Päivä

My experimental prose work, Päivä (Day, Kirja kerrallaan) was published on Aug. 20, 2004. The work consists of the entire news output of the Finnish News Agency (STT) from Aug. 20, 2003, sorted alphabetically by sentence, and is dedicated to Kenneth Goldsmith.

Päivä PDF

Usein (?) esitettyjä kysymyksiä (Päivä FAQ, F)

An excerpt from the work in English

New in September 2005: Juri Joensuu: Chance vs. Author(ity), Meaning vs. Intention. Notes on Leevi Lehto's Päivä (From "Dimensions of Authorship, a Conference at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 1-3 September 2005)


Reviews and commentary in Finnish

Kari Aronpuron arvostelu Päivästä Kiiltomadossa
Karri Kokon blogi
Sven Laakson blogi
Kiiltomadon keskustelua
Rauno Räsänen Päivästä
Heikki Saure Etelä-Suomen Sanomissa 12.10.2004
Jaakob Karhu kokeilee "vastaavaa pienemmällä mittakaavalla" (Jaakobin Testamentti)
Kaksi lyhyttä kommenttia: Parnasso ja Me Naiset
Aamulehti
dequoi.qlogger.com
Juhani Tikkanen
Päivää myydään

Video: Finnish TV prime time news anchor Matti Rönkä reading excerpts from Päivä (MP4)

Images from the launch

"Jag vill vara okreativ" Kenneth Goldsmith interview in Hufvudstadsbladet, Aug. 22, 2004, (S)

Päivä is a book-on-demand work. The first imprint constists of 100 numbered copies that are prized at EUR 15. Tilaa! / Order form

Päivä was published by Kirja kerrallaan. The artwork is by Professor Tapio Vapaasalo.

About the work

"Imagine poetry as a series of terraces, some vast, some no bigger than a pinprick, overlooking the land of language. Leevi Lehto's sound and light show begins in the dark: sentences are exhibited one by one, forming wave after wave of the rag and boneshop of the quotidian, news that passes before our eyes like the faint glimmer of consciousness in an alcoholic stupor. Facts, facts everywhere but not a drop to drink. Poetry's social function is not to express but, rather, to explore the possibilities for expression. Päivä is organized news in the pursuit of that most elusive elixir, the new. Now it is dawn, now night, now noon. This day never ends. Päivä shows the fly the way out of the flybottle." - Charles Bernstein

"(...) a new link in the development of Finnish montage writing. Step to the flow!" - Kari Aronpuro

"Päivä belongs to a bookshelf with Finnegans Wake, Flow Chart, and the phone book already in it." - Aki Salmela

"(...) there are narratologically interesting things happening even in the contemporary Finnish writing. (...) Leevi Lehto's Päivä (...) rises up(...) the question of who and what it is that makes a story into a story." - Teemu Ikonen in Avain 1/2004

"The most extraordinary work in the history of the Finnish literature... really interesting..." Simopekka Virkkula, Aamulehti

"Collage is not a new invention, but used this way, it opens a totally new view to the daily news supply." - Sakari Katajamäki, www.yle.fi/pressiklubi ("Aamun lehti", April 7, 2005)

"Suprisingly readable (...) at the first sight at least." Palasokeri.com

"(...) in part, magnificient End-Of-the-World poetry in a world where the end of the world is not possible, exactly because it's the only logical closure" V-S Luoma-aho

Introduction to Kenneth Goldsmith, F

Kenny in Danmark.

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