- Adam Donaldson Powell’s literary criticism of “THE ASSASSIN AND THE DAHLIA”, by Pradip Choudhuri, 104 pages, 2006, special limited edition, published by the author on behalf of Édition Pphoo, Calcutta, India.

Pradip Choudhuri has all the makings of a “cult poet”. He is – in fact – all of the "naughty" authors rolled into one, from Rimbaud to Genet to Ginsberg, Burroughs and Ferlinghetti, with an urbanized Indian bawdiness that seems so normal that it surpasses its own pornography. By pornography, I am not necessarily referring to the frequent usage of profanity and sexual slang, but the real profanity and pornography of everyday life – which is unadorned human predicament, here ever overflowing with rich imagery teetering between everyday banalities, erotic obsession and sexual acts, and the deeper, more philosophical questions regarding the state of society, religion, disease and – of course – death.

It is not difficult to see the influence of the abovementioned authors upon the style of Choudhuri. In the 1960’s he was a member of the notorious literary movement “Hungry Generation”, who were tried for obscenity in 1964. The spirit of the “Hungry Generation” can be likened to that of the better known Beat poets of the West, such as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Choudhuri has established a form of writing that not only synthesizes the expressive styles of Rimbaud and some of the Beat poets, but which also modernizes and further develops that spirit into a shocking display of reality characterized by: 1) a relentless, active, often rapturous style which never gives you a chance to catch your breath (once you are caught in Choudhuri’s rhythm and underground pathos you have little chance of putting the book down); and 2) the boundless and graphic barrage of images – at times almost surrealistic, due to the occasional stream of consciousness form in some of the poems.

This book is possibly the literary “acid test” of the current decade, and is well-suited for reading alone in the privacy of your home – as well as for public performance. There are all too many superb passages to cite, but some of my favourites follow:


From “RIMBAUD”:

yes, you, you're imprisoned in this
shithouse of madness
and semen-soaked thighs
you engorge me with your
secret hymn of endless life
i am of your hairy tribe
& my strange excitements
undo the knots of all the red tape
of this evil city


and from the same poem:

i ransack the room
filled with exploded atoms
i stumble
i somersault at her feet
made of moonbeams
i start gasping
& am covered temporarily
with a sheet of impotence
i am awed by the strange
eyeless ness of this planet


Another example of Choudhuri’s ability to transform the “unspeakable” into a beautiful and undaunted literary patchwork quilt of visual imagery and social commentary can be found in this passage from the title poem.


from “The Assassin and the Dahlia”:

we’re used to corpses, that’s
why we transform life
into pus --- passionately:
with the help of country liquor.
and those who before the birth of love
in their souls
have gripped in their hands their rifles
and their pricks,
it’s them who smite the door
at midnight
with the imperfection of an assassin.
“hey,” they say “good evening, here we are!”


And yet, at times, Choudhuri temporarily lapses into pure modern-day romantic genius, as illustrated by the following excerpt.


From “Fatima”:

Dear Fatima
During my attempt to make life and poetry the one and the
same
I’ve cremated
Both Life and Poetry
Between the two covers of my blood-stained books

What is still alive is sadness
This sad sonata.


I find Choudhuri’s “poetic radicalism” refreshing – perhaps especially in this day and age; an era of conformity, superficiality, and where God has been (by many) “assigned” a new name: money. One cannot ignore the persistent images presented by Choudhuri, which are all-too-familiar to each and every one of us – no matter how “straight-laced” we profess to be, we all have our secrets, our secret moments and (in some cases) our secret lives. And Choudhuri “outs” us all, by outing himself. He consistently writes in the first person, and effectively lures us into his world, only to reveal that the “unspeakable” is not so very secret after all. While his language and themes may be immediately disarming, Choudhuri’s provocative honesty has a higher goal and effect than to merely shock – by letting ourselves be enticed into the private worlds of the characters portrayed, we unwittingly submit to becoming personally transformed.

-- Adam Donaldson Powell, 2006


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Aside from being a poet and an essayist, Choudhuri is also a translator, an editor and a publisher. He has published many books, including: MY RAPID ACTIVITIES (1964), SKIN DISEASE (1965), POETRY-RELIGION (1970), 64 GHOSTS’ FERRY (1971), and THE BLACK HOLE: SELECTED POEMS 1964-1989 (1990).

ADAM DONALDSON POWELL (Norway) is a literary critic and a trilingual author, writing in English, Spanish and Norwegian; and a visual artist. He has published several poetry collections: in the USA, Norway and India, as well as several short works and literary criticism in literary publications based in the USA, Canada, Spain and India. He has previously authored theatrical works performed onstage, and he has (to-date) read his poetry at venues in New York City (USA), Oslo (Norway), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Kathmandu (Nepal).