Prophesy and Science: On the Nature of Velimir Xlebnikov's Doski Sud&soft;by
Andrea
Hacker
Velimir Xlebnikov's work Doski Sud&soft;by is very
complex in nature. The poet fused many different kinds of discourse to
create what can be seen as his cosmological legacy. The work hinges on
Xlebnikov's conviction that the underlying and at the same time
unifying code for all phenomena, be they numinal or phenomenal, is
numeric. He suggests that deities, planets, and of course time are
manifestations of numbers.
There is no critical edition of the work as of yet. Xlebnikov died
before he could finish his preparatory work for the publication of
Doski Sud&soft;by. What we have is a table of contents
drawn up propably by the poet's friend Petr Mituri&chachek;, and an
arrangement of texts into seven fascicles. In my paper I want to
explore the architecture of Doski Sud&soft;by with an
emphasis on the ways in which Xlebnikov's central mathematical ideas
may be relevant for the work's structure. One important aspect of the
paper will be the discussion of the role of the innumerable
mathematical equations as a textual fact. If numbers and formulae
indeed lie at the core of Xlebnikov's vision and consequently of
Dosky Sud&soft;by, then should a critical edition include
the pages and pages of the poet's calculations?
Another aspect of the presentation, if time permits, will be to
sketch out part of the numerical and numerological heritage Xlebnikov
draws on. His idea of numbers representing an ultimate Truth is by no
means new and needs to be put in its propper historical context in
order to shed more light on the puzzle of the text's nature.