A complete guide to the books of Victor Pelevin: from caustic satire to lyrical novels. Victor Pelevin: bibliography and interesting facts Pelevin years of life and death

(estimates: 1 , average: 5,00 out of 5)

Name: Victor Olegovich Pelevin
Date of birth: November 22, 1962
Place of birth: Russia, Moscow

Victor Pelevin - biography

Viktor Olegovich Pelevin is an outstanding Russian writer of our time, one of the most mysterious prose writers of our time. The works of this author have received worldwide recognition and many literary awards, and he himself topped the list of the most influential Russian intellectuals (2009).

The future writer was born on November 22, 1962 in an intelligent Moscow family. His parents were teachers: his father taught at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, his mother worked as a head teacher and teacher foreign language at a prestigious Moscow school. Pelevin graduated from this institution in 1979. Then the young man entered an energy university, from which he graduated in 1985. Having left the walls of Alma Mater as a certified specialist in electrification and automation of industry and transport, Victor gets a job as an engineer in one of the departments of his own university. He also served in the Russian Air Force.

Having decided to connect his life with science, in 1987 Viktor Olegovich entered the graduate school of the International Economic Institute. After studying there for two years, the future writer left science and did not bring his dissertation research to its logical conclusion. In 1989, he became a student at the Gorky Literary Institute, but two years later he was expelled for “losing contact with the university.” As the famous prose writer recalls, during his years of study at this university he did not learn anything new, but he gained important connections. Pelevin struck up acquaintance and friendship with young writers Albert Egazarov and Viktor Kulle. They became the founders of a small Moscow publishing house, where Pelevin at one time worked as an editor.

Since 1989, Viktor Olegovich’s active journalistic activity began. He works in two publications - Face to Face and “Science and Religion” (in this magazine he published his publications on the topics of Eastern mysticism). Pelevin’s debut story, written in 1989, appeared here—the phantasmagoric fairy tale “The Sorcerer Ignat and the People.”
The year 1991 was marked by the publication of the first major book of the aspiring prose writer - the collection of stories “The Blue Lantern”. At first, this work did not receive attention, much less praise. literary critics, however, a few years later she was awarded three prizes - “Small Booker”, “Interpresscon” and “Golden Snail”. In 1993, Viktor Olegovich became a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.

In subsequent years, Pelevin’s most popular novels were published, which are included in the list of his best books - “Omon Ra”, “The Life of Insects”, “Chapaev and Emptiness”. However, the author’s most iconic work was “Generation P”, published in 1999 - it sold more than three and a half million copies. The penetrating combination of sarcasm and caricature of the generation of the nineties, living on advertising slogans, coupled with socio-political and esoteric notes, received many enthusiastic reviews from intellectual readers and influential critics.

For almost five years, Viktor Olegovich did not spoil the readership with his new products, but in subsequent years he literally showered them with his masterpieces in the style of postmodernism. In 2003, a collection was published with the intricate title “Dialectics of the Transitional Period, The Path from Nowhere to Nowhere” (briefly called “DPP”), consisting of the novel “Numbers” and several short stories. A year later, a philosophical and fantastic story with a sarcastic look at our brutal and ambiguous modernity, “The Sacred Book of the Werewolf,” was published. In this work, readers saw a new Pelevin - as always, caustic and witty, but with a certain amount of lyricism and sensuality.

Continuing to regularly release his masterpieces and receiving numerous literary awards, Viktor Olegovich is becoming one of the most popular Russian authors of our time. By 2017, his creative baggage amounted to fifteen major novels and more than fifty novellas and short stories. The Russian writer likes to experiment with various literary forms and a mixture of genres. In 2005, the prose writer’s play “Helmet of Horror” was published. Creatiff about Theseus and the Minotaur”, created as part of the inter-author series “Canongate Myth”. In addition, Pelevin tried his hand at poetry - his poems complement some novels.

Another direction of the author’s work is journalistic essays and essays. In his journalistic works, the prose writer expresses his opinion about the morals and philosophical concepts of our society, analyzes modern literary trends and evaluates the controversial works of postmodern writers and philosophers. His most famous essays are “John Fowles and the tragedy of Russian liberalism”, “Zombification. An Experience in Comparative Anthropology,” “The Bridge I Wanted to Cross.”

The main feature of all Viktor Pelevin’s books is sarcastic notes that reflect the vices of modern society. Often a talented prose writer takes well-known stories and historical events, refracting them from a creative angle. The accumulation of eccentric images with double or even triple meaning and an unusual interpretation of familiar things is the main reason for the dizzying success of Pelevin’s work. Storylines his works are very streamlined: reality smoothly turns into phantasmagoria, the past goes hand in hand with the future, and the boundaries between life and death are completely erased. The main characters of his works are ordinary people taken from various walks of life. They often witness unexpected metamorphoses of consciousness and environment, which helps them realize the futility and illusory nature of existence.

The outstanding writer has more than fifteen literary awards, including prestigious Russian awards “ National bestseller”, “Big book", "The Great Ring". His books occupy the top lines of reader ratings, and the author himself is included in the list of the thousand most influential figures in world culture of our time (according to French Magazine). Viktor Olegovich’s works have been translated into many languages, and performances based on his works are watched by audiences all over the world. By 2017, film adaptations of five works by the writer were released. To date, filming has begun on a new film based on the work of the prose writer “Empire V” - the first part of the “Rama II” duology.

Pelevin is not a public person. He does not participate in literary parties, does not meet with readers, and does not even appear at award shows. For a long time there was an opinion that a group of authors was working under the Viktor Pelevin brand. It is known that the writer is not married and travels a lot in eastern countries.

Anyone who wants to get their fill of unusual stories with subtle intellectual overtones can read online books by Victor Pelevin on our website absolutely free. Among the materials in our virtual library, you can easily find the writer’s work you need, since the sequence of books in his bibliography is arranged in chronological order. You can also download e-books by the prose writer in Russian in any convenient format - fb2 (fb2), txt (tkht), epub or rtf.

All books by Victor Pelevin

Book series - Dialectics of the Transition Period from Nowhere to Nowhere

• Elegy 2
• Numbers
• Macedonian criticism of French thought
• Akiko
• Focus group
• Record about searching for wind

Book series - Sleep

• Sorcerer Ignat and people
• News from Nepal
• Vera Pavlovna's ninth dream
• Blue lantern
• USSR Taishou Zhuan
• Mardongi
• The life and adventures of barn number XII

Book series - Middlegame

• Ontology of childhood
• Built-in reminder
• Water tower
• Middlegame
• Ukhryab

Book series - Memory of the fiery years

• Music from the pillar
• Kroeger's revelation
• Weapon of Vengeance
• Reconstructor (About the research of P. Stetsyuk)
• Crystal World

Book series - Nika

• Origin of species
• Tambourine of the Upper World
• Ivan Kublakhanov
• Tambourine of the Nether World
• Bungee

Book series - Greek version

• A brief history of paintball in Moscow
• Greek version
• Yuletide cyberpunk, or Christmas night-117.DIR
• Timeout, or Evening Moscow

Book series - Intellectual bestseller. Myths

• Helm of Terror

Book series - The One and Only. Victor Pelevin

• iPhuck 10
• The Lamp of Methuselah, or the Ultimate Battle of the Chekists with the Freemasons
• Love for three Zuckerbrins
• Caretaker. Book 1. Order of the Yellow Flag
• Caretaker. Book 2. Iron Abyss
• Batman Apollo

Book series – Chrysostom Library

Book series - Complete Works

• DPP (NN) (collection)

Book series - Dima and Mitya

• Insect life
• Horizon light

Book Series - Contemporary Short Story Collection

• Your way (collection)

We dedicate a series of books to the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution

• Seventeen about the Seventeenth (collection)

No series

• S.N.U.F.F.
• Chapaev and Emptiness
• Generation "P"
• Children's World (collection)
• Empire "B"
• Holy Book of the Werewolf
• Omon Ra
• Stories performed by the author
• Pineapple water for a beautiful lady (collection)
• Yellow Arrow (collection)
• P5: Farewell songs of the political pygmies of Pindostan (collection)
• All stories (collection)
• The Best. Novels and stories
• The best novels. Selected Prose: Issue 1
• Yellow Arrow
• Prince of the State Planning Committee
• The Recluse and the Six-Fingered
• The best stories and novellas. Issue 1
• Bulldozer Day
• Anti-aircraft codes of Al-Efesbi
• Dialectics of the Transition Period from Nowhere to Nowhere (collection)
• The sorcerer Ignat and the people (collection)
• Yellow Arrow (collection)
• Hotel of good incarnations
• Friedman space
• All stories and essays
• Focus group (collection)
• Zombification. Experience in comparative anthropology
• The werewolf problem in the middle lane
• Assassin
• Ixtlan – Cockerels
• Hall of Singing Caryatids
• Relics. Early and unreleased (collection)
• A Warrior's Last Joke
• Necroment
• John Fowles and the tragedy of Russian liberalism
• Names of oligarchs on the map of the Motherland
• Victor Pelevin asks PRs
• Rune Divination, or the Runic Oracle by Ralph Bloom
• World Code
• Feeding the crocodile Khufu
• Ultima Tuleyev, or the Tao of Elections
• The bridge I wanted to cross
• underground sky
• State Emergency Committee as a Tetragrammaton
• Lunokhod
• Hats on the towers
• One Vogue
• Macedonian criticism of French thought (collection)
• Psychic attack. Sonnet
• Who by fire

Date of birth: 22.11.1962

Popular modern Russian writer. Pelevin's books have been translated into all major world languages, including Japanese and Chinese. Plays based on his stories are successfully performed in theaters in Moscow, London and Paris.

Viktor Pelevin was born in Moscow on November 22, 1962. In 1979 he graduated from the Moscow Secondary English Special School No. 31 (now the Kaptsov Gymnasium No. 1520). This school was located in the center of Moscow, on Stanislavsky Street (now Leontievsky Lane), it was considered prestigious, and she worked as a head teacher and teacher there. English language Victor's mother is Efremova Zinaida Semyonovna. His father, Oleg Anatolyevich, also worked as a teacher - at the military department at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman. In 1985, he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute with a degree in electromechanics, studied at the Literary Institute, but was expelled. For several years he was an employee of the journal Science and Religion, where he prepared publications on Eastern mysticism. The first published work was the fairy tale “The Sorcerer Ignat and the People” (1989). Pelevin's books have been translated into all major world languages, including Japanese and Chinese. Plays based on his stories are successfully performed in theaters in Moscow, London and Paris. French Magazine included Victor Pelevin in the list of 1000 most significant contemporary figures of world culture.

The writer Victor Pelevin mystified the public for so long and skillfully that among his young fans there was even an opinion that the real Pelevin did not exist, and that novels under this name were written almost by a computer.

One of the leading authors of our time is Viktor Olegovich Pelevin. The writer’s work will be highlighted in this article. It, like a mirror, reflected the realities of the surrounding world. Despite the numerous details, the author knows how to focus on the most essential and important. Thanks to his talent, our compatriot has gained worldwide fame. Let's find out which works of the writer became a real revelation for grateful readers.

Origin

Victor Pelevin, whose bibliography will be presented in our article, was born in Moscow in 1962. His dad, Oleg Anatolyevich Pelevin, worked as a teacher in the military department at Bauman University. In the past he was a career officer. The mother of the future writer, Zinaida Semyonovna Pelevina, at one time headed the department of one of the central grocery stores in the capital. She had access to all the scarce products at that time. However, despite this, the Pelevins did not live well. They huddled together with their grandmother in a communal apartment, in a house on Tverskoy Boulevard. Only in the 1970s were they lucky enough to move into a separate three-room dwelling in Northern Chertanovo.

Finding your purpose

In 1979, Victor Pelevin completed his studies at a secondary English special school. The writer's bibliography indicates the extensive knowledge that the author acquired as a child. The educational institution in the center of Moscow was considered very prestigious. After him, wide opportunities opened up for the graduate. First, the future writer gave the documents to the Moscow Energy Institute. There he was enrolled in the Faculty of Electrification and Automation. The educational institution was successfully completed in 1985. After this, Pelevin began working as an engineer at the department of his native institute. Military service did not spare him either. He repaid his duty to his homeland in the air force.

In 1987, Viktor Olegovich entered graduate school at Moscow Power Engineering Institute, but stayed there for only two years. He felt that writing was his calling and decided not to resist it. In 1989 he became a student named after Gorky. A would-be celebrity takes a correspondence course but quickly becomes disillusioned with the learning. In 1991, he was expelled as having “lost touch” with higher education. educational institution. The strange formulation is still the subject of lively discussion among the writer’s fans. It is unknown who Pelevin lost contact with the university, or the institute with the future eminent author. However, the writer never regretted leaving the Literary Institute.

The beginning of a creative journey

Despite disagreements with the teachers, it was at the literary university that Viktor Olegovich met his future colleagues - Albert Egazarov and Viktor Kulle. The young prose writer and promising poet founded their own publishing house. Its name changed several times - first “Day”, then “Raven”, and then “Myth”. For this publishing house, Pelevin, whose bibliography is rich and complex, prepared a three-volume work by the American mystic Castaneda. He actively helped his comrades and collaborated with them, which undoubtedly helped him find the necessary connections in the publishing environment. The writer was willingly published even before he became widely known among readers.

First literary experiments

From 1989 to 1990, our hero worked as a staff correspondent for the Face to Face publication. In addition, Viktor Pelevin is published in the journal Science and Religion. The writer's bibliography began with a short story, printed in it. It was called “The Sorcerer Ignat and the People” and did not make much of an impression on the readers.

But in 1992 the author loudly declared himself. He published a collection of short stories called The Blue Lantern. At first, this creation was ignored by critics, but a couple of years later Pelevin received several prestigious awards for it. literary prizes- Small Booker, Interpresscon and Golden Snail.

The emergence of novels

Viktor Pelevin was not only involved in stories. The author's bibliography is known for his novels. The first - “Omon Ra” - was published in the magazine “Znamya” in 1992. He was immediately nominated for Then the same publication published the novel “The Life of Insects” in 1993. This secured the title of a talented and promising writer for Viktor Olegovich. The author not only wrote interesting works, but also knew how to “fight back” overly arrogant critics. Thus, in 1993, the essay “John Fowles and the tragedy of Russian liberalism” appeared in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. It was so powerful and convincing that it was subsequently referred to in the media as “programmatic.” The year 1993 was marked by another fateful event for the writer - he was accepted into the Union of Russian Journalists.

"Chapaev and Emptiness"

Victor Pelevin, whose biography and work is of interest to many fans, was regularly published in the Znamya magazine. In 1996, it published a work under the intriguing title “Chapaev and Emptiness.” Critics called it the first Russian “Zen Buddhist” novel. The author himself positioned it as “the first novel whose action takes place in absolute emptiness.” The progressive creation received several prestigious nominations. For example, the writer was awarded the “Wanderer-97” award. And in 2001, he was included in the list of contenders for the world’s largest literary award, called the International Impac Dublin Literary Awards.

Universal fame

In 1999, fans had the opportunity to read a new work written by Pelevin. The writer's bibliography was decorated with a fresh literary masterpiece - the novel Generation P. In total, 3,500,000 million copies of this book were sold. She received all kinds of awards and became a cult favorite. For it, the author was awarded the German Richard Schönfeld Literary Prize.

This was followed by a five-year break, after which a novel with a long title “Dialectics of the Transitional Period” was published. From nowhere to nowhere." For two years, the work was nominated for various awards: in 2003 - the Apollo Grigoriev Prize, in 2004 - “National Bestseller”, etc. After that, in 2006, he published the novel Empire V. It was published by the Eksmo publishing house. Readers were able to find the text of the book long before publication. Publishers claimed there was a theft, but some thought it was an unorthodox marketing ploy.

Strange names

Victor Pelevin is famous for his originality. The writer's bibliography is filled with novels with short, concise and attention-grabbing titles. In the fall of 2009, the novel “t” was published. Thanks to this work, the author became a laureate of the national literary award “Big Book” and becomes third on the list of applicants. Readers unconditionally recognized him as the leader, but the jury made an independent decision.

At the end of 2011, Viktor Olegovich presented the novel S.N.U.F.F. to readers. This work was awarded the “ E-book" It is possible that such strange names are a sign of quality great artist. Studying an unusual abbreviation, each of us tries to understand its meaning. And often it turns out to be wider than a simple name of two or three understandable words.

Creative concept

The heroes of Pelevin's novels often depend on drugs. The author strongly emphasizes that he himself does not use such substances, although in his youth he experimented with them to expand his own consciousness. For what? The answer lies in the philosophical concept that Victor Pelevin adheres to. The features of the writer’s work are closely related to Zen Buddhism. The fact is that adherents of this movement see the world around them not as an objective reality, but as a product individual perception. Not only the existence of realities is questioned, but also the personality itself. For example, Peter in “Chapaev and Emptiness” is being treated in a psychiatric clinic for “split false personality.” By this, the author hints that both incarnations of the patient are equally unreliable. How do we know what the true nature of the world is? The path to enlightenment lies through mental knowledge, repulsion from the usual framework of understanding the world and the search for nirvana. Sometimes psychotropic substances are used to eliminate the rigid boundaries of reality. The author in no way encourages drug use. He simply offers to look at the world around him differently.

The most famous works

Viktor Pelevin wrote a great many stories, novels and novels. The works listed below are the most famous:

• "The Recluse and the Six-Fingered" (1990);
• "Reenactor" (1990);
• "Prince of the State Planning Committee" (1991);
• "News from Nepal" (1991);
• “Tambourine of the Upper World” (1993);
• "Yellow Arrow" (1993);
• "Zombification" (1994);
• "Ivan Kublakhanov" (1994);
• "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" (2004);
• "Helmet of Terror" (2005);
• “P5: Farewell songs of the political pygmies of Pindostan” (2008);
• “Pineapple water for a beautiful lady” (2010).

Theater productions

The works of Viktor Pelevin were repeatedly staged at the theater. The writer's work attracted the interest of many brilliant directors. So, in 2000, Pavel Ursul staged the play “Chapaev and Emptiness”. Spectators were able to see him at the Clown Theater named after Teresa Durova. A year later, the same novel appeared on the stage of the Kyiv Dakh Theater in a completely different version. The production is known as “...the fourth wheel...”.

In 2005 at theater festival NET in the center on Strastnoy, the interactive performance Shlem.com by Zivil Montvilaite was a success. It was created based on Pelevin’s novel “Helmet of Horror”. The director became famous for her production of “Tambourine of the Upper World” based on the works of Viktor Olegovich. She saw the light on the stage of the Pushkin Moscow Theater. The premiere of Sergei Shchedrin’s play “The Crystal World” took place at the Strastnoy Theater Center. The production is based on Pelevin's story of the same name.

• Victor Pelevin, whose life and work are unique, does not like to give interviews. He does not have his own blog or social media accounts. He spends most of his time in solitude. Only a few of his old photographs can be found on the Internet. In his behavior, the writer is very similar to Salinger.
• After completing his studies at the university, Viktor Olegovich worked in which is located in Moscow on Lesnaya Street. As a graduate student, he developed an electric drive system with an asynchronous motor for urban trolleybuses.
• A book entitled “Pelevin and the Generation of Emptiness” has been published about Pelevin’s life. Its authors - Sergei Polotovsky and Roman Kozak - collected all the known facts about Viktor Olegovich and summarized them. The book includes memories of teachers, acquaintances and friends of the writer.
• Many phrases that Pelevin uttered or wrote at one time have become popular among the people. For example, the words of Vasily Ivanovich from “Chapaev and Emptiness”: “Here is my commander’s hand.”

Conclusion

The books written by Victor Pelevin deserve close attention. The creativity briefly outlined in this article will certainly be included in the golden fund of world literature. A person who managed to look at the world differently and convey this vision to readers remains a mystery to many. I would like to hope that over time the author will please us with new interesting works and popular sayings. Because such talent is given to a few, and its fruits are intended for all of us. By studying the writer’s books, we understand more deeply the world in which we live.

Victor Pelevin is a writer whose life is shrouded in mystery. The name and work of this person fascinates and arouses constant interest. Despite the fact that his first novel was published in 1996, the author’s unconventional prose still causes heated controversy today. And the most amazing thing is that Victor Pelevin, whose books are breaking sales records, remains one of the most mysterious figures in modern literature.

Mysterious person

Pelevin is a writer about whom little is known. Few journalists can boast of meeting him personally. At one time, television people made incredible efforts to invite the writer to a program or talk show, but they could not even get through to him.

Victor Pelevin, whose books have been translated into many European languages, is reluctant to give interviews to Russian journalists. And when he appears in public, which he does not often, he appears before fans exclusively in black glasses. Publishers whose interests include promoting Pelevin’s books, when asked by press workers to organize an interview with the mysterious author, offer to send questions by email. The author of sensational novels, as a rule, refuses personal meetings.

Several years ago there were even rumors that Viktor Olegovich Pelevin was a non-existent person. And the books published under this name - the fruits of the labors of so-called literary ghosts. And yet, who is Viktor Pelevin? What is known about him from official sources?

Brief biography

Pelevin Viktor Olegovich was born in Moscow in 1962. The future writer spent his childhood living in a communal apartment in the very center of the capital. In the seventies, the family moved to Chertanovo, where, according to some sources, Victor Pelevin still lives today. After graduating from a prestigious school located on Leontyevsky Lane, he entered the Energy Institute. Then there was graduate school and several years of work at the department. In 1987, the writer, like his famous hero Tatarsky, entered the Literary Institute. Gorky.

Victor Pelevin, whose biography cannot be presented in full due to the presence large quantity white spots, according to some sources, he served in the army, was never married, worked for several years as a correspondent in one of the Moscow magazines. A large Russian publishing house published the first collection of stories in 1992. The novel that made him famous was published in 1991. But before getting to the topic of Pelevin’s work, it’s worth saying a few words about what else became known to inquisitive press employees about the life of the author of the sensational novel “Chapaev and Emptiness.”

School and Institute

Pelevin's former classmates and teachers remember him as an aloof teenager. Among his peers, he was distinguished by his high erudition, but always kept himself apart.

Pelevin was expelled from the famous university that produces certified poets and prose writers. There were many legends about him. During his student years, Pelevin did not stand out in any way. At least that's what the teachers thought literary excellence. Soon after his expulsion, he became famous. It took a long time for this professor to forgive his former student. There was a time when an applicant seen with a book by this author had every chance of failing the entrance exams.

First novel

The work “Omon Ra” was published in 1991. The genre is close to a thriller, but is a parody of an educational novel Soviet years. The main feature of “Omon Ra” is grotesqueness. The heroes of the novel are cadets of the flight school named after. Maresyeva. After admission, each of them has their legs amputated. Moreover, this is done in the name of the Motherland. Then the cadets learn the Kalinka dance. In passing, this fantastic and philosophical work also mentions the military school of Pavel Korchagin, whose graduates, without exception, are all blind and disabled. For his first novel, Pelevin was awarded two prestigious literary prizes. --

A novel set in the void

Pelevin is a writer who, according to critics, occupied the niche of Castaneda, Borges and Cortazar in Russian literature. The author of the novel “Chapaev and Emptiness” is the first representative of modern philosophical prose in Russia. The action of this work takes place two years after the revolution. The main character, Peter Pustota, serves in Chapaev’s division. This work was received ambiguously by critics, but in most cases positively. The novel was included in the list of candidates for

"Generation P"

The novel about Russians whose views were formed in an era of change was published in 1999. The action of the work, which has become a cult classic, takes place in the early nineties. The hero of the novel is a graduate of the Literary Institute, forced to work in a kiosk, selling cigarettes and beer. But thanks to an accident, he becomes one of the representatives of a profession whose existence in Russia few people knew about in the early nineties. Tatarsky (that’s the name of Pelevin’s hero) becomes a copywriter.

Before the novel appeared on the shelves of bookstores, Internet users had the opportunity to read some of its fragments. Critics were interested in the non-standard plot. Pelevin gained even more fans. The publication of the novel “Generation P” was a long-awaited event.

"DPP"

In 2003, a collection was published, which included short stories and the novel “Numbers.” Before this event, there was a short break in the author’s work. Pelevin is a writer whose books focus on criticism of Soviet consciousness. This author's satire is unique. It is not expressed in author's position expressed in the text itself. It's more of a feeling of ugliness modern life, which, however, cannot be otherwise. Similar ideas and sentiments are present in the DPP.

Features of prose

Pelevin is a writer whose books are a kind of encyclopedia of spiritual and intellectual literature. Any of his works can be considered a textbook on mythology. But in order to understand the meaning of Pelevin’s ideas, it is necessary to have sufficient information from the field of the history of religion and philosophy. Not every even educated reader is able to decipher the intertextual references that are present in his books.

The texts of this author contain religious and philosophical treatises. Reading Pelevin's books is like solving a crossword puzzle. Some literary scholars and admirers of Pelevin's work believe that his prose is a fascinating textbook on religious studies.

What is the reason for its popularity?

The author about whom we're talking about in this article, differs from many of his colleagues in his subtle artistic taste and unusually developed imagination. At least, this is what most Russian critics believe. Pelevin manages to find a new perspective and an original approach in each book. He often surprises, and sometimes even shocks. Pelevin's books contain complex philosophical constructs, but thanks to the ease of the language, reading does not become tedious.

The images of the heroes in the novels of this writer are memorable and vivid. And Pelevin’s literary style is a mixture of forms and genres. In one book you can find several genres - fantasy, detective, mysticism, and drug romance. By the way, despite the fact that Pelevin’s characters abuse illegal drugs, the author claims that he is unaware of such weakness. He is capable of expanding his consciousness without the use of narcotic drugs.

Criticism

Of course, not all readers are delighted with Pelevin’s prose. But even fans notice that this writer’s skill is not developing progressively. The novel, which was published more than twenty years ago, according to critics, has still not been surpassed. Pelevin's prose is distinguished by the presence different styles, which may be present in one work. In the book you can find episodes that do not play any role in the plot. All these features of prose cause both positive and negative reactions from critics and readers.

Pelevin and classics

One of the literary critics once said that Pelevin is trying to build a bridge between the youth subculture and cultural heritage. The author of fashionable intellectual prose is called a follower of Bulgakov and Gogol. After all, Pelevin’s books contain both social satire and mystical subjects.

The question of whether Pelevin’s work belongs to art and real literature remains controversial to this day. And today there are critics who respond negatively to it. However, bad prose, as we know, needs promotion and intrusive advertising. Pelevin's books became popular without any special advertising campaign.

The book “The Art of Light Touches” by Victor Pelevin was published somewhat ahead of the usual annual schedule for this writer. It included a short story, a long story and a story, and each of the texts had already acquired its share of admiration and reproaches, as, indeed, the book as a whole. However, as Mikhail Prorokov believes, Viktor Pelevin is read not for the fact that he breaks records of artistic perfection over and over again (without the risk of being very mistaken, we can say that since the time of Chapaev and Emptiness, perfection has ceased to concern him at all), but simply for the fact that, as the publishing house that published the book succinctly formulated, he is “the one and only.” Something like the iPhone, glorified in his novel before last: in order to resist buying the next one, you had to not buy the ten previous ones, but bought it - so now.

Four friends go on vacation to wander the mountains. On the first evening, just getting out of the taxi, they meet a long-haired, gray-bearded cyclist singing in French about how he would have no reason to live if someone did not exist. Soon fate will bring them together again, and they will go on a walk through the mountains together.

This is how “Iakinthos” begins - the first story of three that made up Victor Pelevin’s new book. Then the landscapes will stretch, one more amazing than the other, travelers will argue about the eternal: who created the mountains? gods? for what purpose? isn't it with the one with whom egyptian pharaohs built the pyramids? “The size and antiquity of these tombstones indicated the immeasurable greatness of the deceased. On the other hand, there were so many divine pyramids that, due to their sheer number, the gods did not seem to be a particularly durable people.” Even further, it turns out that at least one of the gods has survived and is found somewhere nearby.

Depriving his critics of the pleasure of believing that the fate of the book at least to some extent depends on their judgments, Victor Pelevin leaves them with another, more sublime joy: over and over again trying to understand what he is writing about. And why are both critics and readers so drawn to an author who is not too concerned with either vitality, or artistry, or plot structure, or even the quality of jokes (with each text, the line between banter and grumbling for the author of “The Crystal World” and “The Day of the Bulldozer Driver” is increasingly drawn thinner).

“Iakinth” will not provide much help in this: it is too reminiscent of the old “Feeding the Crocodile Khufu” and “Thags”, except that the heroes in it are a little less unsympathetic. The last story, “Stolypin,” serves as an elegant afterword to last year’s “Secret Views of Mount Fuji,” only the hero-oligarchs this time interpret the structure of the universe not to each other, but to the prisoners next in line. So all hope lies in “The Art of Light Touches” itself - this is the name of the second, largest and most conceptual story in the collection. Her main character with a surname reminiscent of a fairly well-known, and in narrow circles, cult online writer, is investigating a complicated case related to the activities of his neighbor in the country, an FSB general and generally a rather mysterious person. It gradually becomes clear that General Izyumin was involved in chimeras as part of his duty. True, the term “chimema” appeared in the reports, but the general and his subordinates did not use it among themselves, fully aware that the origins of the work entrusted to them came from those very ancient chimeras depicted on Notre Dame. And also gargoyles (Pelevin prefers to say “gargoyles”) - but a person cannot create a gargoyle. But he can create chimeras - and for some time now this is quite enough. And here again the motive of the death of God arises.

“What, in fact, did Nietzsche mean when he said his famous “God is dead”?.. Nietzsche wanted to say that the heavenly music had died down. The divine organ, embodied, in particular, in the Gothic cathedral, fell silent. Entities from higher planes, carrying the heavenly will, stopped descending into the world. Even the gargoyles of evil directed by the Enemy stopped flocking to it. Our dimension seemed to temporarily disappear for Heaven - and the “holy place”, which cannot be empty, began to be occupied by chimeras.” Chimeras, unlike gargoyles, are created not by God, who wants to communicate his will to man, but by man - but are perceived as a divine command. Or as the call of the times, the categorical imperative of humanity and progress. One could say this: they also serve as divine heralds, but their god is the one who has been worshiped for the last few hundred years and who prefers not to reveal himself, but to work exclusively through his adepts. His name is Reason, and in the mid-1790s in France, churches were even dedicated to him and masses were celebrated, but after that he again went into the shadows and has since acted only from there.

Experienced readers have already guessed: Pelevin is again talking about the fact that you need to keep your mind in emptiness, and keep your ears open and not believe anyone except Tibetan monks (and it’s better not to believe either). Yes, we can say that “The Art of Light Touches” is a performance of Pelevin’s favorite songs to the tune of “Operation Burning Bush” - this was the name of the story included in “Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady” about a modest teacher named Levitan, forced by the FSB to work first by the voice of God for American President, and then with the voice of the devil - for the Russian. In “Art...” the special services are also at war, but instead of speakers hidden somewhere in the heads, they use chimeras - fads, fashions, ideologies, in general, emanations of Zeitgeist, that same Reason in its actual incarnation - it is, in essence, Kronos, the god of time (and here the second story rhymes perfectly with the first).

But this is not about how not to let yourself be fooled. The continent's champion in skepticism, Pelevin does not favor skeptic heroes. Excessively advanced in the field of illusionism, the characters in the story about the crocodile Khufu so confidently revealed the secrets of the poor magician that they began to build for many thousands of years Egyptian pyramid. If the sleep of the mind, as Victor Pelevin reminds in his new book (equipped, by the way, with illustrations and reproductions of Goya and Rembrandt), gives birth to monsters-chimeras, then the mind itself - not God, but the human ability to perceive, understand and invent - is capable of gifting its owner many joys, delights and insights (“the thinking human mind, which questions everything, is also one of the angels,” as was said in the same “Operation Burning Bush”). All that is required of him is to listen, to heed, to wait, to be surprised, not to push himself forward, not to push himself forward, not to take on too much.

And here the writer Pelevin finds himself in the position of that same magician from the story about the crocodile. He masterfully creates illusions that could entertain and instruct the unsophisticated, but the vanguard of his fans are precisely those who are too sophisticated. He, who studied with the Strugatskys, knows how to set up thought experiments of any complexity and fearlessly bring them to the end, but these experiments prove few things to anyone. He is gifted with the talent of an exhaustively precise word (which to a large extent explains his inattention to the plot - his main events do not take place in physical world, but in lexical-semantic), but unlike the Strugatsky readers, Pelevin’s readers - those of them who set the tone in the discussion of his books - are not techies, but humanists. That is, people who know everything about words, but do not understand their meaning.

Well, if you believe General Izyumin, the most powerful chimeras, already embedded in the consciousness of a potential enemy, remain dormant for a while, and are launched by triggers - code phrases that have no apparent relation to the matter, and can often seem meaningless. Pelevin is difficult to decipher, although it doesn’t seem to encrypt anything in particular - this is a minus. But they continue to read Pelevin - and this is a plus. Maybe that’s why he writes a book a year - he feeds the chimera, which one day, no one knows from what words of his, will awaken and tell us what to do.

What to read: everyone is discussing these new products

Pelevin’s 17th novel is divided into three parts: in the first episode, four friends go on vacation, where they meet a mysterious old man; in the second part, Pelevin retells the plot of the book by a certain K.P. Golgotha, and the ending became a kind of continuation of Pelevin’s previous novel “Secret Views of Mount Fuji.” “Art” was published recently, but has already become the best-selling book of the season. If you are not afraid of really long dialogues (several pages) - welcome.

Books you'll enjoy

We invite you to be one of the first to read new novel Victor Pelevin, the novel was published at the end of August and, apparently, has already become a bestseller. The book is a collection of three stories: the first tells about hipsters wandering around the North Caucasus, the second about Russian hackers, and the third about the heroes of Pelevin’s last year’s novel “Secret Views of Mount Fuji.” If you are not yet familiar with Pelevin’s work, it’s time to fix that. And yes, do not forget in this case to read one of the most famous novels writer "Generation P".

Chimeras, criminals and gods: a review of Victor Pelevin’s book “The Art of Light Touches”

Over the past five years, Viktor Pelevin’s books have traditionally been published in late summer or early autumn. It is unknown whether this is a requirement from the publisher or whether the author himself wanted to publish more often, but the fact is clear. If previously one of the best-selling writers in Russia could release one book every two or three years, now every August or September his new novel appears on the shelves. At the same time, “The Art of Light Touches” will primarily please not fans of the writer’s monumental and heavy works, but those who miss his experiences in short prose.

And even the title of the book itself seems to speak about this. After the very overloaded “iPhuck 10” and the deliberately topical “Secret Views of Mount Fuji,” Pelevin returns to the past and again experiments with unusual shape submissions.

Different stories about the same thing The novel consists of three parts that are practically unrelated to each other. Moreover, one of them, which gave the title to the entire book, is much larger than the rest. And it is she who looks a little weaker, although the author himself more than once ironizes about the length of the work. The other two, in terms of presentation, are more reminiscent of Pelevin’s stories from the nineties. Well, the plots here are traditional for most of the writer’s works. They have some kind of informal guru (this could be a guide in the Caucasus mountains, or one of the prisoners in a prison carriage), who tries to initiate newcomers into the secrets of existence.

Most the stories are told in direct speech, and the background action only complements it, preparing the ground for the final twist and making the listeners participants in the story.

It’s not too difficult to guess how the plot will turn out in the finale. But stories are not written to surprise the reader with a sudden twist. He talks about this in almost all of his works in the last ten years. And it seems that “The Art of Light Touches” is just another of his attempts in simple words convey to the reader the ideas of Buddhism. Therefore, each time the main idea remains approximately the same, only the form changes.

In his new book, Pelevin talks about sacrifices to the god Kronos and psychics of the Soviet Union. Then he finds a connection between the religion of ancient Egypt, the Masonic community, chimeras and gargoyles at the Council Notre Dame of Paris, and turns it all into a detective story about an FSB conspiracy. And in the finale it completely turns the story into a criminal tale with criminal jargon.

But in fact, in these stories it is not difficult to discern the standard ideas of Pelevin’s books. Everything is invariably connected with the value of time as the main human resource. But the main thing is the materiality of thoughts and ideas that a sufficient number of people believe in.

The two-volume “The Caretaker” of 2015 was almost entirely devoted to the latter. And now Pelevin returned to his favorite topic with obvious pleasure.

Brevity is the sister... The second part of the book, the most voluminous and important, is presented rather ironically. Here Pelevin again reminds that he loves to experiment with genres, and at the same time rebuffs all his critics latest works.

It is written in the form of a brief retelling and at the same time analysis of a non-existent book by a certain K.P. Golgotha. That is, the author himself writes a review of his own book, and shows what would happen to his works if they were created with an eye on reviews.

In general, Pelevin criticizes almost all of his later works. In recent years, he has been regularly criticized for the excessively drawn out action and tendency to retell the dialogue in too much detail - this is especially felt in “iPhuck 10”. And then the writer himself offers to briefly retell the voluminous work in the spirit of modern summary articles or podcasts. He only mentions that here there should be a description of the architecture, and here - details of personal relationships. But at the same time, he throws out all the artistry that was supposedly in the book of Golgotha, reduces dialogues and descriptions from 50 pages to three and leaves only the very essence.

The result is something like The Da Vinci Code, only with a study of the origins of gargoyles in architecture and at the same time an analysis of Russia's influence on world politics. First in an interesting way leads to the topic of the development of religions and cults. And in connection with the latter, the author regularly breaks into his favorite humor on the verge of trash, dedicated to tolerance, Twitter, new cold war and other relevant topics. The desire to touch on basic social issues is felt very strongly: the “yellow vest” protests and even the fire in Notre Dame are flashed. But the writer, of course, makes the topic of Russian interference in the US elections the center of the story.

But still, despite the irony of the presentation, the central part of the book seems a little drawn out. Perhaps only because before and after it there are much more concise and shorter works, where almost the same thoughts are presented much more compactly, and therefore more intensely.

In recent years, Pelevin has increasingly connected his works with each other. In “The Art of Light Touches” it is easy to notice direct references to “Helm of Terror” and either a development or criticism of the mythology of “Empire V”, and the last part with the title “Stolypin” unexpectedly intersects with one of his recent works.

There is some malicious intent in all this. In his new book, Pelevin shows the similarity of rituals in many religions and cults, emphasizing the cyclicality and monotony of world history. That is why the author does not hide the fact that all his books are about the same thing, just each time in the spirit of a new time. And for the same reason, the three seemingly unrelated parts of the novel quite fit into a single picture.

But still, in recent years, behind self-irony, excessive reflection and a desire to comply with the agenda have begun to appear more and more. That's why short stories It is easier to read from this book; in them Pelevin does not try to grasp the relevance and make you laugh with a topical joke. He writes about what is important at all times, and he does it just fine.

Pelevin presented a new version of the Universe

Victor Pelevin’s book “The Art of Light Touches” consists of two stories (“Iakinf” and “Stolypin”) and a treatise story, which gives the title to the entire collection. As always, the author’s work offers an answer to the question once asked by Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov to his son Ivan: “Who is it that laughs at a person like that?” Of course, the writer doesn’t know this for certain - but at least he’s trying to detect the reptile!

FOUR young people travel through the mountains with a weirdo guide named Iakinthos. Of course, he is talking about the main thing - what kind of gods rule the world. He tells how in his youth, pretending to be a psychic according to the fashion of the time, a certain initiate brought him to a secret place and explained that the god Kronos (aka Saturn and also Baal) had not disappeared anywhere from the life of mankind. And the picture that “the new gods have squeezed out the world and driven the old gods under the bunk” is fundamentally incorrect. Kronos, lord of time, still accepts victims while keeping a low profile. And time is all that a person has. “What can we do? We’ll run around a little, trade in our youth, shit on those who came before, and then they’ll start shitting on us and little by little they’ll write us off... They’ll devour us unnoticed. So cycle after cycle.”

There is a hierarchy of power both above and below. “There are local authorities, there is a central one, there are international centers of power... there are authoritative guys. People whisper that there is a world government that decides everything, but no one has seen it. It’s probably the same in the Universe...”

In the story-treatise “The Art of Light Touches” the author changes the mask of the narrator, although we still hear the same voice of a witty, intellectual, educated buffoon and chatterbox that has been familiar for thirty years. Who decided to find the root of the evil of human life and tell about it, entertaining the reader - that is, the voice of Pelevin himself. This time he allegedly retells in abbreviation the voluminous work of the historian and philosopher Golgotha. This philosopher was struck by the mysterious poisoning of his neighbor in the country, General Izyumov, and, trying to find the reason for such a strange turn in the fate of a seemingly peaceful old man, he unwinds the chain of investigation. The general didn’t just drink tea in his dressing gown. He was touched main secret history of civilization.

The turning point is the end of the Middle Ages, when the direct connection between man and God through intermediaries ceases (in the old days they were called angels and messengers; Pelevin calls them “gargoyles”). Instead of them, the two-horned gentleman comes again, the same Saturn-Baal-Kronos, but he calls himself Reason. Humanity begins to intensively worship Reason (during the French Revolution of 1789, such a cult was actually established). Specifically, this imaginary Reason controls with the help of chimeras.

The chimera replaced the previous messengers. “Some phenomena of consciousness, known as “public opinion,” “new trends,” “the hum of time,” correspond to invisible and incorporeal entities in the everyday sense that manifest themselves in our lives precisely through the fact that the wind of time begins to hum in a new way ... this is the famous spirit of the era.” That is, a person accepts the suggestions of chimeras as his beliefs and opinions. The more heads are infected with the so-called “public opinion”, this or that ideology, the stronger the spirit of the time and the more powerful the Mind-Kronos becomes.

Moving first to Kaliningrad, then to Holland, then to Paris, then to Sukhumi and finding more and more witnesses to the life and work of General Izyumov, our Golgofasky understands that this old man ran the secret office of our GRU, which was engaged in the complex production of these chimeras. Aimed at America. And everything that has happened to America over the past 20 years is the work of General Izyumov, which has been greatly facilitated with the advent of social networks. Now launch the verbal code on Twitter - and the chimera begins to instantly grow and get fat.

The goal is to crush America. But the general understood that “with such healthy and sane people as the Americans of the late twentieth century were, it would be difficult to do something like this. Therefore, his task was to destroy the main thing that made America America - the clear, rational and free American mind. Ideally, he wanted to turn the United States into the same stupid and deceitful society that it was Soviet Union seventies... to create a disgusting and stuffy atmosphere of hypocrisy, fear and lies...” And General Izyumov’s laboratory developed and launched into American society the entire system of its current chimeras - political correctness, identity politics, gender madness and left-wing activism.

However, the response began to arrive - malicious chimeras, invented in our country, began to return and infect little by little and Russian society. These idiot progressives imagine that they are following their convictions, but in fact their sluggish little minds are ruled by chimeras launched into America by General Izyumov!

As a result of a global clash of chimeras (and Americans are inventing their own, launching them through our segment of social networks), the world finally risks turning into... a 4-letter word, the first “w”.

“I don’t really want to live,” the Golgotha ​​historian saddens, “in this epochal w..., for what is w... in the scientific sense? Well... there is something that cannot be passed through, a section of the path that will have to be rewinded, and the deeper our blue carriage goes into it (even if it’s an armored train - what’s the point?), the longer we will then have to back away towards the light , that was once at the end of the tunnel... but at the end of this... there is no light.”

Pelevin as the largest demonologist of our time in developing an answer to the question “Who is it that laughs at a person like that?” reached undeniable heights. This makes no sense. People are completely fooled - and imagine themselves to be progressive and thoughtful, being tiny cogs in a demonic mechanism. The domestic events of this August-September (I hope they will end up in Pelevin’s new novel) are a voluminous illustration of the mass psychosis of consciousnesses poisoned by chimeras. Moreover, you can’t tell who exactly is manipulating, the demons quarreled, and the GRU and the CIA merged, annihilated and reactivated again, but it is absolutely unclear in whose favor.

And reason - not a cunning and deceitful demon god who came to rule humanity by stealing its name - but true reason, is it able to take the world out of the word starting with the letter “w”?

This is unlikely - as the Red Army soldier Sukhov used to say. But at least as long as we think with our own heads, and do not writhe in mass psychoses, no matter what “progressive and humane” guise they put on, we regain our human dignity. What I mean is that Viktor Pelevin is a great guy: he doesn’t take part in the dances of chimeras.

You can't fool him, demons. He will see you, catch up with you, describe you, catch up with you again and classify you!

The art of light curses “Ogonyok” read the new novel by Viktor Pelevin

Victor Pelevin’s new book “The Art of Light Touches” has been published. To the Ogonyok observer, however, it did not seem easy - rather, it reminded me of a monumental fresco about human suffering.

Three-part form. In the first story, four carefree tourists and a guide go to the mountains near Nalchik. Broker, talking head on TV, owner of a company installing plastic windows (crappy), social philosopher. Walk for five days, guide with strange name Every evening Iakinthos tells them his own story of initiation. Things are clearly not going to end well. In the end, something bright and merciless will appear that will not leave even a trace of the little carriers of corporate evil. In the next part, Pelevin acts as a reteller of the multi-page work of the philosopher and historian K.P. Golgotha, behind which Prokhanov is guessed; from the stone chimeras of the burnt Notre Dame to the noospheric and media chimeras. Finally, the third story is about how the gloomy atmosphere of a prisoner's carriage is used to re-experience the joy of life.

The book resembles a fold, with two small doors on the sides and a massive board in the middle. The left part describes the ritual of sacrifice: modern people voluntarily sacrifice themselves without even noticing it. Realizing their own insignificance in the face of eternity, they unconsciously strive for self-destruction; out of emptiness and emptiness will come. At the center is a massive history of human suffering, from antiquity to the present day - and the attempts to put suffering at the service of humanity. And on the right is a short lesson on how to extract an unusual kind of pleasure from suffering.

Pelevin is an unsurpassed master of the story, short story, gizmo; they are light, literally floating, it is unclear what they are holding on to (like the prisoner’s carriage in the story “Stolypin”). They say that there is an early Pelevin, and there is a late Pelevin - this is not entirely accurate. There is a short Pelevin and a long one. Behind the “short” one one can feel a concentrated master who creates with one effort of thought. Precisely because the universe needs to be arranged in seven days, there is nothing superfluous in it, no invasions from the outside world interfere with the fate of the story (I would like to do without spoilers, but the story “Stolypin” is the strongest and bravest: in fact, it challenges established criminal concepts). But behind the “long” Pelevin there is a craftsman who makes a big thing to order: in order to bring it to the required volume, you have to fill it with media “white noise” (that is, conspiracy theories, which are now at every turn).

In general, we have before us a school trick about the transition of one energy into another: suffering into pleasure and back (it’s easy to guess that the author himself adheres to the concept “without suffering there is no happiness”). But now the question is: where, in fact, does the suffering go, the billions of cubic meters of human suffering over the entire long history? Surely it cannot disappear without a trace? And if suffering is inevitable, there must be some meaning to it, for what is it “needed”? When you raise the question of the “meaning of suffering,” a projection of a higher order inevitably arises in front of you. Anyone who thinks this way automatically begins to look at the world from the point of view of the “higher mind.” As Pelevin writes, when you reach the barriers, it is more difficult to choose detour options: along with the concept of higher intelligence, you must automatically accept the concept of the insignificance of the individual human personality. That “a person in himself means nothing”, that he is always a hostage to someone’s will (it’s amazing, but, for example, Vladimir Sorokin in his dystopias does not need “higher meaning” as a crutch at all: all the outrages are created by the people themselves who find pleasure in violence, in causing pain to others). The concept of a “higher plan” is popular today in Russia (in this sense, Pelevin - bright spokesman public mood). It is not the people themselves who are guilty of something or are responsible for something - this very “highest plan” is responsible for everything. However, seeing a “higher meaning”, for example, in the mass human disasters of the twentieth century known to us, is a dangerous line; so close to justifying monstrous atrocities. Pelevin feels this well and therefore, despite all his spiritual structuralism, he skillfully avoids dangerous analogies.

It is pointless to write a review of Pelevin in the usual form, because he has long been “his own review” (in the new book he is just writing a “liberal review” of himself, taking away the last bit from the critic). But what we need to capture from a work is not the plot, but the light and sound, as Maurice Blanchot taught us. After 30 years, it is more or less clear who (and what) Pelevin is for Russian culture.

The last Soviet generation (Pelevin's most devoted reader) had only notches left from the past, marks in the unconscious - often in the form of obsessive words or songs, quotes from films. But they are very strong - like any first impressions. Let’s follow Pelevin’s method, let’s take a completely typical thing that is spinning in our heads, well, for example, the song “Gravity of the Earth,” with the refrain “we are the children of the Galaxy,” sung by Lev Leshchenko. The song was written in 1978 - the very peak of Brezhnevism, but also the beginning of its decline. In essence, a completely humanistic and universal text, without any ideology.

But it's worth listening to now - like any Soviet-like Someone else’s, parallel voice immediately begins to sound in my head. This can be called a sabotage of consciousness (Pelevin, by the way, has a story that literally implements this metaphor - “Operation Burning Bush”, 2010). This voice cleverly and evilly begins to joke, laugh at every line of the song, as if mimicking it, and all the charm of golden Brezhnevism crumbles, and it becomes clear that behind every line of the song there is not even a lie, but simply emptiness. What kind of voice is this? This “inner voice” is Pelevin. More precisely, even so - “Pelevin”. This can be called the voice of reason, criticism, but this is not enough; he seems to speak on behalf of an entire philosophy. Pelevin gave us a language for deconstruction, for ridiculing ideological utopias (the reviewer, for example, remembers how he literally ceased to be a Soviet person after reading Pelevin’s first novel “Omon Ra”, for which he will always be grateful to him).

You can, of course, find unofficial literary roots Pelevin, but, in essence, he is the first (and almost the only) post-Soviet writer. Like the ancient gods, he “gave birth to himself” - out of nothing, out of ash and dirt. At the very foundation of “Pelevin” lies not the laughter culture of Rabelais, not Bakhtin’s carnival, or anything else very cultural. Pelevin’s language was “born” from sadistic nursery rhymes (“a girl found a grenade in a field”, etc.), scary pioneer bedtime stories - about a black “Volga” with the inscription SSD (death to Soviet children). These things, charged with great cynicism, are considered today to be a popular antidote against cloying socialist realism and dead dogmas, just like jokes about Chapaev or Stirlitz. Their destructive energy turned out to be very strong - due to their absolute anti-culture and even immorality, but they could not generate anything but destruction. “I myself lit a fire that burned me from the inside. I left the law, but never got to love,” BG wrote in 1988, and the same can be said about Pelevin himself.

Pelevin became the destroyer of not just Soviet utopias, but any utopias in general, even if they were a hundred times more humane than totalitarian ones. After all, if one admits that there are some “good utopias,” this puts an end to his entire writer’s plan and concept. But he cannot do this (like any writer - it is difficult to give up claims to universality). And if in his early works some kind of “hope” for a person slipped through, then since then Pelevin has deliberately expelled even hints of this hope. That is why he turns part of his gift into ritual curses in each novel. modern world- with his belief in human improvement, tolerance, feminism and renovation. In this sense, Pelevin is doomed to continue to create gloomy frescoes about a person who is dependent on higher wills and forces, on the struggle of special services or echelons of higher intelligence. In a sense, Pelevin describes himself - he cannot do anything against his own writing strategy. Well, against the wind, as popular wisdom says, too - what's the point. Pelevin will be defeated when someone proposes another myth - one that also has such powerful energy, but at the same time is able to “believe in a person” and put him at the center of the universe. Modern Russian literature, however, emphatically does not believe in man, considering him a “hostage of history,” and in this sense it is all similar. Looks like Pelevin.