Velimir Khlebnikov

Velimir Khlebnikov [Велими́р Хле́бнико], pseudonym of Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov [Виктор Владимирович Хлебников] (b. Toula 1885 - d. Governorate of Novgoord 1922), was a writer, sketcher and poet, also interested in mathematics, history, mythology and ornithology (he wrote an article about the cuckoo).

A key artist in Russian cubo-futurism, he was constantly searching by way of verbal experimentation, writing toward the utopia of a "stellar" universal language. "The Radio of the Future" is an essay written at the end of his life anticipating the possibilities of the new radiophonic medium (radio first started broadcasting in Russia in 1922). He conceives radio as a "central tree consciousness" or "a great wizard and sorcerer" which, with its waves, would "unite all mankind". He saw the radio station as "a spider's web of lines" or "the flight of birds in springtime" which reveal the "news from the life of the spirit". In the hands of artists, this new medium would transport and project ideas instantly to the "unknown shores" of all humanity. Khlebnikov imagined that they could make "Radio-Books", "Radio Reading-Walls", "Radio-auditoriums" ("a concert stretching from Vladivostok to the Baltic"), "Radio and Art Exhibits", "Radio Screens" and "Radio Clubs"... where you could see and hear everything from the tiniest sound of nature to major events in the "exciting life" of cities. He understood that with this there would be a communication between the artist's "soul" and the people: "the artist has cast a spell over his land; he has given his country the singing of the sea and the whistling of the wind. The poorest house in the smallest town is filled with divine whistlings and all the sweet delights of sound." This capacity of Radio led him to see it as "The Great Sorcerer", capable of transmitting even "the sense of taste"; people would drink water feeling that they were drinking wine; or smell: a Radio station "would give" the nation, for example, "the odour of snow" in the middle of spring. It would also be a "Doctor without medicine" curing from a distance by means of "hypnotic suggestion". And Radio could also transmit sounds to facilitate the work of the harvest and construction by emitting certain musical notes, "la" and "ti", which would help "increase muscular capacity" in the workers. Another of the Radio's great qualities would be the organization of popular education through radiophonic classes and lectures. But Khlebnikov also warned that all this potential could be interrupted if a Radio station were damaged. That would generate "a mental blackout over the entire country". Thus it was necessary to protect the Radio Station with the word "Danger". In this text, Khlebnikov anticipates the potential of Mass Media and its capacity for the globalization of ideas and opinion - although this "universal soul" was seen by him as positive, he already suspected some of its dangers. This text was possibly written in around 1921 in Pitigorsk, when Khlebnikov was working temporarily as a watchman in a telegraph agency, spending the long nights writing.

Works

• Khlebnikov, et al., Sadok sudey [Садок Судей], St Petersburg: Zhuravl', Apr 1910, 131 pp. (Russian)

• Izbornik stikhov s poslesloviyem Rechyarya [Изборник стихов с послесловием Речяря], St Petersburg: EUY [ЕУЫ], 1914. (Russian)
• Ryav! Perchatki (1908-1914 gg.) [Ряв! Перчатки (1908-1914 гг.)], Petrograd: EUY [ЕУЫ], 1914. (Russian)
• Tvoreniya: T. 1: 1906-1908 [Творения: Т. 1: 1906-1908], Moscow: Izd. "Pervogo zhurnala russkikh futuristov", 1914. (Russian)
• with A.E. Kruchenykh, Sarinnaya lyubov. Bukh lesinyy [Старинная любовь. Бух лесиный], [Petrograd]: EUY [ЕУЫ], 1914. (Russian)

• Vremya mera ira [Время мера мира], Petrograd, 1916. (Russian)
• Khlebnikov, et al., Chetyre stitsy. Sbornik stikhov [Четыре птицы. Сборник стихов], Moscow: К., 1916. (Russian)
• Khlebnikov, et al., Vremennik [Временник], Moscow: B. i., 1917. (Russian)

• Khlebnikov, et al., Rzhanoe slovo. Revolyutsionnaya khrestomatiya futuristov [Ржаное слово. Революционная хрестоматия футуристов], Petrograd: IMO, 1918. (Russian)

• Khlebnikov, et al., Liren [Лирень], V.m., 1920, 40 pp. (Russian)
• Noch' v okope [Ночь в окопе], Moscow: Imazhinisty, 1921. (Russian)
• Zangezi [Зангези], Moscow, 1922. (Russian)
• Otryvok iz "Dosok sud'by" [Отрывок из "Досок судьбы"], [Мoscow], [1922]. (Russian)

• Zverinets (K dvadtsatiletiyu so dnya napechataniya). 2. Pis'mo Khlebnikova. 3. Vospominaniya o Khlebnikove [Зверинец (К двадцатилетию со дня напечатания). 2. Письмо Хлебникова. 3. Воспоминания о Хлебникове], Moscow: Gruppa druzey Khlebnikova, 1930. (Russian)

• http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Khlebnikov%2C+Velimir%2C+1885-1922%22
• http://imwerden.de/cat/modules.php?name=books&pa=last_update&cid=318

Collected writings

• Sobranie sochineiy [Собрание сочинений], 6 vols., 2000-06, PDF/1, PDF/2, PDF/3, PDF/4, PDF/5, PDF/6-1, PDF/6-2. (Russian)
• The King of Time. Selected Writings of the Russian Futurian, ed. Charlotte Douglas, trans. Paul Schmidt, Harvard University Press, 1985, 255 pp. (English)
• Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov, 1: Letters and Theoretical Writings, ed. Charlotte Douglas, trans. Paul Schmidt, Harvard University Press, 1987, 452 pp. (English)
• Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov, 2: Prose, Plays, and Supersagas, trans. Paul Schmidt, ed. Ronald Vroon, Harvard University Press, 1989. [1] (English)
• Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov, 3: Selected Poems, Harvard University Press, 1998, 290 pp. (English)

Literature

• Nikolay Stepanov, Velimir Khlebnikov: zhizn i tvorchestvo [Велимир Хлебников: жизнь и творчество], 1975. (Russian)
• Salomon Mirsky, Der Orient im Werk Velimir Chlebnikovs, Munich: Sagner, 1975, 121 pp. (German)
• Barbara Lönnqvist, Xlebnikov and Carnival: An Analysis of the Poem Poet, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1979, 166 pp. (English)
• Russian Literature 9(1): "The Russian Avant-Garde III" (Jan 1981). [2] (English)
• Peter Stobbe, Utopisches Denken bei V. Chlebnikov, Munich: Sagner, 1982, 164 pp. (German)
• Nils Åke Nilsson (ed.), Velimir Chlebnikov: A Stockholm Symposium, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985, 150 pp. (English)
• Johannes Holthusen (ed.), Velimir Chlebnikov, Munich: Sagner, 1986. (German),(Russian),(English)
• Raymond Cooke, Velimir Khlebnikov: A Critical Study, Cambridge University Press, 1987. (English)
• http://www.ka2.ru/nauka/

See also

• Symphony of Sirens
• Aleksei Kruchenykh
• Russia#Avant-garde

Links

• http://www.ubu.com/sound/khlebnikov.html
• http://www.ubu.com/sound/russian_futurists.html
• A documentary on Khlebnikov, 25 min (in Russian)
• The World of Velimir Khlebnikov
• Мир Велимира Хлебникова
• Khlebnikov at Wikipedia