Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/96

88 Chapter Twelve:

THE PRESIDENT OF THE TERRESTRIAL SPHERE.

This chapter begins by returning to the year 1908, in order to trace the origins of the impulse which led Khlebnikov eventually to his world-government plan. The idea of "presiding" over the entire globe represents another aspect of that "carrying to extremes" of' Symbolist premises—while at the same time overthrowing them—which has been discussed in earlier chapters.

It represents another aspect of the explosion of the "I" and its merging in a global "We" which has been described as central to Khlebnikov's work. The chapter concludes with a survey of some of the scientific and technological projects which Khlebnikov's world-government was to implement.