The Foundation Pit is Platonov’s most overtly political book, written in direct response to the staggering brutalities of Stalin’s collectivization of Russian agriculture. His prose is deliberately and effectively incongruous. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. … –The Irish Times, "These books are indescribable. One indication of how deeply many Russian writers and critics admire Platonov is the extent of their generosity to his translators; I now have a large list of people I can turn to for help. "I squint back on our century and I see six writers I think it will be remembered for. February 24, 2020 The Foundation Pit | © Andrey Gryazev A … Get headlines on local weather, entertainment, and events. Read the latest Buffalo, NY, and Erie County news from the Buffalo News. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. This English translation is the first … "If you don't, who will? Silicone Sealant: Pipes through foundation wall shall be protected with a sleeve caulked watertight with a silicone sealant. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. In other words, like no other Russian writer before or after him Platonov was able to reveal a self destructive, eschatological element within the language itself.' This English translation is the first … The Foundation Pit is Platonov’s most overtly political book, written in direct response to the staggering brutalities of Stalin’s collectivization of Russian agriculture. The novel's central image is the digging of an immense foundation pit for a communal high-rise project to house the local proletariat, a project that remains a big hole. Share Print. Also, the first phase of a two-year project to install a new stage rigging system and an expanded orchestra pit will begin this year. Without the wonderful translation of Chandler and the wealth of vital annotations that contextualise seemingly innocuous comments as being based on key moments and movements in Soviet History, this book of poetic beauty would have rendered much lost to the unfamiliar reader of Soviet History. Furthermore, it provides essential background to Platonov's parody of the mainstream Soviet "production" novel, which is widely recognized as one of … –New Statesman, "Counting Andrei Platonov among the greatest Russian prose writers of this century, Joseph Brodsky considered him to be 'quite untranslatable, and, in one sense, that's a good thing: for the language into which he cannot be translated.' Platonov's poetic masterpiece in exquisite translation, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2016. Andrey Platonov is without question the greatest writer of the twentieth century, and this is his finest work. Robert Chandler is probably the finest active translator of Russian literature into English, and Olga Meerson is an outstanding scholar in that field. When a manufactured home is installed very close to ground level, making it look more like a site-built home, it has a “pit set” foundation. –Guardian, "Platonov's writing can retain enormous power in English...The foreign reader can also now begin to get an idea of the shape of Platonov's development as a writer. It is decided to send Safronov and Kozlov to the village tokeep the blaze of class struggle burning hot. Kotlovan In the opening sequence of the film, which is made from excerpts from amateur videos and TV news reports, Andrey Gryazev zeroes in on a … The pit just gets wider and deeper until it comes to represent a grave – … –The Sydney Morning Herald, "Like Candide, Platonov's novel is a plotless allegory of human striving...The forced industrialisation of Russia, which began in 1928 and is the historical background of The Foundation Pit, left an estimated 15.2m dead. The weak underlying soil is dug out and concrete poured in its place to … –The National Post, "Nearly all his work is rooted in a particular place and time, and it is hard to think of another writer who so expertly animated the sadness and unease of the Soviet period. If you are feeling frustrated that this volume is now hard to obtain, I suggest that you turn instead to our recent NYRB CLassics edition of THE FOUNDATION PIT. Generally, it is below the ground level. Please try again. During the last 15 years, however, I have been regularly attending Platonov seminars and conferences in Moscow and Petersburg. Andrei Platonov’s novel The Foundation Pit, a hallucinatory satire of Stalin’s plans for collectivisation that was finished in 1930 but censored for decades, sees a group of Soviet workers tasked with digging a foundation pit on which a house for the proletariat is to be built. The main character loses his job and wanders to a neighboring town where he joins a crew that is digging a foundation pit for a massive building for the proletariat to live in. ), Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2017, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2009. Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2011. He has been a professional sportsman (figure skating) and competed at World and European Championships. He won more than 20 major awards at various … The jobsite is peopled with men literally pounded down to sinew and reflex--each man mirroring a trait/reflexive reaction to oppression. "-PIT Founder The pit just gets wider and deeper until it comes to represent a grave - of Stalinism's Promethean ambitions, and of the author's political idealism. In special geology conditions such as silt-soil, foundation pits are prone to instability and severe deformation. Mass pouring: It’s used in situations that require shallow underpinning, not deep excavations. This website may use cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, and similar technologies to facilitate the operation of the site, customize the site to you, analyze traffic, and provide certain social media features. Translated from the Russian by Robert & Elizabeth Chandler and Olga Meerson, Soul: And Other Stories (New York Review Books Classics), Happy Moscow (New York Review Books Classics), Life and Fate (New York Review Books Classics). Two of these men loved the same woman in a distant, poignant past, and she had a child--a girl--whom the men take in. The power of devastation they inflict upon their subject matter exceeds by far any demands of social criticism and should be measured in units that have very little to do with literature as such." A dreamy young man--a "starets" of sorts--who was fired for "thinking" on the job, stumbles into a bleak steppe town and gets new work building a foundation pit for a communal housing complex. And in this book, there isn't. Second, Platonov is very hard to translate. But as the endless job goes on, sapping all their energy, it becomes apparent that they may in fact be digging a massive grave. Films A to Z. Seeking to evoke unspeakable realities, Platonov deforms and transforms language in pages that echo both with the alienating doublespeak of power and the stark simplicity of prayer. –The New York Times, "Andrey Platonov is one of Russia's greatest modernist scribes. Procedure for construction of foundation starts with a decision on its depth, width, and marking layout for excavation and centerline of foundation. The Foundation Pit is Platonov's most overtly political book, written in direct response to the staggering brutalities of Stalin's collectivization of Russian agriculture. Daniel R. "Dan" Gernatt Sr. (February 7, 1917 – May 5, 2014) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, horseman, and dairy farmer in Collins, New York. Platonov, by the way, is a wonderful writer. Seeking to evoke unspeakable realities, Platonov deforms and transforms language in pages that echo both with the alienating doublespeak of power and the stark simplicity of prayer. Share Website Facebook; Twitter; Tickets. As millions inside and outside Russia have discovered, Platonov is a real writer: he is a writer's writer. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Platonov deserves to be published; he rewards being read." Once known only to a small circle of admirers in Russia and the West, Andrey Platonov (1899-1951) has emerged to assume his rightful place as one of the major Russian writers of the twentieth century. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. --Joseph … Something went wrong. The Foundation Pit distresses the Russian language, showing it splayed and shattered by the demands of revolution. (After all, even Jane Austen has to be researched to be fully enjoyed. The foundation pit is complete. It … It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. But still, don't be surprised if this novel has you heading for an encyclopedia. Foundation pit excavation follows the principle of ‘time and space effect’. 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