Posted by satyrwish on September 25, 1999 at 22:14:20:
Are these names familiar? Has anyone here heard of these authors? have you read any of their works? I am particularly interested in discussing Platonov's book The Foundation Pit, because I have recently read it. It was unbearably symbolic, and I've been doing a little study on Russian history, so I can better understand what the author was trying to say.
Vladimir Mayakovsky was a poet during the Bolshevik Revolution. Some hail him as the Poet of the Revolution...but I don't think he would have accepted such a prize. he also wrote plays, including Mystery Bouffe, The Bedbug, and The Bathhouse. The second two were of satirical nature, aimed towards the very Party he so lauded in its birth and beginnings. Mayakovsky because disillusioned and committed suicide in 1930. One of the last poems he wrote:
I am also fed up
with the agit-prop; *
I too could compose
ballads about you-
it is pleasanter and pays more-
but I forced myself
by planting my foot on the throat of my own song.
(*Department of Agitation and Propaganda)
Mikhail Bulgakov is the author of many plays, and the book that is now growing ever more available in the West, The Master and Margarita. This is a satire focused on the Soviet state, its blunders, the foolish little man behind the curtain. I have yet to read this book, and would be interested in discussing it with anyone who had- to get a taste of their opinion.
Boris Pilnyak is the author of The Naked Year, another book I haven't been able to get my hands on yet. Probably because I'm still hoping it will turn up in some used book store, and I will snatch it for a buck! (some dream). It is available in larger cities, I imagine, in Barnes and Noble or BookPeople or something. Has anyone read it? I'm extremely interested.
I hope someone responds to this- please write me an email if you do, so I will know to come back here and read your letter. I hope to hear from you, be you lover of literature, history, Russia, or writing!
satyrwish
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