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John Wick was luckier at the New York Public Library than us.
Lionsgate
One of the oldest and most imaginative of John Wick was killed John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum occurs at, from all places, the New York Public Library. Facing a city full of assassins ready to kill him, Wick goes first to the main branch's traffic counter, where he questions a book: "Russian folk tale, Aleksandr Afanasyev, 1864, "he explains to the librarian, in a typically laconic way. Once he removed the title of the stacks and recovered the tokens hidden inside, he met an aggressor played by NBA player Boban Marjanovic. At this point, the always-resourceful killer uses the book to repeatedly hit Marjanovic in the face (he holds the book in front of the man's head of 7-foo-3 from one hand and then hits the book of the other), breaks his teeth (he puts the book in the mouth of the Philadelphia 76ers player, then strikes him) and finally breaks his neck (he straightens the book on a reading table, places the Serbian giant's neck on the top of his binding and then hits his head down). He then immediately puts the volume back on the shelf, presumably to avoid late fees.
The scene raises a number of questions, including "What is this book?" And "Can I really check out from the New York Public Library?" I went to the office. The library's flagship location to discover it, with a significantly lower success than Wick, I managed to avoid any confrontation with giants. Here is a transcript of my meeting, which has not been changed or condensed for clarity:
Librarian: Yes?
Slate: Russian folk tale. Aleksandr Afanasyev. 1864.
Librarian: Do you have the call number? Let me see the reference.
Slate: Russian folk tale. Aleksan-
Librarian: But let me see, let me see the location.
Slate: I do not have that.
Librarian: It's probably in the branches, it's not here. Show me the call number.
Slate: Uh, I do not have that. I think it's about …
Librarian: Expect.
Slate: I think it's about Baba Yaga?
Librarian: Do you have a library card?
Slate: Yes.
Librarian: What is the title yet?
Slate: Russian folk tale.
Librarian: Popular Tale or Tales?
Slate: Tale? Or stories …
Librarian: Looking for a copy that you can take home?
Slate: It may be in rare books?
Librarian: Well, this one is off site. It's the author there.
Slate: 1864?
Librarian: We are in 1950. Just a different publication date.
Slate: Where is it offsite?
Librarian: This one is Princeton.
Slate: So, if there was one …
Librarian: I watch. [Pause] So it's off-site, off-site. D & # 39; AGREEMENT. These are here, let me see. So, this is the call number. You must fill out a phone card.
Slate: So, this is not the oldest version. I guess I'm curious to know one who might be in a reading room or …
Librarian: I mean, if there is a copy in Rare Books, you will have to get an authorization, which is first too late now. You must apply for admission, explain why you must see the old copy.
Slate: I see.
Librarian: So.
Slate: But there is not any anyway?
Librarian: I check. No, the sooner we have is 1950. And it's off site.
It would take two days to get here.
Slate: OK, I will fill out a slip. Thank you.
It turns out that the book, as identified by Wick, does not seem to exist, or at least not at the New York Public Library. Afanasyev was indeed a folklorist and collector of Slavic folk tales – he is sometimes called Russian brother Grimm – and he published several volumes in the middle of the year 19.th century, but the NYPL does not carry any volume from 1864.
Baba Yaga by Ivan Bilibin.
The most adapted version of the NYPL's main agency was a 1980 translation of Random House (issue J 398.2 A). However, after sending me from the third floor to the first floor and then reassembled, the team informed me that … in a rather mysterious twist – the location of my copy had been mislabeled in the system. (The work of a certain assassin nicknamed "Baba Yaga"?)
As for the copy of the medium that appears in the film: we believe that the illustrations of Wick's deadly volume are taken from works by Ivan Bilibin, who illustrated Russian folk tales in the early 1920s.th century and whose images have since been used to illustrate modern editions of Afanasyev's collections. (These are also the illustrations that appear when you search Baba Yaga on Wikipedia.) We contacted Lionsgate for details, but we have not received a response yet.
Finally, it should be noted that none of this is surprising if one thinks of a franchise that often treats the English "boogeyman" and the Russian "Baba Yaga" as being interchangeable, whereas in Russian folklore, Baba Yaga is most often a witch in a house that rests on chicken legs.
This post contains additional stories from Matthew Dessem.
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