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Reading this, a remarkable book set in Moscow during Stalin’s time. Darkly humorous.

Bulgakov was a playwright, allowed to live by Stalin, despite his criticism of the government. The book was destroyed by the author a couple of times, then rewritten. Was finally published by his widow in the 1960’s.

It presents a satirical picture of the social forces in Russia under Stalin, masked in a story about the devil appearing in Moscow, but no one can believe that it is the devil, since, of course, religion was outlawed and to admit to the reality of the devil would therefore indicate that spiritual forces exist.

It’s a picture of what society is like when everyone has to watch what they say and do lest their neighbors turn them in for improper thinking, much like what’s happening in Great Britain today with the rise of Woke-ism.

It’s partly set in Moscow, partly set in Jerusalem during the reign of Pontius Pilate
The events unfold in rather the same fashion as a dream 💭

It’s important to read the footnotes along the way, since so much of it is unknown to us, here, today.

The author was afraid to try to publish it, as Stalin had essentially sidelined him by giving him a job in the Moscow theater, a paycheck without any responsibility, a place to live, and didn’t send him to a Gulag or have him killed as had happened to so many of his colleagues.

He was Stalin’s favorite playwright, as long as he behaved.

Bulgakov was roundly condemned by the Moscow press as being an “Old Guard White Russian”, meaning that he still believed in the teachings of Russian Orthodoxy, despite the directive from the government that this was to be forgotten.

I’m about halfway through, keep wondering what’s going to happen next.

Lucky guess

Wordle 1,381 3/6*

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I was hunkered down in my designated safe spot on my slab of concrete, an interior closet with multiple walls outward beyond that. There's was a tornado warning, and it seemed like it was aiming right at me. The good news is they just said they have seen nothing on their screen indicating flying debris detection. Looks now like it is farther to the north of me as it is passing by. Glenn is to the south of me so I have not tried to text him up. I think they'll be fine.

But I did send Paul a text about 12:15 central because they had a warning about the same time in Columbia. Haven't heard back yet.

required 9th grade college prep course in my school:

“One of the great challenges and one of the great blessings is that most people are stupid. Terribly stupid. Stupidity makes people fearful when it doesn’t make them mean. So you’ve got the stupidity to deal with, and you have to deal with this to do good work. However, being stupid and afraid, they will tend to believe what you tell them if you’re smart, and I’m smart. So you sell yourself and projects and other people all the time to remarkably stupid and powerful people. It’s exhausting; it’s frustrating; it is part of the profession. I don’t care how good you are or how tenacious you are—if you can’t deal successfully with stupid people, life—in or out of the arts—is going to be terribly difficult.”—Bette Davis/Interview with James Grissom/1984/

Wordle 1,381 4/6

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