Platonov - Kosnoyazychie

[Alexandra Smith]

  Dear Professor Meerson,

Thank you very much for your interesting insight.
In principle, your comparision with one phrase in Kotlovan is up to  
the point when it comes to understanding Platonov's philosophical  
tenets. But the two phrases are slightly different from the formal  
point of view: the phrase "ia zdes' ne suschestvuiu, ia tol'ko dumaiu  
zdes'" doesn't have a sense of strangeness and readers don't perceive  
it as very strange, especially because of the fact that both verbs are  
related to the same subject and the repetition of the word "zdes'"  
produces some form of cohesion.
The verb "dumat'" is used very often without any references to  
objects. You could recall Tsvetaeva's usage of it in "Poema kontsa":  
"Vy slishkom mnogo dumali?" -- "Zadumchivoe: da".
In the phrase: "vy tut rabotaete, khodite, a ia chuvstvuiu" discussed  
earlier, the second sentence sounds out of the blue since it doesn't  
correspond well to the first part of the compound sentence that  
describes other people.
I still think that the verb chuvstvovat' in this sentence appears to  
be as part of an incomplete sentence. If you ask, for example, someone  
a question "what to you do here?" (chto Vy zdes' delaete?) the answer  
"ia zdes' dumaiu" would sound more or less normal, since it implies  
that someone comes to a particular spot to think about life, etc. Any  
listener would be satisfied with such an answer, but if we are told  
that someone comes here to feel (chto vy zdes' delaete" - ia  
chuvstvuiu)then we will be under impression that the sentence is not  
complete. There will be a natural expectation to hear some  
explanation: ia sebia sdes' khorosho chuvstvuiu, poetomu ia zdes'  
sizhu; or: ia zdes' chuvstvuiu sebia chelovekom..., or: ia chuvstvuiu  
zdes' chastiu mirovogo protcessa, etc.
But I agree with you that it's not just an example of defamiliarisation.
However,  I still doubt that Platonov thought of so many clever tricks  
himself, I think that he had a brilliant ear for language: perhaps, he  
wrote down various abnormalities when listened to people he  
encountered on the streets of Moscow or in provincial towns? It well  
might be that in some areas (might be Voronezh, Briansk, etc.)people's  
talk reflects on the fact that some words were not completely fixed in  
terms of connotations, grammatical links etc. One needs to consult  
linguists who are specialising in dialects and history of grammar in  
order to see what was available to Platonov in the 20s-30s in terms of  
language material...
I did enjoy reading your book on Platonov a few year ago. I do find it  
very thoought-provoking, indeed.

All very best,

Sasha Smith





Quoting Olga Meerson <meersono at GEORGETOWN.EDU>:

> Platonov's ia chuvstvuiu--without an object or a clause governed by   
> it--is analogous, first and foremost, to Platonov's own locution of   
> the same structure elsewhere, in Kotlovan, ia zdes' ne   
> sushchestvuiu, ia tol'ko dumaiu zdes'. In both cases, feeling and   
> thinking are valuable independently of their objects or objectives.   
> The model for that latter one, in Kotlovan, in turn, is a   
> tongue-in-cheek polemic with Descarthes, who claimed that the latter  
>  was the sole necessary condition and guarantee of the former.   
> Platonov is anti-Shklovskian in one particular respect: he reverses   
> the device of defamiliarization. But I have written a whole book on   
> that. Like Pilate but on a happier occasion, I may say that what I   
> have written is what I have written. That is, I still stand by my   
> conclusions in that book.
> Olga Meerson
>

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