The Plummeting Old Women by Daniil Kharms

The Plummeting Old Women Reviews

• 
  Vit Babenco

  Once
  Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the collective unconscious rules over human minds putting within them instincts and archetypes. In the first half of the twentieth century, the collective unconscious sowed absurdist concepts into many creative heads. The ideas, the collective unconscious instilled into Daniil Kharms’s head, were even more absurd than those sown in the heads of the others…
  

  There was a red-haired man who had no eyes or ears. Neither did he have any hair, so he was called red-haired theoretically.
  He couldn’t speak, since he didn’t have a mouth. Neither did he have a nose.
  He didn’t even have any arms or legs. He had no stomach and he had no back and he had no spine and he had no innards whatsoever. He had nothing at all! Therefore there’s no knowing whom we are even talking about.
  In fact it’s better that we don’t say any more about him.

  
  But any, however absurd, idea contains a corpuscle of rationality anyway.
  I wonder how many red-haired men of this sort inhabit the modern world…
  

  A certain old woman, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of a window, plummeted to the ground, and was smashed to pieces.
  Another old woman leaned out of the window and began looking at the remains of the first one, but she also, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of the window, plummeted to the ground and was smashed to pieces.
  Then a third old woman plummeted from the window, then a fourth, then a fifth.
  By the time a sixth old woman had plummeted down, I was fed up watching them, and went off to Mal’tseviskiy Market where, it was said, a knitted shawl had been given to a certain blind man.

  
  Some believe that man is the measure of all things and some are sure that the measure of all things is absurdity.
• 
  Jessica

  There is a different kind of absurdity for everyone. Kharms', though quirky, is not it for me.
• 
  Unwordy

  Harms on Harms, tema kohta ei oska midagi tarka ütelda. Kas meeldib või ei meeldi, mingi mögin kellegi eelnevalt lugenu poolt arvamust ei kõiguta. Lugege ja arvake ise, ainult teadke, et kui ei meeldi, saate kurgiga üle tahi.
  
  See-eest ütlen tõlke kohta, et vene keelt ma ei räägi mitte kopka eest ka ning t��psuse koha pealt hoian seepärast pudrumulgu kinni, aga lihtsalt eestikeelse variandi nautijana arvaksin, et tekst on väga lobe.
  
  Ning lõpetuseks teadaanne, et viimaks ometi on taibatud anda välja tõhus ja asine Harms eesti keeles, mille köide peab vastu, kui seda trollis ja vetsus ja diivanil ja laua taga ja laua all ja muruplatsil jne jne räpaste kämmaldega raadata ja ahistada. Hurraa!
• 
  Mark Joyce

  Much of Daniil Kharms’ small but devoted fanbase considers him to have been an unacknowledged genius. Based on this collection I’d say genius is a bit strong. Some of the pieces (including the title story) are very funny and he clearly had a gift for amusing non-sequitur; others read like the half-formed jottings of a slightly irritating, self-styled eccentric. The circumstances in which Kharms died, as with so many Russian artists of that time, were tragic. Part of the tragedy is that he didn’t live to develop into a more fully developed writer (and that much of the work he did produce appears to have been destroyed).
• 
  Hanna

  Mulle tundub, et mulle oleks see raamat rohkem meeldinud kui ta poole õhem oleks olnud
• 
  ems

  kharms is one of the few authors where i have a memory of the exact time & place i first discovered their work (gelman library, 2nd floor, september 2009)
• 
  Zak

  I don't get this book. There's strange fiction but I found this absurd and not really worth my while.
• 
  Kadri

  Harmsi kohta ei suuda siinkirjutaja midagi mõistlikku kirja panna. Harms on Harms (on Harms?). Eks lugege ise.
  
  Mulle meeldis, muidugi meeldis. Mitte ainult sellepärast, et kui ei meeldiks, siis antaks kurgiga üle tahi. Tasuta kurgid on mulle alati meeldinud, nii et on lausa kahju, et mu tõearmastus sunnib mind sellest tasuta köögiviljast loobuma. Aga mis sa ikka ära teed. Tuleb ise kurke osta. Rabarberit juba ostsin, nii et mis see kurk ikka ära ole.
  
  Pealegi ei viitsi siin keset ööd veel tahti otsima hakata.
• 
  Jeremy Atkinson

  I caught the back end of a Radio 4 play about this author and couldn't believe the writing I heard. It had an absurd, surreal quality to it that was both earnest and appealing. Such a wealth of material that makes you think, laugh, philosophise and groan. Genius.