Blue Notebook No. 2

Was recommending Daniil Kharms to a friend today and, as I always am when I recommend a favorite, was reminded of what a brilliant author he was. He wrote children's books, poems, and absurd short (and I do mean short) stories published in underground magazines and banned by Stalin. Here is one example:

    Once there was a redheaded man without eyes and without ears. 

    He had no hair either, so that he was a redhead was just something they said.

    He could not speak, for he had no mouth. He had no nose either.

    He didn't even have arms or legs. He had no stomach either, and he had no back, and he had no spine, and no intestines of any kind. He didn't have anything at all. So it is hard to understand whom we are really talking about.

    So it is probably best not to talk about him any more.