The Study of Horror

The complete collection of works revealed today by Leonid Lipavsky (1904-1941) — a writer, philosopher, participant in the "Chinary" circle and OBERIU, friend and interlocutor of Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky — includes poetic studies, dream records, diary fragments, and... treatises. A passionate classifier, Lipavsky categorized types of love, was interested in the essence of language processes, suggesting that they lead an "independent life," tried to "explain the visible picture of the world," to know the "unknown" world, as well as to define the types of fear and horror. The "horrific" in Lipavsky's view is an inherent, objective, primordial characteristic of the object, caused by everything associated with a person’s loss of individuality. These same themes are reflected in the discussions of the "Chinary" and OBERIU, titled "Conversations"; in the polylogues of Lipavsky, Druskin, Zabolotsky, Vvedensky, and Kharms, the roots of concepts that would later form the basis of each of their works can be traced. Lipavsky's texts are extra-scientific; they are built on Einstein's theory of relativity, resonate with the works of Freud, Bergson, Spengler, Heidegger, and are based on the philosophical and natural scientific concepts that occupied the author throughout his life.