Incidences

“A man walked out of his house and disappeared forever.”
— Daniil Kharms, Incidences

Incidences is a collection of absurdist, fragmented vignettes and short stories by Russian avant-garde writer Daniil Kharms. The book lacks conventional chapters but is structured as a series of brief, often surreal episodes. Below is a sequential breakdown of its key content:

Opening Fragments

The book begins with abrupt, disjointed scenes: a man falls out of a window, another vanishes mid-step, and objects behave unpredictably. These vignettes establish Kharms’ trademark absurdity, where logic is subverted and mundane events spiral into chaos.

Miniature Stories

Kharms presents micro-narratives, such as “The Blue Notebook,” where a man declares he has no imagination—only to be contradicted by the story itself. Other tales feature characters who disintegrate, converse with inanimate objects, or meet abrupt, illogical ends.

Recurring Themes

Repetition and futility dominate: a man repeatedly checks his watch but time stands still; a philosopher’s profound thoughts are interrupted by a falling brick. Violence and inertia coexist, often resolving in abrupt, darkly comic conclusions.

Dialogue-Driven Pieces

Some sections rely entirely on absurd exchanges. In one, two men debate whether a third exists, only for the third to vanish mid-conversation. Language itself becomes unreliable, with words failing to convey meaning or causality.

Final Vignettes

The collection closes with increasingly fragmented scenes—a woman turns into a sewing machine, a narrator confesses to crimes he didn’t commit. The final lines often loop back to earlier motifs, leaving the reader in a state of unresolved dissonance.

Key Ideas

• Absurdity as a reflection of existential meaninglessness.
• Disruption of narrative logic and causality.
• Minimalist, fragmented storytelling.
• Dark humor amid violence and futility.
• Critique of Soviet-era repression through subversion.