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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I found this a tough read the first time. I read the notes and the afterword and started it again immediately. I enjoyed it the second time around and was glad I made the effort. A grim tale of peasants in the Soviet Union dealing with Stalin's collectivisation.
reread it in 2011. My top favorite. A great Soviet book by a profound writer.
Set during the first Five-Year Plan (1928-32), it deals with the attempts of a group of labourers to dig the foundation pit of a vast building that is to house the local proletariat, before moving on to describe the expropriation and expulsion of a group of rich peasants from a nearby collective farm. Soviet writers at the time were expected to record and celebrate the achievements of industrialisation and collectivisation, and indeed, the drives to modernise agriculture were the subject of several of Platonov’s other works. Yet, having seen at first hand the effects of a policy that brought suffering and despair to untold numbers of Soviet peasants, and which threatened to stifle the spontaneity of the Revolution with deadening bureaucracy, Platonov wrote instead a cautionary fable that Mikhail Geller has called “the only adequate literary representation of those events whose significance for the history of the country and the people exceeds that of the October Revolution”.
The Foundation Pit opens with one of Platonov’s most memorable paragraphs:
On the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of his private life, Voshchev was sacked from the small machine factory where he had until then got the means for his subsistence. His dismissal notice stated that he was being removed from production on account of a situation of ongoing personal weakness and thoughtfulness amid the general tempo of labour.
The thoughtful Voshchev, who has some claim to be the hero of the story, is a wanderer and seeker after truth (indeed, truth is a word frequently associated with him). His meditations lend the work an existential tone (“The dog’s bored. It’s like me – it only lives because it was born”), and establish the conflict between contemplation and action that runs through The Foundation Pit (“My body gets weak without truth. I can’t live just on labour”).
The Foundation Pit opens with one of Platonov’s most memorable paragraphs:
On the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of his private life, Voshchev was sacked from the small machine factory where he had until then got the means for his subsistence. His dismissal notice stated that he was being removed from production on account of a situation of ongoing personal weakness and thoughtfulness amid the general tempo of labour.
The thoughtful Voshchev, who has some claim to be the hero of the story, is a wanderer and seeker after truth (indeed, truth is a word frequently associated with him). His meditations lend the work an existential tone (“The dog’s bored. It’s like me – it only lives because it was born”), and establish the conflict between contemplation and action that runs through The Foundation Pit (“My body gets weak without truth. I can’t live just on labour”).
challenging
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A book written almost in lyrics, with characters who never forget they are symbols of the dawning socialism. Bleak and blunt even by Soviet standards, and written almost without composition. Even though it is frustrating at times, and the translation seems odd (or was the original language that weird?), it is well worth reading.
"котлован" – це для повільного, уривчастого читання, бажано вголос, бажано із затримками на окремих реченнях, щоб розсмакувати їхню форму і суть. мова платонова, яка зараз виглядає як ризикований, але дієвий стилістичний конструкт (у найповнішому сенсі слова: кожна фраза тут підкреслено сконструйована і тим нестерпно відверта), мабуть, відлунювала читачам зовсім по-іншому на початку тридцятих, коли її так легко було співвіднести з довколишнім агітпропом. однак я не певна, що сьогодні відсилка до агітпропу важлива. стиль платонова самодостатній, він не потребує якихось зовнішніх історичних пояснень: і без них випукло постає перед очима світ, у якому можливий такий спосіб вираження.
Guau.
Platónov ha capturado y plasmado el espíritu de desánimo en cada página. La historia empieza con un sentimiento de esperanza por el futuro y, a medida que la obra de cavar la zanja -obra que parece interminable- el espíritu de cansancio, desánimo y desazón impregna cada personaje y se siente por la manera en que está escrita la obra.
Es una genialidad cómo representa en la figura de Nastia su percepción del comunismo.
Me recordó a "Tea Rooms" de Luisa Carnés, que estaba muy influenciada por la literatura rusa de principios del siglo XX, aunque expresasen ideas contrarias, pero la desazón por la sociedad actual se palpa en ambas obras.
Platónov ha capturado y plasmado el espíritu de desánimo en cada página. La historia empieza con un sentimiento de esperanza por el futuro y, a medida que la obra de cavar la zanja -obra que parece interminable- el espíritu de cansancio, desánimo y desazón impregna cada personaje y se siente por la manera en que está escrita la obra.
Es una genialidad cómo representa en la figura de Nastia su percepción del comunismo.
Me recordó a "Tea Rooms" de Luisa Carnés, que estaba muy influenciada por la literatura rusa de principios del siglo XX, aunque expresasen ideas contrarias, pero la desazón por la sociedad actual se palpa en ambas obras.
>be me
>bottomless pit supervisor
>in charge of making sure the bottomless pit is, in fact, bottomless
>occasionally have to go down there and check if the bottomless pit is still bottomless
>one day I go down there and the bottomless pit is no longer bottomless
>the bottom of the bottomless pit is now just a regular pit
>distress.jpg
>ask my boss what to do
>he says "just make it bottomless again"
> I say "how"
>he says "I don't know, you're the supervisor"
>rage.jpg
>quit my job
>become a regular pit supervisor
>first day on the job, go to the new hole
>its bottomless
>bottomless pit supervisor
>in charge of making sure the bottomless pit is, in fact, bottomless
>occasionally have to go down there and check if the bottomless pit is still bottomless
>one day I go down there and the bottomless pit is no longer bottomless
>the bottom of the bottomless pit is now just a regular pit
>distress.jpg
>ask my boss what to do
>he says "just make it bottomless again"
> I say "how"
>he says "I don't know, you're the supervisor"
>rage.jpg
>quit my job
>become a regular pit supervisor
>first day on the job, go to the new hole
>its bottomless