Zaum rejected clarity, utility, and narrative coherence. It privileged neologism, nonsense syllables, fractured syntax, and invented words as a way of accessing sensations and emotional states that conventional language could not adequately contain. This approach aligns closely with later theoretical critiques of language as a tool of control or containment, particularly in schizoanalytic thinking such as that outlined in Anti-Oedipus, where meaning is not centrally organised but produced through unstable, competing flows.
Much of the “work” you “make” operates through internal voices, interruptions, and linguistic slippage; language that performs thinking rather than reporting conclusions.
Neologisms, excessive clauses, tonal shifts, and moments of near-nonsense reflect a cognitive state shaped by overload, contradiction, and constant recalibration. The writing mirrors the way thought actually unfolds under contemporary conditions rather than imposing retrospective coherence.
In the context of the internet and global digital communication, Zaum feels unexpectedly contemporary. Online spaces are saturated with accidental poetry: memes, glitches, comment sections, corrupted text, slang, emojis, usernames, autogenerated captions.
The internet has its own syntax and grammar, often emotionally precise but difficult to paraphrase or formalise. Many online expressions function exactly as Zaum intended, felt, shared, and recognised without being fully explainable.