Anton Chekhov is a writer who needs no introduction: the Russian playwright and short story writer is considered one of the greatest authors of all-time.
Among his famous works, Chekhov is also known for a narrative principle which states that every element in a story must be necessary and help advance the plot. If a writer introduces an element, like a weapon, then its purpose must be utilized by the end.
As a result, all irrelevant elements of the author's story must be removed for the sake of the reader.
The device is called Chekhov's gun, and for the last few decades, authors and screenwriters have tried to adhere to the basic concepts of the essential within their narratives.
But Chekhov's gun was not the only weapon in the Russian author's arsenal. Many readers are unaware of just how big Anton Chekhov really was.
"The Bear" isn't just the name of one of his short stories, you know; it was also a nickname given to him one time after visiting a Russian bath house.
"The Bear" isn't just the name of one of his short stories, you know; it was also a nickname given to him one time after visiting a Russian bath house.
His friends and fellow writers couldn't believe what they saw and many were embarrassed to be around the Taganrog native since his very presence was often a challenge to their manhood.
Leo Tolstoy, a friend and compatriot who for years overcompensated for his tiny dick with long works like 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina,' nicknamed him ружьё, or "the Rifle."
It was rumored that Tolstoy even based the work 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' on his own devastating autobiographical experience of tripping over “Chekhov’s thing” upon their first introduction.
In a letter titled "On Seeing ‘Uncle Vanya’ For Myself," Tolstoy wrote about how seeing it with his own eyes "started the dying process within him" and that knowing that a thing like that even existed caused him "a gnawing, excruciating, and incessant pain."
Chekhov was always modest about his gifts. While never truly comfortable writing about himself, some scholars say that the central conflict of "The Three Sisters" is less about the existential pain and suffering that comes with realizing that true change is unattainable and more about the very real female pain when taking on a sexual partner who is hung like one of the towers at Saint Basil's Cathedral.
As for his wife, the actor Olga Knipper, it is assumed that her vagina must have been as wide and long as the Severomuysky Tunnel.
As one might assume, Chekhov did not let his gifts go to waste (despite never siring children). The same way that the writer would never place a rifle on stage unless it was going to go off, he wasn't about to just let that “shooter in his sharovary” just sit there while there was a potential body count to rack up.
In the author's own words, "If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."
Talk about a writer who was in touch with his craft.