Reading. Brodsky. (on Platonov).

In preparation for reading The Foundation Pit, I began with Joseph Brodsky's brief preface. Reading a writer you already love writing about another writer new to you gives a new dimension to your understanding of this new writer, and in turn reflects something new about the first one. It was some three months ago that I started reading Brodsky, fell in love with him; his words are to me what Venice is to him, a labryinth of disovery, an emotion that goes deeper than love. I discovered Platonov a few weeks ago, drawn to The Fierce and Beautiful World by its title and pulled into the stories by Platonov's use of words. There are writers who use language in such a way they almost seem to be reimagining it in an entirely new way, to make you see and feel in a way you never thought you could before, and Platonov is one of them. In his preface for The Foundation Pit, Brodsky shows you why.

(to be continued).