In a recent Jacket2 commentary post, Charles Bernstein presents audio and video from Lev Rubinstein's recent reading at Hunter College. Recorded on February 6th, this set consists of selections from Ugly Duckling Presse's 2014 collection, Compleat Catalogue of Comedic Novelties, which collects all of Rubinstein's "note-card poems" written during the 1970s. These minimalist poems embody Rubinstein's sense of "hybrid genre,": "at times like a realistic novel, at times like a dramatic play, at times like a lyric poem, etc., that is, it slides along the edges of genres and, like a small mirror, fleetingly reflects each of them, without identifying with any of them."
As Bernstein notes in his post, reading Compleat Catalogue engendered "an enormous affinity between work we both were doing, unknown to one another, in the the 1970s." He continues: "Rubinstein's is a poetry of changing parts that ensnares the evanescent uncanniness of the everyday (in ways that bring to mind the seriality of both Reznikoff and Grenier). By means of rhythmically foregrounding a central device — the basic unit of the work is the index card — Rubinstein continuously remakes actual for us a flickering now time that is both intimate and strange."
Rubinstein reads his work in the original Russian, while the collection's translations by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky are read by Matvei Yankelevich (shown above to the right of Rubinstein). A short video excerpt is available along with audio of the complete reading. You'll find both by clicking here.
As Bernstein notes in his post, reading Compleat Catalogue engendered "an enormous affinity between work we both were doing, unknown to one another, in the the 1970s." He continues: "Rubinstein's is a poetry of changing parts that ensnares the evanescent uncanniness of the everyday (in ways that bring to mind the seriality of both Reznikoff and Grenier). By means of rhythmically foregrounding a central device — the basic unit of the work is the index card — Rubinstein continuously remakes actual for us a flickering now time that is both intimate and strange."
Rubinstein reads his work in the original Russian, while the collection's translations by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky are read by Matvei Yankelevich (shown above to the right of Rubinstein). A short video excerpt is available along with audio of the complete reading. You'll find both by clicking here.
