Platonov 'Never to return'

[Olga Meerson]

As a native speaker of russian NAD  a Platonov scholar, I don't 
understand what it means to be both 'normal' and 'within the borders of 
Platonov's stylistic register'. What do these borders (actually, 
parameters?) have to do with normalcy?
o.m.

Margarita Orlova wrote:

> As a native speaker, i believe the phrase is normal, though within  
> the borders of Platonov's chosen stylistic register.
>
>>  The past perfective gerund is, in fact, not always past, though it is
>> perfective.
>
>
> Another Platonov's possibility to express the future would be "chtoby  
> nikogda bolee uzhe ne vozvratiti'sa na kotlovan", but it switches the  
> register too high - away from his style.
>
> Margarita
>
>
>
> On Apr 9, 2008, at 4:41 AM, Robert Chandler wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Platonov does something odd with time in this passage from the very  
>> end of
>> KOTLOVAN. Zhachev, the speaker, is in the barak, which is, I think,  
>> being
>> treated as somewhere separate from the kotlovan itself.
>>
>> – Ты же видишь, что я урод империализма, а коммунизм –  это детское  
>> дело, за
>> то я и Настю любил... Пойду сейчас на прощанье  товарища Пашкина убью.
>>
>> И Жачев уполз в город, более уже никогда не возвратившись на котлован.
>> I Zhachev upolz v gorod, bolee uzhe nikogda ne vozvrativshis’ na  
>> kotlovan.
>>
>> There is clearly something paradoxical about this use of the past  
>> perfective
>> gerund.
>>
>> At present we have:
>> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, never to return to the  
>> foundation
>> pit.’
>> But that is utterly normal, which the Russian clearly isn’t.
>> Another possibility is ‘never having returned to the foundation  
>> pit’. But
>> that too, I think, oversimplifies the meaning?
>>
>> The following versions are probably the closest, but they seem  
>> rather fussy.
>> The original seems much cleaner!
>> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, never again to have gone  
>> back to
>>  the foundation pit.’
>> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, not once to have gone back  
>> to the
>> foundation pit.’
>>
>> The last seems to me the least bad, but can anyone suggest anything  
>> better?
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> R.
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ---
>>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your  subscription
>>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface  at:
>>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ---
>>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------