I should read this book. I really should read this. God, give me more time!
Mayakovsky: A Biography, Bengt Jangfeldt, translated from the Swedish by Harry D. Watson, University of Chicago Press, pp. 601, ISBN: 9780226056975
"Jangfeldt suggests several possible reasons for Mayakovsky’s suicide: personal turmoil, the establishment’s increasingly hostile attitude, the failure of his play, problems with his vocal cords, the drifting away of his audience Another explanation, less explicit but crucial, is his inevitable disillusion with the new order, a system he could no longer identify with. ‘The word is the C-in-C of human powers,’ was Mayakovsky’s motto. For a poet who put absolute trust in language, the Soviet doublespeak that emerged a decade after the revolution must have been unbearable. ‘Freedom’, a word that rang so true in 1917, was rapidly losing its meaning under bureaucratic collectivism, a more precise term for ‘socialism’. As he watched the language of the future being reduced to hollow slogans, Mayakovsky was bound to see his own position as a dead end." --Anna Aslanyan, in The Spectator
1 comment:
I agree with your views of this biography; I recently read it and found it a fantastic book. Bengt Jangfeldt's capture of the complexities of Mayakovsky's life and his turbulent era is truly compelling. It's fascinating to see how his deep connection to language and poetry clashed with the harsh realities of the Soviet regime. I enjoyed reading this biography so much that I forgot about everything else, even my assignments, and had to avail myself of online nursing assignment writing service from US Assignment Helper to complete my assignments on time.
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