The Pointless Century Frank Fucile

Episode Notes
S4E3: Mayakovsky (pt. 3/3): The Epics TW
 
TW: Suicide /
Alexander Billet joins us to discuss the Soviet Futurist-Communist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 Baghdati – 1930 Moscow).  Finally we get to the good stuff.  Two speculative war epics, two wild elegies, messages to the future, and assorted screams into the void.  The zoomers are all meetinged out.  Alex dreams of a world without borders.  Frank talks about the Constructicons and tears like a wolf at bureaucracy.
 
This episode focuses on:
150,000,000 /
THE FLYING PROLETARIAN /
ALL MEETINGED OUT /
VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN /
TO SERGEI YESSENIN /
CONVERSATION WITH A TAXMAN ABOUT POETRY /
MY SOVIET PASSPORT /
AT THE TOP OF MY VOICE /
PAST 1 O’CLOCK
 
For more on the Russian Revolutions and Civil War, see:
Duncan, Mike. Revolutions, Season 10.
 
For our thoughts on Johnny Got His Gun and Pale Horse, Pale Rider, see S3E4.
 
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
 
// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/users/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury
 
Shout out to Locust Review:
https://www.locustreview.com/
https://twitter.com/locustreview
 
 
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.
 
Morton, Timothy. Humankind: Solidarity with Non-Human People. Verso, 2017.
 
Schick, Christine Suzanne. Russian Constructivist Theory and Practice in the Visual and Verbal Forms of Pro Eto. Doctoral Dissertation, UC Berkeley, 2011. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3949b3fr
 
MUSIC:
 
FUGAZI – “Ex-Spectator” from The Argument (Dischord, 2001) and “Public Witness Program” from In on the Kill Taker (Dischord, 1993)
 
THE CLASH – “Ivan Meets GI Joe” from SANDINISTA! (Epic, 1980)
 
ART:
Vladimir Mayakovsky with young poets at retrospective exhibition, 1930

Episode Notes
S4E2: Mayakovsky (pt. 2/3): The Shitposts

Alexander Billet joins us to discuss the Soviet Futurist-Communist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 Baghdati – 1930 Moscow). We consider a couple of his pre-revolutionary futurist poems, and some of his key works from the revolutionary period of February 1917 to February 1923. Anna and Rachel talk shit on his love life and puzzle over his imagery. Frank makes some bad jokes and talks about photos you can see if you follow on Insta and Twitter. We barely scratch the surface of Pro Eto (“About That” AKA “About This” AKA “That’s What” AKA “It”), a dizzying montage of personal and political impressions. The final episode will continue with this, several longer poems of the revolutionary era, and a few remaining Communist faves.

This episode focuses on:
GREAT BIG HELL OF A CITY /
LISTEN! /
ORDER No. 1 TO THE ARMY OF ARTS /
ORDER No. 2 TO THE ARMY OF ARTS /
PRO ETO “ABOUT THAT" (alternate English titles in paragraph above)

For more on ProletCult and Alexander Bogdanov, see:
Guerrilla History, “Art and the Working Class w/Taylor Genovese,” 20 Jan. 2022. https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/art-and-the-working-class-w-taylor-genovese

For more on the Russian Revolutions of 1917, see:
Duncan, Mike. Revolutions, Season 10.

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

// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/users/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury

Shout out to Locust Review:
https://www.locustreview.com/
https://twitter.com/locustreview

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.

Schick, Christine Suzanne. Russian Constructivist Theory and Practice in the Visual and Verbal Forms of Pro Eto. Doctoral Dissertation, UC Berkeley, 2011. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3949b3fr

MUSIC:
FUGAZI – “Epic Problem” and “Ex-Spectator” from The Argument (Dischord, 2001)

ART:
Vladimir Mayakovsky with Red Army soldiers in 1929 (unknown photographer)

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

Shout out to Locust Review:
https://www.locustreview.com/ --
https://twitter.com/locustreview

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

// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/users/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury

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)

Episode Notes
Bonus Episode: Magickal Realist Horror
 
Happy Halloween! Anna and Madalyn gush about Ari Aster; Will talks about Brecht; Frank explains some creepy things he read on the internet; we all love these movies, but there’s reason to be disturbed by the culture that produced them. That’s horror.
 
Hereditary. Dir./Writ. Ari Aster. Perf. Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro. A24, 2018.
 
Midsommar. Dir./Writ. Ari Aster. Perf. Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper. A24, 2019.
 
Rosemary’s Baby. Dir./Writ. Roman Polanski. Perf. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer. Paramount, 1968.
 
The VVitch: A New England Fable. Dir./Writ. Robert Eggers. Perf. Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie. A24, 2015.
 
The Pointless Crew:
Anna Wendorff (she/her/hers) – Communications, Rhetorics of Sci & Tech, Feminism //
Frank Fucile (he/him/his) – Lit & Theory, Film & Media, Genre, Enviro & Tech Studies //
Will O’Brien (he/him/his) – Lit & Theory, Modernism, Ecocriticism, Drama //
Madalyn McCabe (she/they) – Co-Producer, European Studies
 
// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/users/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury
 
MUSIC:
Fantômas – Rosemary’s Baby (written by Krzysztof Komeda)
 
ART:
Still from The Witch, dir. Robert Eggers, feat. Anya Taylor Joy (A24, 2015)

Episode Notes
S3 E6: Doctor Zhivago

Anna attempts to remember a book she read last summer; Rachel laments film adaptations again; Frank offers some ideas for propaganda; we all agree that this 1965 anti-Soviet film is a disappointment, but we still find things we can learn from it.

Doctor Zhivago. Dir. David Lean. Writ. Robert Bolt. Perf. Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger, Tom Cortenay, Geraldine Chaplin, Rita Tushingham, Klaus Kinski. MGM, 1965.

Pasternak, Boris. Doctor Zhivago. Pantheon, 1958.

The Pointless Crew:
Anna Wendorff (she/her/hers) – Communications, Rhetorics of Sci & Tech, Feminism //
Frank Fucile (he/him/his) – Lit & Theory, Film & Media, Genre, Enviro & Tech Studies //
Rachel Hamele (she/her/hers) – History, Humanities, Queer Studies, Fandoms //
Madalyn McCabe (she/her/hers) – Co-Producer, European Studies

// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/user/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury

ART:
Still from Doctor Zhivago (MGM, 1965)

Episode Notes
S3 E5: Battleship Potemkin / Man with Movie Camera

Rachel gets angry about the dramatization of an event from 116 years ago; Anna thinks really hard about shot selection and sequence; Frank swears he isn’t a tankie then recklessly glosses over the birth pangs of the most 20th-century of nations; we all agree that these films are great feats of cinema, but we have somewhat different attitudes toward the meaning and value of propaganda. For more detailed explanations of historical context than Frank gives here, please consult the podcasts in the notes below.

Battleship Potemkin. Dir. Sergei Eisenstein. Writ. Nina Agadzhanova, Sergei Eisenstein, & Grigoriy Aleksandrov. Perf. Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Nina Poltavtseva, Prokhorenko, A. Glauberman. Mosfilm, 1925.

Man with Movie Camera. Dir. Dziga Vertov. Writ. Dziga Vertov. Perf. Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova. VUFKU, 1929.

FURTHER READING & LISTENING:

Duncan, Mike. Revolutions. Season 10: May, 2019-present.

Eisenstein, Sergei. Film Form & The Film Sense. Translated and edited by Jay Leyda. Meridian, 1964.

Painter, Mark. The History of the Twentieth Century. Ep. 31-235 (May 2016-Apr. 2021).
[This huge range of episodes obviously deals with much more than Russian history, but listening to selected episodes in this span will cover the period from the Russo-Japanese War to Stalin’s first Five-Year Plan and thus will explain everything from the events that inspired Battleship Potemkin to the era in which it was produced.]

Vertov, Dziga. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. Edited by Annette Michelson. Translated by Kevin O’Brien. University of California Press, 1995.

The Pointless Crew:
Frank Fucile (he/him/his) – Lit & Theory, Film & Media, Genre, Enviro & Tech Studies //
Rachel Hamele (she/her/hers) – History, Humanities, Queer Studies, Fandoms //
Anna Wendorff (she/her/hers) – Communications, Rhetorics of Sci & Tech, Feminism //
Madalyn McCabe (she/her/hers) – Sound Editing, European Studies

// Troll us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointlessCent
// T-shirts are now available: http://www.teepublic.com/user/the-pointless-century
// Watch us on Instagram: @thePointlessCentury
// Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointlessCentury

MUSIC:
REFUSED – “Tannhaüser / Dérive” (Burning Heart, 1998)
SLEEP – “The Sciences” (3rd Man, 2018)

ART:
Screen shot from Battleship Potemkin, Blu-Ray edition (with colorization), dir. Sergei Eisenstein (Mosfilm, 1925 / Kino Lorber, 2010)