He was one of a number of artists and writers that were selected by federal programs intended to derail socialist messaging in art and literature, usually under the banner of “postmodernism” but not exclusive to it. Basically, Soviet art and literature at the time had rather clear and direct messaging that frightened the ruling class of the western world, so the idea was to subsidize and promote and artificially boost the presence of countermessages that amounted to “interpretation is so open ended for this much cooler piece that it could mean anything. Nothing matters btw. It’s very smart to stop caring about sociopolitical issues and just consume art product.”