, thieves' slang, "counterfeit, sham, bad, spurious," of unknown origin. Of persons, "cunning, sharp," from 1883. Sense of "sneering" is first attested 1933, perhaps via sense of "hypocrisy, malicious gossip" (1902). Related: Sneeringly.”  Here’s the link: etymonline.com.