*********************** Eternal Thinker ************************
Sergey BEREZHNOY
LOVE FOR GLOVELY ORANGES
There are big changes in Russian science fiction. Terrible "fourth"
wave", which swelled back in the early eighties, first lost
most of the power from the impact on the blunt breakwaters of the state committees, according to
then shattered on the market piers and what she brought to the book
ny trays, you can literally count them on your fingers. But what kind
names!
Vyacheslav Rybakov. Writer from God. Writes little, but practically
everything he wrote is incredibly talented. As co-author of the scene
narration of the film by Konst. Lopushansky "Letters from a Dead Man" half-
received the State Prize of the RSFSR. So far he has published two books: the novel “The Hearth on the Tower”
in the once sensational series "New Science Fiction" and the collection "Own
weapons." Both are now, in principle, impossible to obtain: ra-
went down among amateurs. He considers himself unlucky: for an infinitely long time
the collection “Refraction” prepared four years ago cannot be published
leniya", the book in the "Russian Novel" series is slowing down... And at the same time
time - a new novel, "Gravilet" to Tsesar, published in "Neva"
vich" (the work, in my opinion, is very strong) receives press
the highest Boris Strugatsky Prize "Bronze Snail" as the best
best science fiction novel from 1993. And dismissively ignore-
is nominated by the Booker...
AndreyLazarchuk. The author, amazingly interesting to observe,
tions: began with simple in form, but deep philosophical stories -
call, in the story "Waterloo Bridge" moved to socio-psychological
literature, then published the hard thriller “Another Sky” (about
professional award "Wanderer" 1994)...Printed in new
in the literary magazine "Day and Night" novel "Soldiers of Babylon"
(the final part of the tribook “Late for Summer”), it seems to have been produced
leads to a great deal of noise in the literature - experimental in form fi-
losophical and worldview prose of such a scale appears
not every decade. However, there will be noise only if
if the literary establishment deigns to read "this fantasy"
tics"...
“This fiction,” however, has long and firmly realized that “those
flock of literary periodicals rather prefer to publish
mediocre realistic works than talented, but
"not quite realistic" novel. Moreover: modern literature
The science of science is simply not ready to accept modern science fiction.
Paradoxically, professional critics lack
professionalism when they undertake to talk about works of art
Well, Strugatsky. A different level of thinking is needed. Not higher, not lower
- just different.
The same story with the novels and stories of Andrei Stolyarov. He loves
bit to tell one story from your biography. At the very beginning
he's from the eightiesproposed to the publishing house "Young Guard" (then
only it more or less regularly published domestic fiction
ku) collection. The manuscript was returned to him with a covering letter from
which followed that his stories had been read, but not at all
perceived. Shrugging his shoulders, Stolyarov offered the same publishing
your stories that you considered unsuccessful. This time the answer was
more benevolent. Out of purely sporting interest, Stolyarov
sent his student stories to the Young Guard (each
the author has a folder in which the first experiments are stored - writers
In general, people are sentimental). And I received the following response: “Well
here! You can, you can! You are progressing amazingly quickly as a pi-
satel!"
Unfortunately, how to further “progress” in this direction Stol-
I just couldn’t imagine the ditch. And the book never came out in MG... But
others came out. The collection "Exorcism of the Demon" received the "Start" award as
best debut book of fiction, medal named after Alexander Belyae-
va, two stories from it - the Great Ring reader award.
And the collection “Monks under the Moon”, in the end, turned out to be world-class
literally through and through: the novel of the same name - Boris Prize
Strugatsky, the story "Epistle to the Corinthians" and the story "Little
"ky gray donkey" - the "Wanderer" award... Stolyarov writes like a great
For example, things are very gloomy in mood, his world is the kingdom of Apocalypse
lipsis. And at the same time, it is thinstylist: his prose is cold and
perfect, like the surface of a polished steel ball...
Amazing, the unprejudiced reader will think. Believe the car
author of the article, these writers must have immense popularity
wow, what a lot of bonuses! And it seems like nothing has been heard about them...
Maybe, an open-minded reader will think, they are for science fiction writers,
these writers are good, but compared to Great Literature
(he will think so, unbiased reader: both words with a capital
letters) - they don’t stretch...
Our readers have developed strange ideas about fantasy
tick. “Compared to Great Literature, all science fiction is nothing to sneeze at.”
stands - all these starship battles and monsters with sorcerers..." Fan-
Tastic is almost a dirty word. She is either loved and appreciated, or
contemptuously or indifferently ignored - all at once, all without one
Bor. Just try to call Bulgakov a science fiction writer - but that’s just re-
They take it almost as an insult! "How?! Bulgakov is a science fiction writer?! Yes, how
You dare to equate him with everyone else..." - and then list-
they say with whom. And if you please, I didn’t equate anyone with anyone. I,
you know, he said that Mikhail Afanasyevich produced fantastic works
Denia wrote. Or do you think that "The Master and Margarita" is a condo-
vy realism? And “Fatal Eggs” - what, the RSFSR really survived-
is there a "chicken crisis"? What are you, my friend, offended by?
And what kind of division did you actually come up with: BigLiterature
- this means it’s good, but fantasy means it’s bad... What,
Are there no graphomaniacs in Big Literature? Or in fantasy - literature -
tour masterpieces? What? Eat? Then what the hell is wrong with curling your lips when
like a starship on the cover - maybe it's Lem! Or contemptuously
turn your nose up from the Martian landscape to another - maybe it's Bradbe-
ri! Or giggle from Superman in only shorts on the third - maybe
These are the Strugatskys!
I just don’t know who to thank for the fact that science fiction writers are sitting -
that's it, gamuzom! - in this fence with the insulting inscription "do not
Great Literature". Maybe Mr. Hugo Gernsbeck, who created
in 1926, the first specialized journal of SF? Until this moment
but it never occurred to anyone to single out science fiction as a separate
new diocese. Mary Shelley - literature. Wells - literature. Olaf
Stapledon, Karel Capek, Aldous Huxley - literature. But this is already
rather, by inertia. But Theodore Sturgeon is, you know, a fan-
Tastic. And Ursula Le Guin - sorry, too. But Orwell is ours,
We will not give Orwell to science fiction writers. And Borges too.
Or maybe I should thank the comrades from the CPSU Central Committee? Those who are in
the treasury ordered the once Soviet science fiction to be close
people, understandable to responsible officials and call young people into
colleges and a bright future? Those who threw Evgeniy into Paris
Zamyatin, they tried to make Bulgakov a minor official, they refused
Alexander's wifeGreena has the right to be buried next to her husband,
they broke Sergei Snegov in the camps, poisoned the Strugatskys, exalted
graphomaniacs - both in science fiction and in other areas of literature -
manuscripts were confiscated in the same way - both from Vasily Grossman and from
Vyacheslav Rybakov...
There is such a literary method - fantasy. Like any literature
The cultural method, like any literary movement, can be expanded
viewed as a separate subject of research, professional
interests. But why on earth did this particular method become the object of pre-
careless attitude, and the people working in it all at once
fell into second-class writers?
However, I am not offended for the late Nemtsov, Okhotnikov and Gami-
Liton, as well as the living Kazantsev, Medvedev and
Van Vogt. I feel bad for the Strugatskys, whose works are not
understand the minor literary critics who undertake to write about them - and
literary critics of the highest class or consider this a matter beneath them
dignity, or (like the excellent researcher A. Zerkalov)
having once started, they eventually give up - there is nowhere to print such
work... I feel bad for Vyacheslav Rybakov, who never
life will not be able to describe any
"co-spatial multiplexer", but criticism is perceived -
It's like he writes books about robots. I feel bad for Andrei La-
Zarchuk, whose philosophical concepts are no longer ableperceive
traditional audience for science fiction - and his other audience
there are no books. I feel bad for Andrei Stolyarov, who himself is forced
bring the literary base to the direction in which
he works - because he knows that no professional will take charge of this
tossed around. Not because this task is beyond his capabilities, but because
it’s too much honor to compare Stolyarov, say, with Dürrenmat-
Tom...
I feel bad for the many authors I didn’t name here. Or
do you think that in Russia there are no authors worthy of mention in one
next to Rybakov and Lazarchuk?..
But I didn’t have enough space to even mention them. After all, it is necessary
there is more to say about WHY this literary ghetto arose.
Because the part of fiction that is conscious of itself is not just
entertaining reading, has always dealt with problems that
literary literature is simply beyond the power. Which of the realists was able to
implement social modeling on the same scale as
Lem? No one - except perhaps by abandoning his realistic
tools. How to make it using realistic literature
a novel about relationships not between person and person, but, say, person-
humanity with other humanity? Or give a new philosophical concept
concept of civilization development?
Most of these problems are far from everyday life, which
realistic literature lives on. Naturally, literary
you who deal with it,they try to evaluate a science fiction novel by
the same criteria. Why on earth? Artistic tasks -
fundamentally different, artistic means too... And, as
As a rule, critics are simply not aware of these tasks and these means. How
the consequence is xenophobia towards all science fiction. (By the way, this is precisely the trial
The issue of xenophobia has become one of the basic themes of SF).
Science fiction, apparently, needs its own professional writers -
roved...
He said - and he himself was scared. Our literary critics - it’s all over again
it, the ghetto... A vicious circle? Well, it will continue to be fantastic
doomed to isolation? Your criteria, your critics, your readers
- everything is separate?
Alas, it seems so. At least until they become
everyday contacts with other worlds, time travel,
united consciousnesses and cybernetic intelligence. Then with all this
realistic literature will take over.
And science fiction will continue to lead the way.
And complain that it is considered second-grade literature
ta...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Anton PERVUSHIN
FANTASY IN THE SERVICE OF THE FATHERLAND
The author of the article brought to the attention of the respected public is not at all
calls to consider his purely hypothetical constructions as truth in
last resort. This is just an experience, an attempt to look at the reasons
phenomenal popularity of fantasy, horror andliterature is useless
death's presence from a slightly different, unconventional angle.
This experiment was not undertaken to offend or offend in any way.
fans of the listed genres; The Author has no intention of this
article to somehow contrast oneself with writers whose names
mentioned in the text; The author just hopes that his experience will help
sophisticated researchers to answer the question whether something is worth
Should we expect anything new from these genres?
* * *
Thinking about my design, I realized that first of all I needed
will understand the terminology. So what is it:
a) METAEGO
Metaego is understood as something social CONSCIOUS, arising
a web of ephemeral connections between individuals, uniting
them into a single being, living and acting according to its own obscure
laws. The term has plenty of synonyms (from the primitive “col-
lective mind" to the exotic "GOLEM" and "APPARATUS"), but
For some reason I like this one better: it’s so laconic. On it and
let's stop.
b) PSYCHOTRONIC WEAPONS
By psychotronic weapons we will understand the entire complex of measures
acceptances and means (psychotronic generators, zombification, ideological
gical processing, psychics), with the help of which the will is significant -
a whole mass of people can be subordinated to the will of one single person
catcher-operator.
c) FANTASY, HORROR, LITERATURE OF DISTURBING PRESENCE
According to the ruleselementary logic, objects are grouped
according to some unifying feature. There is something that unites and
responsibly, distinguishing these genres from the general literary stream
ka, and it is precisely this very something that is the subject of my research -
nia. The fact is that the above genres accumulate in themselves
everything IRRATIONAL that, without a doubt, is present in our lives
knowledge, but cannot be analyzed by existing general scientific
disciplines.
So, we've sorted out the terminology. Let's get down to axioms.
Axiom one. The meaning of evolution is the movement towards perfection.
Single-celled organisms unite in colonies, and it soon becomes clear
It is clear that the colony as a unit with great perfection is adapted
on to live and survive. The plant is better, more perfect colo-
NI. Animals are better, more perfect than plants. At the same time, the quantity
cells, as individuals distinct from each other, in each
new life form increases. Of course, there is more in the baobab
cells than in a cat, but only in mass, and not in the number of new ones
QUALITY
Thus, evolutionary improvement lies in
unification, subordination to a single organism of as many as possible
number of qualitatively distinguishable cells. This is the second axiom.
And finally, axiom three. The evolution of social consciousness
go, Metaego, is similar in meaning to biological evolution.
How does a child go through stages of development?formations from
single-celled creature to a multicellular colony, burdened
two signaling systems, and a society from a small group
wild ancestors of ours grew to a five-billion-strong civilization
ation on a planetary scale, which managed to materialize the second signal -
found in material media, in the technosphere.
But let's talk about what happened before fantasy.
Somewhere in the middle of the last century, the evolution of the Metaego significantly
sped up. This is due primarily to the fact that again the global
New multinational empires entered the arena. Experience gained
The metaego suggested that with the old methods there was nothing significant in
the sense of improvement cannot be achieved from the newly created empires:
Someday they too will fall apart and turn to dust. But you can try
try a different path - technological, rational. That's when
The idea of psychotronic weapons was born. This weapon seemed
as the only reliable and relatively quick way to subjugate
certain ideas, large masses of people and even, if you like,
force them to accept a single religion, a single language, a single worldview
finally, that, in fact, there is a very significant step towards realizing
improvement of the Metaego. And there, at the turn of the century, it was decided that
the only possibility of implementing psychotronic weapons is
technological path of development.
You know very well how this manifested itself in science and everyday life. As in
literature? Samemust remember: Jules Verne and others like him - a whole
a galaxy of authors, heralds of the scientific and technological revolution era.
But it quickly became clear that the technological path was not the same
it's straight and fast. You can, of course, place towers all over the world
no-emitters, but this requires that a certain state
formerly became a worldwide empire, and such a move is fraught with unprecedented
dent extermination war.
The metaego rushed about in search of a solution, changing its settings to
radically opposite (occult sects, general hobby
spiritualism) and again returning to those already working (the rise of neo-
positivism, Marxism-Leninism). And we managed to find the right path:
it is necessary to return to the irrational for careful preparation
appropriate soil, humus of such a kind that the consciousness of everyone
individual was PREDISPOSITED to accept a unifying idea that
which will be imposed on him in the future by psychotronic weapons. This is how it appeared
"social-psychological" fiction that operates not only
scientistic ideas, but also categories of the spiritual world in man
- an intermediate stage between the rigidly narrow-minded SF and fantasy in numbers
that form.
Wells is considered the founder of the movement. He found a lot
successors. They did not risk anything. But those who then, at the beginning
centuries, tried to work in irrational genres, ahead of time,
paid severely for their courage (another property of Metaego
- cut off early shoots).Howard, Lovecraft, Bulgakov - were under-
shot on takeoff. But with what power these names sound today!
Yeah,” you say, “why then do we, in our beloved country,
not the Soviets, is socio-psychological fiction so late?
Let me answer simply: we have NEVER had a socio-psychological
fiction.
When the Bolsheviks took up the cultural revolution, they preferred
were supposed to replace the old value system with a completely new one. It should
everything changed: literature, architecture, religion, painting.
And at the first stage, the Bolsheviks successfully managed to implement this.
Apparently, at that time the Metaego had not yet decided which way
civilization to follow further and immediately TWO systems (communism and
democracy) was given carte blanche: catch up and overtake. And we
We turned out to be faster at that first stage! We didn't need
master socio-psychological fiction; we almost immediately
burst into irrationality.
Right before the eyes of astonished humanity, approx.
repla so-called "sovreligion". All this symbolism: five-pointed
new stars, hammers and sickles, pioneer ties, shouts proudly: “Everyone-
when ready!”, deification of the Leaders, etc. etc.
I had to pay with a lot of blood for this breakthrough at the start:
everyone whose worldview did not allow them to accept irrationality "but-
of the world", went to be shot or to the islands of the Archipelago;
the rest were urgently reforged.
ANDthat’s when modern religion finally received visible features; when
a generation came that did not know what Russia was without socialism,
That’s when the authors appeared, whose work is among our critics
It is usually classified as socio-psychological fiction. And this
It was FANTASY, typical fantasy!
Judge for yourself. Frank opposition of the World of Good to the World
Evil. The World of Good is a socialist society contemporary to the authors and
certainly the coming communist (Le commun advenement), and
The World of Evil is the decaying West. This contrast is especially clear
The development is shown in two, at that time, programmatic stories by Stru-
Gatskikh: “Trainees” and “Predatory Things of the Century”. In general, to the point of forming
formation in the reader’s consciousness of the image of a bright future (Mira Do-
sconces) many, if not all, contributed their pens: Efremov, Gure-
Vich, Snegov, Balabukha, Kir Bulychev, Krapivin with his "pioneer
Gothic".
By the way, you've probably already noticed that in the sixties
we walked level, side by side with the West. They also had a boom. But boom
around Tolkien and his epigones who arrived in time. The works of the class have been resurrected
sikovs of the genre (Lovecraft, Howard), made Moorcock talk about themselves
and Norton, Ursula Le Guin and Sprague de Camp. We walked level, and then
something stopped our confident run.
Modern religion suddenly lost the signs of irrationality.
Finally, the idea of her atheistic origin began to emerge. Poko-
lenition of "those who do not believe inGod, no way in hell" reworked it into a set
dry, rationally formulated dogmas, which in a race situation
were completely unviable.
A crisis has come in the country and in science fiction, while masks are still skillfully
destroyed, but liquefying the legs of the notorious colossus. And in the West ma-
the tire continued to spin, and when the colossus collapsed, they were already
overtook us by several laps. Phenomenal popularity of S.
King, D. Koontz, numerous fantasy authors and co-authors -
direct confirmation of this.
But we still have a chance. Metaego left it to us. To the manual
new people came to the country, and lo, look: in five years they were successful
I wanted to turn everything upside down, and although there was absolutely no blood
and it didn’t work out here, yet by the year ninety we were ready for everything
accept irrational genres with heart and liver. And we accepted them
li! Anyone can verify this by approaching a book lot on the street -
ku. And we will still have time, we will still catch up on the path to perfection. That’s just
the question remains open: WHAT should a Russian writer do?
in a new situation for him?
To contribute to the further development of fantasy, what else? Or
there is one among us who, like Philip Vecherovsky, takes risks
no to resist the universe? Not found yet.
Different writers come out of crisis in different ways. Some try
dress fantasy and horror in the clothes of modern technology (Tyurin and
Lazarchuk), someone is trying to fit into fantasyworlds of their own
personal aesthetic values (Stolyarov and Gevorkyan), someone in
plays on the nuances of modern religion in a new form (Rybakov and Pelevin),
someone writes fantasy simply and honestly (Ivanov, Perumov, Yutanov,
Loginov), or horror (Burkin and Soloviev), or literature of uninteresting
death presence (Sharapov and Shchegolev).
You choose your own path, dear writers. But remember
about one thing. The metaego is watching you, watching every thing you write.
you in a line, behind each letter. The metaego does not forgive mistakes, it does not
cheats It is difficult to resist him, it is impossible to come to an agreement with him.
important, because the main thing for any writer is reader interest
res, but it won’t be there if something is your desire and requirement from
Metaego to create humus for the future perfect civilization of the
they'll get along.
So it’s better to serve your Fatherland faithfully and write fantasy. I suppose su-
We can catch up and overtake the Americans. With our talents
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