In what literary direction does Viktor Pelevin work. See what "Pelevin, Viktor Olegovich" is in other dictionaries

Viktor Pelevin is a Russian cult writer, author of the novels Omon Ra, Chapaev and Emptiness and Generation P, which, in addition to European languages, have also been translated into Japanese and Chinese. According to French Magazine, the writer was included in the list of 1000 most influential figures in contemporary culture. In 2009, the author was awarded the title of the most influential intellectual in Russia according to polls of users of the OpenSpace website.

Viktor Pelevin was born on November 22, 1962 in Moscow. Father Oleg Anatolyevich Pelevin taught at the military department at the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman. The writer's mother, Zinaida Semyonovna Efremova, taught English at school. Viktor Pelevin's childhood years were spent in Moscow. At first, his family lived on Tverskoy Boulevard, and after a while they moved to Chertanovo, the southern district of the capital.

Victor Pelevin was educated at the prestigious school No. 31 with in-depth study of the English language, located in the center of Moscow. Today, this school has changed its format and has become Gymnasium No. 1520 named after. Kaptsov. At that time, the children of representatives of high society and the party elite of the USSR studied together with the future writer.

According to the memoirs of the journalist Andrei Trushin, who was friends with the future writer at that time, Viktor could be described as a “touching” person. He paid a lot of attention to his own appearance - his clothes always corresponded to fashion, and during walks the future writer improvised whole stories where absurdity, real life and fantasy were intertwined into a single work of art expressing Pelevin's attitude to school and teachers.

In 1979, Pelevin entered the Energy Institute, where he studied at the Faculty of Electronic Equipment for Automation of Industry and Transport. After graduation, he is accepted as an engineer at the Department of Electric Transport. In 1987, Viktor Pelevin entered the MPEI graduate school, where he wrote a dissertation on the electric drive of a trolleybus with an asynchronous motor. The defense of this work did not take place, since Victor decides to change the scope of his activity.

In 1989, he entered the correspondence department at the Literary Institute. , for a prose course led by Mikhail Lobanov. Two years later, Viktor Pelevin was expelled from the literary institute. Later, in an interview, the writer will say that the years spent at the institute were in vain. According to him, the only goal of the students during their studies at this university was to establish contacts that Victor never needed.

At the institute, Viktor Pelevin meets Albert Egazarov, a young prose writer who, in his free time, traded computers that were extremely rare in Moscow of that era. Pelevin weaves some episodes of his biography into his own biography and into the storylines of his characters. So, for example, in the curriculum vitae, which Victor filled out in the magazine "Znamya" on the eve of the publication of the novel "Omon Ra", the writer indicates in the column "occupation - computer speculator".

With the proceeds from the sale of computers, Albert decides to open his own publishing house. At the same time, a full-time student, the eccentric secretary of the Komsomol organization Victor Kulle, who later became a well-known literary critic, joins their company. It was he who agreed with the rector of the institute to provide premises for the future publishing house in exchange for the annual publication of works written by students.

Thus, the Mif publishing house was created, headed by Albert Egazarov, and Pelevin and Kulle became its editors and deputies for prose and poetry. In this position, Pelevin prepared a three-volume collected works for publication, the translation of which became much easier to read after Viktor's editorial changes.

Literature

In the early 90s, Viktor Pelevin began to publish in serious literary publishing houses. In the winter of 1991, Victor came to the editorial office of the Znamya magazine with the manuscript of the novel Omon Ra. The editorial board liked the work and approved it for publication. And in March 1992, the novel "The Life of Insects" was published there, the heroes of which were typical representatives of a society in transition. For this novel, the writer received an award from the Znamya magazine. A year later, for the collection of short stories "The Blue Lantern", previously unnoticed by critics, Pelevin was nominated for the Small Booker Prize.

In 1993, the writer was admitted to the Union of Journalists. At the same time, the essay “John Fowles and the Tragedy of Russian Liberalism” was published in Novaya Gazeta. This work was a worthy reaction of the writer to critical reviews of his work, which Viktor Pelevin was keenly worried about. At the same time, the myth originates that the writer Pelevin does not exist, but there is only a chain of messages on the screen. This is how Alexander Vyaltsev wrote about him, speaking with devastating criticism of Pelevin's works in the article "Zarathustra and Messerschmidt".

In 1996, Znamya magazine published a work, later described as the first "Zen Buddhist" novel, called "Chapaev and the Void." The book received the Wanderer Literary Award, and in 2001 was included in the list of the most prestigious Dublin Literary Prize.

In 1999, Viktor Pelevin's legendary novel "Generation P" was published, which became a cult and brought its author a special status in Russian literature. The plot of the novel tells about a generation of people whose formation took place at the time of the break of epochs, the time when the USSR ceased to exist and the old values ​​collapsed.

This work can be attributed to postmodern literature, where reality meets fantastic images, mixing into a grandiose theater of the absurd. Although Pelevin himself was surprised in an interview: where could postmodernism come from in the country, when for a long time only Soviet realism existed. A special place in the life of the characters of the novel is occupied by narcotic substances, which sometimes act as the driving force of the plot.

In 2004, Pelevin's sixth novel, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, about the love of a werewolf fox named A Khuli and a werewolf, Lieutenant General of the FSB Alexander Sery, appeared on the shelves of bookstores. The plot of the work echoes the plot lines of the novel "Generation P" and the story "Prince of Gosplan".

Pelevin's next novel, Empire V, also known as The Tale of a Real Superman, was released in 2006. It is noteworthy that in the novel there is a character from "Generation P". The creation of such cross lines is typical of Pelevin's style.

In 2009, the Eksmo publishing house released the novel "t", which mixes Russian history and Eastern mysticism, where the journey of count "t" (a hint at) to Optina Pustyn is equated with the search for Shambhala. In 2011, Pelevin's post-apocalyptic novel S.N.U.F.F. The work was awarded the "Electronic Book" award.

Two years later, the novel "Batman Apollo" appeared, and in 2014 the writer delighted readers with a new work "Love for Three Zuckerbrins" about the attributes of modern society. In the first volume of the novel "The Watcher", which Victor Pelevin called "The Order of the Yellow Flag", the writer turned to the personality of the emperor. According to the plot of the book, Pavel finds himself in another world due to the influence of alchemy, where he receives a teacher as a guide.

In 2016, Pelevin's novel "The Lamp of Methuselah, or the Ultimate Battle of the Chekists with the Freemasons" was published, created from four parts. The everyday plot, which tells about the life of the Mozhaisky family, is intertwined with phantasmagoric elements.

Personal life

The writer created a huge number of rumors and hoaxes around his personality, the most famous of which is the hypothesis that a group of people works under the pseudonym "Viktor Pelevin". All factors contribute to the life of this myth, from the theme of creativity to the fact that the writer himself leads an extremely closed lifestyle, does not give interviews and does not appear in society. Therefore, information about Pelevin's personal life is kept secret by him. It is only known that the writer has no wife and children.

For a long time, Viktor Pelevin did not create personal accounts on social networks. But since 2017, a page on Instagram began to operate on his behalf, where several pictures appeared over the year. The writer, an adherent of Buddhism, repeatedly visited the countries of the East - Nepal, South Korea, Japan and China.

Now the film "Empire V", based on the plot of Pelevin's work "Empire V", is being prepared for release. In the film by Viktor Ginzburg, who had already worked with Pelevin's prose before, the main character will play. While still working on the film "Generation P" in 2011, the director conceived the project "Empire V". Moreover, the first film was successful at the box office and was warmly received by film critics.

The second film based on Pelevin's prose has already reached the final stage of preparation, its premiere will take place in 2018. Starring will also appear,. The image of the main villain on the screen will be embodied by the rapper.

Bibliography

• 1992 - Omon Ra
• 1993 - "Insect Life"
• 1996 - "Chapaev and Void"
• 1999 - "Generation "P"
• 2004 - "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf"
• 2006 - "Empire V"
• 2009 - "t"
• 2011 - S.N.U.F.F.
• 2013 - "Batman Apollo"
• 2014 - "Love for Three Zuckerbrins"
• 2015 - "Watcher"
• 2016 - "The Lamp of Methuselah, or the Ultimate Battle of the Chekists with the Freemasons"
• 2017 - iPhuck 10

Childhood and family

When Victor was not even ten years old, the parents of the future writer moved to the Moscow district of Chertanovo, where he spent the rest of the childhood of the future writer. Thanks to his father's connections, Victor was assigned to the prestigious English special school No. 31, located in the very center of Moscow. In this place, Pelevin Jr. studied foreign languages, mastered the basics of philology. He was described by teachers as a bright but somewhat arrogant child who did not get along well with his peers. Among the main hobbies of Vitya was a bicycle. He retained his love for this mode of transport even in adulthood, preferring it to cars.

Despite his strong friendship with the word, after graduating from school in 1979, Pelevin did not choose a philological specialty. He began to study the basics of the structure of passenger transport at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. Later, in an interview, he claimed that he entered with the goal of "having" from the army, "serving in which was like spending two years in prison." The first year of study was given to him effortlessly, the young man was listed among the most promising students. During his student years, he joined the Komsomol, as the prospect of receiving the stigma of "enemy of the people" did not appeal to him.

After graduating from MPEI in 1985, Pelevin got a job at the Department of Electric Transport at his native university as an engineer. Some sources contain information that Viktor Olegovich served in the aviation troops, but the specific years of service are not indicated anywhere. In 1987 (other sources indicate 1985), he entered graduate school, where he studied for the next two years, but he did not defend the final project (the electric drive of a city trolleybus with an asynchronous motor).

In 1989, Victor entered the Literary Institute. Gorky. With one goal - to acquire useful acquaintances. During his studies at the Literary Institute, Pelevin met two young writers - Albert Egazorov and Victor Kulle. Soon, friends founded their own publishing house "Myth" (originally called "The Day"). Victor, as an editor, prepared for the publishing house a three-volume work by Carlos Castaneda, a North American author who studied the esoteric practices of the Indians, and also took part in the work on some smaller works.

Victor Pelevin in the program "Protagonist"

Some time later, Viktor Pelevin also began working in the Face to Face magazine, and then in the Science and Religion publication, for which he prepared various publications related to Eastern mysticism. In 1989, the last of these magazines published the story "The Sorcerer Ignat and People", which became Pelevin's debut writing work.

Creativity of Viktor Pelevin

In 1993, Pelevin received the Small Booker Prize for his work, and some time later, some other awards. In the spring of 1992, another work of the author saw the light - the novel Omon Ra, which instantly entered the list of works nominated for the Booker Prize. The situation was similar with another novel, A Life of Insects, which appeared on the shelves of bookstores in 1993.

In 1996, another book by Pelevin, Chapaev and the Void, saw the light. Many Russian critics immediately did not fail to call it the first book in Russia written in accordance with the philosophy of "Zen Buddhism". The author himself called his novel a story that takes place in complete emptiness. Either way, this book was a huge success. In 1997, the novel received the prestigious Wanderer Award, and a few years later it was included in the list of nominees for the International Impac Dublin Literary Awards.

However, the real zenith of Pelevin's work was the novel "Generation P", which was sold worldwide in the amount of 3.5 million copies, and also received a huge number of awards in Russia and Europe.

Victor Pelevin and Generation P. Special report.

After the release of this book, Viktor Pelevin acquired the status of a cult author. His new novels have always been enthusiastically received by fans of the author's work, as well as by literary critics. Repeatedly, the work of the famous Moscow writer even became the subject of detailed consideration by Russian and European literary critics. So, in particular, esoteric, postmodern and satirical lines were noted in his novels. In addition, one cannot fail to note the great influence of Buddhist philosophy on Pelevin's novels. Various publications and Internet portals in Russia and Europe have repeatedly included Viktor Pelevin among the best writers and thinkers of our time. His books have been translated into many languages ​​(including Oriental). Several of the writer's novels, including the cult work "Generation P", were filmed.

Personal life of Viktor Pelevin and other facts

In turn, novels and other literary works published under this name are created not by one writer, but by a certain group of authors. Supporters of this theory became even more established in this opinion after the announced appearance of the writer at the Super National Best award ceremony did not happen.

Pelevin himself does not comment on questions about his existence.

The book "The Art of Light Touches" by Viktor Pelevin was released 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 has already acquired its share of admiration and reproach, as, indeed, the book as a whole. However, as Mikhail Prorokov believes, they read Viktor Pelevin not because he breaks records of artistic perfection over and over again (without risking much mistake, we can say that since the time of Chapaev and Void, perfection has ceased to concern him at all), but simply for that, as the publishing house that released the book succinctly put it, he is "the one and only." Something like the iPhone, glorified in his novel before last: in order to refrain from buying the next one, it was necessary not to buy ten previous ones, but bought it - so now.

Four friends go on vacation to wander in the mountains. On the very first evening, just getting out of the taxi, they meet a long-haired, gray-bearded cyclist, singing in French that he would have nothing to live for if someone did not exist. Soon fate will bring them together again, and they will go for a walk in the mountains together.

This is how "Iakinf" begins - the first story of the three that made up the new book by Viktor Pelevin. Further landscapes will stretch one more amazing than the other, travelers will argue about the eternal: who created the mountains? gods? for what purpose? not with the one with which the 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 number alone, the gods seemed not to be a very long-lived people. Even further it turns out that at least one of the gods 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 another, more sublime joy: over and over again to try to figure out what he is writing about. And why are both critics and readers so attracted to an author who is not too concerned about either vitality, or artistry, or plot structure, or even the quality of jokes thinner).

"Iakinf" will not be of great help in this: it is too reminiscent of the old "Feeding the Crocodile Khufu" and "Thugs", except that the characters 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 this time the heroes-oligarchs interpret the structure of the universe not to each other, but to the prisoners following the stage. So all hope for the actual "Art of Light Touches" - this is the name of the second, largest and most conceptual story of the collection. Its main character with a surname reminiscent of a well-known, and in narrow circles and cult network writer, is investigating a complicated case related to the activities of his neighbor in the country, an FSB general and, in general, a rather mysterious person. Gradually, it turns out that, on duty, General Izyumin was engaged in chimeras. True, the term “himema” appeared in the reports, but the general and his subordinates did not use it among themselves, knowing full well that the origins of the work entrusted to them come 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 motif 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 the higher planes, carrying the heavenly will, ceased to descend into the world. Even the gargoyles of evil directed by the Enemy stopped flocking into it. Our dimension, as it were, temporarily disappeared for Heaven - and the “holy place”, which could not be empty, began to be occupied by chimeras. Chimeras, unlike gargoyles, are not created by God, who wants to communicate his will to man, but by man - but they are perceived as a divine command. Or as the call of the times, the categorical imperative of humanity and progress. It can be said that 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 they even dedicated churches and celebrated masses, but after that he again went into the shadows and since then has been operating only from there.

Sophisticated readers have already guessed: Pelevin again about the fact that you need to keep your mind in the void, and keep your ears open and not trust anyone except the Tibetan monks (and even 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, who was forced to work by the will of the FSB first with the voice of God for the American president, and then with the voice of the devil for the Russian. In "Art ...", special services also fight, but instead of the announcers hidden somewhere in the head, they use chimeras - fads, fashions, ideologies, in general, the emanation of Zeitgeist, that same Mind in its actual incarnation - which, in essence, Kronos, god-time (and here the second story rhymes perfectly with the first).

But this is not about how not to let yourself be fooled. The champion of the continent in skepticism, Pelevin does not favor skeptical heroes. Excessively advanced in the field of illusionism, the characters of the story about the crocodile Khufu so confidently revealed the secrets of the beggar magician that they thundered for many thousands of years to build the Egyptian pyramid. If the dream of the mind, as Victor Pelevin recalls in the new book (provided, by the way, with illustrations-reproductions of Goya and Rembrandt), gives birth to chimera monsters, then the mind itself - not God, but the human ability to recognize, understand and invent - is capable of bestowing its owner many joys, delights and insights (“a thinking human mind that questions everything is also one of the angels”, as it was said in the same “Operation“ Burning Bush ””). All that is required of him is to listen, to listen, to wait, to be surprised, not to push forward, not to stick out, 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 teach the inexperienced, but the vanguard of his fans are just those who are too sophisticated. He, who studied under the Strugatskys, knows how to set thought experiments of any complexity and fearlessly bring them to the end, but these experiments prove nothing to anyone. He is gifted with a talent for exhaustively accurate words (which to a large extent explains his inattention to the plot - the main events for him take place not in the physical world, but in the lexical-semantic one), but unlike the readers of the Strugatskys, Pelevin's readers are those who ask the tone in the discussion of his books is not techies, but the humanities. That is, people who know everything about words, but do not understand their meaning.

Well, according to General Izyumin, the most powerful chimeras, already embedded in the consciousness of a potential enemy, doze for a while, and are triggered by triggers - code phrases that have no visible relation to the case, and often may seem meaningless. Pelevin is difficult to decipher, although it seems that he doesn’t encrypt anything in particular - this is a minus. But Pelevin continues to be read - 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 his words, will wake up and tell us what to do.

What to read: these novelties are discussed by everyone

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 a book by a certain K.P. Golgofsky, and the finale became a kind of continuation of Pelevin's previous novel, Secret Views of Mount Fuji. Art is a relatively recent release, but it has already become the best-selling book of the season. If you are not afraid of really long dialogues (several pages) - welcome.

Books You Like

We invite you to become one of the first to read the new novel by Viktor 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 is about hipsters roaming the North Caucasus, the second is about Russian hackers, and the third is 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 it. And yes, in this case, do not forget to read one of the most famous novels of the writer "Generation P".

Chimeras, criminals and gods: a review of Viktor 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 not known whether this is a requirement of the publisher or the author himself wanted to publish more often, but the fact is there. If earlier one of the best-selling writers in Russia could publish 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.

Even the title of the book speaks for itself. After a very overloaded "iPhuck 10" and deliberately topical "Secret Views of Mount Fuji", Pelevin returns to the past and again experiments with an unusual form of presentation.

Different stories about the same novel consists of three almost unrelated parts. Moreover, one of them, which gave the name to the whole book, is much more voluminous than the others. And it is she who looks a little weaker, although the author himself more than once ironically speaks about the length of the work. The other two in the form 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 informal guru (it can be at least a guide in the mountains of the Caucasus, at least one of the prisoners in a prison car), who tries to initiate newcomers into the secrets of life.

Most of the stories are direct speech, and the background action only complements it, setting the stage for the final twist and making the listeners participants in the story.

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

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

But in fact, in these stories it is not difficult to see 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 with the materiality of thoughts and ideas, in which a sufficient number of people believe.

The last was almost completely devoted to the two-volume "Watcher" in 2015. And now Pelevin, with obvious pleasure, returned to his favorite topic.

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

It is written in the form of a brief retelling and at the same time an analysis of a non-existent book by a certain K.P. Golgofsky. That is, the author, as it were, 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 goes through the critics in almost all of his later works. In recent years, he has been regularly criticized for being too long and prone to overly detailed dialogue retelling - this is especially felt in "iPhuck 10". And then the writer himself offers to briefly retell the voluminous work in the spirit of modern squeeze articles or podcasts. He only mentions that here should be a description of the architecture, and here - the details of personal relationships. But at the same time, he throws out all the artistry that allegedly was in the book of Golgofsky, 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 origin of gargoyles in architecture and at the same time an analysis of Russia's influence on world politics. The first leads in an interesting way to the theme 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, the new Cold War and other relevant topics. The desire to catch on to the main social topics is felt very strongly: protests of the “yellow vests” flicker and even a fire in Notre Dame. But the writer, of course, makes the theme of Russia's 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 bit drawn out. Perhaps only because before and after it there are much more concise and short works, where almost the same thoughts are presented much more compactly, and therefore richer.

Pelevin in recent years increasingly connects his works with each other. In The Art of Light Touches, it is not difficult to notice direct references to the Helmet of Horror and either development or criticism of the Empire V mythology, and the last part with the title “Stolypin” unexpectedly intersects with one of his recent works.

There is some malice in all of this. In the new book, Pelevin shows the similarity of rituals in many religions and cults, emphasizing the cyclical and monotonous nature of world history. That is why the author does not hide the fact that all his books are about the same thing, just every time in the spirit of the new time. And for the same reason, three seemingly unrelated parts of the novel quite add up to a single picture.

But still, in recent years, excessive reflection and a desire to comply with the agenda are beginning to appear more and more behind self-irony. That is why the short stories from this book are easier to read; in them, Pelevin does not try to seize on the relevance and make him 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 gave the name to the entire collection. As always, the author's essay offers an answer to the question once asked by Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov to his son Ivan: "Who is it that laughs at a man like that?" Of course, the writer does not know this for certain - but at least he is trying to detect the reptile!

FOUR young people travel through the mountains with a quirky 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 in the fashion of the time, a certain initiate led him to a secret place and explained that the god Kronos (aka Saturn and aka Baal) has not disappeared anywhere from the life of mankind. And the picture that “the new gods have overwhelmed the world and driven the old gods under the bunk” is fundamentally wrong. Kronos, the lord of time, still accepts sacrifices, keeping a low profile. And time is all that a person has. “What can we do? Let's run a little, trade our youth, shit on those who were before - and then they will start shitting on us and little by little write off ... They will devour us imperceptibly. So cycle after cycle.

Above and below there is a hierarchy of power. “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 treatise story “The Art of Light Touches”, the author changes the mask of the narrator, although we still hear the same familiar thirty-year-old voice of a wit, an intellectual, an educated buffoon-talker. Decided to find the root of evil in 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 dacha neighbor, General Izyumov, and, trying to find the reason for such a strange turn in the fate of a seemingly peaceful old man, unwinds the chain of investigation. The general did not just drink tea in his dressing gown. He was touched by the main secret of the history of civilization.

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

Chimera has replaced the former messengers. “Some phenomena of consciousness, known as“ public opinion ”,“ new trends ”,“ rumble of time ”, correspond to invisible and incorporeal entities in the ordinary sense, which manifest themselves in our life 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 takes for his beliefs and opinions suggestion of chimeras. The more heads are infected with the so-called “public opinion”, this or that ideology, the stronger the spirit of the times 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 Golgofsky 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 run the verbal code on twitter and the chimera starts to grow and fat instantly.

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

However, an answer began to arrive - the harmful chimeras invented in the fatherland began to return back and gradually infect Russian society. It's the half-wits-progressors who imagine that they follow their convictions, but in fact their sluggish mind is ruled by chimeras launched into America by General Izyumov!

As a result of a global clash of chimeras (and the Americans invent their own by launching them through our segment of social networks), the world is finally in danger of turning into ... a 4-letter word, the first “zh”.

“I'm not too eager to live,” grieves the historian Golgofsky, “in this epochal well..., for what is there... in the scientific sense? Well ... there is something that cannot be passed through, a segment of the path that will have to be rewound, and the deeper our blue car goes into it (and even an armored train - what's the point?), The longer it will take to back up to the light that was once at the end of the tunnel ... but at the end of this one ... 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. There is no sense from this. People are completely fooled - and imagine themselves progressive and thinking, being tiny cogs in a demonic mechanism. Domestic events of this August-September (I hope they will fall into Pelevin's new novel) are a three-dimensional 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 activated again, but it’s completely unclear in whose favor.

And the mind - not the cunning and deceitful demon god who came to rule mankind, stealing his name - but the true mind, is he able to take the world out of the word with the letter "g"?

This is unlikely - as the Red Army soldier Sukhov used to say. But at least as long as we think with our heads, and do not writhe in mass psychoses, no matter what “progressive and humane” mask they put on, we are regaining our human dignity. This is me to the fact that Viktor Pelevin is well done: he does not participate in the dances of chimeras.

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

The art of light curses "Spark" read a new novel by Viktor Pelevin

A new book by Viktor Pelevin "The Art of Light Touches" has been released. However, it did not seem easy to the reviewer of Ogonyok - it rather reminded 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 plastic window installation company (shoddy), social philosopher. To go for five days, the guide with the strange name Iakinf every evening tells them his own story of initiation. Good deeds will obviously not end. In the end, something bright and merciless will appear that will not leave even traces of small 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. Golgofsky, behind whom Prokhanov is guessed; from the stone chimeras of the burnt Notre Dame to the noospheric and media chimeras. Finally, the third short story is about how the gloomy atmosphere of a prison car is used in order to feel the joy of life anew.

The book resembles a fold, with two small doors on the sides and a massive board in the middle. The rite of sacrifice is described on the left side: 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 the void, the void will come out. In the center is a massive history of human suffering, from antiquity to the present day - and 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 storytelling, short stories, gizmos; they are light, literally soar, it is not clear what they are holding on to (like the prison car in the story "Stolypin"). They say there is an early Pelevin, there is a late one - this is not entirely accurate. There is a short Pelevin and a long one. Behind the “short” one feels 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 most courageous: in fact, he challenges established criminal concepts). But behind the “long” Pelevin is a craftsman who makes a big thing to order: in order to bring it to the desired 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 to another: suffering into pleasure and vice versa (it is 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 suffering go, billions of cubic meters of human suffering throughout a long history? After all, it can not disappear without a trace? And if suffering is inevitable, then there must be some sense in it, for what is it “needed”? When you raise the question of the "meaning of suffering", a higher-order projection inevitably arises before you. Thinking like this automatically begins to look at the world from the point of view of the "higher mind". As Pelevin writes, when he reached the barriers, it is more difficult to choose detour options: along with the concept of a higher mind, you automatically have to accept the concept of the insignificance of a single human person. That “a person in itself does not mean anything”, that he is always a hostage of someone’s will (it’s amazing, but, for example, Vladimir Sorokin in his dystopias does not need a “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 "higher design" is popular today in Russia (in this sense, Pelevin is a vivid spokesman for public sentiment). It is not the people themselves who are guilty of something or responsible for something - this very “higher plan” is responsible for everything. However, to see the “higher meaning”, for example, in the mass human catastrophes of the twentieth century known to us, is a dangerous line; so close to the justification of 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 a “review of himself” (in the new book he is just writing a “liberal review” of himself, taking the last edge from the critic). But from the work you need to capture not the plot, but light and sound, 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 (the most devoted reader of Pelevin) has 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 act according to Pelevin's method, let's take a completely typical thing that is spinning in our heads, well, at least the song "Gravity of the Earth", with the refrain "we are the children of the Galaxy", is sung by Lev Leshchenko. The song was written in 1978 - the very peak of Brezhnevism, but already the beginning of its decline. In essence, a completely humanistic and universal text, without any ideology.

But as soon as you listen to it now - like any Soviet - someone else, a parallel voice immediately begins to sound in your head. This can be called a diversion of consciousness (by the way, Pelevin 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 is not even a lie, but just emptiness. What is this voice? This "inner voice" is Pelevin. More precisely, even so - "pelevin". It can be called the voice of reason, criticism, but this is not enough; he seems to speak on behalf of a whole 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).

One can, of course, find Pelevin's unofficial literary roots, but, in essence, he is the first (and almost the only) post-Soviet writer. Like the ancient gods, he "gave birth to himself" - from nothing, from ash and dirt. At the very foundation of "pelevin" lies not the comic culture of Rabelais, not Bakhtin's carnival, or something else very cultural. Pelevin's language was "born" from sadistic nursery rhymes ("a girl found a grenade in the field", etc.), scary pioneer stories for the night - about a black "Volga" with the inscription SSD (death to Soviet children). These things charged with great cynicism, as it is believed today, were a popular antidote against sugary socialist realism, dead dogmas, 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 kindled a fire that burned me from the inside. I left the law, but did not reach love,” BG wrote in 1988, and the same can be said about Pelevin himself.

Pelevin became the destroyer not just of Soviet utopias, but of any utopias in general, even if they were a hundred times more humane than totalitarian ones. After all, if we admit that there are some "good utopias", this puts an end to all his writer's intention, concept. But he cannot go for 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, then since then Pelevin deliberately banishes even hints of this hope. That is why he turns part of his gift in each novel into ritual curses on the modern world - with his belief in the improvement of man, in tolerance, feminism and renovation. In this sense, Pelevin is doomed to continue creating gloomy frescoes about a person who is dependent on higher wills and forces, on the struggle of special services or the echelons of a higher mind. In a sense, Pelevin describes himself - he can do nothing against his own writing strategy. Well, against the wind, as folk 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 man", 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 alike. Looks like Pelevin.

- (b. 1962), Russian writer. In 1984 he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), studied at the Literary Institute. Gorky. He worked in one of the country's first small private publishing houses, participated in the publication of texts by Carlos Castaneda ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (b.1962). Rus. prose writer, better known other genres; one of the most interesting representatives of modern grew up "posts." prose. Genus. in Moscow, graduated from Moscow. energy int with a degree in electromechanics, after serving in the army ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

Viktor Olegovich Pelevin Date of birth: November 22, 1962 Place of birth: Moscow ... Wikipedia

Pelevin, Victor- Russian writer Russian prose writer, author of the novel Omon Ra (1992) and the novels Chapaev and the Void (1996), Generation P (1999). Winner of numerous literary awards, including Small Booker (1993) and National Bestseller (2004). ... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

Pelevin is a surname. Pelevin, Alexander Alexandrovich (1914-1970) Soviet theater and film actor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Pelevin, Valentin Vasilievich (1913-1958) Soviet architect. Pelevin, Viktor Olegovich (b. 1962) Russian ... ... Wikipedia

Viktor Olegovich Pelevin Date of birth: November 22, 1962 Place of birth: Moscow ... Wikipedia

Viktor Olegovich Pelevin Date of birth: November 22, 1962 Place of birth: Moscow ... Wikipedia

Viktor Olegovich Pelevin Date of birth: November 22, 1962 Place of birth: Moscow ... Wikipedia

Books

• Generation "P", Pelevin Victor Olegovich. Victor Pelevin is a cult writer of our time, whose work had a huge impact on the recognition and formation of mass consciousness. The book includes some of the best, in the opinion of…
• Generation "P", Pelevin Victor Olegovich. Victor Pelevin is a cult writer of our time, whose work had a huge impact on the recognition and formation of mass consciousness. The book includes some of the best, in the opinion of…

One of the leading authors of our time is Viktor Olegovich Pelevin. The writer's work will be covered in this article. In it, as in a mirror, the realities of the surrounding world were reflected. 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 have become a real revelation for grateful readers.

Origin

Viktor Pelevin, whose bibliography will be presented in our article, was born in Moscow in 1962. His father, Oleg Anatolyevich Pelevin, worked as a teacher at 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 was in charge of the department of one of the central gastronomes of the capital. She had access to all the scarce foods at the 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 they were lucky to move to a separate three-room dwelling in Northern Chertanovo.

Finding your purpose

In 1979 he graduated from the secondary English special school Viktor Pelevin. The bibliography of the writer indicates the extensive knowledge that the author received in childhood. An educational institution in the center of Moscow was considered very prestigious. After him, great opportunities opened up before the graduate. First, the future writer gave documents to the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. There he was listed at the Faculty of Electrification and Automation. The educational institution was successfully completed in 1985. After that, Pelevin began working as an engineer at the department of his native institute. He did not bypass the service in the army. He gave his duty to the Motherland in the Air Force.

In 1987, Viktor Olegovich entered the MPEI graduate school, 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. The future celebrity attends a correspondence course, but quickly becomes disillusioned with the learning. In 1991, he was expelled as having "lost contact" with a higher educational institution. The strange wording is still the subject of lively discussion among the writer's fans. It is not known 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 the creative path

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

First literary experiences

From 1989 to 1990, our hero worked as a staff correspondent for Face to Face. In addition, Victor Pelevin is published in the journal Science and Religion. The bibliography of the writer 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 released a collection of short stories called Blue Lantern. At first, this creation was ignored by critics, but a couple of years later, Pelevin received several prestigious literary awards for it - the Small Booker Prize, Interpresscon and the Golden Snail.

The emergence of novels

Victor Pelevin was not only engaged in stories. The author's bibliography is known for its novels. The first - "Omon Ra" - was published in the Znamya magazine in 1992. He was immediately nominated for an award. Then the novel Life of Insects was published in the same publication 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 "hit back" overly arrogant critics. So, in 1993, the essay "John Fowles and the Tragedy of Russian Liberalism" appeared in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. It was so strong and convincing that subsequently it began to be referred to in the media as "software". The year 1993 was marked for the writer by another fateful event - he was admitted to the Union of Russian Journalists.

"Chapaev and Void"

Viktor Pelevin, whose biography and work interests many fans, was regularly published in the Znamya magazine. In 1996, it published a work under the intriguing title "Chapaev and Void". Critics called it the first domestic "Zen Buddhist" novel. The author himself positioned it as "the first novel, the action of which takes place in absolute emptiness." The progressive creation received several prestigious nominations at once. For example, the writer was awarded the "Wanderer-97" award. And in 2001, he even entered the list of contenders for the world's largest literary award called the International Impac Dublin Literary Awards.

General fame

In 1999, fans got the opportunity to read a new work written by Pelevin. The bibliography of the writer was adorned with a fresh literary masterpiece - the novel Generation P. In total, 3,500,000 million copies of this book were sold. She received all sorts of awards and became a cult. For it, the author was awarded the German literary prize of Richard Schoenfeld.

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

strange names

Viktor Pelevin is famous for his originality. The writer's bibliography is filled with novels with short, concise and eye-catching titles. In the fall of 2009, the novel "t" was released. Thanks to this work, the author became laureates of the domestic literary award "Big Book" and becomes the third in the list of contenders. 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 the readers. This work was awarded the Electronic Book Prize. It is possible that such strange names are a sign of the quality of a great artist. Studying an unusual abbreviation, each of us tries to penetrate into its meaning. And often it turns out to be wider than a simple name of two or three understandable words.

creative concept

The characters in Pelevin's novels are often addicted to 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 Viktor Pelevin adheres to. Features of the writer's work are closely related to Zen Buddhism. The fact is that the adherents of this movement see the surrounding world not as an objective reality, but as a product of individual perception. It is questioned not only the existence of realities, but also the personality itself. For example, Peter in "Chapaev and Void" is being treated in a psychiatric clinic for a "false personality split." By this, the author hints that both incarnations of the patient are equally unreliable. How to know what is the true nature of the world? The path to enlightenment lies through mental knowledge, repulsion from the usual framework of worldview and the search for nirvana. Sometimes psychotropic substances are used to eliminate the rigid boundaries of reality. The author does not in any way encourage the use of drugs. He simply offers to look at the world around him in a different way.

The most famous works

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

• "The Recluse and the Six-fingered" (1990);
• "Reenactor" (1990);
• "Prince of the State Planning Commission" (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 Horror" (2005);
• "P5: Farewell songs of the political pygmies of Pindostan" (2008);
• "Pineapple water for a beautiful lady" (2010).

Theatrical performances

The works of Viktor Pelevin were repeatedly staged in the theater. The writer's work has interested many brilliant directors. So, in 2000, Pavel Ursul staged the play "Chapaev and Void". The audience was able to see him at the Durova Teresa Clown Theater. A year later, the same novel appeared on the stage of the Kyiv DAKH theater in a completely different version. The production is known under the name "... the fourth extra ...".

In 2005, at the NET theater festival in the center on Strastnoy, the interactive performance Shlem.com by Zivil Montvilaite was a success. It was created based on Pelevin's novel The Helm of Terror. The director became famous for the production of "The 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 theater center on Strastnoy hosted the premiere of Sergei Shchedrin's performance "Crystal World". The production was 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 and social media accounts. He spends most of his time in seclusion. Only a few of his old photographs can be found on the Internet. In his behavior, the writer is very similar to Salinger.
• Upon completion of his studies at the university, Viktor Olegovich worked in which he 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 about Pelevin's life called "Pelevin and the generation of emptiness" was published. 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 of the phrases that Pelevin once uttered or wrote have gone to the people. For example, the words of Vasily Ivanovich from "Chapaev and the Void": "Here is my commander's hand."

Conclusion

The books written by Viktor Pelevin deserve close attention. Creativity, summarized in this article, will certainly enter the golden fund of world literature. A man who managed to take a different look at the world 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 winged 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 gain a deeper understanding of the world in which we live.