The Petty Demon (50 page)

But, primitive as Peredonov is, he nevertheless, is an exception in his town, yearns for the truth (both
Pravda
and
istina
, 345/6). In this regard he is a human amongst “animals.” He even seeks the truth in the right place, i.e., “beyond the world
of matter” (366). But there is “noise” in his information channels and his senses delude him, instead of enlightening him.
Thus Peredonov is doomed to constant fear, the inevitable result of confusion and ignorance. Fear leads to aggression. In
the final analysis, it is ignorance which is the source of Peredonov’s sadistic and criminal acts.

Peredonov is constantly deceived by his defective senses. His sleepy small eyes which almost drown in his bloated face are
“muddy ponds” or “dirty mirrors” (325) which grotesquely distort reality. His nose cannot register aromatic smells, wherefore
they seem unpleasant to him. His taste in food is of the grossest kind, and cannot afford him genuine pleasure. Consequently
he is
doomed to live in a hell of unrelieved ugliness, as one eternally damned.

To the constant flow of distorted information Peredonov reacts as a frightened animal would: by withdrawing into a dark corner.
He attempts to stop the flow of impressions altogether. He puts cotton wool in his ears, in the classical “man in a shell”
fashion, and never airs his room, keeping all “windows” locked. In the language of the gnostics this means that he blocks
all his senses. The teacher of literature, Peredonov, refuses to read, thus barring himself from a valuable source of knowledge.
All these attempts at withdrawal naturally result in even more distorted notions of reality and Peredonov is trapped in a
vicious circle of delusion and fear. Insanity must ensue. But Peredonov’s insanity testifies to the fact that—unlike many
others in town—he is still able to react, even if only negatively.

Grace alone can save the damned. Peredonov could have been saved by a gracious vision of beauty, but, as Chukovsky pointed
out, the ability to perceive or create beauty has been denied to Peredonov. Thus he is cut off from the source of life and
gnosis
. This becomes clear from Peredonov’s reaction to the mystery of transubstantiation.

When Peredonov visits church—for practical, not spiritual reasons—he is frightened of the beautiful liturgy, the fine priestly
vestments and the aromatic incense (as devils are wont, 137). This is so because “the mystery of the eternal transubstantiation
of inert matter into a power breaking the fetters of death was forever veiled from him” (299/300). The “walking corpse” (300)
Peredonov, i.e., the Demiurge’s lifeless clay puppet cannot understand or believe in the “living God and His Christ,” i.e.,
the true divinity of the transcendental realm where life eternal resides in ideal forms of imperishable beauty.
¹⁷
Beauty transubstantiates the mortal flesh.

Beauty could heal Peredonov, but under the given circumstances, it becomes an additional source of horror. Peredonov feels
that “beauty is not for him” and that ugliness “suits” him better. Driven by bitterness he recoils from beauty or destroys
it. But his overreaction to it, as well as his strange interest in the beautiful androgynous Sasha Pylnikov testify to his
dim awareness of this alternative beyond his grasp.

In nightmares Peredonov sees how Pylnikov, smiling seductively, beckons him to another realm, but to deluded Peredonov it
assumes a sinister aspect (261).
¹⁸
The windows of his room are transformed into Pylnikov’s eyes, staring at him (363). This symbolic delusion, expresses Peredonov’s
simultaneous fear of and yearning for a beautiful word beyond his prison. Peredonov cannot transport himself to this realm
of beauty and life everlasting. This failure is Peredonov’s misfortune, but not crime.

Others are more fortunate than Peredonov. Lyudmila
Platonovna’s
refined senses are capable of perceiving the realm of
Platonic
ideas; so are those of her “god-like youth”
(otrokbog
, 357). As long as these reincarnated Aphrodite and Eros do not give in to the realm of
dust—as
Pylnikov presumably sometime will—they may partake of the transubstantiation mysteries. They attempt to realize these mysteries
in their dressing up games which have the purpose of emulating the androgynous being. Donning the garb of the opposite sex,
they symbolically unite both sexes in one perfect being.
¹⁹

The idea of the androgynous being is beyond Peredonov. Also in this respect he is the sly Demiurge’s victim. This usurper-deity
firmly implanted lustful desires in his clay creatures
(nizkii soblazn
, 102) as well as other forms of greed. The crudely animalistic and purely utilitarian reproduction system
serves the Demiurge’s power schemes, as it scatters the divine spirit ever more sparsely amongst an increasing number of clay
creatures.
²⁰
The atomization of the spirit is counteracted by the Dionysiac ecstasies of spiritually androgynous beings who in their perfection
demand nothing from one another but beautiful impressions. Such ecstasies fuse the scattered sparks of the spirit. But the
majority of people continue to “wallow in lust,” thus fettering themselves to the realm of dust. Lust and dust are directly
linked in the novel.

Peredonov thus has no access to Lyudmila’s aromatic world of refined love; her perfumes—symbols of the flesh “transubstantiated”
into ethereal beauty—frighten Peredonov, used as he is to his stuffy cage.
²¹
But although used to his cage, Peredonov is not happy in it. His
realia
world, while made up of gross, solid and heavy building material, such as mud, clay and flesh, lacks stability. It is a temporal
world where change rules and where disintegration triumphs in the end, as there is no force in it which could oppose “decrepit
chaos” (345). The symbol of this world of gross but fluidly vague
realia is
the formless and faceless
(bezlikaia
, 186)
nedotykomka
.
²²
She and the reality she represents elude Peredonov’s grasp (185).

The elusive
nedotykomka
is described in negative terms, as she is the product of the inexpressible horrors of the
realia
world. Her gliding movement from form to form
(zybkaia pliaska
, 341), her incessant metamorphoses, demonstrate the shapelessness of the material world of phenomena. These are open to any
interpretation, as the eternal ideas are but weakly reflected in them and furthermore are perceived by defective senses. All
phenomena therefore dissolve into that amorphus dust where the
nedotykomka
likes to hide. Beauty is the only adhesive capable of binding disintegrating mattter into a lasting form. The Demiurge is
however incapable of creating beauty. He is a skillful “mechanic” but only the “living God” creates a “thing of beauty.”

The Demiurge has tamed the forces of chaos, residing in matter, and is also capable of keeping them in a state of uneasy equilibrium,
as the existence of the material world proves. The clay puppets “exist,” but as their compact bodies are impenetrable to light,
these unillumined beings hide dark chaos within themselves. This ancient heritage they frequently express in acts of senseless
destruction.

Peredonov is a destructive creature. But his criminal acts demonstrate more than the chaotic quality inherent in all “clay”:
they are acts of rebellion. Peredonov realizes yet another “ancient heritage”: that of Cain’s rebellion against his own creator.

The Demiurge is often identified with the Old Testament God.
²³
In the Sologubian version of the Old Testament fratricide, the role of the shepherd Abel together with that of sacrifical
lamb is played by sheepish Volodin.
²⁴
Volodin is so like a sheep because he in fact has renounced his human countenance by extinguishing the “spark” within himself.
He therefore feels happy in the Demiurge’s world, in which he lives obedient to the “Law” (319). Peredonov attempts to be
obedient, but it costs him effort and anxiety. For his attempts to please he is not rewarded, or, in terms of the Old Testament,
his “sacrifical offerings” are not accepted. Like Cain’s, his heart becomes “embittered” (345), as he watches how his “brother,”
the happy hypocrite Volodin, lives in harmony with his creator. Dark chaos stirs in Peredonov’s subconscious (345), which
perhaps still carries the racial memory of Cain’s deed. Growing awareness of existential injustice fills Peredonov with bitterness
and fury; these same feelings overwhelmed the Demiurge’s first creatures upon their discovery that they were “clay” and thus
mortals. This bitterness was forgotten by the
“Abel-line” of mankind, but preserve and transmitted through the line of Cain.

Peredonov’s purely negative rebellion against the Demiurge does not qualify as “Promethean.” This (true) path is taken by
Lyudmila. She has understood that a “separate existence” (311) furthers the atomization of the divine spirit and her attempts
to kindle the fire of exquisite ecstasies qualify as “stealing fire from the gods,” here the Demiurge and his “archons.” Her
fires differ positively from Peredonov’s insane acts of pyromania. These too have the purpose of burning the prison of existence,
guarded by the “wicked sorceress” of delusion (cf. the epigraph to the novel), but arson offers no solution.
²⁵
Not the burning of houses, but the melting down of the “cages of individuation” offers true liberation. By increasing chaos
Peredonov remains his creator’s puppet, a devil’s miniature copy: a petty devil.

As a petty devil Peredonov is a frightened one. He fears punishment in all forms—mostly as death. His pyromania may be partly
explained as a death fear. He would like to burn down houses where people have died, apparently hoping to erase death itself
in this way. What Peredonov does not understand, however, is that his rebellious crimes destroy only the outer manifestations
of terror while the roots of human misfortune remain untouched. It is true that Peredonov has a “counterplan” to the Demiurge’s
faulty creation, but it is a poor one. A “beast” and “puppet,” Peredonov can think only of a mechanistic utopia in which machines
work, while men satisfy their animality (368, 369). Those moments when Peredonov satisfies some basic need are the only ones
when he feels that he truly exists. Therefore he Would like to prolong them (364) into a constant activity which would, furthermore,
last for centuries. In Peredonov’s utopia (parody of the land
Ojle) men
will reach extreme longevity.

But the fleeting moments of reality when Peredonov, stuffing his belly, may forget his fears, are too short to maintain his
sense of being. Barred from
gnosis
, Peredonov ever more finds himself in a phantom world where he himself is a shadow amongst shadows. Peredonov ceases to feel
his own reality and in the end he becomes alienated from the very interests and goals which he so fervently pursues (293).

Whereas ignorance caused Peredonov to misinterpret the signs of reality until it eluded his grasp, his own irreality is brought
home to him by his fear of observation. In spite of his apparent smugness, Peredonov senses that he is but a “ridiculous insect,”
unworthy even of taking up “space” in the world. He feels that he is an “absurd” creature and therefore also an “unreal” creature,
as the absurd, by defintion, contradicts the “real.” Peredonov is afraid of being exposed as unreal. The words “observation,”
“ridicule” and “annihilation” are synonyms in his vocabulary. Observation to Peredonov implies the judgement of unworthiness
and the punishment of annihilation. These elements are evident in is persecution mania, which is founded on his lack of ontological
certainty.

Peredonov feels himself subjected to constant observation. The “eyes”
(sogliadatai)
which pursue him assume various forms, the most” Boschian” being the
glaz-ptitsa
which “consists” of one eye and two wings (317–318). At times even the sun itself, symbol of the Demiurge’s power, takes
part in the “observation game” (317).
²⁶
But whatever form the spies assume, they all have one purpose: to observe Peredonov, find fault with him
(pridrat’sia
, 294), pronounce him to be insignificant, ridiculous and unworthy of existence and finally to push him into the void of nonbeing
Peredonov’s situation is that of the rider in the poem
The Devil’s Swing
(1907). Precariously placed, his clumsy ride and
inevitable fall are the source of great mirth to both superterrestrial demonic spectators as well as earthly devils. Thus
Peredonov’s paranoiac visions express a complex protest against divine (in)justice. Had he possessed poetic gifts, he could
have formulated his dark fears and muddled sensations in terms such as these:
“Ihr[the
divine powers]
führt
ins
Leben uns hinein, / Ihr lasst den Armen schuldig werden, / Dann überlasst ihr ihn der Pein, / Denn are Schuld rächt Bich auf
Erden.”
²⁷
Peredonov was born “poor” in the sense of spiritually deficient; he was “made” ridiculous and is punished for being so. In
this regard he is an innocent sufferer, pursued by “laughing furies” (318) for crimes he could not but commit, i.e., for being
what he is and did not choose to be.

Peredonov’s yearning for an inspector’s post is thus primarily a desire to avoid an inspection which would literally reduce
him to nothing. Having a post
(mesto)
to Peredonov means the certainty that he takes up space
(mesto)
, i.e., that he exists; it means having found a place
(mesto), safe
from inspection, as no one inspects inspectors. The acquisition of a post is indeed a matter of life and death to Peredonov,
as he repeatedly states (346, 390). He can no longer suffer the “withering” glances of ridicule, which mercilessly “murder”
him. There is of course ambition in Peredonov’s pursuit of a career, but is is the absurd ambition of an “insect” and “zero,”
clinging to the futile hope of becoming the opposite of what he is.