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  oard of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

Generation "P" by Viktor PelevinReview by: David MacFadyenWorld Literature Today, Vol. 73, No. 3 (Summer, 1999), pp. 553-554Published by: Board of Regents of the University of OklahomaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40154976 .

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Viktor

Pelevin. Generation

P .Moscow.

Vagrius.

1999.

302

pages.

ISBN 5-7027-0949-7.

RUSSIAN

Fiction

Along

the central

streets

of St.

Petersburg,

Russia,

one

can

always

ind

impromptu

bookstands,

even

when

the weather s less than

pleasant.

These

tiny,

cov-

ered

stalls resemble

dining

tables,

one half folded such

that

it stands

vertical;

cross

he two

resulting

urfacesare

books

known to be of interest to

tourists.

Foreign

visitors

loath to wrestle

the

complexities

of Russian

syntax

can

thus

spare

themselves

awkward

nteractionwith sales staff

in bona fide bookstores.Here on the street,glossytexts

celebrating

he

Hermitage

or

local

palaces

n

English

can

be

perused

with the

nod of a head and then

acquired

with

the

quiet

flip

of a wallet.

Over

he last

couple

of

years,

considerable ocal interest

in the novels of Viktor

Pelevin has

guaranteed

them a

place

among

these

coffee-table

volumes. Even

penniless

pensioners,

elling magazines

or a

few

pennies

less at sub-

way

tations,

ometimesoffer

his books

n

additionto

Play-

boy

nd

Cosmopolitan.

elevin,

who has himself been

pub-

lished

in

the

former

magazine,

has

just brought

out the

story

itled GenerationP

hroughVagrius

n Moscowand

has reissued

severalearlier

texts at the same time.

In one

of

these,

a volume

containing

both

OmonRa

(1994;

see

WLT

9:4,

p.

821)

and

The

Lifeof

Insects

1996;

see WLT

71:4,

p.

823),

VyacheslavKuritsyn

ffers an

explanation

of

why Pelevin has become perhaps the most fashionable

writer

n Russia.

Kuritsyn

laims

that the author writes for those

em-

ployed

n visual

ields,

who

n

recent

years

have held no

books

in

their

hands,

save

the Yellow

Pages

and

areso-

cially

and

esthetically

ctive

membersof

society.

The

im-

plicit

referenceshere

to

designers

and hackers

are soon

made

explicit;

there

is indeed a

most visual

aspect

to

Pelevin

s

work,

one that

plays

an

integral part

in

these

rereleasednarratives.

n Omon

Ra,

for

example,

a

virtual,

three-dimensional

eality

utterly

confounds

not

only

the

novel's

main characterbut

also its readers

until its final

few

pages.

(To

say any

more would

spoil

the

enjoyment

that

awaits

future

audience.)

Pelevin'sretardation

f dis-

closureor

unveiling

until the denouement

is a

technique

also

employed

n

Generation

P ,

ogether

with

other famil-

iar emphases.

These

include the deconstruction

of re-

ceived

ideology,

the

relationship

of

subjective

antasy

o

objective

reality,

history'sapparent

linearity

(as

drama-

tized

previously

n

the

novella Zheltaia trela

Eng.

Yellow

Arrow]

and other

topicseasilyparaphrased

s

sociologi-

cal overviews

f

Russia fter

17

August

1998.

The letter

P here refers

to several

opical

notions,

one

of which

is

perhaps

the vilest word

in

contemporary

Rus-

sian.

Thankfully, hough,

its

primary

ignificance

s as an

abbreviation

or

Pepsi.

he connection

between recent

generations

and

Pepsi

is twofold:

he novel's hero is both

too

young

to

have

enjoyed

the axiomatic enets of Soviet

ideology

and is

fostering

a

very

modern career that moves

gradually

nto the field of

advertising opy,

where

phrases

such as the novel's title are

born.

Pelevin

plays

much

upon

the

ironic

workings

of

advertising

n

Russia,

both

before and after 1991.

The

significance

of

choosing Pepsi

over Coke s

perhaps

absent

n

a nation once furnished

by

decree with

Pepsi

and not

Coke;

even

today

that same na-

tion is

hardly

n

an economic state to entertain frivolous

(and

expensive)preferences

or

momentary

whims.

Pelevin'shero

is

directly

nvolved

n

the creationof

lin-

guistic

or visual llusions hat

endeavor o maskthis

irony.

The destruction of

quotidian reality

n

favor of a

prof-

fered

fantasy

s

suggested

n

both his last

name,

Tatarsky,

and first, Vavilen (from Vasily Aksyonovand Vladimir

Ilich

Lenin).

Vavilen lso hints in Russianat the Tower

of

Babel,

at the virtual difice to

(equally

himerical)

capi-

talismwhich

Tatarsky's

dvertising opy

createsand which

is mocked

in

several cenes

set

in

the

vicinity

of an

impos-

ingly

tall structure.That turret s reminiscentof

an enor-

mous

mushroom,

and thus the

imaginary

world of adver-

tising

soon finds a

counterpart

n a

hallucinogenic

haze,

as

in

some of

Pelevin's other stories.

Meandering,drug-

fueled

digressions

serve to

weaken further the linear ad-

vancement

of

either communism or

capitalism.

The de-

sire

to fulfill

a

plan

and

get things

done

dissolves nto

aimless

wanderings hrough eternity,

or

at least

through

Soviet

history

n a

decidedly

ortuous

ashion.

By undermining

the narrativesof commerce and

big

business,

Pelevin leaves his hero

in

a world

that cannot

justify

deals or transactions s

connected

in

any meaning-

ful,

let alone ethical

way.

A sale on

Monday

neither

guar-

antees the successof

(nor

justifies

the efforts

nvested

n)

a sale on

Tuesday.Equally

rootlesscustomerswanderbe-

tween the

shifting lights

of

prevailing

advertisements.

(Once

again,

this is a

theme

developed

earlier,

on this oc-

casion

in

The

Life of

Insects.)

Distilling

ts central

plot

or

thematic

emphasis,

GenerationP ffers

severalextended

digressions

on the nature of both customersand viewers

as a massed oranus r

polyp

without

ears, nose,

eyes,

or

mind. The oranusexists or

two,

eternally

nterrupted

nd

recurring

easons: o

ingest

and to

excrete.

Pelevin extends this cruel indictment of a

new,

con-

sumer

generation

to its

activity

as viewer of

and

partici-

pant

in a

virtual,

political reality.

The

representation

of

ideal

products

moves into

the field of ideal ideas. As al-

ready

mentioned,

the author's

interest

in

virtual states

leadshim to close severalof his storieswith a

demystifica-

tion,

and

once

again

I am

unwilling

to make

premature

disclosureshere.

Nevertheless,

anybody

who has

recently

viewed TheMatrix

n

Westerncinemas will

perceive

a fa-

miliar

premise;

he fact that the same

film

is now

showing

in

Russian

cinemas

only

serves

o

strengthen

the contem-

porary

elevanceof GenerationP .

At a time since

August

1998 when both

foreign

and

domestic

advertising

evenueshave

plummeted

n

Russia,

Pelevin'sbook

acquires

added

resonance as a

cutting

in-

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554 WORLD LITERATURE TODAY

dictment of the

increasingly

razen

promotions

hat

pep-

per

Russian elevision creens

everyday.

The novel has an-

other,

diachronic

pertinence

in

that

the

author,

by

both

describing

and

himself

embodying

a

high degree

of mod-

ishness,

scrutinizes

he

fleeting,

visual moment

through

the prism of long-termprojectssuch as literaryhistory,

corporate

radition,

or

political deologies.

Russia

recently

celebrated

Aleksandr Pushkin's two-

hundredth

anniversary,

he boldest milestone on

the na-

tion's

literarypathways.

The

day

after that

birthday,

a na-

tional television show asked its viewershow

they

reacted

to the

festivities,

o their use as commercialand

political

spectacle.

The most

popular

answer: Itwould have made

Pushkin ill. If

Pelevin's acerbic discussion

of Russian

spectacle,

real or

not,

finds a

huge

audience

today

(the

same

people,

no

doubt,

who called that

show)

then

surely

it deserves imilar nterest

among

studentsand teachersof

Russian ulture

n

the West.

David

MacFadyen

Dalhousie

University

Interviews

Contextualizing

Transition: nterviewswith

Contemporary

us-

sian

Writers nd Critics.Serafima

Roll,

ed. & tr. New York.

Peter

Lang.

1998.

x +

182

pages,

ill.

$43.95.

ISBN

0-8204-

3779-4.

The interviews in

Contextualizing

Transition have al-

ready

been

published

in

Russian,

but

perhaps they

now serve a more

valuable

purpose

in

English.

Serafima

Roll has

collected nine substantial conversationswith

some

of the

leading

names

in

contemporary

Russian

iter-

ature.

She framesher

dialogues

with both

perceptions

of

urban

Russia

n

the midnineties and an

impressive

heo-

reticalassessment f currentbelletristic endencies.In the

West this kind of

introduction to Russia's

rapidlychang-

ing

cultural

climate is most

helpful; although

these au-

thors

may

voice their

opinions

from countless

periodicals

at

home,

they

are almost

never heard

in an

English-lan-

guage

context.

Roll

begins by

assessing

he role of

postmodernism

n

Russia n

recent

years,

the

uneasy

transition

t has made

from one

cultural

context to another.

In

the name of ob-

jectivity,

she

then offers two

additional

frameworks,

s it

were: he first

delineates

changes

within Russian ommer-

cial

environments,

new

circumstances

n

which the

inter-

viewed

writersare

now

obliged

to

operate;

he second

us-

tifies the

very

genre

of

interviews hat Roll

employs,

and

hypothesizes

how that

genre

altered

depending upon

the

person

and

place

involved n

each conversation.This ex-

tended

emphasis upon

variegation

(different

contexts,

people,

and

markets)

all

helps

to communicate

today's

vigorouslycompeting styles

to a Western

audience,

to

sketch the

philosophies

and

commercial attitudes that

constitute

(in

a

messy

manner)

the

literary

world

in

Moscow,

St.

Petersburg,

and farther afield. The authors

who

constitute that

muddled

portrait

are

Mikhail

Berg,

Vyacheslav

Kuritsyn,

Oleg

Dark,

Viktor

Erofeev,

Vladimir

Sorokin,

Valeria

Narbikova,

Tatiana

Tolstaya,Egor

Radov,

and

IgorYarkevich.

Throughout,

there

remains

a

healthy

tendency

not to

divorce

literaryprocesses

rom the

surrounding

ociopo-

litical context

that Roll sketches

in

her

opening

pages.

The

workings

of

prose

and

poetry

are

not

dispatched

o

an ethereal

realm

far from the

land

of failed

banksand

tardypensions.WhenRollaskswherethe archetypal ovi-

et bookworm

might

be found

today,

she

is told:

Our

au-

dience has turned to

life. This

might

seem

blasphemous,

but

I

think

it's

right.

For the

first time

readershave

em-

braced

the

opportunity

o start

living.

It isn't

that

life is

not

agonizing;

whatmatters

s that t's

real.

Though

modern

prose

may

be

struggling

under

multi-

ple pressures

all

of which

find

voice),

Roll drawsher

dia-

logue

toward

one

central theme: the

aforementioned

influence of

postmodernist

hought

upon

Russian

itera-

ture.

There

may

initially

be

few

surprises

when

the ab-

sence

of Soviet

ideology

is

equated

with the absence

of

any overriding,

exclusiveesthetic

today.

Of

greater

nter-

est,

though,

is an intermittent

endency

to

see the

level-

ing

of all ideas

as either a

perverse

lip

side

to Soviet de-

ology

or as

a carte blanche

allowing

total rebirth.

Either

the exclusion of all alternativedeas has been replacedby

the absenceof

any

ideas

whatsoever,

r that

vacuum

s a

natural,

cyclicalprecursor

o an

upswing

within

a

process

of creative

birth

and

decay.

In

discussing

even

in

sad,

deterministic

terms

the

consequences

of

postmodernism,

greatest

reference

is

perhaps

made to

Lyotard.

As

a

result,

his influence

upon

post-Soviet

Russian iterature

can with reasonable

asser-

tion be

judged

from this slim text.

Lyotard's

presence

is

sensed even

when he

is not discussed

n

explicit

terms,

since

an occasional

kitsch

tendency

toward

nostalgia

or

socialist

realismmanifests he

Frenchman's

key

indicator

of

modernism,

he

yearning

or

somethingpast,

or a real-

ized

nostalgia.

Viktor

Erofeev' words

(although spoken

with

tongue

in

cheek,

perhaps)

lead

one to doubt the

presence

of

postmodernism

t all: I

prefer

Socialist

Real-

ism because it reflected our human weaknessand our

kitsch

emotions much

more

vividly

than

today's

culture].

It could

render our

ability

or

love,

our

capability

or un-

derstanding,

and our desire

for

competition

much

more

strongly

han detective

novels,

or even bad comics.

Problematic

nostalgia,

sincere or

not,

forms the

basis

for Roll's

concluding pages.

Here she offers

an overview

of

developments

n recent Russian

writings,

or at

least

in

the midnineties.

Producing

a

book-length

manuscript

n

current events

is never

easy (especially

f

that

book

al-

ready

appeared

some time

ago

in

another

language),yet

by

providing

extensivecreativeand critical

bibliographies

in

the footnotes

to her

interviews,

Roll's

publication

should

not retreat into

back-catalogues

s research

of

fleeting

relevance.

Her

closing

essay

and useful notes

help

to

place

these

intervieweesand their work

in

a

broader

context,one that is neatlydovetailedwith the lateeighties

and the relative reedoms

of

glasnost\

As a

result,

Contextu-

alizing

Transition

hould

prove

a useful

bridge

between

the

workings

f late Soviet

prose

and

today's

market.

At a conference at Dalhousie

University

n

March

1999,

Yakov

Gordin,

the editor

of Russia's

respected

literary

journal

Zvezda

The

Star)

spoke

of similar

matters. He

contrasteda

tendency

towardwantonexcessand disorder

in the worksof those such

as ViktorPelevin

and the os-

trichlike avoidance

of

change among

some older

mem-

bers

of the

literarycommunity.

Pelevin's

works,

Gordin

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