Vol. 51 No. 3 1984 - page 360

360
PARTISAN REVIEW
replicates the charade of Soviet history.
(Rai
is the Russian for
paradise , and
kher
is an obscene reference to the male sexual organ .
In certain contexts
kher
means getting absolutely nothing.)
Perhaps nowhere in the history of letters has the theme of pro–
hibition been so fundamental and forceful as in the Soviet joke . In–
terdiction also localizes the genre a.nd makes it self-sufficient; these
elements characterize the poetics of the joke in general and account
for its flourishing in repressive Soviet society . Violating prohibition
and fulfilling its usual function, the joke, as a matter of fact, ex–
hausts itself and assumes the completed shape of a self-contained
cosmos. Its move toward this forbidden solution is total and final , re–
quiring no continuation or further explanation. The joke's freedom
is only in the act of crossing the boundary. Once achieved, the joke
becomes a perfect poetic structure, and like an end in itself, the
transgression gives it a dynamic yet strictly circumscribed composi–
tion and the semblance of a well-constructed paradox concentrating
on itself. The task has been completed, the joke has been told , and
that's that.
Representing an ideal image of reality , the joke does not seek
an outlet into morals, propaganda, politics, psychology , or even the
real world. Its awareness of its own form allows us to view it and
evaluate it as a sample of "pure art" or "art for art's sake ." Entertain–
ing and decorative, the joke introduces a touch of aesthetic pleasure
into our commercial age and appears to have no other intentions. It
is something else too. Like all art, it performs another very signifl–
cant function: it introduces a certain amount of harmony, order,
and reason into reality and brings it back to its senses and to an
understanding of itself as lively and interesting. I would say that
reality starts stirring under the joke's impact, acquiring a plot , man–
ner , and phenomenality . This is especially evident since the joke
operates or, such a low plane of life and historical reality, a plane of
social consciousness so insignificant that it seems unworthy of poetic
intervention. And suddenly the meaning of 'joining the party" or
"party line" ("he deviated together with the line") becomes clear. The
joke teaches us the meanings of
"diamat"
[dialectical materialism
1
and "democratic centralism" (when everybody is individually "against"
something but is collectively "for" it), "personality cult," and
"cosmopolitans." It also treats the way a man looks, even when he
does not have a face! Like a dotted line , the joke perforates our
history and galvanizes it. It not only recreates reality but actually
restores it to us, and under its impact, reality begins at least to
resemble something intelligible and real. One has the urge to ask an
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