The image of a contemporary in the national prose of the last decades
Modern Russian literature – a phenomenon little-known. But from this it does not become less interesting, on the contrary, the unknownness of today’s art space raises interest much more than, for example, literature of the 19th century.
How can you characterize the literary process of recent decades? Some speak of the heyday of postmodernism. But, most likely, it will be more correct to order not about flourishing, but about sunset. Since the works of such contemporary writers as Tatyana Tolstaya, Victor Pelevin, Boris Akunin, Mikhail Veller, Venedikt Erofeev, Viktor Sorokin are increasingly inclined to depict reality as it is and not to sink into the depths of the subconscious of man.
Writers are increasingly turning to the image of their contemporaries and are trying to derive common features for their era. But the modern reality is so unique and multifaceted that, so far as it seems to me, it is impossible to derive a more or less typical image.
The
So, in one of the last novels of Victor Pelevin, “Numbers”, a new hero of the era – the “new Russian”, a banker – was brought to the scene. The writer does not take one or more episodes from the character’s life, but a large segment of his life – from early childhood to maturity. Choose, of course, only the landmark moments, by which we learn the history of worship of human figures. Hence the name of the work – “Numbers”.
In general, people’s interest in numerology (the science of numbers and their magical effect on human life) has existed for a long time, but the hero of the novel makes religion of this interest. According to the writer, this is due to the absence in the modern society of a solid moral and ethical basis. Therefore, these concepts are replaced by an ugly worship of the number.
How did this phenomenon start? From the fact that as a child, little Alexander
Growing up, the hero does not give up his thoughts about the number “seven”. He persistently achieves his “attention”, building his life only with due regard for him. So, walking along the street, to himself, Alexander considers each his step and, reaching seven, starts again. He did not get into the car if there was not seven in her room. In general, Sasha came up with a lot of signs.
But over time, he began to understand that the number “seven” does not bring him a one hundred percent result. And having studied many books about the magic number “seven” in the cultures of the peoples of the earth, he realized that this is because too many people worship this number, and he is too inconspicuous against their background. Then Milyukin decided that he needed to choose a new number for worship. And he chose the sum of the number “seven” – 34.
So he began to build his entire existence, based on this number. The hero began to engage in computer business, then became a banker. And everything was good for him: “His competitors did not understand why he was so lucky.” Alexander refused to bargain well only because there was no number 34, and as it turned out later, he was right. Many tried to imitate him in the conduct of business, but they did not succeed. The most modern computer technologies could not calculate Milyukin’s train of thought: “Then everyone decided that it was connected with some special forces that possessed more information than all the others.” In fact, everything was only in this number. At least, so Milyukin himself thought.
And everything would be fine if Alexander did not once decide that if there is a lucky number for him, that is, an unhappy one. Such was, as he guessed, the number 43, the so-called “inverted seven”. He began to panic him and see everywhere around him. This led to the fact that “luck turned away, because 43 pursued him on his heels.”
So Pelevin displays to the reader a surrogate of the world outlook of a man, disfigured by fear and prejudice. There is no in his life and understanding of this very life, this person is lost and naked. But, on the other hand, the author emphasizes the idea that if a person wants, if he sincerely believes in his luck, then everything will turn out for him. And vice versa…
And yet the novel has an optimistic sound. After the number 43 crashed the hero’s career, Alexander Milyukin throws everything. He decides that he was probably wrong when he built his destiny in this way, on worshiping numbers. He will start his life first, with a white sheet.
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