Written Biography = Self

"A Tomb for Boris Davidovich" fits perfectly in our discussion about the idea of "self." The battle of writing the perfect biography, fought between Novsky and Fedukin is interesting and scary in that how you are remembered in history is as much about what other people think of you and want to think of as it is about what you think of yourself and what you actually did. The thought of Novsky killing himself is not tragic to me for that reason. It is heroic and beautiful, because it is his last chance to have autonomy over his life. Even though he is not marked in the history books as a great revolutionary hero (as Kis stated at the beginning) and his biography was rewritten, he ultimately had the last say.