Story Telling

A STORY IS STRONGER THAN A TSAR

Why I like Andrei Platonov's Tale 'Wool Over the Eyes'

By Stephen Wilson

 

           If any story is well-worth telling it's Andrei Platonov's alluring and charming fairy tale 'Wool over the Eyes'. I recommend this to any teacher and lover of anecdotes. This story is one of the folk tales which I love to tell. And one of the reasons I adore this story is that it seems to work at all the story telling events I perform it at. Practically most audiences find it amusing. Of course, how you tell this yarn is undeniably important. But as a story people tend to find it amusing, alluring and thought provoking. Before telling this story I keep it a secret that it is a Russian folktale and that it was written by the Russian writer Andrei Platonov. I try to get the audience to guess the nationality and author of this revised version of an old folk tale. Some people answer back that it is a Scottish or Irish tale which indicates the similarity of so many tales over the World. Unfortunately very few spectators guess that it is a tale written by Andrei Platonov. It seems Platonov is an unjustly neglected author! And even people who are aware of Platonov through his novels such as 'The Foundation Pit' and 'Happy Moscow' tend to overlook the charming fairy tales in his collection 'The Magic Ring'. That is all the more reason why people should make more of an effort to tell this story in either Russian or English.

 

The story 'Wool Over the Eyes' has many catch phrases. Many people are fond of quoting a character from Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita', who theatrically declares with gusto 'Manuscripts don't burn'. It became a kind of war cry for the intelligentsia who interpreted it as implying no amount of repression can repress or destroy brilliant artistic works. Less people are aware of a phrase from Platonov's  story where the author states, 'A Story is stronger than a tsar.'

 

The title of this tale in Russian is Moroka or {морока} which can have many meanings in Russian such as being rendered disorientated, confused or losing one's grip on reality. It can also mean being deceived and led up the garden path. For instance, my wife Svetlana told me, "Once we got lost in the forest for five hours and could not find our way out. When we got home our neighbor Tamara told us we had got lost because the forest spirit had disorientated us through his magic. And the verb for this is 'morochit' or {морочить}."There are countless stories where Russians still claim they have got lost in the forest because of the malice of wood spirits called Leshii. I can well understand the translation of this word confounding people, but what astonishes me is why do we read in the Russian version that  the soldier orders wine but in the English version it becomes vodka! {Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler}. Apart from this liberty in the English version the tale is well translated.

 

The tale is endowed with lively dramatic dialogue and action where events smoothly unfold. There is plenty of humor and sharp wit in this story which amounts to a duel of wits between a soldier and a tsar. A colleague Maria Koroleva liked to quote Platonov's famous statement on the importance of collecting and publishing such tales. Platonov once stated, 'It is essential to publish the entire corpus of Russian folktales. This body of work, in addition to the artistic and ethical value, must also serve as a material repository for the treasure of the Russian language, our people's most precious possession'. But we should do much more. Not just publish but tell those stories face to face and fully restore the bedroom stories so as to bring them completely to life! Maria Koroleva wrote, 'The ancient art of the oral poetic tradition - is the deepest and brightest of all our activities. A tale can be a blessing on the listeners, bring consolation, and bestow the gift of experience, and return us to the belief in miracles where the hero lives in each of us.'{2010}

 

The tale 'Wool Over the Eyes' can be told not just for amusement. It can also instruct listeners about how telling an innocuous story could lead to punishment, imprisonment and even death. In Scotland and Ireland a poet could be put to death for telling a story during the 16th century. Platonov knew the danger of telling stories from bitter experience. His major works were banned in Russia and Stalin referred to him as 'scum'. Platonov found refuge in rewriting some old Russian folk tales.

 

The basic plot of the story revolves around a soldier who is discharged from the army after 25 years of service. But before returning to his village he thinks he will look foolish unless he can claim to have seen the face of the tsar so he goes to the tsar's palace to do this. The soldier has one great gift; he can tell stories in such away the listener is bewitched into thinking that the events around him are really happening. The tsar also likes to tell stories and pose riddles for people to resolve. He presents three riddles for the soldier to resolve which the soldier does. The soldier is rewarded with money which he spends in a nearby tavern. In the tavern, the soldier spends all his money on wine but orders more. The inn-keeper, who is quite mean, asks whether he has enough money to pay and the soldier lies 'yes'. The inn-keeper asks the soldier to tell him a story. The soldier tells a story in such a way he convinces the inn-keeper he is a bear. Since he is a bear, who needs no inn, he should just drink and invite everyone for free to his place. "Let's drink and feast! Be a true host- bid the world be your guest! Bears can't be landlords - and we can't let your goods go to waste". The landlord wakes up to find all his inn devoid of furniture and that the soldier is nowhere in sight. He has vanished. The inn-keeper protests to the tsar in vain that he has been tricked by the soldier.

 

The tsar finds the soldier and orders his men to bring him to his palace. The tsar believes the soldier won't be able to 'pull the wool over my ears. ' Unfortunately, to the tsar's horror, the soldier does this very thing. He convinces the tsar he is a fish and the fish swims into a net where he is caught, taken and decapitated. The tsar awakes from the story gripping nervously to his head. In anger, the tsar orders the soldier to leave and for everyone in the kingdom to deny him work and an abode. The soldier finds himself blacklisted and 'persona non grata'.

He is eventually allowed to stay overnight at the home of a peasant in exchange for telling stories. The soldier tells around 100 stories which greatly moves his host to tears. When the peasant listens, halfway through the tale he smiled. Then he began to listen more deeply. Towards the end of the tale he quite forgot who he was. He was no longer a peasant, but a bandit. Or he was tsar of the ocean, or just one of the poor, but a very wise wanderer- or perhaps a fool. But really nothing was happening at all. There was only an old soldier- sitting close by, twitching his lips and muttering away.'

 

The host being grateful, tells the soldier that listening to his tales is a pleasure as 'It's a joy to the heart and food for thought'. The host offers everything in his home to the soldier for his travels and asks him to drop in again any time. So the soldier ends up wandering from house to house earning his food by telling stories.

 

When telling this story it is important to involve the audience by asking them rhetorical questions as well as asking them to solve riddles. You can choose other riddles for people to solve rather than the ones from the stories. If any of the audience are brave enough you might ask them whether they want to tell one of the stories the soldier might have narrated! I don't see any harm in rewarding any of the audience with a small prize for solving a riddle or telling a poem or story! Another question you might ask the audience from time to time is, 'What do you think happened next?' or even the question which Platonov asks in the story 'What does a soldier do after sentry duty? What do you think? ' Platonov's answer is 'He tells stories!' But the audience can come up with their own answers! In reality soldiers did not just tell stories, but often had to mend their clothes, grow their own food and practice all kinds of trades just to get by otherwise they would have starved!  And what about the soldier? Is he a shaman or a con artist? I think the audience must draw their own conclusions!

 

The story in English can be found in Penguin classics -Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov, Edited by Robert Chandler, New York, London, 2012.

 

In Russian you can find it in Школьная Библиотека, Андрей Платонов, Неизвестный цветок, Москва, 2012