Reviews for Thought and vision

The average rating for Thought and vision based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-02-20 00:00:00 Tommie Campbell You can't not have this around if you're interested in Mandelstam. The translation is serviceable, though you'll need variations on hand for their attempts at the poetry. (It's disappointing that the translators insisted on referring to female poets as "poetesses," which I would have thought would have been passe even at the time.) Biographical notes on the translators would be helpful, especially now, when they're kind of old news. And it would have been nice if each piece were dated. You could find the dates in the footnotes for each, but that was cumbersome. And on the subject of footnotes, again, it would have been much less cumbersome, in a volume of this size, to have them at the bottom of the page, or at least at the end of each piece, rather than as endnotes at the end of the book. The introduction was useful. Other than that, it's Mandelstam, and a much-needed amalgamation of his work/voice. Nothing to bitch about. Well, okay, I will bitch about this, from "Literary Moscow": "For Moscow the saddest portent is Marina Tsvetaeva's madonna-like needlework... Women's poetry is the worst aspect of literary Moscow. Recent experience has shown that they only woman eligible to join the poets' circle with the rights of a new muse is the Russian science of poetics... The vast realm of parody, in the most serious and formal meaning of the word, has fallen to the lost of women in poetry."

Review # 2 was written on 2018-04-02 00:00:00 Jeff Volsky Mandelstam was one of the great poets of early twentieth century Russia. Beginning his career just before the Russian Revolution, he rose to prominence during the formation of the Soviet Union and thrived until he was sent into exile by Stalin. These writings collect his criticism of other poets and their works, and evoke his own theories about poetry and literature in general. Highly intelligent, this collection traces his early and somewhat immature theories all the way through the mature and magnificent writer he became. Mandelstam was particularly critical of Russian Symbolism. Describing Innokenty Annensky and comparing him favorably against Russian Symbolism in “About Russian Poetry” he writes that “a ship could be built entirely from foreign planks, but it must have its own form.” In general, though, these writings shine when Mandelstam is at his most poetic. My favorite piece in this collection is “Journey to Armenia” – “What tense would you choose to live in? I want to live in the imperative of the future passive participle – in the ‘what ought to be.’” Similarly contemplation worthy are statements in his tract “Morning of Acmeism”: “Logic is the kingdom of the unexpected. To think logically is to be perpetually astonished. We have come to love the music of proof. Logical connection for us is not some popular song about a finch, but a choral symphony, so difficult and so inspired that the conductor must exert all his energy to keep the performers under his control.” I would not have picked up this volume if I had not previously been exposed to Mandelstam’s wonderful poetry. It might not be for everyone, but as Mandelstam states in “Goethe’s Youth”: “Life is one in all its manifestations. You must experience everything, be capable of everything, and rejoice in everything.” See my other reviews here!