Less known is that Chukovsky loved writers “to antirobot”. So, in 1919 on the eve of the 100th anniversary of N. And. Nekrasov, he began to address the well-known poets and writers questions about Nekrasov. The questions were simple: “do you Like poems of Nekrasov?”; “What the poetry of Nekrasov you think is the best?”; “Did Nekrasov’s influence on your music?” etc., He replied Alexander Blok, Nikolai Gumilev, Anna Akhmatova, Maxim Gorky, Yevgeny Zamyatin, and many others. It was interesting how the same questions are answered by various celebrities.
And in 1910 he dared “to antirobot” of Leo Tolstoy, sending him the question about his attitude to the death penalty. Leo Tolstoy said during his “care” of Optina, a few days before death Astapov. And that was the last text of Tolstoy, except for letters to relatives.
of course, I thought not keep to dress up in the mantle of the great Korney Ivanovich, but I found it interesting to send modern writers, are “quarantined”, your profile.
that’s what they said. The answers will appear on the website on Saturdays and Sundays.
Be healthy!
Your Pavel Basinsky
Where you now spend time (if not secret)?
I Spend days quarantine in a country house with his wife and daughter. Walk around it in the area with a stroller. Daughter recently turned one year old. But periodically it is necessary to break to Moscow and then gather the Council. At the meeting, of course, are in the mask. So, a full quarantine is not for everyone. My 80 year old father all the time is in his temple, even without joining.
what are you working On? What are you reading?
– writing a novel. Reread the poems of Georgy Ivanov and Hugh Auden WH. And – “the Death of modern heroes” Limonov, a strange aesthetic text about the cold of Venice, read. Have ordered and read books about the iconography of the 16th century in Rus ‘ (for the novel). But other things as usual. Preparing a new issue of the magazine “Youth” and doing the editorial chores. Remotely record your TV program and try to help everyone who is waiting for reinforcements. Alas, the epidemic has become a pass for many officials, who withdrew from the work. You have to find them and bother.
does your creativity a necessary isolation? The most productive creative time of A. S. Pushkin “Boldino autumn” of 1830, came on “the cholera quarantine.”
– I would like to think that the time for the prose became a little more.
How do you feel about black humor, which I read on the Internet: “Sitting at home. The street people”? That is, people is the danger, like wild animals. Don’t you think that we now live in a time of a new ethics and a new kind of style in the broadest sense of the word?
– Maybe the alienation and distance, Eska��ISM for someone now will become a habit. And it will be difficult to get used to the same mess everyday. This Stockholm syndrome. But the artist, we know what the hostage, and that in captivity… Generally, stretching examination these days hold all of us, the human race. The task is simple and difficult: do not be disheartened. No drift, no limp, not to be dismissed. Test of strength of the people, States, alliances, relations, former, decorating interests, habits and aspirations. Notice, even on social networks, how different people Express themselves in the face of challenge. It has always been, for centuries before the invention of the Internet. Some, alas, hysteria and aggression, and denial of the epidemic gives way to panic by rumors of its invincibility. But what about courage! The hero appears in trouble. Today clearly and distinctly can be seen the nature of each. So, by the way, the literature often refers to trouble, to better explore and discover the mystery of man. Still, “there are more reasons to admire people.” This is the final novel “the Plague”. So I instead scold foolish, I would like to admire a good-faith exposure the absolute majority of citizens. Those who encourage each other. Those who did not cast more than weak.
Can you think of any examples from Russian and world classics, where they were described about the current situation? (“The feast during the plague” not to call!)
– If not comfort, and not to support those who find it difficult, the trouble will engulf everyone. And then will come true the prophecy of Jack London, who wrote a novel about a pandemic of the XXI century “the scarlet plague”: “Civilization collapsed, everyone did”. Or I’d turned to painting. The painting “Family” by Egon Schiele, the famous Austrian expressionist. Love, despair and just no words… He depicted his wife, who died of “Spanish flu” in the sixth month of pregnancy, unborn child and myself. And also died from a terrible flu a few days later. This picture – like a poster with a call to cherish family. And be happy, if sitting at home, even quarrelling and grumbling as many, worn down by captivity, are alive and well…
And you can not open art books. The drama about a fake modern society asserted philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard, who so often is a worrying word “virus” and warned: virtual and unclaimed world-a simulacrum immediately fails as soon as you blow a fatal danger. Another philosopher Michel Foucault in his book “Discipline and punish” noticed “the Plague gave rise to disciplinary diagrams in Europe.” Most importantly, that the disciplinary institution is not acquired absolutely inhuman forms, turning to ruthless control over the individual. To do this, civilization a lot of assumptions.
Writer in Russia must be a prophet. What do you think: when will it end and what awaits us after this?
– will decline by the summer. But more than from the virus, people affected by its economic consequences. Alarming mass unemployment, criminalization of the society. I want to upgrade in all senses. Tired of the inertia of the entire system. And in the many letters that get commemorated bad word “optimization”. Well one of the effects of the present tests was a willful rejection of the closing of medical institutions and reduce medical States.
the Current reality makes it relevant to the most strong social programs and a course in the direction of at least some justice. All not make you rich, but it is necessary to stop the growth of poverty. I think the new weight becomes the working man. Someone who has their own thing, who produces and creates. In the city and on the ground. The working man – the one who is most vulnerable, who face a disaster. And it is he who in actual fact main during the big crisis. Now due to not knowing the quarantine workers we have Sewerage, electricity, communications, Internet, and the supply of food and garbage, at last, hospitals.
by the Way, I noticed that living modestly, for whom survival is important not only during an epidemic, especially after it somehow behave more masculine prosperous snobs. Maybe, I think so. Maybe not.
Very touching, our people encouraging each other. Not only jokes in the “up again I”. For example, the song – the whole world, the old-fashioned way. For me, our people – high-rise building in the Moscow region Vidnoje, where different Windows with different voices flew: “I go Out at night in a field with a horse” don’t give up, so win.
Heading “form Basinski: Writers in quarantine” is published on the website “RG” on Saturdays and Sundays.
the questionnaire already answered Eugene Vodolazkin, Dmitry Bak, Paul Krusanov, Roman Senchin, Zakhar Prilepin, Alexey Varlamov.
