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24th out of 153 books
—
149 voters
The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
In December 1917, Vaslav Nijinsky, the most famous male dancer in the Western world, moved into a Swiss villa with his wife and three-year-old daughter and started to go insane. This diary, which he kept in four notebooks over six weeks, is the only sustained, on-the-spot account we have by a major artist of the experience of entering psychosis. Nijinsky's diary was first...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
January 1st 1999
by Farrar Straus Giroux
(first published 1963)
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Quite possibly THE most fascinating book I have ever read, and ever will read. This book is literally the diary of one of the greatest ballet legends as he takes a nose-dive into insanity. It's not just written to mimic madness; it actually is raw madness. This is definitely not a family-friendly book. It's kind of hard to read because his thought process is so random, and it's very candid and sometimes kind of gross. The diary covers the last few months of his life, during which his wife has hi...more
Reads like a disorienting fusion of high Modernist stream-of-consciousness, Kafka's psychological claustrophobia and the postmodern penchant for shifting personas and unreliable narrators. It could be considered a quite impressive (if impenetrable) literary achievement if stripped of its context-- that is, a record of its author's descent into the schizophrenia from which he would never reemerge. Basically, it's several hundred pages of this type of thing:
"I am the artist who loves shapes and al...more
"I am the artist who loves shapes and al...more
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despite nijinsky's several indications of his wishes for his diary to be widely read and translated into many langauges, i still felt like i was committing an unforgivable trespass against him by reading it. here we have a document of schizophrenic writing (doesn't have much to teach you about dance, by the way, in case that's why you're here) that is utterly depressing, almost unreadable, and yet kind of hard to put down... but by the time i got to the mad logorrhea of the fourth notebook, i di...more
Mi ha sempre affascinato la figura di Nijinsky ma forse era meglio se leggevo una biografia....Era veramente fulminato!
He is simply beautiful in every way. He makes me sad and he makes me happy. He makes me think about everything and he makes me think about nothing. One of the most beautiful things one can read is a pure genuine, bare and bold person's diary. Which is precisely what this is. His personal writing describes why human beings are endlessly beautiful, and that there is nothing more impacting than purity and genuineness. Why this is not a full five stars rating is for no other reason that it simply do...more
I fell in love with this angst-ridden diary when we read it in "Madness in Literature" with Don Levine at UMASS in the late 70's. I was at a point in my life where I could immerse myself in other peoples woes and be riveted and woe-filled myself.... utterly absurd in retrospect. But it was an interesting insight into the dance world of Diaghelev and the Ballet Russe in the teens and twenties, and the mind of a brilliant dancer spiraling down into his own abyss.
total freak. you get the feeling the term "free spirit" was coined specifically for him. i had no idea, what a creative force he was. he was a dancer in a truly golden age, when dancers were famous, and real artists. amazing life story.
Lyrically beautiful. Account of yet another persecuted artist experiencing the emotional extremes we call "mental illness" b/c of the pressures of being exploited by his manager Dhiagelev. Read it too long ago, wanna read it again.
This book is fanasinating to read. It's right at that brink of being sane and insane. The delicate desires mixed with the ravings of a mad man. It was also interesting to see how he kept getting fixated on some words and themes. SO many I wants'.
Few books are more heartbreaking.
Le pagine di questa opera, dalla prima all’ultima, sono scritte senza inibizioni, come solo un bambino, un artista o uno spirito libero, possono fare, e Nijinsky era contemporaneamente tutte e tre queste cose. La scrittura di questo diario è semplice ma, veramente, molto efficace. Dice bene H. Miller in quarta di copertina: “se non fosse finito in manicomio, se questo diario fosse stato solo il suo battesimo con la letteratura, avremmo avuto in Nijinsky uno scrittore paragonabile al ballerino”....more
treasure of a man
this is another true account of a (brilliant) man's deterioration into schizophrenia. nijinsky was an extremely talented dancer, and a legend at that. apparently, he knew he was going mad???? and kept this journal as a record of his descent. it's plain to see.
while this was a good book, i couldn't finish it all because his ramblings made me feel as if i was going insane. what i did read was crazy (no pun intended) good, though.
"femmka (little wife), you are bringing me my death-warrant."
while this was a good book, i couldn't finish it all because his ramblings made me feel as if i was going insane. what i did read was crazy (no pun intended) good, though.
"femmka (little wife), you are bringing me my death-warrant."
The mind of a genius in the midst of a storm of madness. Insane, beautiful, illuminated.
Okay, so I didn't ACTUALLY finish it. But, I'm finished WITH it. It's fascinating, but very difficult to focus on, and there are SO many other things I want to read right now. So I'm putting it on an indefinite hold- if I can get my hands on it in the future and read through a few more pages whenever I am so inspired.
I always finish books, but can't make it through this one. Although it's interesting, after a while it feels a little sad and voyeuristic. Nijinsky repeats and contradicts himself constantly, there's no real constant train of thought.
Repetitive, pedantic, contradictory, ecstatic.
I'm overwhelmed with love for these simplistic rants - amazing, cyclical arrogance.
Apparently, all you have to do is chant "god", "meat", "heart", and "blood", and I am won.
I'm overwhelmed with love for these simplistic rants - amazing, cyclical arrogance.
Apparently, all you have to do is chant "god", "meat", "heart", and "blood", and I am won.
Nov 13, 2007
Madeline
added it
Shelves:
library-books,
queer,
non-fiction,
tragedy,
translations,
essentials,
star-ratings-are-absurd,
dance,
russia
these diary entries really make one question the line between art and madness. both romantic and painful to read.
He thinks he is god and than thinks he is not god; and that 180 pages long. Madness never was so boring.
Diary of the Dancer as a Crazy Man
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Vaslav Nijinsky (December 28, 1889 - April 8, 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history, and he grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could perform en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and his ability to perform seemingly gravity...more
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“I danced frightening things. They were frightened of me and therefore thought that I wanted to kill them. I did not want to kill anyone. I loved everyone, but no one loved me, and therefore I became nervous.”
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9 people liked it
“People like eccentrics. Therefore they will leave me alone, saying that I am a mad clown.”
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7 people liked it
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