What did you get out of this book? I think I missed much of the point because I'm unfamiliar with Christianity

What did you get out of this book? I think I missed much of the point because I'm unfamiliar with Christianity.

reading faust will help a lot.

all you have to do is read faust and the gospel of matthew... not much in the way of pre-requisites.

What do you mean by reading Faust?

Like, is this an author, a story, what the fuck is a Faust?

...

Faust is a legend.

And we'll keep straying further if somebody doesn't tell me?

"Read Faust" nigga what? Its a God damn German legend, dozens of different sources and variations. What one am I supposed to read, oh wait whats this its a fucking play to?

So I'm supposed to read Faust, how the fuck do I read a play nigga and then read the dozens of other written works

Are you kidding me right now? You could have done a simple google search. And also M&M is as much of a satire of a Faustian story as much as it references it.

>How do you read a play
Literally open up a copy of Faust by Goethe and read it, it's not that difficult. Hamlet is a play and you can read it as well. Waiting for Godot and Death of a Salesman are some great contemporary plays that hardly anyone here will have seen in theaters but have read the text of

Are you fucking blind, look at my fucking post above your post.

nigga

Thank you.

I think I will read Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

nigga u a fool

Goethe's Faust is deliberately at variance with and commenting on the legend.
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is a more traditional telling. Shorter and in English too.

I will read both.

Nigga this a Faust thread now, fuck M&M and fuck Russians.

ты жиpнaя нeкpacивaя cyкa. plus ur a faggot :)

is reading the first part of faust enough or are there references to the second part as well. I could not get past the first chapters of the second half.

Reading Faust doesn't do much for The Master and Margarita.

If you don't have Christian symbols and stories so ingrained in you that you never even read them but you sort of know them then you'll have a hard time.

>chapters

Get the Oxford world classics version I do not know what you mean by chapters.

worst post i've read all day congratulations

>Reading Faust doesn't do much for The Master and Margarita.

ples explan

Prove it.
If you describe the Master and Margarita as a variation on Faust then you've missed what's good about it. No amount of Faust reading is going to help him understand what's happening in the Pontius Pilate sections nor is it going to help him realize the degree to which it is a heretical even gnostic take on biblical events. Then he'll come back asking "okay so I kind of get it but who represents Gretchens brother and who represents the homunculus? The stories are tangentially connected and the Faustian parts are probably the ones he has the best chance of understanding already.

>putting up this false dichotomy
>not understanding intertextuality

hello plebo

>not seeing it for the criticism of social realism
Plebs

>I'm unfamiliar with Christianity
>read Faust!

Who is the idiot here? He has a problem with literally understanding what's going on. He's reading a book with a good 100 pages devoted to Ha Nozri and Levi and Bar-Rabban. These characters are never formally introduced and the masters entire project is lost without knowing who these men are, their official story, and sensing the mystery this new version brings. Faust isn't going to do much. Most it will do is give him an ah-ha moment when he gets to the masquerade in part 2 and thinks 'wow just like Woland'. Then he'll be looking for all these connections that aren't actually there. I'd love to hear you try to explain just how connected you think Faust and The Master and Margarita are.

And he should still read Faust because it's worth the read but thinking 'a deal with the devil' template is something he's never seen before just misses the point.

Thank you. I'm not OP but I got M&M as a birthday present and this thread almost made me believe I ought to order Faust and give that a read before reading M&M

>ought
Honestly? Yes.
I love M&M to death, but it's not an easy book and there's so much you'll miss out on if you haven't read at least Goethe's Faust and at least one gospel. Shit, reading M&M without being aware of the socio-economic context of the pre-Great Purge Soviet Union of the late 20s/early 30s is like reading only half of it. But then again, the first time I hadn't read all those things either, and I still got so much out of it. But if you take the time to read at least Goethe's Faust (which is otherwise great) you won't regret it.

Isn't there more biblical context/allegories in Faust though?

I guess I should just fucking go and read the Bible, it has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time now. Especially since I pretty much only read books from "the western canon", finished the count of monte cristo yesterday, still got Moby-Dick, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist among others(M&M) in my to-read stack.

>being this bad at reading comprehension
>not knowing what "false dichotomy" means

>thinks in-depth knowledge of 1920s - 1930s soviet history is crucial to M&M
>M&M is "not an easy book"

hello plebo

Terms like false dichotomy and zeitgeist make you seem like the ill pseud.

The fact that you haven't made the connections between Fausts and Master and Margarita clear is further proof of that. I know you wanted to seem like a big brain amongst brainlets by making it like he needs to do a, b and c before getting onto your level of understanding of the book but you're not you're just a poser shitposter like everyone else.

different guy here
everything youve said in this thread is retarded and anyone who takes your advice is being terribly misled

dude are you even listening to yourself. you say
> know you wanted to seem like a big brain amongst brainlets by making it like he needs to do a, b and c before getting onto your level of understanding of the book

right after saying DUDE YOU HAVE TO KNOW:
>detailed history of 1920s - 1930s russia
>christian symbols DEEPLY INGRAINED
>you dont have to read faust (but read faust)

you are the biggest pseud on Veeky Forums today, grats.

Checked
In the same way a Russian will tell you that you will never truly 'get' the master and margarita, you also won't really 'get' it if you're not a Christian. There are many characters who Bulgakov assumes you know the significance of and just reading about them as prep rather than having a conception of them as a certain way for your entire life will take away the impact of the story. People are not reading Bulgakov in translation for the prose.

I'm still waiting to hear what about Faust is so essential for this novel.

amazing pseudery
also you're the one who said you should raed faust (right after saying you shouldn't read faust), not me.

gonna have to agree with and desu

Well memed.

It's a satire, you need only to not be a total idiot to get it. If there's something you feel like you missed then why didn't you just look it up.

haha dude memes right! sure is meme in here! i love a good meme, how about you, you memelord?!

MEMES!

Still waiting on the specifics of how Faust is essential to reading Master and Margarita.

nigga you're the one who said we should read faust

so you have nothing to say?

who are you even talking to senpai

i literally just dropped into this thread to post about MEMES

guess not

this is the correct post desu

>reading the most pleb gospel

ignoring the fact that theyre all valuable, the most "pleb" gospel is objectively mark

anyways given the fact that matthew is a main character in this book, and his gospel is a plot device, I would choose it.