Basement

It suddenly dawned on me that WorldWideWeber is not an appropriate name for this blog. After tossing around a few alternatives, I’ve settled on Notes from the Basement.

It should be apparent that this is an homage à Dostoïevski,* a nod to his Записки из подполья, usually rendered in English as Notes from Underground (or even less faithfully as Notes from the Underground). Some commentators have offered alternative renderings of подполье, without going to far as to recommend its use in the translated title. For instance, some have noted that the word literally means “under the floor,” and have suggested that Dostoevsky meant to conjure the image “beneath the floorboards” (especially since his “hero” likens himself to a mouse at one point).

Naturally at moments like this one turns to V.I. Dahl [Даль], the great Russian lexicographer. He defines подполье as “простор или яма под полом; у крест. это род чулана или погребка, либо с западней, либо с ходом через голбец” [a space or hole under the floor; among peasants it is a sort of larder or cellar with either a trapdoor or an entry through a storeroom].

So it seems “cellar” would be the most accurate translation. However, for my purposes it sounds too rustic. (I think of Dorothy struggling to get the door to the cellar open as the tornado bears down on her.) It also makes me think of “notes from the seller.” (Doesn’t everyone think homonymically?)

So “basement” it is, connoting dim light, cobwebs, and perhaps even a mouse or two; a place where a guy can retreat and type a few words into the æther.

This new title should also signal a desire on my part to open a new area of the blog and begin tracking contemporary Russian life.

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*Isn’t that exquisitely pretentious? I couldn’t help myself—I find Dostoevsky’s name such a stitch in French.