From the time his first, futurist poems were published in 1912 until his suicide at the age of thirty-six, Vladimir Mayakovsky made theatrical app...
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Jan 07, 2009
Read the STOP SMILING review of Night Wraps the Sky (along with Francis Picabia's I Am A Beautiful Monster):
Every generation for which poetry isn’t a matter of mere diligence and hard work eventually comes around to Vladimir Mayakovsky. Brash, violent, mercurial — the greatest exponent, avant la lettre, of slam poetry (if poetry could ever be said to “slam,” Mayakovsky’s could), Mayakovsky herded his audience before many a public performance with a hush (“Quiet, my kittens...”) and t More...
Every generation for which poetry isn’t a matter of mere diligence and hard work eventually comes around to Vladimir Mayakovsky. Brash, violent, mercurial — the greatest exponent, avant la lettre, of slam poetry (if poetry could ever be said to “slam,” Mayakovsky’s could), Mayakovsky herded his audience before many a public performance with a hush (“Quiet, my kittens...”) and t More...
Nov 29, 2008
Paul
rated it: 
The achievement of this collection--and one of its stated aims--is to update Mayakovsky for a contemporary audience, and thereby to restore the direct and popular appeal of the writing.
However, the major downside of the book is its fragmentary organization. Very few of Mayakovsky's writings are presented in their entirety. The critical excerpts are chopped up, too, so they read more like blurbs.
This problem is compounded by the decision to soft-pedal the social and poli More...
However, the major downside of the book is its fragmentary organization. Very few of Mayakovsky's writings are presented in their entirety. The critical excerpts are chopped up, too, so they read more like blurbs.
This problem is compounded by the decision to soft-pedal the social and poli More...
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Aug 02, 2011
This is apparently an attempt to make readers "Mayakovsky-conscious," somewhat the same way the recent collection of Daniil Kharms' work, TODAY I WROTE NOTHING, introduced Kharms to Anglophone readers (this one, anyway). However, Mayakovsky is much better known than Kharms and plenty of different English translations of his work are available. This book plays up Mayakovsky's flamboyant personality and seems like an attempt to get the kids into him. On the other hand, what's wrong with
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Jan 08, 2009
Brandon
rated it: 
I really wanted MORE POEMS. The poems that are here are really good, especially Matvei's translation of "A cloud in pants" and basically that's all I cared about but then had to schmuck my way through all this stuff by Francine du Plessix Gray about how her mother and Mayakovsky totally got it sexytime, and other not-poem writing "about" etc. Shrug. It triggered my "less talk more rock" instinct in kind of a big way. But on the whole, nice book, really well made and
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Oct 06, 2008
Buck
rated it: 
Is it even worthwhile reading poetry in translation? Isn't it rather like phone sex: kind of vicarious and mediated and unfulfilling? One PRESUMES, of course, never having read poetry in translation before...
Yeah, anyway. Mayakovsky. Hard to say what he might sound like in Russian. I'm guessing quite dazzling and muscular at times. At others, like bad Slavic Beat poetry. The Soviet Bukowski? Just maybe. He did admire Whitman, after all, and that's usually a dangerous inherita More...
Yeah, anyway. Mayakovsky. Hard to say what he might sound like in Russian. I'm guessing quite dazzling and muscular at times. At others, like bad Slavic Beat poetry. The Soviet Bukowski? Just maybe. He did admire Whitman, after all, and that's usually a dangerous inherita More...
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Nov 16, 2008
Baklavahalva
rated it:
An amazing collection of snippets from essays and memoirs, poems, and photographs. A testimony about a man, a multi-media mind, a Deleuzoguattarian machine who lived to see what damage his ideal brought to life by others can do. (And he killed himself.) Amazing creativity that in its many manifestations, in many cases could not be hobbled by ideology. An account of life in the circle of brilliant people that probably included a menage or two. Not your Party functionary's Mayakovsky.
Apr 16, 2008
D. J.
rated it: 
The poems in this book are quite amazing. The best of them, on first reading, made my eyes roll across the pages like nothing I've ever experienced in poetry.
A divisive figure, to be sure, since he was quite committed to the Soviet cause. But, he embraced it more as a political extension of futurism than anything, in my opinion.
And even though his poetry can allude to the revolution, he always seems to be looking ever outward into the stars.
A divisive figure, to be sure, since he was quite committed to the Soviet cause. But, he embraced it more as a political extension of futurism than anything, in my opinion.
And even though his poetry can allude to the revolution, he always seems to be looking ever outward into the stars.
Oct 25, 2008
Masha
rated it:
I love Mayakovsky, but not necessarily this book. The arrangement felt very confused and fragmented and did not necessarily contextualize Mayakovaksy's work in any useful or serious way. The second half of the book felt particularly strained with its use of clipped essays that were never long enough to shed light (often only one paragraph). I'll have to keep searching and hoping for a comprehensive compilation of Mayakovsky's writings.
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