| Title | : | Старуха = The Old Woman |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1853993417 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781853993411 |
| Language | : | Multiple languages |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 88 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1989 |
Старуха = The Old Woman Reviews
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At least with Dostoyevsky, if you kill an old pawnbroker, she stays dead and doesn't turn up three hours later crawling around in your apartment. Not so with Kharms.
The Old Woman is case in point. The unnamed narrator, a writer I'll call Daniil, spots an old woman holding a clock as he walks through a courtyard. He stops and asks her for the time. The old woman tells him to have a look whereupon he discovers there are no hands on the clock. The old woman peers at the clock face herself and says: it is now a quarter to three. Daniil walks on but this is not the last of the old woman, and that's understatement.
Further along, Danill runs into Sakerdon Mikhailovich and invites his buddy for a drink of vodka at the local cellar bar. After which he proceed on his leisurely stroll but then Daniil suddenly remembers: he forgot to turn off his electric oven! He turns round, walks home, takes off his jacket, locks the door and lies down on the couch in order to get some needed sleep before resuming his writing.
His rest is interrupted by offensive shouting from urchins out on the street. Danill engages his imagination: those urchins are infected by tetanus and since they are frozen stiff, their parents must drag them home. The urchins recover but he hits them with another tetanus infection and they all croak. Hehehe – serves them right.
Ah, the stove is still on! Danill jumps up and turns the damn thing off. He lies down again, this time with pen and paper. Ever the creative artist, he feels a terrible power within. He starts a story about a miracle worker who never once in his life performed miracles. Imagination on fire, Daniil pops up, grabs different objects and starts running around the room, from window to table to oven to window where he can see a man with an artificial leg walking along knocking loudly with his leg and stick.
Suddenly, there’s a knocking on his door. It’s the old woman from the courtyard! He’s dumbfounded. The old woman says: so, here I am. The old woman walks in, takes a seat in his very own armchair and tells him to shut and lock the door. Then the old woman orders: kneel. Daniil gets down on his knees. He feels all is absurd. He tells the old woman he should kick her out. Unflustered, she demands that he lie down on his stomach and bury his face in the floor. He obeys.
But then he comes to his senses and moves toward the old woman. Her head is drooping. He grabs the old woman and realizes: the old woman is dead. Daniil is annoyed beyond measure. “What did she die in my room for? I can’t stand dead people.”
What to do? Speak with the house manager? Cover the old woman with a newspaper? Then he hears the engine driver in the next apartment moving around. That’s all he needs – another tenant finding out he has a dead old woman sitting in his armchair. Daniil lights his pipe, pulls his legs up on his couch, relaxes and ponders his next step. He drifts off into a dream where his hands have turned into a fork and spoon. Moments later, a clay Sakerdon Mikhailovich is sitting next to him in a folding chair.
Upon waking, Daniil is filled with joy – the old woman is not in the armchair. Ah, it all was only a dream! He gives a sigh of relief: oh, my good Lord, all the things that can happen in dreams. Well, at least now there's no reason to go to the house manager. But then he catches sight of the dead old woman lying face up on the floor, her dentures out of her mouth and clamping into her nose. What a swine! Danill runs over and kicks the old woman in the chin. Not a good idea – people will think he murdered the old woman. Drats! And on top of it all, he’s starving. Off to the bakery for bread.
Standing in the queue at the bakery, Daniil meets an attractive young woman. They strike up a conversation; its love at first sight. Danill invites his beautiful lover back to his apartment. She gladly accepts and off they go. But wait – what will she think once she catches sight of the dead woman? Alarmed, Daniil starts running in the opposite direction. And so the tale continues with many more topsy-turvy happenings.
I relayed the opening portion of Danill Kharms’ The Old Woman to share a specific taste of the author’s brand of absurdism. The more Kharms we read, the more we encounter the author’s recurring themes of starvation, falling out of windows, senseless violence, verbal abuse and men and women being hauled off to jail. And Kharms offers no overarching moral judgement - these things just happen as they happen.
However, those in power within Soviet Russia were of quite a different mind: they interpreted the author's writing as a slap in the face to all things Soviet. Daniil Kharms faced ongoing harassment up until the day when he was locked away in a mental institution where it is reported he died of starvation at the age of thirty-eight.
If your interest has been piqued, as I certainly hope it has, I encourage you to pick up Incidences published by Serpent's Tale, a collection of dozens of the author's shorter fiction along with the 30-page The Old Woman. Additionally, as a bonus, the book also includes Neil Cornwell's extensive introduction to the life and writing of Daniil Kharms within historical, cultural and literary context.
Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms, 1905-1942
“I am interested only in "nonsense"; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestations.” ― Daniil Kharms -
"Я: Простите, можно вас спросить об одной вещи?
ОНА (сильно покраснев): Конечно, спрашивайте.
Я: Хорошо, я спрошу вас. Вы верите в Бога?
ОНА (удивлённо): В Бога? Да, конечно.
Я: А что вы скажете, если нам сейчас купить водки и пойти ко мне. Я живу тут рядом.
ОНА (задорно): Ну что ж, я согласна!" -
Toto bolo skvelé.
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Этот рассказ, как впрочем и все у Хармса - с изрядной долей безуминки. И чёрного юмора здесь хватает. Очень подходит, чтобы перевести дух.
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A escrita do Daniil Kharms difere do convencional, um dos maiores da modernidade.
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Dostoyevsky meets Seinfeld.
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Когда абсурд есть правда.
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Живая, завлекающая, абсурдная история. Это то, что я хотел прочитать в четыре часа ночи перед сном. Но спать не стал.
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Теперь мне хочется спать, но я спать не буду.
Я возьму бумагу и перо и буду писать. Я чувствую в
себе страшную силу. Я все обдумал еще вчера. Это
будет рассказ о чудотворце, который живет в наше
время и не творит чудес. Он знает, что он
чудотворец и может сотворить любое чудо, но он
этого не делает. Его выселяют из квартиры, он
знает, что стоит ему только махнуть платком, и
квартира останется за ним, но он не делает этого,
он покорно съезжает с квартиры и живет за городом
в сарае. Он может этот сарай превратить в прекрас-
ный кирпичный дом, но он не делает этого, он про-
должает жить в сарае и в конце концов умирает, не
сделав за свою жизнь ни одного чуда. -
First book I read in Russian! But I really don't know what to make of it and I don't think it's just because of possible language barrier.
I read it because I saw a theatre play, hoping to understand it, but things only got more complicated -
Epická sbírka.
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Sbírna nonsensů. Malá, ale ne tak zábavná, jak bych čekal. Bavila mě opravdu jen Černá voda... a zajímavé bylo narazit na "Napijte se octa". Jinak mě ale sbírka nenadchla.
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Нема утка со Хармс. Литературните анегдоти поготово се епски.
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Pijte ocet, pánové.
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Über den Verdruss
Wenn Daniil Charms‘ Ich-Erzähler mit den ewig tristen Angelegenheiten des Lebens konfrontiert wird, sind es nicht etwa Regungen wie tiefe Betroffenheit oder gar Reue, die vermittels seiner Beschreibungen zum Ausdruck kommen, sondern viel eher Anzeichen von einer allgemeinen Grundhaltung des Verdrusses, die – so scheint es – selbst den Tod zur Lappalie zu erklären vermag. Досада lautet dabei im Russischen jener Begriff, der vom Protagonisten in Старуха nicht nur oft gefühlt, sondern sogar als simple wie treffende Interjektion artikuliert wird. Egal ob es sich dabei um das Vernehmen lärmender Kinderstimmen oder das Entdecken des Leichnams einer alten Frau im eigenen Wohnzimmersessel handelt – letztendlich ist es immer die leicht resignative und dadurch aber auch kühl antizipierende Haltung, die bei den resoluten Lösungsansätzen des Handlungsträgers bereits durchscheint und somit eine eher rationalistisch geprägte Sichtweise konstatieren lässt, bei der das ethische Empfinden grundsätzlich zweitrangig ist. Solange im Endeffekt nur die gewohnte Ordnung wiederhergestellt werden und der Durchschnittsmensch unbehelligt seinem Tagesgeschäft nachgehen kann, darf man auch den kleinen Plagegeistern wiederum die Plage an den Hals wünschen und die Oma im Sumpf versenken. Natürlich können Charms‘ Gegenüberstellungen von Alltäglichem und dem Unüblichen, welches keiner klar erkennbaren Logik folgt, des Weiteren als Versuch gedeutet werden, dem sowjetischen bzw. modernen Menschen seine eigene Lethargie bewusstzumachen und konsequent vorzuführen, doch sollte man dabei bedenken, dass eine allzu strenge Kontextualisierung Gefahr läuft, die bewusst abstrakt bleibende und gleichzeitig simple Ausdruckskraft von Старуха wiederum aufzulösen.
Dass Charms‘ Schreiben nämlich ausgerechnet, im Unkonkreten, im (noch) nicht Realisierten Hoffnung vermutet, spiegelt sich schließlich vor allem in den innerhalb der Erzählung stattfindenden Schreibversuchen des Ich-Erzählers wider: Die hier ansetzende und letztendlich nicht zu Ende geführte Schilderung eines Individuums, das theoretisch Wunder vollbringen könnte, dies aber dann doch nicht tut, verweist dabei auf ein Außerhalb, innerhalb dessen der Verdruss einem nobleren Gestus weichen könnte. Entscheidend ist jedoch dabei, dass der Konnex zwischen Möglichkeit und Verwirklichung im Werk selbst nie vollzogen wird, wodurch die Deprivation, als Katalysator eigenmächtigen Handelns, bis zum Schluss und darüber hinaus bestehen bleibt. Dementsprechend stellt sich im Endeffekt der Verdruss selbst wiederum als verdrießlich heraus und schafft damit jenen Kreis, aus dem es auszubrechen gilt.
