AW: [SEELANGS] Grossman question

[Robert Chandler]

What Olga suggests about the "associative
between such Soviet informers and Nazi collaborators is extremely
interesting. Katarina's point "или под влиянием украинского говора?
например слово <уличный> будет poulicny.добавляется префикс.-по-"
cannot be ignored, but these two points do not necessarily contradict one
another.

Grossman's style is often seen as a bit dull and plodding.  I don't quite
agree with this view.  A few years ago, with regard to a passage from Life
and Fate, I wrote this:
"Before effectively condemning himself to death by refusing to work on the
construction of a gas chamber, Ikonnikov turns to an Italian priest and asks
a profound question in a haunting jumble of Italian, French and German: ‘Que
dois-je faire, mio padre, nous travaillons dans una Vernichtungslager.’
Grossman’s style has sometimes been called ponderous, typically Soviet; it
would be truer to say that Grossman is capable of many kinds of poetry, from
the fumbling, broken language of Ikonnikov to the self-denunciatory
eloquence of Krymov, but that, being suspicious of poetry for its own sake,
he gives himself up to it only when more ordinary language ceases to be
adequate."

But I don’t think I will be able to reproduce this particular subtlety, if
that is what it is.  I fear I shall be resorting to a footnote...

Thanks very much to everyone who has offered their thoughts!

R.



> Nonethelss, even though Katarina is right about her comment, the change, from
> the normal Russian kvartal'nyj, to the abnormal--usually, purely temporal
> Russian POkvartal'nyj, calls for attention. Pokvartal'nyj upolnomochennyj
> would mean someone who writes quarterly denunciations. The fact that this
> title refers to a collaborator with the Nazis suggests a certain associative
> link between such Soviet informers and Nazi collaborators. Whether this hint
> of a link is translatable is another matter. All I can hope for is that Robert
> can do the impossible, precisely about such hints of links--having worked with
> him on Platonov, I now fully trust his genius for doing the impossible.
> o  
> 
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