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Glas 20: Portable Platanov The Century of His Birth
Andrei Platonov (1899-1951) has emerged as one of the greatest Russian writers of the century, an artist of profound genius, integrity, and clarity of vision.
- GenresRussian Literature
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
53 people want to read
About the author
Andrei Platonov
268 books455 followersAndrei Platonov, August 28, 1899 – January 5, 1951, was the pen name of Andrei Platonovich Klimentov, a Soviet author whose works anticipate existentialism. Although Platonov was a Communist, his works were banned in his own lifetime for their skeptical attitude toward collectivization and other Stalinist policies.
From 1918 through 1921, his most intensive period as a writer, he published dozens of poems (an anthology appeared in 1922), several stories, and hundreds of articles and essays, adopting in 1920 the Platonov pen-name by which he is best-known. With remarkably high energy and intellectual precocity he wrote confidently across a wide range of topics including literature, art, cultural life, science, philosophy, religion, education, politics, the civil war, foreign relations, economics, technology, famine, and land reclamation, amongst others.
His famous works include the novels The Foundation Pit and Chevengur.
From 1918 through 1921, his most intensive period as a writer, he published dozens of poems (an anthology appeared in 1922), several stories, and hundreds of articles and essays, adopting in 1920 the Platonov pen-name by which he is best-known. With remarkably high energy and intellectual precocity he wrote confidently across a wide range of topics including literature, art, cultural life, science, philosophy, religion, education, politics, the civil war, foreign relations, economics, technology, famine, and land reclamation, amongst others.
His famous works include the novels The Foundation Pit and Chevengur.
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February 12, 2018Not really a review. When will Robert and Elisabeth Chandler finish their translation of Chevengur? That's mainly what I read this for.
In the chapters excerpted here, when the execution of the bourgeoisie fails to bring about the new day, the half-bourgeoisie are executed, with similarly disappointing results, leaving only the liquidation of the “residual scum” to look forward to.
Platonov writes, "Quiet steam rose from the bourgeois’s head—and then a damp, maternal substance resembling candle wax oozed out into his hair; but instead of toppling over, Duvailo [the bourgeois] just sat down on his bundle of belongings." The seated Duvailo is not yet dead, and in the queasy comedy of this botched, solitary execution Platonov "dooms his attempt to write a great revolutionary epic, and consigns his narrator to the empty hole of ironic detachment" (as Yuri Slezkine writes in House of Government).
In the chapters excerpted here, when the execution of the bourgeoisie fails to bring about the new day, the half-bourgeoisie are executed, with similarly disappointing results, leaving only the liquidation of the “residual scum” to look forward to.
Platonov writes, "Quiet steam rose from the bourgeois’s head—and then a damp, maternal substance resembling candle wax oozed out into his hair; but instead of toppling over, Duvailo [the bourgeois] just sat down on his bundle of belongings." The seated Duvailo is not yet dead, and in the queasy comedy of this botched, solitary execution Platonov "dooms his attempt to write a great revolutionary epic, and consigns his narrator to the empty hole of ironic detachment" (as Yuri Slezkine writes in House of Government).
Displaying 1 of 1 review