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DARJUSZ TOLCZYK
of arches, bridges,towers, terraces - a whole city quickly changing, ev–
ery second altering its shape.
Instead of explaining the causes of the fly's flight, its direction and
circumstances, as Turgenev would do, Shuvalov succumbs to the magic
of free associations generated by an unruly nature. Shuvalov is somebody
who perceives nature, as Zamyatin would call it, "in its synthesis revealed
to the eye," but who, at the same time, attempts to recreate some no–
tion of subjective order that would perhaps make nature more human.
He is a lover of nature who tries to grasp and preserve that which "rises,
flashes, and disappears."
Olesha's literary method may be said to apply the principles of Rus–
sian formalism. Under these principles, if our eye, in the light of a light–
ning bolt, notices a figure coming from under the earth, we write that
the figure came from under the earth, forgetting about the rationalistic
censorship of our mind which suggests putting "as if' before the descrip–
tion of what is seen. This strategy is based upon the assumption that the
categories of practical reason shed not light but darkness upon our per–
ceptions. Olesha was reiterating an already entrenched truth, that nature
is full of miracles unnoticed by most people who, according to the
theories of the Bazarovs, had changed nature's temple into a workshop.
According to Olesha and the formalists, language itself kept people from
noticing the miracle of reality.When Olesha's Shuvalov falls in love, he
becomes able to fly, in defiance of the laws of physics. In the story, he
is
observed to be "flying on the wings of love," in spite of the fact that
this image is metaphorical and therefore, strictly speaking, not true. Ole–
sha's early stories attempt to reestablish the literal meaning of metaphors
and to prove that metaphor is the only possible way to communicate the
sensual experience of reality.
Critics in the 1920s, trying to describe Olesha's technique, noticed
that it was based on an indirect visual perception of objects reflected, in
unusual light, through their shadows. His technique, later adopted
by
other writers and labeled revolutionary, has since become commonplace
through repeated use. In Olesha's case, however, he put this technique
into practice in his life, dissolving some of the conventional borders be–
tween art and life.
When Olesha's character Shuvalov has his fantastic vision of insects
flying as if in a city in the air, he also experiences a sudden anxiety:
"They are beginning to have power over me," he thought. "The
sphere of my vision is becoming polluted by them.... What has got
hold of me? I am beginning to see things which don't exist.
