Summary Middlegame


V. O. Pelevin
Mittelshpil
Initially, it seemed to me that this story is nothing more than an easy joke, a simple amusement for the author, and at the same time for the reader. But, remembering that Pelevin nothing happens for no reason, I began to look more attentively to the text, trying to see the forest behind the trees. And the forest was standing, rustling the leaves and not very upset that I did not notice it. Ba! But here it is, “I cried, turning around to find that I had wandered into the thicket. The philosophical idea touched upon in this story turned out to be so fundamental, to such a deep archetypal that it is present in almost every work of a fairly decent writer (decently composing prose). But Pelevin found for the disclosure of ideas an unexpected form, which suits him best. The fact is that the author devoted a story to the Yang-Yin principle. Men’s, bright, solid, and so on, resists the feminine, the dark, the soft in any pair of relationships

that ever arose on Earth. But Pelevin chose relations of not two men and not two women, but two pairs… as it is scientifically called… ugh! That’s disgusting!
In a pair of two men, one always plays the leading male role (Jan), and the other – the female one (Yin). In a pair of women, one always leads (Jan), and the second behind the first follows (Yin). Here the author, not only that showed leadership within the two pairs, but compared them among themselves, previously turning inside out.
The basic structure of the story is based on background problems located within the pair conflicts, but going far beyond the pairs themselves. Two prostitutes with Tverskaya turn out to be ex-men, and even workers of the Komsomol district committee (they were prostitutes, they stayed, but for good money). Two naval officers from a submarine turned out to be ex-women… Well, it’s fucked up! However, I will not consider the second and third plans, I will confine myself to what has been said.


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Summary Middlegame