Oleg Chukhontsev is ahead in line for genius status

by time news

Some time ago, a funny picture was circulating on the network with the words: “To seduce girls, do you dress catchy? And smart people quote Brodsky!” In fact, there, of course, there are no “girls” and no “seduce” – and Joseph Brodsky himself would not have liked the replacement of obscene words. He just liked to dilute high topics with vocabulary from the gateway. However, in essence, the demotivator is right. The ability to quote not a mossy classic, but a fashionable modern poet, is a rule of good form and a marker of belonging to the cultural elite. One problem: Brodsky died a quarter of a century ago and has long since become a classic.

Who replaced Brodsky

Another problem is that it is difficult to say who came to replace him and whether there is a living poet number one in Russian literature. Like Pushkin in the Golden Age, Blok in the Silver Age and Brodsky in the conditionally Bronze Age.

If we talk about generally recognized figures, then there are three of them: Alexander Kushner, Evgeny Rein and Oleg Chukhontsev. They are the same age as Brodsky, they are now over eighty, they all knew and communicated with Anna Akhmatova – that is, they are carriers of a certain literary continuity. However, perhaps only in Chukhontsev’s poetry does creative evolution continue to take place. He never ceases to amaze, constantly offering new forms and mastering new genres. Recently, the publishing project “Rutenia” published a thick volume of his poems and poems called “And the sound and the echo. From different books”, recognized as the “book of the year” at the Moscow International Book Fair. In this collected works, one can clearly see what a grandiose variety is characteristic of this poet.

Two myths of modern Russian poetry

In general, if we talk about modern Russian poetry, then public opinion is dominated by two myths.

The first argues that great poets, as well as great writers in general, have long been gone. Once were, but degenerated. “Where is the new Pushkin, where is Yesenin?” – bitterly asks the reader.

The second myth is that today we are witnessing a colossal poetic boom: there has never been such a quantity and quality of poets as now. The general reading public does not notice this only because it is lazy and incurious.

Of course, both theses are just myths that appear either from ignorance or from naivety. There are, in all likelihood, great poets today. The same Chukhontsev is called by many as such. Of course, the official recognition of a classic occurs decades after his departure, and in the case of poetry, this recognition often comes especially late. So, for example, only today the reading audience discovers the great poetess Anna Bunina, who lived two hundred years ago. Yes, the general public usually does not appreciate those who deserve it, but, fortunately, there are always contemporaries who understand everything and are aware of the future status of the author.

Who appoints geniuses

A reasonable question: who, in fact, decides who is great and who is not. It’s art, it’s subjective. In literary criticism, this question goes under the section of creating creative reputations, codifying the classics, and forming a literary canon. Indeed, why do we consider Pushkin and Lermontov great, and not their many contemporaries, much more famous in their era? Indeed, at the time of the death of both geniuses, they were not even among the top three most popular authors.

Usually they say: time decides. But time by itself does not solve anything. Hierarchy in art is created by specific people, the expert community. Critics, art historians, authors themselves, curators, collectors, publishers, customers – in different eras, different people could be such experts. The verdict is reached by consensus among professionals, which has been developing for about a hundred years.

Recently, a literary historian suggested to his colleagues on his blog that they compile the top 10 best Russian writers of the 19th century. There were no disputes. The same top of the first half of the 20th century. sparked a heated discussion. In the second half of the century, they could not agree at all. It is no longer necessary to judge contemporaries with confidence.

It is clear that the tastes and views of the experts are different, sometimes directly opposite, but it is their compromise agreement over time that determines the status and reputation. Since the XX century. market mechanisms actively intervene in this process, but the participation of professional electors in them is still large. Simply put, all great authors are great because they were once “appointed” as such, and not because of their later apparent “objective” greatness. In art, in general, there is very little objective.

If we talk about the second, optimistic myth, announcing the poetic boom of the beginning of this century, then it should be refuted. Yes, today about a million people regularly write, publish and discuss poems in our country. It would seem a lot. But let’s agree: almost every one of us composed something like that in our youth. If only because it is a necessary attribute of teenage love. Someone sent their compositions to their beloved, someone hid and was ashamed – but almost everyone tried to write. Another thing is that in the absence of the Internet, it never occurred to anyone to submit all this for publication. Social media, specialty websites, and new opportunities for cheap printing have given amateurs that opportunity, creating the illusion of a large-scale creative process.

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In reality, the situation is as follows. In addition to the aforementioned million amateurs, there are several thousand professionals whose poems can be considered of high quality, that is, worthy of publication in several thick magazines, the main of which is traditionally considered to be Novy Mir, and book series of specialized publishers. In reality, there are several hundred authors who constantly or occasionally publish in them. Of these, about two dozen of those who can be called “living classics.” Even the most recognized poets publish books in print runs of 500 to 1,000 copies. Even they are sometimes forced to publish at their own expense – to say nothing of the rest. This situation is not unique. The same is the case with the poets of Europe and the USA, it was the same in the time of Pushkin. A happy exception was the era of the sixties, when Yevgeny Yevtushenko collected stadiums and published in millions of copies. We can say that according to formal indicators, this is the most popular author in the history of world poetry – a paradox, of course, but it is true.

Separately, there is pop poetry: the case when poetry is not so much read in the form of a text, but performed in the form of an emotional performance. Modern video blogs are very conducive to the spread and popularity of this kind of poetry. The artistic level here is usually low, and acting skills are the key to success. And if we consider what is done in pop music, rock, rap and bard song as full-fledged poetry, then this is another large and often money-making niche – sometimes these are quite worthy texts. And for example, Bob Dylan has already received his Nobel Prize in Literature.

Although, to be honest, it would be better if it was awarded to Oleg Chukhontsev.

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