Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov---Soviet Texts (Terence Winch)

Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov  (1940–2007) died of a heart attack on the Moscow metro  at age 66.  An artist of incisive comic genius with a taste for the bizarre, he would no doubt have found the circumstances of his death somewhat amusing. As Soviet Texts, an excellent new collection of his work translated and edited by poet Simon Schuchat (with Ainsley Morse) and published by Ugly Duckling Presse, makes clear, Prigov’s central literary mission was the dismantling of the language of officialdom. He is a satirist, a parodist, whose writing is a mocking commentary on the political misuses and other abuses of language. [photo left: D.A. Prigov]

The lead-off piece in Soviet Texts is entitled “Under Me,” and it sets the tone for the entire collection.  A long list-poem offering “a procession of details, elements, events, which took place ‘under me,’” it showcases Prigov’s absurd, expansive, comprehensive knowledge of history, art, and culture (not to mention sports and porn):

            And Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Kim Basinger, Michael Jackson appeared under me

            Tarantino, Platini, van Basten, Wim Wenders also appeared under me.

            Jeff Koons appeared under me, too

            And Ciccolina appeared under me

            And Ravi Shankar appeared under me

            Mike Tyson, Schumacher, Agassi, Magic Johnson appeared under me, too

In “Description of Objects,” Prigov takes aim at the deadly form and diction of Soviet propaganda in a series of pieces each beginning with “Comrades!” and proceeding to offer ridiculous definitions of everything from eggs to apes. Authoritative nonsense and faux logic lead to the final conclusion of every description: “For the reasons indicated above, its actual existence is considered unlikely.” In the brilliant mock-heroic “Moscow and the Muscovites,” one of my favorites, Prigov takes on inflated, nationalistic jargon, exposing its ludicrousness along the way: “Moscow is everywhere—its peoples are all over/ And where Moscow’s not—there’s only emptiness.” “Twenty Stories about Stalin” are scripture-like parables about Uncle Joe that are ultimately anti-hagiographic.

Also a prolific visual artist, Prigov clearly deserves the wider appreciation that this book will certainly bring him. As Simon Schuchat [photo right] notes in the frontmatter: “While Prigov’s writing is very definitely of the Soviet and post-Soviet world, it is also fully equal to, and sometimes consonant with, contemporaneous avant-garde writing elsewhere in the world.”   

Soviet Texts thrums with Prigov’s subversive sense of humor, almost making one hungry for something irony-free.  Though I don’t think you find that in his writing,  I thought these lines from “Terrorism with a Human Face” came closest, and could even serve as his epitaph:

            When the years have passed and the currently wild

            People have forgotten many things

            Fear of me will tear through all of Great Russia

            For what I wrote! But it was the truth, after all!

Comments

[Gutstein]

Great post, Mr. Winch, as always. I remember the Muscovites from when the newly liberated Hebrews re-entered the Holy Land. Also there were the Odorites from Baltimore. But I digress. No, in all seriousness, I always look forward to these posts. Much info, glad to have it, glad you're at the helm. Cheers, B.A.

[Terence Winch]

Thank you, Dan. You would like Prigov's work.
It's sufficiently ridiculous.

[SS]

Thanks for great review! I hope everyone follows your advice and checks out marvelous brilliant Prigov!

[Terence Winch]

Thank you, comrade, for turning me on to his work.

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

I would have liked to have known Dmitri Prigov, just a few years before his death, reviewed the foods he ate and the spirits he drank, and I would have asked him to stop smoking cigarettes if he indeed partook of the habit, all of this with the goal of stopping time and avoiding his untimely demise from a heart attack in a Moscow metro. Of course one cannot stop time but discovering this poet thanks to Simon Schuchat's translation, and your precise reviewer's pen, Terrence, makes me think that yes, one can, make the experience timeless, from poems that will not disappear even though their author has already crossed the tracks.

[Terence Winch]

Well, I'm sure if you asked him nicely he would have given up all his bad habits. Thanks for checking in, my friend. (But who is this "Terrence"?)

[Alex Houghs]

I would like to write a book on "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and how it revolutionized pop music in America.

[Alisa]

Does anyone know when ‘Description of Objects’ was published/written?