Russian postmodernists continue to write political allegories
Andres Laasik
10. October 2008
Two fashionable Russian writers brought out a new book this autumn: Viktor Pelevin and Vladimir Sorokin. The Russian press has paid a good deal of attention to both sci-fi books which are full of horrible allegories about Russia?s past and present.
Actually, Pelevin?s book P5 is, at least according to the author, an entirely realistic one. The name is derived from the sub-title Proshchalnye pesni politicheskich pigmeyev Pindostana - i.e. Songs of Farewell of the Political Pygmies of Pindostan. What turns this book into sci-fi is that Pelevin?s fantasy world of Pindostan, is as this country is the real world that has taken on fantasy proportions. P5 consists of five short-stories. The first of these tells of a fantasy brothel, which is meant to cater for every whim of the Russian oligarchs by way of exclusivity, so that they don?t travel away to French ski resorts, and embarrass the whole of Russia with their sex scandals.
In the story Friedman?s Room, Pelevin has built up a theory that money that money attracts more money by way of a gravitational force, and the protagonist Chengiz Karatayev tests it out.
Humour plays an important role
Vladimir Sorokin?s Sugar Kremlin (Sakharnyi Kreml?) is the sequel to Oprichnik?s Day where he describes Russia decades later, one which resembles that of the era of Ivan the Terrible. As with P5, Sugar Kremlin consists of short-stories which are linked thematically. The stories are all set in a futurist world, invented by Sorokin, which combines elements of an up-to-date society technologically, with Soviet-style rule, and ancient Russian patriarchal values.
What links Pelevin and Sorokin is there is plenty of room for humour in their idiosyncratic work. They have received in mixed reception in the media, but what is agreed on is that Russian postmodernists are continuing to write in a satirical vein. And they are ahead with this in Russian literature.
