The Right to Swear. Linguistic Imperfection in Russian Literary Blogs

The Right to Swear.
Linguistic Imperfection in Russian Literary Blogs
Ellen Rutten, 19.06.2009
From Typo to Hype: Introduction Page FoR
“For years, the popular press has been asking whether email, IM,
or texting on mobile phones is degrading the way we write.
Conversely, some linguists and composition teachers argue that
all this writing is bringing about an epistolary renaissance that is
strengthening our language abilities – and the language itself.”
Naomi Baron, Always On. Language in an Online & Mobile World
(2008)
From Typo to Hype
•  Debate on new technologies vs. language change
•  Literary sphere
•  Russian writers’ blogs
•  Linguistic imperfection (grammar, lexicon, style)
Imperfection – other (technology-reliant) creative spheres:
•  Film
•  Music / music videos
•  Flash animation
•  Design
Film – Dogme 95 films (Festen, Idioterne, both 1998),
Cloverfield (2008)
Music – Esmée Denters (YouTube), Vasil’ Vasil’tsiv (ICQ)
Flash animation – snapshots Andrei Bakhurin,
Strawberry Spring & Рыбоед (both 1999-2005)
Design – Frame Magazine homepage
Design – Maarten Baas, Clay Furniture (2006)
Language: font design – David Earls, MyFonts
“Imperfection … adds excitement, colour and fun to life, yet is
the very thing that is missing from most modern digital
typography. The fonts released under this foundry are
experiments in deliberate imperfection, designed to counteract
the clinical and precise nature of digital typography.”
David Earls, statement on www.myfonts.com
Padonki – «Манифезд Падонкафф»
Snapshot tanyant (Tat’iana Tolstaia)
Snapshot snorapp (Linor Goralik)
Snapshot polumrak (author’s name unknown)
Typo to Hype hypotheses – 1
Thesis: Russian blog writers enact a deliberate linguistic
imperfection in reaction to technological perfection
Test: analysis concrete (meta-linguistic) entries
Snapshot tanyant – 1st entry
Typo to Hype hypotheses – 2
Thesis: Linguistic laconism enhances Russian blog author’s
(social and/or economic) success
Test: a. comparison success blog & print versions
b. content analysis (readers’ reactions)
Snapshot snorapp – 1st meta-linguistic entry
Snapshot snorapp – comment thread same entry
Deliberate imperfection – cultural-historical roots:
•  Noble savage tradition
•  View dilettant/amateur as passionate, noble
•  Art Brut (Dubuffet)
•  “Bad art”
Bad art 1: “since everyone nowadays writes very well, you must
write badly, as badly as possible, and then you will attract
attention. … if you can really learn to write lousily, worse than
anybody else, then world fame is guaranteed.”
Valentin Kataev, Святой колодец, 1965
Bad art 2:
“to paint really
bad paintings … with
muck, with mud, with
non-colours”; to
“establish something
against all of the
beautiful things” Georg Baselitz,
early 1960s
Baselitz,
Die Grosse Nacht im Eimer, 1962
Anti-literature: the idea that “beauty and truth are mutually
incompatible, according to the axiom that the degree of polish
in a narrative is inversely proportional to its sincerity.”
Rolf Helleburst (unpublished paper)
Anti-literature 1: “I do not have the slightest hint of artistic
talent. I do not even have a good command of the language. But
this is nothing: read on, most kind public. Your reading will not
be without benefit. Truth is a good thing: it compensates for the
faults of the author who serves it.”
Nikolai Chernyshevskii, Что делать?
Anti-literature 2: «Эта вторая книга, наверное, в
отношении слога бледнее и менее отделана (и такою
и останется), но полнее в сюжетном смысле, мрачнее,
трагичнее. . . . я писал эту прозу непрофессионально,
без сознательно выдерживаемого творческого
прицела, в плохом смысле по-домашнему. . .»
Pasternak, comment on Доктор Живаго
parallel discourse on
letter-writing (Classicism > Sentimentalism)
“formlessness of style”, “familiarity” towards the reader
&
blogging (Postmodernism > today)
Henrike Schmidt (2009)
Challenges: 1. Can blogs be literary?
•  Writers’ blog as “kreatiff ” (Rutten)
•  Writers’ blog as “literaturnyi fakt”
(Schmidt, relying on Tynianov’s term)
•  …
Challenges: 2. Linguistic imperfection in blogs?
•  tanyant – no mistakes blog vs typos print edition:
«эпизод забылся,[.] Но что-то надорвалось»
«Мамочка бежит[,] Мамочка задыхается»
(Река Оккервиль, М: Подкова 2004)
•  meta-linguistic comment vs “performative metalanguage” (Lunde)
Challenges: 3. Russian writers’ blog = ЖЖ?
•  Snob
•  www.snob.ru: Snob blogs
Snob.ru – homepage
Snob.ru – Снобщество
Snob.ru – Григорий Чхартишвили / Борис Акунин
Snob.ru – Владимир Сорокин
Snob.ru – Антон Носик
Snob.ru – Recent “blog” post by Sorokin
Snob.ru – Comment thread recent Nosik post
Snob.ru – Goralik
Snob.ru – Заяц ПЦ’s blog