The Weekly Review came up with a questionnaire and sent it out to all subscribers: “Your favorite writer? Your average weekly earnings? Your goal in life?” Among the thousands of completed forms the sorters found one, Form No. 11111, which, wander as it would from sorter to sorter, could not be sorted: On Form No. 11111, opposite “Average Earnings,” the respondent had written “0,” and opposite “Goal in Life,” in clear round letters, “To bite my elbow.”

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887-1950), in the context of world literature often compared to Kafka, Borges and Kharms, remained unpublished until 1988 in part due to Maxim Gorky’s verdict on the writer’s “excessive intellectualism”: “Even if a willing publisher was found, his stories would, without a doubt, cause a sprain in the muscles of young brains. I ask you- is the latter at all desirable?” Meaning no disrespect to the reputable M. Gorky I would answer – YES.