An Illustration of Kharms's Four Illustrations

I think I spent a day in total reading Daniil Kharms’s Absurd Stories. It was so different from anything I’ve read before, so refreshing. This book occupied me during a period in which I didn’t devote enough time to writing, and when I happened to sit down, I just wasn’t inspired at all. Ah, the writer’s block, the writer’s doubt, creatives’ companions; all too familiar. It comes in waves, I know that. But each time it feels like a new wave.

And then I stumbled upon this gem, Kharms’s short play titled Four Illustrations of How a New Idea Can Startle a Person Unprepared for It. I read this snippet and started laughing out loud. Never has self-doubt sounded so relatable; never has fear of being perceived felt so familiar and yet so … absurd.

Serbian (LOM edition, Cyrillic):

English (Wikilivres translation):

Read the full play at Wikilivres.

As I was reading the play, I pictured the Writer, and him dropping dead felt like such a disproportionate reaction to a bit of criticism. Yet at the same time, having been sitting in my own pool of self-doubt for a while, I felt that if someone had told me my writing was shit in that exact moment, I would have dropped dead just as fast. It all felt so stupid and funny and unnecessarily serious — absurd! — at the same time.