Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/70

62 Chapter Nine:

FUTURISM AS THE DESTRUCTION OF ART.

This chapter continues the theme of the previous one. It also incorporates an extension of some themes discussed earlier. The idea of dying and being re-born is associated with the notion of the death of art (as something separate from life) and the idea of revolutionary re-birth. Khlebnikov and his colleagues carry the Symbolist notions of dumbness, incommunicability etc to extreme conclusions, believing that a new life of post-revolutionary communication lies beyond. This new life will be an active one for the artist: Khlebnikov dreams of a world government of poets.