Daniil Kharms
Dec. 18th, 2025 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dividedbyblueIn October of this year, I started working for a Belgian online magazine covering Dutch/Flemish comics. It's volunteer work, but I loved the idea of working for the magazine, doing articles and interviews, so I applied for the job when I heard of it. Happily, I was accepted. One of the first interviews I did was published in the magazine today, and it discusses a comic based on the Russian avant-garde and absurdist writer Daniil Kharms (or Charms, in Dutch) by Dutch Illustrator Wouter Gresnigt. One of Daniil Kharms' better-known short stories is "Old Women Falling Out" from 1937, and it's featured in the comic. This is the short story:
Excessive curiosity made one old woman fall out of a window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces.
Another old woman poked her head out of a window to look at the one who had broken into pieces, but excessive curiosity made her too fall out of the window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces.
Then a third old woman fell out of a window, then a fourth, then a fifth.
When a sixth old woman fell out, I felt I’d had enough of watching them and went off to the Maltsev Market where I heard that a blind man had been given a knitted shawl.
I had never heard of Daniil Kharms before I was asked to do an article about this book. I read the comic and was intrigued. I write sometimes, very short/flash fiction in Dutch or stories for my own comics, and I instantly felt a connection to the humor and absurdist nature of this work when I read it. I decided to read a few of Daniil Kharms' short stories bundled in a small book after reading the comic, and I loved it. There is something so honest about his absurd stories in this form, for life can be absurd if you pay attention to what happens every day. For anyone looking for short stories, I greatly recommend the Russian author. The comic by Wouter Gresnigt is also great but is currently only available in Dutch.
Excessive curiosity made one old woman fall out of a window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces.
Another old woman poked her head out of a window to look at the one who had broken into pieces, but excessive curiosity made her too fall out of the window, plummet to the ground and break into pieces.
Then a third old woman fell out of a window, then a fourth, then a fifth.
When a sixth old woman fell out, I felt I’d had enough of watching them and went off to the Maltsev Market where I heard that a blind man had been given a knitted shawl.
I had never heard of Daniil Kharms before I was asked to do an article about this book. I read the comic and was intrigued. I write sometimes, very short/flash fiction in Dutch or stories for my own comics, and I instantly felt a connection to the humor and absurdist nature of this work when I read it. I decided to read a few of Daniil Kharms' short stories bundled in a small book after reading the comic, and I loved it. There is something so honest about his absurd stories in this form, for life can be absurd if you pay attention to what happens every day. For anyone looking for short stories, I greatly recommend the Russian author. The comic by Wouter Gresnigt is also great but is currently only available in Dutch.
