Andrei Platonov

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Discussion

"One can see that the question of the metabolic rift is actually what separates and makes Platonov and Bogdanov opponents. It is remarkable that Wark pays no attention to the fact that it was exactly the economic aspect of the metabolic rift that was crucial for Platonov. Platonov’s nature is a realm of capitalist history, because capitalism exploits not only people, but also animals, plants and earth. The task is, therefore, to liberate nature and all living creatures by means of ‘communist farming’. Similarly to Marx, he writes elsewhere that the capitalist exploitation of the soil results in the creation of deserts and droughts. This is because exploitation exhausts the productive forces of the earth. Thus, what he terms ‘the repair of the earth’ should be implemented as a science of cooperative farming, based on the idea of returning to the earth that which it has given. This could be achieved by means of solar energy and other renewable sources. Without question, from the point of view of current discussions about renewable energy, there is nothing radically new in such a proposition. However, Platonov was one of the few who raised the question of nature’s exploitation in the 1920s and ’30s. In relation to what Molecular Red sets up as its problematic, this is exactly the part of the author’s legacy that should spark the greatest interest." (http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/anthropocene-90-minutes)

Bibliography

"His articles on nature, agriculture and communist farming exist only in Russian version. I will name just a few of them. Earth’s Repair (1920), Revolutionary War Council of the Earth (1921), Earth Cheka (Black Revolutionary War Council) (1922), About the Liquidation of Agricultural Catastrophes (1923), Struggle with A Desert (1924). See: Andrei Platonov. Fabrika Literaturi. Literaturnaya Kritika i Publitzistika, Tom 8, [‘The Factory of Literature’, Literary Criticism and Journalism, Volume 8]. Moskva, 2011; Andrei Platonov. Sochineniya. Tom 1: 1918-1927, Kniga 2: Stat'I [Complete Works. Volume 1: 1918-1927, Book 2: Articles], Moskva, 2004. However, occasionally these topics appear in Chevengur, Dzhan (Soul) and other works of fiction. It seems that there is only one source in English. See: Christopher W. Harwood. ‘Human Soul of an Engineer: Andrei Platonov's Struggle with Science and Technology’, PhD, New York, 2000." (http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/anthropocene-90-minutes)