Dumpster Shadows Reading
This post was written as an echo in my brain while reading
How to Write like a Liberal Sack of Garbage from The Happy Tutor.
The shadow is not a translation of your body. Plain texts are like a shadow that pulls the strings and makes you laugh or smile on queue. Even with careful reading the body can not be constructed because the text describes the shadow in minute details forever hoping the body will be understood. Such is the writing of "Those Nice People". The best write such that the body is reconstructed, resurrected while the shadow discarded for the text is but a shadow that draws us to life flowing from... (you provide the text here)
The beginning lines of Mandelsztam's poem in
English"We live, deaf to the land beneath us,
Ten steps away no one hears our speeches"
from
Russian:
"
Мы живем,
под собою не чуя страны,
Наши речи за десять шагов не слышны"
for which Mandelstam was prosecuted by Stalin is a shitty translation. I think Mandelstam's poem was a fuck up. He should have written prose like Mihail Bulhakov in Master and Margaret. If you gonna write a protest piece just write yourself out to the end.
Of course the
English translation of Bulhakov's novel is shitty too. The first line
"At the hour of sunset, on a hot spring day, two citizens appeared"
mimics a
Russian Mастер и Маргарита
"
Однажды весною,
в час небывало жаркого заката,
в Москве,
на Патриарших
прудах,
появились два гражданина"
Hm... Shadows.
While touching on Bulhakov let's talk about
Wajda's film "Pilat and Others". The Crucifixion scene is filmed at a garbage dump near a highway and in the film there is a shot of a passing Bus full of tourists. Here is his commentary:
"In the film, I showed tourists who crowded at the coach windows to catch a glimpse of an execution. But a modern motorway has a will of its own: the road signs, which forbid vehicles to stop, solve the moral problem. If we had nailed a man to the cross with real nails, their reaction would have been the same. What can one do for a suffering man, how can one help him, if the coach cannot stop anyway. I believe the film conveyed the sadness of the indifference and loneliness of death."
The Dumpster and You. In a Bus, Moving Fast. Tracing a Shadow of Existence. Clearly Visible. Imporant.
Big Time.
