Doorstop tradition revived in Russia

Thu Aug 10 12:13:30 CDT 2006

A bit of browsing revealed that there is an actual prototype of one of the 
characters satirised by Kantor, an artist called Oleg Kulik who during one 
of his performances tried to copulate with a he-goat on an iron bed and... 
failed.

As for the early Russian avante-guarde, I really liked Dziga Vertov's 'Man 
with a Movie Camera', did for Kiev and Moscow what Ruttmann did for Berlin 
in his 'Symphony of a City'. Astonishing cinematography, to my mind.

>From: jd <wescac at gmail.com>
>To: "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>CC: richard.romeo at gmail.com, catherinemarymary at yahoo.co.uk, 
>pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Doorstop tradition revived in Russia
>Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:52:01 -0400
>
>Would a 1500 page book sell out in the US?  Possibly (and anyways it
>only ran 5000 copies for its first print run) - if only because a
>bunch of people wanted the fattest book around to display on their
>bookshelves, especially if it got critical acclaim.  Wasn't Infinite
>Jest a nationwide bestseller?  I wonder how many actually read it?
>
>I'm looking forward to what he does against the avant-garde artists -
>I hope he digresses back to the revolution and covers their influence
>during that period.  The book on the Russian revolution I was reading
>talked a bit about them - one of the most awesome things I've ever
>heard of was this song called Iron Foundries which was, I guess, an
>"industrial ballet" where instruments mimicked the noise of machinery,
>and "this was performed in Baku in 1922 using foghorns of the Caspian
>fleet, factory sirens, two batteries of artillery, machine guns and
>massed choirs".  Now THAT'S fucking MUSIC.
>
>But anyways I'd love to see him tie it all together through the years...
>
>On 8/10/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>The reviews of this novel are divided. Some trash it, some proclaim it to 
>>be
>>a masterpiece. One of the main strands of the text is an evil satire 
>>against
>>contemporary Russian avant-garde artists (a Whole Sick Crew of sorts). One
>>of the episodes mentioned in a review is really hilarious and 
>>Pynchonesque:
>>An artist publicly sodomises a ferret as part of performance and
>>subsequently falls in love with him.
>>
>>
>> >From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
>> >To: "Catherine Edwards" <catherinemarymary at yahoo.co.uk>
>> >CC: jd <wescac at gmail.com>, "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>,
>> >pynchon-l at waste.org
>> >Subject: Re: Doorstop tradition revived in Russia
>> >Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:37:10 -0400
>> >
>> >a bit on the didactic side sounds like
>> >1500 pgs of that would be insufferable
>> >
>> >black comedy works much better
>> >rich
>> >
>> >On 8/10/06, Catherine Edwards <catherinemarymary at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>According to a friend his agency in London is David
>> >>Godwin, so hopefully they'll get on the case with
>> >>translation into English.  It sounds brilliant.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>--- jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > I wonder if it'll ever be translated...
>> >> >
>> >> > On 8/9/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > >
>> >> > > "A RUSSIAN artist is being heralded as the new
>> >> > Tolstoy after his debut novel
>> >> > > sold out within four weeks in Moscow despite being
>> >> > a daunting 1500 pages
>> >> > > long.
>> >> > > Maxim Kantor, 48, achieved fame on the Russian
>> >> > underground art scene of the
>> >> > > 1980s and 90s and has 140 etchings in the British
>> >> > Museum.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > He decided to write his modern-day War and Peace
>> >> > because he was
>> >> > > disillusioned by Russia's experience of democracy.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > "I always thought I'd write a big novel about what
>> >> > happened to my country
>> >> > > and to the world," he said.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > "It was obvious that in the last 20 years we were
>> >> > passing through a very
>> >> > > dramatic and important period and big questions
>> >> > needed to be asked about
>> >> > > freedom and civilisation.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > "I had been thinking about it for years. Then one
>> >> > day I was suddenly 44 and
>> >> > > I thought, if I don't start now, I never will."
>> >> > >
>> >> > > He spent four years on the epic work, The Drawing
>> >> > Textbook, which opens with
>> >> > > the emergence of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet
>> >> > leader in 1985 and follows the
>> >> > > subsequent 20 years of tremendous change in
>> >> > Russia.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > Although it traces the fortunes and thwarted loves
>> >> > of one family of
>> >> > > intelligentsia, it is also a political satire with
>> >> > a huge cast of artists,
>> >> > > critics, secret policemen, oligarchs and
>> >> > politicians, including Boris
>> >> > > Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > .....
>> >> > >
>> >> > > The book has an unusual structure. Each chapter
>> >> > begins with a couple of
>> >> > > pages on drawing, which together form a textbook.
>> >> > After every two fiction
>> >> > > chapters, there is a political chronicle
>> >> > commenting on the economy, the arts
>> >> > > and world events such as the war in Iraq".
>> >> > >
>> >> > >
>> >> > >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19134129-5001986,00.html
>> >> > >
>> >> > >
>> >> >
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>> >> > >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
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