Episode 171 - Teach us love (Eugene Ostashevsky, 'Language' and 'The Anatomy of Monotony')

PoemTalk at the Writers House

In this episode, our discussion takes us to the great Ostashevskyan topics — knowledge otherwise somehow alienated; language that embodies or transliterates a kind of violence; the (sound) differences between knowing and saying no (and similarities); his sincere (and doubtless Russian Absurdist-influenced) plea to “teach us love / teach us love / teach us love / teach us love” even though “We are wholly unfamiliar with it.” Because the episode was recorded before the February 24, 2022, Russian military invasion into Ukraine, listeners will have to reckon for themselves the many places in our conversation when we would no doubt have commented on the war (continuing at the time of the podcast’s release) and on the role of the avant-garde Russian American poet in relation to Russian cultures historical and contemporary.