An important event took place in the State Duma the other day. There, writers, politicians and social activists came together to urgently reform literature. They said, “It’s urgent.” In general, they will save you. When discussing rescue plans, alarming voices such as “nationalization”, “transfer to the Ministry of Culture”, “state support” and even “state protection” were heard.
No, I agree that literature in general needs to be saved! I’ve been here for many years, including here. I’m writing about thisthat our literature has turned into a spider jar as a result of non-market processes. He lost the institution of choosing the best. It ceased to be an export product. Literature has turned into a cabal.
The state of our great literature at the beginning of the decade reminded me of flies in a glass in a poem by Captain Lebyadkin. To remember? A glass with flies into which a cockroach suddenly fell, and of course the flies immediately started making noise…
“A cockroach has taken over this place,
The flies started humming.
“Our glasses are very full”
They shouted to Jupiter.
But while they scream,
Nikifor approached
Dear old man…”
Captain Lebyadkin did not write anything else, but the idea was clear: the servant Nikifor would come and sweep all this fauna into a bucket with a towel.
We were really looking forward to this Nikifor. By 2022, a very difficult situation had developed in literature: everything was preoccupied with a little girl and certain views of a little girl. I can say more harshly – I’m tired of flies, but I won’t say it, otherwise the flies are still in their favor, their Jupiter is strong – they will trample.
Let’s put it this way: By 2022, we have received literature that in no way reflects the needs, values, interests, or even nationality of the general reader. The top of literature in our country is occupied by people who, as a result of completely non-market processes, literally received passports from other countries, many of whom emigrated a long time ago and do not connect their lives with Russia or its citizens. Not at all.
Not only foreign, but also foreign culture, which directed the literary process in our country, gave birth to the same foreign literature of the second and third tier through patronage, civil strife and, simply put, collusion. We received tons of published wastepaper that began to dwell on fashionable traumas such as imperialism, gender, parenthood. We are faced with scattered mystical realism and feminist romanticism. The reader gradually bought all this.
We have a loose, mediocre literature that is published, promoted, sold only because those who control and influence the literary process are allowed to decide that real literature is what they like and what seems right to them. Since the entire literary process, from magazine publication to publishing to printing, from the largest book chains to literary awards, was in the hands of these people, they decided who the writer would be, rather than the market.
Thank God, people in Russia are literate, they have not forgotten how to read books, they are needed. They read what is necessary. Yes, that’s it! What is on the middle shelves, what is praised in the central newspapers, what the “first critic of the country” Galina Yuzefovich once pointed out, is what they read. And these people marked those who were socially close. On our own. The right ones. And also for those that need to sell quickly.
It’s been like this for years. Please note that I am only talking about the market here. It’s about competition and the destruction of institutions to select the best. Let’s put aside Russophobia, disdain for the people and political position. Who knows what position a writer might have? Talent does not look at position, nor does it look at character traits, vice or virtue. Let’s point out right away: at the beginning of the decade, our literature was completely taken over by people unfamiliar with this literature, who decided that they knew better than us and literature what, who, why and how much it needed.
As a result of non-market processes and in the absence of competitive selection, people prevailing in literature gave birth to literatures that represented neither readers, nor real issues, nor, indeed, real literature. And it feels like very few people care. The government never understood why this was bad, immoral and even dangerous.
Do you understand now? When it turns out we get a crowd of writers who wish their readers were dead, full of attention, circulation, state and near-state awards. After all, all writers who are caught by pranksters who admit to financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine or wish them success, ultimately wish their readers death. Conflicts happen, if you sympathize with the other side, it means you want your own defeat.
It looks like the state has taken over. Round table discussion in the State Duma. But again, extremes. I repeat, not a word about live competition. It’s about choosing the best.
Nationalize it. Help with money. Save the author’s status. Promote it. Decentralize distribution. Create major regional publishing houses. Take out the foreign element.
All this is understandable and pleasant. Especially about money. Voinovich wrote in “The Novel of My Life” how he bought a motorcycle with his first salary, furnished a room in the communal apartment, bought fur coats for his wife and mother-in-law and supported his family for a long time. the rest.
Nowadays you can’t make money from books. Writing has disappeared as a profession in our country. Writers who earned money solely from literature, who should not be distracted by anything, have disappeared. At best, there are writers who earn money by writing articles and doing journalism without going to the office or editorial office. The extensive professional literature has disappeared. All its consequences will be in the form of a mild humanitarian disaster. Of course something needs to be done.
There is more to the proposals now than just the Soviet order and instructions. At the dawn of their power, the Bolsheviks tried to create writer’s workshops: they gathered everyone in the editorial office, lined them up, gave them a typewriter and let them write from nine to six. They gave me a salary, reserved a room in the hostel, gave me food, I don’t want to write anything. Defective!
The emphasis on creating a new literary elite on any basis other than talent, skill, and love of readers is also highly questionable. I fully share your anger that we have an influential liberal lobby in literature and that liberal terminology has seized power over the literary process. I wrote this long before it became fashionable to discuss the problem.
However, I look at current events in literature with concern. At first, our “freedom” was established in a completely non-competitive way, where people were accepted with the correctness of their views, a good face and approved friendships. Now people will be admitted to literature for other correct views and other connections. Z-poetry has arrived, festivals have arrived. Clever, understated and great Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin began to gather around himself new literature based on the principle of “Bad, but HIS OWN”. Who wouldn’t dive into this literature! I immediately remembered the insulting word – “fellow travelers”. And then in the wave of change all kinds of things came along. And now.
Doesn’t Prilepin see this? I doubt. Why create such a literature? Isn’t it enough for him to get caught? Recently, the “Forty Forty” movement demanded that the novel “Sankya” be removed from the school curriculum on the grounds that it is oppositional. Isn’t it time for writer Prilepin to calm down?
We waited and prayed. We waited! Update has started.
So what’s next? We face a choice: or RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) forcing a writer to work full time, transferring book policy entirely to state control with the right social activists and paying wages according to the tariff schedule, or watching how instead of a liberal little girl and a little girl with everyone on Prilepin’s shoulders and a few talented poems by Anna Dolgareva climbing into literature? And if we behave badly, we will see both. When everyone is on RAPP and on the tariff, but at the same time some are more equal and have already created a new terminology.
Why do we need to replace the seam with soap? And soap – for an owl? Just because this is our long-lasting Russian soap, brewed with love for Russia?
I’m sorry, there are many honest, noble and patriotic people among mediocre people. There is no need to fall into the sin of departed liberal writers who believed themselves to be always good and always talented.
Isn’t it possible to leave literature alone for ten years? So neither conditional liberals nor patriots are artificially deceived? Let everything live. Come up with a mechanism to slap someone on the wrist for any antitrust violations in literature. There is no need to transfer this literature from the Ministry of Digital Development to the Ministry of Culture and send it back.
Find some kind of literary FAS to monitor the strictest compliance with the competition. Thus, without phone rights, without putting pressure on friends, without giving them bonuses and positive reviews. So, for colluding in nominating an award or reprinting editions, they will be punished like an increase in the price of eggs. And even more. Because we adapted to whatever price of eggs we saw in our country.
I fear that we will not be able to adapt to a literature that has stagnated for decades without lively competition. People will stop reading it. We will become a nation that does not read, Russians will turn into a nation without modern literature. Apparently, no one talked about this at the round table in the State Duma.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.