There lived a redheaded man who had no eyes or ears. He didn’t have hair either, so he was called a redhead arbitrarily. He couldn’t talk because he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didn’t even have arms or legs. He had no stomach, he had no back, he had no spine, and he had no innards at all. He didn’t have anything. So we don’t even know who we’re talking about. It’s better that we don’t talk about him any more.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the absurdity of existence and challenges conventional notions of identity.
Daniil Kharms’ quote presents a character stripped of all conventional attributes, emphasizing the futility of labeling and understanding an entity that lacks essential human characteristics. This absurd representation serves as a critique of how we often define individuals by superficial traits, suggesting that true identity is more complex than mere appearances or labels. In the end, it raises questions about existence itself and invites us to ponder on what it means to truly know someone.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of existence, one might quote Kharms to highlight the futility of relying solely on physical attributes for identity.
People talk about grief as if it's kind of an unremittingly awful thing, and it is. It is painful, but it's a very, very interesting sort of thing to go through, and it really helps you out. At the end of the day, it gets you through because you have to reform your relationship, and you have to figure out a way of getting to the future.
If you remember your past too well you start blaming your present for it. Look what they did to me, that's what caused me to be like this, it's not my fault. Permit me to correct you: it probably is your fault. And kindly spare me the details.
Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.
National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events.
The motive power of democracy is love
What kind of world would we create if three times a day we activated our compassion and reason as we sat down to eat, if we had the moral imagination and the pragmatic will to change our most fundamental act of consumption?
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