S4E1 - Vladimir Mayakovsky (pt. 1/3)

Episode Notes

S4 E1: Mayakovsky (pt. 1/3): The Overshares


Alexander Billet joins us to discuss the Soviet
Futurist-Communist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 Baghdati – 1930
Moscow). We consider Mayakovsky’s unique status among both
modernists and poets; we begin to sketch the cultural milieu of
the Russian Empire, Provisional Republic, and Soviet Union in the
first three decades of the twentieth century; comparisons to
other modernists, futurists, and the present day highlight the
political, personal, and aesthetic elements of Mayakovsky’s work.
This episode mainly deals with the poet’s pre-revolutionary life
and work. Anna and Rachel talk shit on his love life. Frank
laments walking waist-deep into his own sprawling,
self-indulgent, biographical-political poetic epic. We all agree
that Mayakovsky’s work is impressive, complex, and worthy of
serious contemplation, but we also rightfully slag him as the
self-important gloom coomer he advertised himself to be.


This episode begins by assessing Mayakovsky's significance
historically to the USSR and personally to us. We then give a
brief overview of Mayakovsky's early life and discuss: A CLOUD IN
PANTS / THE BACKBONE FLUTE / I LOVE


Find visual materials here:
https://twitter.com/PointlessCent/status/1478395638693998604


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The Pointless Crew: Frank Fucile (he/him/his) @thtopofmyvoice –
Lit & Theory, Film & Media, Genre, Enviro & Tech
Studies // Alexander Billet (he/him/his) @UbuPamplemousse –
Poetry, Music, Cultural Criticism, Marxist Theory & History
// Rachel Hamele (she/they/her/their/hers/theirs) – History,
Humanities, Queer Studies, Fandoms // Anna Wendorff
(she/her/hers) – Communications, Rhetorics of Sci & Tech,
Feminism // Madalyn McCabe (she/her/hers) – Co-Producer, Sound
Editing, European Studies


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Bibliography:


Brown, Edward J. Mayakovsky: A Poet in the Revolution, Princeton
UP, 1973.


Mayakovsky, Vladimir. The Bedbug and Selected Poetry. Translated
by Max Hayward and George Reavey, edited by Patricia Blake,
Indiana UP, 1960.


Mayakovsky, Vladimir. Mayakovsky. Translated and edited by
Herbert Marshall, Hill and Wang, 1965.


Mayakovsky, Vladimir. Poems. Translated by Dorian Rottenberg,
USSR, 1972.


Mayakovsky, Vladimir. Selected Poems. Translated by James H.
McGavran III, Northwestern UP, 2013.


Mayakovsky, Vladimir. Volodya: Selected Works. Edited by Rosy
Carrick, Enitharmon, 2015.


MUSIC: Rites of Spring – “For Want Of” from Rites of Spring
(Dischord, 1985)


FUGAZI – “Epic Problem” from The Argument (Dischord, 2001)


ART: Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1910 (unknown
photographer)