The Dialogue of Edgar Allan Poe and Ivan Krylov ab

The Dialogue of Edgar Allan Poe and Ivan Krylov about the Decisiveness and Intellectuality


Having met in 1829 on a street of St. Petersburg Ivan Andreyevich Krylov, Edgar Allan Poe has smiled:

- I, dear Ivan Andreyevich, reflect on the words which are allegedly told by Napoleon, regarding an optimum ratio of decisiveness and intellectualism.

If the person is a decisive, but isn't intellectual, then he will actively act, but not meaningfully.

And if he is intellectual, but isn't resolute, then he will reflect much, but will make a little.

- Dear Mr. Po! I have read your story "The Cask of Amontillado". You write about motivation of the main character: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge".

It is not clear what this "The thousand injuries". To what extent these "injuries" did not reach "insults".

In a word, – on the first place, - the decisiveness: "I vowed revenge". And what as a result? I quote. "With these materials and with the aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche. (…) A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. (…) I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. (…)"

Generally, if to reflect on a ratio of intellectuality and decisiveness, then the decisiveness has obvious an overweight.

- Well, you know, dear Ivan Andreyevich, if to read your fable "The Cat and the Cook", then you find the Cook who, returning home, sees the Cat Vaska. This Cat, 

"Purring and grumbling, works with a little chicken". Simply speaking, the Cat eats chicken, than does moral and material harm to the Cook.

The Cook's motivation is clear: he is upset by the unpleasant situation. He says to the Cat: "all the neighbors will say: "Cat Vaska rogue! The Cat Vaska is a thief! And Vaska, not just to the kitchen, it isn't necessary to Let also to the yard, Like greedy wolf in the sheep-fold: He damage, he plague, he ulcer of local places!"

Meanwhile, Vaska listens and eats. Here is my rhetorician, having given vent of words to a current, could Not find the end of the sermons. But what? While he was singing, the cat Vaska has eaten all roast».

Thus, the decisiveness in this story obviously suffers. The intellectual component outweighs. The reflections of the Cook, stated aloud, dominate.

And why you mention "a wolf greedy in a sheep-fold (in a premises for sheep)"? In my opinion if to mention a wolf, then it is necessary to develop this topic. One of classics wrote: "If you say in chapter 1 that the gun hangs on a wall, in the second or the third chapter it has to …"  And so on …

- A good thought, Mr. Po, you have formulated. I will re-read Aesop and La Fontaine and I will to write further. I will try not to leave topics an unexplored.

- Communication with you, dear Ivan Andreyevich, adjusts at a creative activity.

What for "loud and shrill screams" of "opponent" in my "The Cask of Amontillado"? And if "opponent" takes more flexible position?

To my consciousness words come from your future fable "The wolf in the kennel".

"I, your ancient matchmaker and the godfather, Have come to be reconciled to you, not for the sake of a quarrel at all;  We Will forget the past, we will create the general harmony! And I not only continue to not touch the local herds, But I with the others for them to squabble happy And  I say a wolf's oath That I am..."

Naturally, your text needs adaptation to my plot, needs processing.

- We have filled each other with new creative impulses! – Krylov has laughed.

- You, dear Ivan Andreyevich, were going to re-read Aesop and La Fontaine. Whom to read to me? The opinion is expressed that the story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" published in April, 1841 in Graham's Magazine has brought later me, Edgar Allan Poe, international recognition of the ancestor of a detective genre ...

Ivan Andreyevich only smiled in reply.

The interlocutors shook hands and went to make a contribution to the world literature.


June 27, 2018 21:22


Translation from Russian into English: June 28, 2018 19:48.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский “Диалог Эдгара По и Ивана Крылова о решительности и интеллектуальности”.