An Unconventional Introduction To A Skyrocker Poet

August 28, 2006

the two roots of viktor neborak’s last name (nebo - rak) mean the words for ‘sky’ or ‘heaven’ and ‘crayfish’, ‘crab’ or ‘cancer’
the word ‘crayfish’ (rak) in ukrainian is close to the word ‘rock’ (rok) as in the musical genre
that’s why i calque neborak into skyrocker in the title to this introduction
the song “the flying head” based on neborak’s poem from this collection was widely popularized by the lviv rock band jeremiah’s cry (plach jeremii) – a lot of ukrainians mistakenly think that taras chubai of the band wrote the lyrics to the song because he sings it – they should read the liner notes
neborak had a rock band that put out an album based on his poetry called neborok (it’s available on cd if you’d like to hear it) – viktor was lead singer and played some electric guitar
neborak’s is a poetry for everyone, not just for elitist aesthetes
neborak’s poetry is for the young and open-minded, and for the young in spirit
WARNING LABEL: those old in spirit and intolerant in their aesthetic literary perspective shouldn’t read this particular collection STOP NOW and move on to something more conventional like taras shevchenko
neborak’s poetry in the flying head is theatrical, he calls it a show, it’s text meant to be performed, it’s even better when you see and hear him perform it live – he’s a terrific performer of his own works – i suggest you read it aloud when you read it
neborak is kind of an amalgam of a neo-symbolist and neo-futurist (if we feel like making him an –ist or an artist belonging to an –ism for the sake of comparison)
there are several reference to the french symbolist-decadents apollinaire and baudelaire in the collection – some of the decadent scenes in neborak’s poems recall the poetry of his literary predecessors (take a look at alexander blok’s “the unknown woman” too)
yes, some call neborak a postmodernist too
neborak is one of the three founding members of the bu-ba-bu literary performance group in the mid-to-late 1980s along with the poet/novelist/essayist yuri andrukhovych and the comic writer oleksander irvanets – they put on a considerable number of reading-shows for tens of thousands – the biggest ‘happening’ was called Chrysler Imperial and was performer over two days at the lviv opera house
there is a mystical, transcendental quest for the poet in the flying head
the flying head reminds me quite a bit of nikolai gumilev’s poem ‘the lost tram car’ – there’s a beheading in gumilev’s poem, and the persona of that poem takes the tram car on a road to nowhere into the heavens – gumilev was executed by firing squad by the bolsheviks, not beheaded
there are plenty of headless types and beheadings in literature: berlioz in bulgakov’s the master and margarita, the headless horseman in washington irving’s the legend of sleepy hollow, and john the baptist to name a few
neborak’s language is striking, it collapses into itself
his words collide in combinations heretofore unseen or unheard in such permutations in Ukrainian
in the same way that his language collapses into itself, time and space collapse into themselves in his collection
kyiv and lviv coexist in the simultaneity and duration of attenuated ukrainian space-time, into a single vision of the two cities, the cultural centers of a ukraine still trying to find its postsoviet identity
music metaphors abound in his collection, these are the rhythms of neborak’s time, they are emblems of the freedom of the individual to explore a new world, these are contemporary rhythms (rock music, rap, jazz, punk) instead of the folk dance rhythms of a nineteenth century poet like taras shevchenko (who didn’t hear rock music, rap, jazz, or punk, but who would have used the rhythms in his poetry if he had)
transportation metaphors are everywhere in the collection: there are journeys on the metro, a plane, a trolley bus, a bus, and into the sky without a vehicle (the talking heads sing about a similar journey in their album little creatures (1985), especially in the song “and she was” – flying heads, talking heads, hmm…
the city of kyiv has a metro, lviv doesn’t, that’s important to know when you’re reading the collection
there are myriad mirrors in the collection, and reflections in glass – mirrors are emblems of art, alternative spiritual worlds, alternative selves
folk beliefs abound in the collection (like the flying head and the unseen ax from carpathian lore)
“the woman with the flying head” is a horror story by japanese writer yumiko karahashi
there’s a horror film made in honk kong in cantonese in 1977 called the witch with the flying head – in it, a young woman, bitten by a snake grows fangs, and acquires the ability to detach her head to fly around with her internal organs dangling – she bites people on the neck
the penanggalan in maylasia is a flying female head that seeks out children’s blood or the blood left from childbirth
neborak’s flying head, even though it grows vampire fangs, doesn’t bite anyone on the neck or anywhere else – it’s apparently more harmless than asian flying heads
flying heads are popular in a lot of other asian films such as queen of black magic (1979) and mystics in bali (1981)
there are fifty disembodied heads hanging upside down from the ceiling of one of the rooms of wawel castle in krakow poland – I saw them there on my last trip to poland
there is a ritual destruction of the poetic self in the flying head to reach a higher metaphysical plane of awareness
there is a lack of punctuation in a number of the poems in the collection – that makes the words run into each other
many of the proper nouns in the collection aren’t capitalized – the pronoun ‘i’ isn’t capitalized in ukrainian usage
the lyrical ‘i’ of the collection is a roving eye that shifts back and forth in time and space
the syntax of the poetry is incredibly flexible and fluid
there is a multiplicity of semantic meaning (polysemy) in neborak’s poetic vocabulary
neborak creates a significant number of neologisms in his poetry – i try to convey them in english when i can
the collection begins with birth – note it begins with the ‘genesis’ of the flying head
a lot of the collection is non-linear narrative, a “spatial form” as joseph frank once called it
much of the poetry in the flying head is Fellini-like, fragmented, dream-like, with rapid shifts of scenes and consciousness
neborak mentions fellini’s film orchestra rehearsal in the collection, especially the image of the wrecking ball that crashes into the rehearsal room
the flying head is a book that was underappreciated at the time it was first published in 1990
ultra conservative types of ukrainian readers hate it and all that it stands for (i.e., innovation and change)
neborak casts off both the trappings of socialist realism and nationalistic realism in his poetry – he seeks his own path and self-definition as a poet
the flying head is an innovative, great collection that deserves to be translated, though it’s extraordinarily difficult to translate in a way that will do it justice (hopefully someone in the future will be able to do that better)
the poetry of alter ego and neborak’s later collections is more reflective and introspective and without the craziness of the flying head – i personally prefer the craziness – as the great ukrainian linguist george shevelov once said to me, “there are different kinds of taste” (buvaiut' rizni smaky)
this unconventional introduction reads like notes to myself – it is
i decided to leave it this way and let you the reader give order to my jottings – #1 it makes it easier for me, and, #2, hopefully, more interesting for you – you can fill in the blanks
an unconventional collection requires an unconventional introduction, so i’ve laid bare the device and that’s what you get
remember, too, that the flying head is a lot of parody and fun and my hope is that you read it in that vein – it’s a show in verse
let the show begin!

Source: Viktor Neborak. The Flying Head and Other Poems. 2005.

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