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Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky
From the time his first, futurist poems were published in 1912 until his suicide at the age of thirty-six, Vladimir Mayakovsky made theatrical appearances in his written work and perfected an iconoclastic voice James Schuyler called "the intimate yell." As the poet laureate of the Russian Revolution, Mayakovsky led a generation that staked everything on the notion that an...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
April 1st 2008
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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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 then, while r...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 then, while r...more
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 political context of Mayakov...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 political context of Mayakov...more
An imperfect book about an imperfect poet. Mayakavosky was many things-- poet, film star, poster maker, propagandist, Soviet revolutionary supporter and, later, victim-- and this book does its best to touch on all these aspects. And it does this while including writings of Mayakovsky, some of them in fresh translations. The combination of Mayakovsky's work, along with photos and snippets of essays from others about the poet, has met with criticism. It's more a book about the poet than a book of...more
Jul 23, 2011
Jon
added it
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 that? My m...more
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 fun to read until people star...more
I quite liked this nice little collection snippets from other books of adoring anecdotes about Mayakovsky by his contemporaries and some newer translations of poems. The last few chapters come from a fairly recent book written by the daughter of Nora Polonskaya (the young Russian American model who was in a relationship of sorts Mayakovsky at the time of his suicide) and immediately struck me as kind of bitter and jealous-a lot of talk about Lili's supposed cruelty, how Mayakovsky definitely lov...more
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 inheritance, whatever you mi...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 inheritance, whatever you mi...more
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Haphazard collection of writings by and about the poet. Felt slipshod, but at least it included some memoirs.
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.
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.
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.
much Great stuff in here!
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He was born the last of three children in Baghdati, Russian Empire (now in Georgia) where his father worked as a forest ranger. His father was of Ukrainian Cossack descent and his mother was of Ukrainian descent. Although Mayakovsky spoke Georgian at school and with friends, his family spoke primarily Russian at home. At the age of 14 Mayakovsky took part in socialist demonstrations at the town of...more
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