Author Spotlight
Back Flash: Daniil Kharms
(Cartier-Bresson)
People sometimes scoff flash fiction by noting its recent flabelliform of popularity. I occasionally refute by bringing past authors of flash to the now. I hope you may one day gather this feature and create a joiner’s mallet.
Enter Daniil Kharms.
He felt cause and effect were funny, buy not ha-ha funny. I once thought serious silliness the only real answer to life (but I digress), so was/am happy the day I stumbled upon Kharms. Automatic and lifeless makes us into a thing. This is good or bad?
Excellent site here of his work.
Here is a flash for you, titled, “How a Man Crumbled.”
– They say all the best tarts are fat-arsed. Gee-ee, I really like busty tarts, I love the way they smell.
Having said this, he started to increase in height and, upon reaching the ceiling, he crumbled into a thousand little pellets. The yard-keeper Panteley came, swept all these pellets up into his scoops in which he usually picked up the horse muck, and he carried these pellets away somewhere to the back yard.
And the sun continued to shine as ever and splendiferous ladies continued to smell just as ravishingly as ever.
Tags: Daniil Kharms, flash fiction, Russian Avant-Garde
Why do I so rarely see flash-length “absurdist” fiction, in the manner of Kharms (Diane Williams comes to mind as an exception)? Flash as a form so often, it seems, wants to move rather than confuse or bewilder the reader–not to say that confusion and bewilderment aren’t oblique forms of movement. And not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. I’m probably not reading the right stuff.
Why do I so rarely see flash-length “absurdist” fiction, in the manner of Kharms (Diane Williams comes to mind as an exception)? Flash as a form so often, it seems, wants to move rather than confuse or bewilder the reader–not to say that confusion and bewilderment aren’t oblique forms of movement. And not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. I’m probably not reading the right stuff.
Splendiferous.
Splendiferous.
I am a huge Kharms fan. Thanks for the post/link.
I am a huge Kharms fan. Thanks for the post/link.
Interesting, alec. I actually thought flash was a hotbed of magical realism, surrealism (or D Williams only writes surreal sentences?).
I mean Calvino, Borges, Lightman,Marquez, Copeland, Boll, Clasky, whatever. I just bought a Lucy Corin SS collection today and just started. It seems magic realism enough, with plenty of FFictions. Gregory Forsyth’s chap? Francis Ponge, Max Jacob, Jean Follain, though we get into the prose poem vs micro fiction argument there…
I’d actually think flash has been really open to this type of writing (others weigh in–gods know people who read this site know a ton are impressively well read).
Like how the prose poem was kicked down and then rose up all crazy with resentment of words meaning words…as a rational idea.
Then again, wine (mine)
flash as a category of fiction always feels arbitrary to me. is anyone really arguing against it? it seems like there are as myriad styles and forms as there are longer fiction. why isn’t it all just fiction? its kind of like saying i prefer paintings on 20×16 canvases as opposed to 24×18. does size matter so much as to defend one or the other against the other or one? why am i commenting about this i cant stand this discussion, it goes nowhere, nevermind.
flash as a category of fiction always feels arbitrary to me. is anyone really arguing against it? it seems like there are as myriad styles and forms as there are longer fiction. why isn’t it all just fiction? its kind of like saying i prefer paintings on 20×16 canvases as opposed to 24×18. does size matter so much as to defend one or the other against the other or one? why am i commenting about this i cant stand this discussion, it goes nowhere, nevermind.
the genius behind works by diane williams and gary lutz and lish is that they never referred to their work as anything but fiction, so its just that. the more things get categorized the more things get pigeonholed. that’s my story.
the genius behind works by diane williams and gary lutz and lish is that they never referred to their work as anything but fiction, so its just that. the more things get categorized the more things get pigeonholed. that’s my story.
See, I haven’t read a lot of those writers. Thanks for the names, Sean.
See, I haven’t read a lot of those writers. Thanks for the names, Sean.
i don’t like the term flash and i believe that short short’s are an article of clothing.
i don’t like the term flash and i believe that short short’s are an article of clothing.
but then again, the whole point of this was about kharms, and kharms is awesome. and this piece you showed us was awesome. so thanks sean for that.
but then again, the whole point of this was about kharms, and kharms is awesome. and this piece you showed us was awesome. so thanks sean for that.
short shorts.
ugh.
i believe that short shorts are an article of clothing.
there.
short shorts.
ugh.
i believe that short shorts are an article of clothing.
there.
well, someone has to
well, someone has to
kharms is goods
i learned a new word from this post: flabelliform
kharms is goods
i learned a new word from this post: flabelliform
http://absurdist.obook.org/kharms/
http://absurdist.obook.org/kharms/
Wow, I totally just had a revelatory moment when I read A Sonnet. Sometimes I’ll disagree with the order of the alphabet. (Now I sound like one of the crazy library regulars.)
Thanks for the Web site Sean!
Wow, I totally just had a revelatory moment when I read A Sonnet. Sometimes I’ll disagree with the order of the alphabet. (Now I sound like one of the crazy library regulars.)
Thanks for the Web site Sean!
George Saunders wrote a nice long thing on Kharms at the NY Times. You can find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/books/review/Saunders-t.html
He discusses the selected – Today I Wrote Nothing – which is full of great fragments/flashes like the one Sean transcribed.
George Saunders wrote a nice long thing on Kharms at the NY Times. You can find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/books/review/Saunders-t.html
He discusses the selected – Today I Wrote Nothing – which is full of great fragments/flashes like the one Sean transcribed.
i don’t remember where, but i read blue notebook no. 2 once and totally made love to it. thanks for reminding me of the good times!
i don’t remember where, but i read blue notebook no. 2 once and totally made love to it. thanks for reminding me of the good times!
oops, i meant no. 10. of course. no. 2 exists even less than no. 10, which is transient at best.
oops, i meant no. 10. of course. no. 2 exists even less than no. 10, which is transient at best.
What I like about the Saunders article (among many things) is that he did indeed dress like Sherlock Holmes. That was a big thing for him, but maybe frowned on in Stalinist Russia?
What I like about the Saunders article (among many things) is that he did indeed dress like Sherlock Holmes. That was a big thing for him, but maybe frowned on in Stalinist Russia?
Daniil Kharms is great! I’m writing dissertation about him right now.
Everything in him was original – his style, his sujets, his outfit, his art of speaking. He was huge influence for the postmodern Russian writers, even if they cannot reach him.
Daniil Kharms is great! I’m writing dissertation about him right now.
Everything in him was original – his style, his sujets, his outfit, his art of speaking. He was huge influence for the postmodern Russian writers, even if they cannot reach him.