Pynchon's Russian

[Zachary Haberer]

Admittedly, this is from a little ways back, but with holidays over 
and my e-feed restored, I felt I had to give it a poke...

> My Russian is admittedly imperfect, but on page 377 of _Vineland_ Pynchon 
> has a rather bizarre two word phrase that I'm unsure of.  Bolshoi 
> Metallisti?  Literally this means "big metalworkers." 

As someone else already answered, yes "metalworkers" (big or
otherwise) can also mean "heavy metal fans"; "big" serves here as
an intensifier.  Strange? -- try translating "headbangers" into
<language-of-choice> and see what you get.  But the plural
"metalisti" requires a plural adjective "bolshiye" so take a
half-point off Pynchon there.

He seems on target with what other use of Russian I recall-- all GR
stuff about the "Semirechiye" (Seven Rivers country), "medvezhy
ugolok" (lit. "bear's corner", meaning BFE).  Weird thing about
Checherin's name (GR uses the German-style "Tch" transliteration)
is that whatever his sailor's son ancestry in the book, there was a
real Checherin who was Lenin's first Foreign Minister in the new
Soviet state-- one of the few mainstream, aristocratic politicians
in the Tsarist government who was able to ride the change in power.
 At least this is what our Russian accountant here told me. I lent
him my copy some months ago-- his English is good, but I wonder if
that was a smart thing to do, what with our taxes coming up and
all...
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Zachary Haberer                                         
IFC International, Inc-- Moscow, Russia
tel. +7 095 956 1120   fax +7 095 251 5358                                    
http://www.ifci.ru/