From the authors
Usually, when it comes to our collaborative literary endeavors, we receive questions that are quite legitimate but rather monotonous: “How do you write together?”
At first, we answered in detail, delving into specifics, even recounting a major argument that arose over the following issue: should the hero of the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” Ostap Bender, be killed or spared? We made sure to mention that the hero’s fate was decided by a draw. Two pieces of paper were placed in a sugar bowl, one of which had a skull and two chicken bones drawn on it with a trembling hand. The skull was drawn – and half an hour later, the great combinator was no more., he.was cut with a razor.
Then we started to respond with less detail. We no longer talked about the argument. After that, we stopped going into specifics. And finally, we answered without any enthusiasm at all:
– How do we write together? Well, we just write together. Like the Goncourt brothers.!Edmond is running around the edits, while Jules is guarding the manuscript.The text is too short to translate meaningfully. It appears to be an abbreviation or a fragment. If you have a longer text or more context, please provide it for translation.They weren’t stolen by acquaintances.
And suddenly, the uniformity of the questions was broken.
“Tell me,” asked a stern citizen.,.Among those who recognized Soviet power, a few did so later than England and slightly earlier than Greece – tell me, why are you writing this?funnyWhat’s with the laughter during the recovery period? Are you out of your mind?
After that, helong.he convinced us that laughter is harmful right now.
“– It’s a sin to laugh!” he said. “Yes, you shouldn’t laugh.”Текст для перевода: ..And you can’t smile! When I see this new lifeи.These shifts, I don’t want to smile, I want to pray!
– But we’re not just laughing, – we argued. – Our goal is –satire,It’s a satire aimed specifically at those people who do not understand the reconstructive period.
– Satire can’t be funny, – said the stern comrade and, linking arms with some Baptist craftsman whom he mistook for a 100% proletarian, led him to his apartment.
He commanded to describe it in boring words, he commanded to insert it into
a six-volume novel titled: “And the Parasites Never!”
Everything that has been said is not…fictionsIt would be funnier if it were made up.
Give such a citizen of the Hallelujah type some freedom, and he will even put a burqa on
men, while he himself…until the eveninghe will play hymns and psalms on the trumpet, believing that this is the way to contribute to the construction of socialism.
And all the time,Bye.We were writing “The Golden Calf,” with the stern visage of a strict citizen looming over us.
– What if this chapter turns out to be funny? What will the strict citizen say?
And in the end, we decided:
a) to write a novel that is, if possible, cheerful,
b) If a strict citizen again claims that satire should not be funny, – ask the prosecutor of the republic.t. Krylenkoattractmentioneda citizen to criminal liability under
article, which punishes for negligence with breaking and entering.
I. Ilf, E. Petrov
