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Title: The First Distiller
Series:
(The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator:
Aylmer Maude
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages:
23
Words: 6K
Publish: 1886
A short morality play about the dangers of having too much and how alcohol is straight from the devil. Kind of like rock music ;-)
While I agree with both of Tolstoy’s points, I don’t agree with how he gets there or some of his other ideas evinced in this play. In many ways, this reminded me of Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters in that we follow the inmost workings of demons and hell. Now, Lewis was having fun with the whole higher education system that he was part of and applying that to hell and its denizens. With what Tolstoy is doing, I can’t quite come to the same conclusion. I don’t know enough about how Russian Christians viewed demons and hell in the 1800’s to be certain that Tolstoy isn’t being serious. Once again, I am saddened at the lack of Biblical knowledge in regards to how Tolstoy forms his ideas here. The Bible has a lot to say about alcohol (mainly about NOT getting drunk) and it also directly addresses materialism/consumerism.
This is an ongoing issue I have with these old school Russians. Is it just the culture they are from that the Bible is never directly used, or is it that they viewed it as a good piece of literature but ultimately empty, or is it something else entirely? I understand Dickens and his non-Christianity even while he crusaded for morality. He was a creature of his culture and couldn’t escape it. But Tolstoy? I simply do not know enough. Crap. This means at some point I’ll probably have to read some biographies and then I’ll find out more than I wanted to and regret it. I always do after all.
And for the record, Noah (of Noah’s Ark fame) was the first distiller that we know of.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
The story opens with a peasant preparing to plow a field. Having gone without breakfast, he is careful to hide his dinner, a small crust of bread, under his coat. After plowing the field the peasant is hungry and ready for his dinner, but when he picks up his coat he sees that the bread is gone. It had been taken by a little devil, who was convinced that the peasant would become wrathful. Instead, the peasant decided that whoever took his bread must have needed it more than him, and he went on his way.
The little devil is brought before the Chief Devil, who is not pleased that the peasant was not corrupted. He threatens to douse the little devil with holy water if he fails again, and the little devil is sent out for another attempt at corrupting the peasant.
The little devil takes the guise of a pilgrim, and in this guise he gives the peasant farming advice throughout the seasons. The peasant grows a great surplus, and he begins to live much better than he had. One season, the little devil convinced the peasant to distill his extra corn into vodka, and the peasant takes his advice. The little devil then brings the Chief Devil to see the result of his works.
The devils witness a party hosted by the peasant, where all of the guests and the host himself indulge in several glasses of vodka. They start off joking and jovial, but as they consume more vodka, the party goers become more abusive and irate. When they finally leave the party they are thoroughly drunk, falling over each other and landing in the mud.
The Chief Devil is astonished. He is convinced that the drink must have been made from the blood of beasts to make the men act so beastly. The little devil explains that it was simply vodka, and he just needed to convince the peasant to turn God's gift of corn into idle liquor. The little devil knew that all men have a savage side inside of them, and when the peasant had just enough food to survive, the savage beast inside him was kept silent. But as soon as the peasant accumulates a surplus, corruption sets in. Convinced that the corruption of the peasants is complete, the Chief Devil awards the little devil a promotion.
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