Daniil Kharms
I was pleased to see that the Octopus Magazine #5 features, among other fine offerings, a selection by the Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms titled from THE BLUE NOTEBOOK.
The suggestion to investigate Kharms' work came some years ago from marks s kuhar (PFAs #276-281), publisher of the deep cleveland oracle (d.a. levy lives!) . When Kimberly White (PFAs #244-45, 433, 478)invited me to participate last December (2004) at a reading where we each selected a favorite dead poet, Kharms seemed a perfect choice.
I was drawn to Kharms for two reasons: His sense of absurdity (which inspired me to shoot rubber bands at the audience as I read his work); and, the thick overcoat of tragedy that he wore through his life and work as a writer and poet. To say that he couldn't catch a break in 1930s Russia would be an understatement. His worked banned, he was eventually "committed" to a mental hospital. One story of his death suggests that he died in such a hospital of starvation during the German seige of Leningrad during World War II.
The suggestion to investigate Kharms' work came some years ago from marks s kuhar (PFAs #276-281), publisher of the deep cleveland oracle (d.a. levy lives!) . When Kimberly White (PFAs #244-45, 433, 478)invited me to participate last December (2004) at a reading where we each selected a favorite dead poet, Kharms seemed a perfect choice.
I was drawn to Kharms for two reasons: His sense of absurdity (which inspired me to shoot rubber bands at the audience as I read his work); and, the thick overcoat of tragedy that he wore through his life and work as a writer and poet. To say that he couldn't catch a break in 1930s Russia would be an understatement. His worked banned, he was eventually "committed" to a mental hospital. One story of his death suggests that he died in such a hospital of starvation during the German seige of Leningrad during World War II.
posted by Richard Hansen at
12:28 PM
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