In Soviet times, there certainly does seem to be a tension between the natural world and human existence which was less apparent in pre-soviet literature and poetry. I first noticed this in the Mayakovsky Poem “Great Big Hell of a City,” where liquid is described as “oozing” from the “Sun’s hurt eye.” There is something terribly perverse about this image. The poet is applying a sense of illness, and therefore, imperfection to the natural world.
This is taken to a whole new level in the Kolyama tales. Here, the season of spring and the advent of natural life are described in beautiful, yet similarly visceral terms at certain point. The description of how “The slender fingers of the larch with their green fingernails seemed to grope everywhere” and how “the omnipresent, oily freweed carpeted the scenes of former forest blazes” both invoke intensely lively images with strangely sinister imagery. Nature is “omnipresent,” and “gropes.” It reaches about, glutting itself on the carnage of “former forest blazes.” In a sense life is being painted as a scavenger in the way it persists in the wake of a changing landscape, or worse, as being something cannibalistic.
Weirdly enough, the way nature is described here in subtly unnerving ways is actually reflected by the human characters in In The Night. They pull a dead body out from a pile of rock after dining of “breadcrumbs” which are described as being coated “greedily in thick layers of saliva.” They eat a meal which is described in dehumanizing, animal terms, and proceed to scavenge off of a dead human being. They, like the natural world, are being ensnared by the writer in a state of devolution.
I’m not sure what exactly these artistic choices mean. However, I did some research on Shalamov, and found that he spent time in the Gulag and was a supporter of Trotsky. Considering his political leanings, he couldn’t have been a fan of Stalin. Perhaps then that the way he depicts mother nature and human nature as being degraded into a state of scavenging could be a metaphor for the Stalanist regime reduces human beings to the state of frightened animals desperate to survive.
I agree with your analysis that Shalamov’s nature imagery gives off a sinister undertone. The description of the unforgiving cold and the beauty of the night is reflected in the first story when the narrator is picking cedar needles. Additionally, this theme of unrelenting nature in face of dehumanizing circumstances carries on in his description of events that occur. As you state, the indifference to human suffering and pain shows the extent in which people are so far removed from their past lives before the prison camps.
What I find to be interesting is how different Shalamov’s depiction of nature from the traditional depictions of nature in Russian literature and other aspects of culture. Instead of being bright and a symbol of life, as Shandiin said, nature gives off a sort of sinister undertone. You brought up an interesting point, Ethan, that maybe it’s due to the author’s political leanings, and this perversion of nature is a commentary on Stalin’s totalitarian rule.
Ethan, I think you bring up some interesting points and correctly note the pattern of sinister diction in the description of nature. Gabe, I am also fascinated by this shift in nature’s depiction. This evolution from a deeper attachment to the land, owning a piece of the Russian identity, to a more malignant and predatory description, is undoubtedly significant; Ethan, your point about the author’s potential biases in writing this likely has merit and is something that I agree with, but I think there might be more to this shift. Perhaps, it does signify the general dehumanization of the populace, but I think the consequences of this radical terror are pervasively seeping deeper into the rest of society.
All very interesting, but I would also respectfully suggest a more straightforward explanation for the difference in the attitude to nature: these prisoners are living in a work camp in Kolyma which kills most prisoners during the first few months due to the incredibly harsh conditions (of both nature and work). This location is 11 time zones east of Moscow and St. Petersburg! Yes, it is still Russia, but it is a completely different part of Russia that has almost nothing in common with the beloved steppe and temperate forests of the Russian heartland. Here, nature is an accomplice of the Stalinist state killing machine. It is not an accident that this is the location where the cruelest of the camps were situated.