At eight o’clock that evening, Mayakovsky has his skull drilled so that his brain could be preserved, as an organ of genius, for future generations in the USSR. When weighed, it was found to be 360 grams heavier than Lenin’s, ‘which meant a bit of a headache for the ideologues of the Brain Institute’.
An inquest into the cause of death was launched immediately.
It found that the poet had shot himself ‘for personal reasons’.
But in this fascinating, long overdue biography, Bengt Jangfeldt presents a more complex solution.
Cause of death? Frustrated poetry.
http://www.spiked-online.com/review_of_books/article/the-murder-of-mayakovskys-poetry/16957#.VVYvD-snXFI
|