Set in the future, Reconstructing Mayakovsky revisits the past to make sense of our chaotic present. Inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Russian Futurist poet who killed himself in 1930 at the age of thirty-six, the novel imagines a dystopia where uncertainty and tragedy have finally been eliminated through technology. Ever since her memories of the War were erased, Vera X has led a complacent existence designing advertisements. After a meteorite falls to Earth, an unanticipated, random event, her tightly controlled life begins to unravel. She, like others in OnewOrld, a virtual reality dystopia, begins to hear voices from the collective past. Mayakovsky's passionate, rebellious words captivate Vera. In her quest to "reconstruct" him, she enlists the help of Nadja, an aloof academic with access to classified historical records. Motivated by the need to make sense of her newly chaotic world, Vera embarks on a classic hero's journey in which she discovers that love and freedom inevitably carry with them the potential for tragedy. Along the way, the two encounter other outcasts from OnewOrld: Ivan, a pimp with a rosy nostalgia for violent political revolution; Dr. Albright, an irascible female surgeon; Mosselprom, the wealthy, paranoid architect of OnewOrld who loathes his own creation; and Luis Blue, a chimera, half human and half artificial intelligence. Moving between past and future, revolutionary Russia and post-apocalyptic America, the novel explores the universal desire to create meaning in the face of senseless destruction and reaffirms the enduring power of art. The award-winning, interactive multimedia web-version of the novel is available for free at www.reconstructingmayakovsky.com Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You, offers this assessment: "The past and the future intersect in a wild ride of a novel that's part Thomas Pynchon, part Steve Erickson, and totally original. Szilak's dazzling book has revolution at its dark heart, and genius in its soul. She's created a world where all realities just might be virtual and the hunger for change or for love can't be denied. Smart, complex, provocative, moving and addictive." Chris Joseph, award-winning author of the interactive novel Inanimate Alice: I recommend having a look at this wonderful piece of digital writing by Illya Szilak, with animation and graphic design by Pelin Kirca, that fictionally and factually explores one of the most important (and overlooked) writers of the last century. Illya uses a variety of medias and methods, including manifestos, texts, animations, podcasts, music, and data visualisations. The result is a engrossing multilayered digital sci-fi/fantasy/biographical 'novel', well worthy of the artist who inspired it.
About the Author: Illya Szilak uses open source media and collaborations forged via the Internet to create multimedia novels. Shaped by her experiences as a practicing physician, her artistic practice explores mortality, embodiment, identity and belief in a media inundated and increasingly virtual world. Her first novel Reconstructing Mayakovsky www.reconstructingmayakovsky.com was selected for the second Electronic Literature Collection and was a jury pick for the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo in 2010, and at Filmwinter in Stuttgart in 2011. The animation for the novel (in collaboration with Pelin Kirca) has been shown in eight film festivals including the Melbourne International Animation Festival in 2010. Reconstructing Mayakovsky is being taught in creative writing programs around the country as an example of new media writing. She has presented her work at Princeton University, Brown University, the University of Colorodo, Boulder, the Kitchen in New York and the Université Paris-Sorbonne. She currently blogs for the Arts section of the Huffington Post. Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, she worked for several years in New York City as a primary care physician for HIV patients. She practices medicine in upstate New York where she lives with her husband and two children. Email: janthesvg@yahoo.com