Lobolover
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LBL Reviews # 18- The Red Laugh (1904) and Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev
Now there are writers you may have never heard of. Amongst these, th pyarmid o ignorence which is for most readers the majority of Russian writers of the past 150 years is a towering example. But even amongst the Idiots and Wars and Ceasefires, one cand find things wholy removed from the jovial or realistic side. Look at Leonid Andreyev, whose works live in general obscurity even today, after the fall of the Iron curtain. But is it even worth to delve into the mans work? You bet your siting posture it is.
Andreyev is the writer of what one would call psychological strange stories, though my personal definition would be psychotic. In his 1909 novel The Seven Who Were Hanged , Andreyev presents us with the torments of a group of people during their short stay at a prison, awaiting execution. Their back grounds, or preferabely enough, the exact reasons for the terrorist act for which they stand trialare nevr given, but it is not this novels desire to be realistic in that way. It is a disturbing story, which draws closer to the finish with every sentence, leaving one to never forget about the inevitable ending. This was the first Andreyev I read, and it was worth every minute of it.
On the other hand, we have his short fiction, like "The abyss", which ends in unseen rape, or Lazarus, one of the main objectives of this review. It is the story of Lazarus, strangely transformed by his sojourn under ground, and becoming an inevitable menace to the lives of all whom he sees and meets.
The Red Laugh, however, ah that is Andreyev's pinacle! Imagine Kafka's "The Castle" induced with even more paranoia (if that is concievable) then it already is, tinted with a psychotic fear of an insane, worldly menace , which is in itsel concntrated madness, and set it in part during a war and there you have it- one of the strangest and most captivating weird tales ever writen. If you have not read this, do so and then read The Castle or good measure and you will feel the world that much more insane, inconcievable and menacing place.
Now there are writers you may have never heard of. Amongst these, th pyarmid o ignorence which is for most readers the majority of Russian writers of the past 150 years is a towering example. But even amongst the Idiots and Wars and Ceasefires, one cand find things wholy removed from the jovial or realistic side. Look at Leonid Andreyev, whose works live in general obscurity even today, after the fall of the Iron curtain. But is it even worth to delve into the mans work? You bet your siting posture it is.
Andreyev is the writer of what one would call psychological strange stories, though my personal definition would be psychotic. In his 1909 novel The Seven Who Were Hanged , Andreyev presents us with the torments of a group of people during their short stay at a prison, awaiting execution. Their back grounds, or preferabely enough, the exact reasons for the terrorist act for which they stand trialare nevr given, but it is not this novels desire to be realistic in that way. It is a disturbing story, which draws closer to the finish with every sentence, leaving one to never forget about the inevitable ending. This was the first Andreyev I read, and it was worth every minute of it.
On the other hand, we have his short fiction, like "The abyss", which ends in unseen rape, or Lazarus, one of the main objectives of this review. It is the story of Lazarus, strangely transformed by his sojourn under ground, and becoming an inevitable menace to the lives of all whom he sees and meets.
The Red Laugh, however, ah that is Andreyev's pinacle! Imagine Kafka's "The Castle" induced with even more paranoia (if that is concievable) then it already is, tinted with a psychotic fear of an insane, worldly menace , which is in itsel concntrated madness, and set it in part during a war and there you have it- one of the strangest and most captivating weird tales ever writen. If you have not read this, do so and then read The Castle or good measure and you will feel the world that much more insane, inconcievable and menacing place.
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