Thrown into Nature
Описание книги
WINNER OF THE CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS CONTEST[/b] A humorous picaresque set in sixteenth-century Spain, Thrown into Nature[/i] tells the story of Dr. Nicolás Monardes, whose medical treatise «Of the Tabaco and His Great Vertues» was partially responsible for introducing tobacco to Europe. His Portuguese assistant, Da Silva, narrates the absurd adventures of the wealthy and influential Dr. Monardes, who steadfastly believed that tobacco—whether the leaves were made into a poultice, the smoke was piped into the anus, or through some other bizarre application—was an infallible cure for every physical, and mental, ailment known to man. He even uses clouds of «cigarella» smoke to chase a poltergeist from a church. A blackly hilarious novel that hides its pessimistic reflections on the power of money, the evils of charlatanism, and the gullibility of humanity behind the comic observations and adventures of the always striving and forever bumbling Da Silva, Milen Ruskov's Thrown into Nature is a comic tour de force. Milen Ruskov[/b] is a Bulgarian writer and translator. He has written two novels: Pocket Encyclopaedia of Mysteries[/i] (2004), which was awarded the Bulgarian Prize for Debut Fiction, and Thrown into Nature[/i] (2008), which was awarded the prize for VIK Novel of the Year. He has translated more than twenty books from English, including work by Thomas De Quincey, Martin Amis, and Mary Shelley. Angela Rodel[/b] earned an M.A. in linguistics from UCLA and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study and learn Bulgarian. In 2010 she won a PEN Translation Fund Grant for Georgi Tenev's short story collection. She is one of the most prolific translators of Bulgarian literature working today.
Оглавление
Milen Ruskov. Thrown into Nature
Copyright
Preface
1. Against Death
2. Intestinal Worms, Enemas
3. For Having a Good Time
3b. The Title Will Be Thought Up in December
3c. The Following Summer
37. Costa del Sol, Costa del’ Luz
373. Clarification?
4. Female Swelling
5. Driving away So-Called “Spirits”
6. On the Connection That Some Representatives of the Common Folk See Between Tobacco and the So-Called “Devil.” A Concrete Example of the Driving Out of the Latter and How He Flees from Tobacco As from Incense
7. Curing Lovesickness
8. Against Bad Breath
9. Against Aching Joints
10. For Long Life
11. On the Debate by the Honorable, Learned Scholars Dr. Cheynell, an Englishman, and Dr. Monardes, a Spaniard, with the Foolish and Ignorant English King and His Sycophantic Servants Who Present Themselves before the Civilized World As Physicians—to Their and Their Chieftain’s Great Shame
12. For the Treatment of Domestic Animals and the Quick Accumulation of Wealth
13. For the Healing of Scabs
14. Against Toothaches
15. Against Fevers from Colds and for Creative Energy
16. For the Elimination of All Indecision, the Resolution of All Doubts, and So On
17. Against Headaches
18. For Protection Against the Plague and All Manner of Contagions
19. The Death of Dr. Monardes
Author Bio
Translator Bio
About Open Letter
Отрывок из книги
Yet she and she alone is the procreator of the world. Not the Devil or God, not some evil genius or some moronic mad scientist, much less the Good Lord, but simply a mad, all-powerful, all-purblind, accidental and chaotic Nature. As a member of the medical profession, it actually becomes me to hold such an opinion. Moreover, it shows that I’ve found my true calling, since I sincerely and profoundly profess the above-stated opinions.
My name is Guimarães da Silva. The “da Silva” part is made-up, by the way, since an aristocratic title causes people to pay more attention to what you say. And besides, Dr. Monardes wanted me to change my name so he could introduce me as his assistant without embarrassment. “This is my assistant da Silva,” Dr. Monardes now says, and it really does sound better that way. Sometimes he even presents me as “Dr. da Silva.” Of course, I am not yet a doctor—although I hope to be some day—but rather a mere helpmate and student of Dr. Monardes. Incidentally, he never mentions that I am Portuguese. The Portuguese are thought to smell bad, spread malaria (since they wade through the swamps around the city), and to constantly present themselves as noblemen who just happen to end up in Sevilla and who try to swindle everyone they can out of piddling sums. “I,” he says, “am João da So-and-So, and I have come to buy a parcel of land in Peñana at a good price” or “to build a ship in Cadiz.” Then he starts playing the fool, so that you’ll swallow the act and decide to join the venture, usually for cheap or at a huge profit, at which point he disappears with the ducats. The curious thing here is that the notorious seductive power of money addles the mind of the one forking it over—a relatively rare and interesting phenomenon that lies behind the prosperity of many a crook, for example, the owners of gambling houses—for if he had preserved even a bit of his presence of mind, he would have asked himself why anyone would come to buy land or to build a ship in Spain, given that it is far cheaper to do so in Portugal. Yet clearly people cease thinking in such cases. For this reason, Sevilla is full of fake receipts from Portuguese shysters. Even Dr. Monardes has one.
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“Who knows?” I objected, now utterly serious. “If he starts persecuting some of these people, they could still say plenty of things about him.”
“But they can’t prove them,” the doctor replied. “If he has not diverted funds towards himself, then no tracks lead back to him. The worst that could happen to him is that he could lose his post due to suspicions. But the worst that could happen to them is that they could swing from the gallows. By the way, he has surely taken care of himself,” the doctor continued after a pause, “and if they really started digging things up, they would find evidence against him. But first, they would really have to start digging things up, and that wouldn’t be easy and usually doesn’t happen. Besides, who would do the digging? The one assigned the task may have dipped his paws in the honey as well, so guess whose side he’ll be on in such a case—Señor de Leca’s or the person accusing him? The more you think about, the more difficult the whole business looks.”
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