Summary of the story
The story tells about the experiment of Professor Preobrazhensky and its consequences. Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal discuss the current situation, and during this discussion the famous “devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads” is said. After some time, Preobrazhensky selects and nurses a dog, to which he transplants human endocrine glands. The ball turns into Polygraph Poligrafovich. The attempts of the professor and doctor to make him a “decent person” fail miserably - Klim Chugunkin defeated Sharik. But after the situation became extremely tense, Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal return everything to its place. Sharik remains to live in the professor’s apartment as a pet.
Mess branch #2. Wardrobe
My favorite thing is a small closet and nothing to wear. One day you open it and all your clothes fall out like an avalanche. The closet will look like it's been vomited.
There is a rule: when throwing away trash, the main thing is not to start looking at it. This rule is doubly relevant for you. Because a wardrobe that contains not the things you wear, but those that cause nostalgia, belongs to a sentimental person who desperately clings to the past.
Admit it, that T-shirt you wore when you were 12 is unlikely to be of use to you anymore. And it pulls you to the bottom, not allowing you to move forward. By throwing things away or giving them away to those who need them more, you make room in your life for something new and beautiful.
If there is a certain structure in your “creative clutter”, and you are able to quickly pull out what you need from it, then the good news is that you are an extraordinary person. Photo: Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels
What does this quote mean?
“Devastation is not in closets, but in heads” - the words of Professor Preobrazhensky, the hero of “Heart of a Dog.” It is preceded by a monologue that reveals the very essence of this phrase. The professor describes quite ordinary situations of “devastation” that have occurred or are likely to occur due to specific actions of people, “devastation in their heads.” Especially if the correct course of things is disrupted, for example, instead of operations, choir singing is carried out, or the rules of conduct in public areas are not followed. This is exactly what it is, devastation “not in the closets, but in the heads.”
Closets in the heads
Professor Preobrazhensky - this sacred Bulgakov character for our intellectuals - gave, as we know, a clear definition of devastation. In the 90s, his words were repeated on every corner, like a mantra.
Film “Heart of a Dog”, “Lenfilm”, [00:34 – 00:47]
Professor Preobrazhensky:
“If, entering the restroom, I start, excuse me for the expression, urinating past the toilet and Zina and Daria Petrovna do the same, the restroom will be in chaos. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads!
»
But what should those whose heads were forcibly turned into closets do? Is the eminent professor, who relieves himself intellectually directly in the heads of his charges, responsible for the devastation? The Shvonders and Mausers have long been forgotten, no one sings “Varshavyanka” in the evenings, but the devastation, to put it mildly, is no less. At the same time, it is no longer an academician with a servant who lives in seven rooms, and the academician does not even have forty pairs of pants. The situation in domestic education looks paradoxical - either a funeral or a cheerful wedding.
Quote from a publication on the website tass.ru :
"An unprecedented successful result!" The number of Russian universities included in the ranking of the best universities in the world according to the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE) has increased to 24
»
.
As the last Olympiad showed, international assessments are always accurate and impartial. They can and should be trusted. So what if there are twenty education ratings and almost all of them are compiled by private firms with incomprehensible founders.
So what if the first fifteen positions in the Times ranking are, what a surprise, Americans and British. But we triumphantly broke through to places from 800 to 188.
In some ways, this is reminiscent of the ratings of Euromoney magazine, which six years ago declared our Minister of Finance the best in the whole world.
Quote from a publication on irishtimes.com :
“Education rankings measure anything but education. Typically, they measure the scale of a university's research efforts. More than 60 percent of the ranking methodology is related to scientific publications and citations, which, while important, does not in any way indicate the attractiveness of the university for students.”
But the Soviet Union, ruled by the Sharikovs and Shvonders, did not care about ratings. Perhaps that's why it didn't have any ratings. But there was education.
Well, and a lot more. They tell us that a different era has arrived. The era of globalization, new technologies and gadgets. Tomorrow is not yesterday. Science is rushing forward by leaps and bounds.
Quote from the MISiS press release :
“A NUST MISIS student 3D printed sneakers with a cooled sole. A master's student at NUST MISIS presented a prototype of sneakers with a built-in micro-fan that can regulate the temperature inside the shoe. The “sneakers for the heat” are controlled using a mobile phone. The device is manufactured using additive 3D printing technologies and consists of a housing, a battery, a Bluetooth communication system and control electronics. Using a smartphone, you can set the desired temperature inside the shoes.”
This, however, is not the only scientific front on which the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys demonstrates success - the front showcase of our education reform. This is what the EdCrunch 2016 international forum looked like the day before. Translated from English - well, not from Chinese, actually - Educational Crunch 2016. What should crunch?
According to the organizers of the event, and high-ranking officials and businessmen sat comfortably on the cubes scattered throughout the stage, the old, totalitarian - Soviet, that is, educational tradition - should crunch.
Yes, to the chords of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” the authoritarian system is crunching and coming apart at the seams—and the American guests nodded to the beat of the fashionable dancers. At school, of course. Where did you think? The usurper director is replaced by a creative manager-creator with a hipster hairstyle. The students cheerfully, in the American way, rotate their hip joints. And if at the same time you suddenly remember the recent scandal in the 57th Moscow school, it is solely because of your personal depravity. It’s a pity that all the previously announced guests did not appear on the MISis stage. This may be due to sudden personnel changes in the Ministry of Education. The changes noticeably saddened many of those who went to Moscow to crunch. However, not enough to postpone the opening of the All-Russian Olympiad for first-graders “Young Entrepreneur”.
And when the first-grader entrepreneur grows up and becomes a successful, grown-up man, he will probably be invited to Moscow - to the Atlant entrepreneurial forum.
The organizers will explain why Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Pozner, Pyotr Aven and Steve Jobs are the Atlanteans of our time. Because at first they were underestimated by society, but managed to literally or figuratively make their way to the top.
As the godmother of scientific social Darwinism, Ayn Rand, who wrote the bible for entrepreneurs, Atlas Shrugged, used to say: “Money is a barometer of the virtue of society.”
Video “Atlanta”, [00:01 – 00:19]
Voiceover of the video
"
Atlanta
"
:
“There are people who never give up, do not shift responsibility, and are not afraid of bold decisions. We call them “Atlanteans”, on whose shoulders our world rests. “Atlantis” are heroes often underestimated by society, but whose products and whose business make our lives better
»
.
In general, there is an obvious, indisputable triumph of democracy and the values of the free world. Here, however, it can be noted that the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys until 1962 bore the name of a tyrant and dictator. A name that is indecent to remember today. And MISis was founded in September 1918. At the height of the Civil War. And - as you understand - devastation. In the closets, but probably not in the heads. Because around the same time, the Institute for Brain Research, TsAGI, the Institute of Applied Chemistry, the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute, the Computing Institute, the Astronomical Institute, the Institute of Public Health, the Biochemical Institute, the Tuberculosis Institute, and the Institute of Physics and Mathematics were created.
Total: in just one year of devastation - 33 new research institutes. In 10 years, their number will increase 10 times, to 406.
Film “Heart of a Dog”, “Lenfilm”, [18:20 – 18:30]
Scene with a medium:
- Spirit of the Emperor, tell me, how long will the Bolsheviks last in power?
- Quiet, gentlemen! Interesting!
Quote from a publication on the website miit.ru:
«One of the culminations of the anniversary celebrations on the occasion of the Moscow State Transport University was the opening in the Main Building of MIIT of a monument to Emperor Nicholas II, whose name, in accordance with historical justice, was returned to the university in the year of its 120th anniversary. The guest of honor, Grand Duchess M.V., took part in the opening ceremony of the monument to her crowned ancestor. Romanova
».
The place for the installation of a monument to Nicholas II was given to a bust of Nikolai Petrov, a railway worker who once proposed the creation of a university. Now he is awarded the Order of Lenin named after Nicholas II. What is it called in modern language? Positive. And there is more and more such positivity in the flow of education-related news. But is the glass empty or full? Sometimes it depends on the strength of the drink. For example, my parents sent me a problem from a physics textbook. Now there are as many textbooks as there are physicists.
No totalitarianism. Democracy, human rights and diversity - an individual approach to the student.
Task:
“A child kidnapped by racketeers is being transported in a car. Through a gap in the back, the child notices that the car travels the distance between two adjacent kilometer posts in 40 heartbeats. How fast is the car going?
»
Here, with all due respect to Professor Preobrazhensky, even the most tolerant and calm parents may awaken sympathy for his ideological opponent.
Film “Heart of a Dog”, “Lenfilm”
Sharikov:
“Yesterday cats were strangled, strangled, strangled, strangled, strangled, strangled, strangled, strangled... ”
Bottom line
The story “The Heart of a Dog” undoubtedly reflects the time in which it was written, a time at the junction of two eras. However, this does not make it lose its truthfulness, its reality in terms of displaying social issues, the attitude of people from different walks of life towards each other, numerous conflicts due to differences in views on the world, and, of course, the very devastation that is usually criticized everywhere and everywhere, singing in chorus instead of operating. Unfortunately, modern people forget one simple truth expressed by Professor Preobrazhensky. The devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. It is precisely because a person is looking for the reasons for the current situation “in the outside world”, not realizing that he can begin to change it with his actions, nothing changes in his life, the “ruined old woman” does not want to leave the places where They create such comfortable conditions for her.
Mess branch #1. Kitchen
In theory, it is at least illogical to create unsanitary conditions in the place where food is prepared. But what is logic to us when a wave of universal sadness overwhelms us on the topic “nobody understands me, not even my family.”
A pile of unwashed dishes and potato peelings laid out on the surfaces, cereal scattered three days ago and fragments of a broken plate under the refrigerator subtly hint that you are prone to depression, are not confident in yourself, feel lonely and you give up because you You can’t control everything you want to control. You know, it’s not necessary. Submit to your control what you can, and don’t take everything so personally.
Mess branch #3. Bed
The feeling that you live in bed. There is a magazine, foot cream, a teaspoon in the duvet cover, a laptop charger, a crumpled blanket, and, of course, crumbs. After all, eating in bed is very convenient. And to prevent crumbs from pricking, you need to sleep in a terry robe. Oblomov, no less. All that remains is to monotonously shout: “Zahaaar! Get dressed!”
If you are such a “couch dweller,” in all likelihood, you are a complete failure in your personal life. Either you are going through a breakup, or you have simply given up on all amorous matters. And you definitely don’t consider bed now a place for romance and intimacy.
Mess branch #4. Desktop
And it doesn’t matter where it is - at home, in the office or even in the garage. Mugs with coffee stains rise above a scattering of pens lying on stacks of documents, from under which tools stick out, and flocks of sticky notes with inscriptions fly from above.
If there is a certain structure in your “creative clutter”, and you are able to quickly pull what you need out of it, then the good news is that you are an extraordinary person with good creative potential.
But if it takes you half an hour to find a stapler (which, by the way, is under the table) - alas. There is disappointment, maybe even emotional burnout, increased anxiety and again - the desire to control everything. Sort of like “I see all these objects, which means I control them.” And this is never the case.
As they say, if you can't win, lead. If you can't deal with this clutter, organize it. At the same time, you will develop a creative streak.
The apotheosis of chaos
You are an adept of chaos. You are his apostle. You wreak havoc wherever you go, you are King Midas. Only with your touches you turn everything around not into gold, but into a fabulous mess.
You don't do it on purpose, it does it on its own. They stepped out of their jeans - they remained on the floor, brushed their teeth - the tube remained on the washing machine, peeled an apple - the spiral peel remained dry on the table. No, you don’t have the same clinical picture from the first paragraph; you are quite capable of moving around the apartment without hindrance. And yet you maintain a certain illusion of order with great difficulty.
What does this mean? About internal conflict, about suppressed anger, about the problems that we discussed above - a little bit of everything. In addition, you are a perfectionist and a procrastinator. “I can’t do it well, so I’ll never do it” - something like that. You also hate boring things. And my hands can’t reach all these socks lying around and winter clothes that haven’t been put away until summer.
What to do? Start small - sort through a little, one “garbage area” a day. To cheerful energetic music, for example. It's not that boring, you'll get hooked. And the result will please you. And with cleanliness, inner harmony will “catch up” to this celebration of life.
Mess branch #5. Skeletons in the closet
You are not what you seem. You have a dirty secret. And not alone. Remember what schoolchildren often do when they are told to clean up their desk? They open the drawer and simply sweep everything off the table into it. You do the same - outwardly everything is perfect, clean and tidy. But as soon as you pull out any drawer or open any cabinet... “Oh, how many wonderful discoveries we have!” Paper clips, orange peels (“from moths,” right?), parts of a children’s construction set, a folding knife, a strap from a lost watch... And all this, of course, is terribly necessary and important, and in general, it will suddenly come in handy.
However, this is not squirrel thriftiness - the burden of responsibility weighs on you, you suppress yourself, your emotions, making sure that everything looks perfect. One day, this dam of pent-up emotions will break through and flood everything around, and the consequences can be catastrophic. So throw away all this “Plyushkin” trash and learn to let off steam.
If an Alien comes out of the closet now and you're not even surprised, you're in trouble... Photo: Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels
