'Sis! Cesse, Lucette! We don't
want any baby serpents around.'
'This baby serpent does not quite know what tone to
take with Dr V.V. Sector.' (Ada, 2.5)
In his article on Chekhov's story Muzhiki (Peasants, 1897),
Uzhasnye muzhiki (Terrible Peasants, 1897), N. Ladozhski (penname
of V. K. Peterson) speaks of the author's "absolute composure of a
vivisector:" сам автор как личность вполне отсутствует,
изображая "полнейшее спокойствие вивисектора" (person of the
author is completely absent [from his story], demonstrating "the
absolute composure of a vivisector"). Like Van Veen,
Chekhov was a doctor. Van is a terrapist (psychiatrist specializing in
terrology, Terra being Demonia's twin planet). Some critics compared
Chekhov's Muzhiki to Zola's La Terre.
Incidentally, today is Chekhov's 153d birthday.
Alexey Sklyarenko