Котик Летаев

by Andrei Bely

Котик Летаев. [С предисловием автора]. Пб., "Эпоха", 1922. 292 с.

Genres: Russia, Russian Literature, Fiction, Novels, 20th Century, Literature

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Boris Bugaev was born in Moscow, into a prominent intellectual family. His father, Nikolai Bugaev, was a leading mathematician who is regarded as a founder of the Moscow school of mathematics. His mother was not only highly intelligent but a famous society beauty, and the focus of considerable gossip. Young Boris was a polymath whose interests included mathematics, music, philosophy, and literature. He would go on to take part in both the Symbolist movement and the Russian school of neo-Kantianism.

Nikolai Bugaev was well known for his influential philosophical essays, in which he decried geometry and probability and trumpeted the virtues of hard analysis. Despite—or because of—his father's mathematical tastes, Boris Bugaev was fascinated by probability and particularly by entropy, a notion to which he frequently refers in works such as Kotik Letaev.

Bely's creative works notably influenced—and were influenced by—several literary schools, especially symbolism. They feature a striking mysticism and a sort of moody musicality. The far-reaching influence of his literary voice on Russian writers (and even musicians) has frequently been compared to the impact of James Joyce in the English-speaking world. The novelty of his sonic effects has also been compared to the innovative music of Charles Ives.[citation needed]

As a young man, Bely was strongly influenced by his acquaintance with the family of philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, especially Vladimir's younger brother Mikhail, described in his long autobiographical poem The First Encounter (1921); the title is a reflection of Vladimir Solovyov's Three Encounters.

Bely's symbolist novel Petersburg (1916; 1922) is generally considered to be his masterpiece. The book employs a striking prose method in which sounds often evoke colors. The novel is set in the somewhat hysterical atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Petersburg and the Russian Revolution of 1905. To the extent that the book can be said to possess a plot, this can be summarized as the story of the hapless Nikolai Apollonovich, a ne'er-do-well who is caught up in revolutionary politics and assigned the task of assassinating a certain government official—his own father. At one point, Nikolai is pursued through the Petersburg mists by the ringing hooves of the famous bronze statue of Peter the Great.[citation needed]

In his later years Bely was influenced by Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy[3][4] and became a personal friend of Steiner's. He died, aged 53, in Moscow.

Bely was one of the major influences on the theater of Vsevolod Meyerhold.[citation needed]

The Andrei Bely Prize (Russian: Премия Андрея Белого), one of the most important prizes in Russian literature, was named after him. His poems were set on music and frequently performed by Russian singer-songwriters.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kotik Letaev: Kotik – a little tomcat – a jocular nickname of a boy, surname Letaev is a derivative of the verb ‘to fly’… Kotik Letaev – Flying Tom Kitten.
Andrei Bely, recollecting his early childhood, presents himself as a microcosm existing in the limitless universe…

Self-consciousness, the infant in me, opened its eyes wide, and broke everything – before that first flash of consciousness; broken is the ice: of words, concepts, and meanings; a multiplicity of rational truths grew out and was seized by rhythms; the architectonic of rhythms had been given meaning and it shook off like dud leaves the meanings I used to have for them; meaning is life: my life; life is in the rhythm of the years: in gesticulation, in the mimicry of events flying by; the word is mimicry, a dance, a smile.

First flashes of the intellect… Infant’s cognition of the surrounding world… A tiny personal space starts enlarging…

My first conscious moment is – a dot; it penetrates the meaninglessness; and – expanding, it becomes a sphere, but the sphere – flies apart: the meaninglessness, penetrating it, tears it apart…
Flocks of soapy spheres fly out of a light straw… A sphere would fly out, tremble, play out with sparkle; and – burst; a tiny drop of viscous fluid, puffed up by the air, would begin to play with the lights of the world… Nothing, something, and again nothing; once again something; all is in me, I am in all… Such are my first moments…

Child’s cosmos is an endless labyrinth… A mysterious maze inhabited with mythical figures: the doctor is Minotaur, his father – Hephaestus, a chimneysweeper – biblical Magus…
Images of the world turn into symbols, symbols become images of the world.

[Javier Avilés · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publicada en 1916 esta novela de Bely debe ponerse al nivel de las de Woolf o Joyce. Fragmentaria, aparentemente inconexa, muy subjetiva y poética narra la primera infancia del personaje que da título a la novela. Lo hace en primera persona, desde una época en la que el autor domina el lenguaje, pero intentando conservar la inocencia y el fulgor del descubrimiento de un niño. Es sencillamente brillante en su composición.
Tengo la impresión que esta novela influyó mucho (bastante) en la narrativa de Nabokov, sobre todo en ¡Habla, memoria!.
Es, sin ninguna duda, uno de los olvidados experimentos narrativos de principios de siglo XX. Se le puede reprochar, si acaso, que no lleve a ninguna parte. No quiero decir que eso sea negativo, pero da la impresión de que podría continuar durante mucho más tiempo, que está truncado aunque un acontecimiento marque el final de una etapa en la vida del narrador. Pero aún así nos queda la sensación de que podría haber ido mucho más allá.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, relatively difficult book, but definitely worth the trouble. The book gives you a glimpse of the experimental prose genius that made Bely’s St. Petersburg possible.

[César Carranza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como algunos mencionan, es un buen libro, sin embargo si se busca una narrativa, puede ser mejor elegir otro, las impresiones de un niño, impresiones surrealistas de su alrededor, recuerda un poco al Ulises, Andrei Byeli era un simbolista, todo tiene un significado detrás, el lenguaje es muy interesante, lleno de sabor y con mucho por interpretar es un libro muy bueno! La infancia de Andrei debió ser muy interesante si pensó sólo un décimo de lo que plasma en este excelente libro

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginative portrait of child entering consciousness.

[Raúl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presentado en el prólogo de esta traducción como "tercera parte de la trilogía "Oriente-Occidente". que sin embargo quedó abierta, tras las grandes La paloma de plata y Petersburgo. Este libro realmente enlazaría con las siguientes obras, de corte autobiográfico, de Biely, y con ella se cierran las traducciones al español de este autor imprescindible.
Es una especie de apuntes, esbozos, notas acerca de los primeros años de vida del protagonista, convertido en un centro sensitivo al principio, bombardeado por una sensorialidad sin articular, que poco a poco va forjando una personalidad, la de un niño de 6 años, pero con toda la complejidad de asumir ese bombardeo de sensaciones que se traducen en un libro que explora todo esto al margen de cualquier intención narrativa o dramática, con la fuerza de la exposición de eso que se siente y que muchas veces se reviste con la confusión de un sueño.

[Hamish · Rating 4 out of 5]

In response to the reviewer before me, if you come this novel looking for narrative, you're barking up the wrong tree. It's not supposed to have a coherent narrative, it's told from the perspective of a 2-3 year old child. Rather, the point is to reflect his view of the world, filtered through an adult's insight. In this, Bely succeeds spectacularly. And he has an excellent grasp of how a small child's mind works.

But beyond that, it's a difficult novel, due to its fractured structure, its complicated use of symbolism and its frequent and obscure Joyce-esque allusions. Thanks to the helpful footnotes and introduction, I can kind of understand what Bely is getting at, but the breadth and depth of his thought is so great that it makes me feel dwarfed by comparison. Definitely the kind of book you need to read many times to really "get", if that ever happens. But that's something to be impressed, not intimidated, by.

[Juan Carlos Calderón · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see what tha author is trying to construct with the book's style and structure. But I have failed, I could not get into Kotik Letaev and that's a pity, because I enjoyed so much with Petersburg
Maybe in a future...

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bely tells the story of a little youth using sensation and surrealist impressions over traditional language. Very similar to Gomborowicz.

[Rob Withers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as Petersburg, which is an all-time favorite. But very good.