2023-12-10 17:36:42
The winner of the “Big Book” of 2023, again, like ten years ago, was the St. Petersburg prose writer Evgeniy Vodolazkin. Three years after the “gold”, in 2016, his novel “Aviator” was awarded second place “BK”, and critics consider this book to be the author’s antithesis to the novel “Chagin”, which “shot” in this award season. The correspondent in charge of literature at MK spoke with Vodolazkin not only about his books, human memory as their “main character,” but also about the abolition of Russian culture abroad, philological education that hinders writers, and about God, who sometimes talks to geniuses directly.
— Evgeniy Germanovich, when you learned about reaching the finals of the “Big Book”, did you see a crystal thing with your name in front of your eyes? Did you internally understand that you would take one of the prizes?
— Let’s just say: I didn’t rule it out. But I could not predict the decision of the Literary Academy, consisting of more than a hundred people. Moreover, since the last time I was on the shortlist, its composition has changed a lot. Generally speaking, in cases where nothing depends on me, I, according to Carlson’s precepts, try to remain calm.
— Remember the movie “Lucy”, which conveys the myth that a person does not use 90% of the brain? Does your Chagin, who can remember any amount of text in seconds, use more than the average 10%? Why is the theme of memory and recollection so important to you and is there anything in common between you and your hero?
— It’s difficult for me to answer the question about percentages right away. If you want, I will say: 75%. Here, unlike the decision of the academicians, I am the complete master. Memory is important because it is our everything, since it determines personality. True, cases of complete memory loss are rare. Even when sometimes in old age people erase a lot from their memory, this does not mean complete oblivion. The memory just moves somewhere – for example, from the head to the heart. A person does not remember specific things and events, but unmistakably determines where good is and where evil is. This is memory freed from knowledge. In comparison with the heroes of my other novels, the resemblance of “Chagin” to me is minimal. It consists only in the fact that my heroes, like me, love Totma.
— H.G. Wells wrote that memory is time travel “at minimum,” to use modern slang. Formulate your idea of the existence of a person’s past and future, how do they relate to the present, do they hinder or help?
– I will refer to one monk described in the novel “Brisbane”. This person says that the past is real, but doubtful: it has the ability to become deformed or, say, fade – like an old photograph, when a person, looking at it, no longer understands whether he is standing there. The future is generally a fiction. It doesn’t exist as such. The future exists in our imagination and comes to us as the present, but completely different from how we imagined it. What remains is the present. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about the past and future—they provide context. But first of all, you need to take care of the present.
— Prose writer and literary critic Pavel Basinsky saw an antithesis in a pair of novels “Aviator” – “Chagin”: in the first the key character “does not remember anything”, in the second “he remembers everything.” Are these two novels a duology?
– I think, yes. These are attempts to light the same cigar from different angles. Too much memory is little better than no memory. It has long been known that the best is in the middle. That’s why it’s golden. It’s hot at the equator, cold at the pole. It is better to live in a temperate climate. In general, I would say that moderation is a great blessing.
— You worked under the supervision of Academician Dmitry Likhachev and were engaged in serious research. In general, does studying the humanities help you become a writer? Is a good writer necessarily a philologist?
– Not necessary. Sometimes it seems to me that philological education in writing can be harmful – if a person, for example, learns to write smoothly and mistakes his smooth writing for prose. There are people who can kick a soccer ball without putting it on the ground for as long as they want. None of them became good football players. That is, a good football player can learn such things if he wants, but he doesn’t need it. He must be able to dribble past an opponent, shoot on goal, and pass. And the main thing is to strive to score a goal. A ball juggler has no such qualities. You can write ornamental prose, but if there is no electric field above it, then it is not literature.
— Sasha Nikolaenko received the “Yasnaya Polyana” award, you received the “Big Book”. The question is naive, but do premium institutions create a kind of “hierarchy” within modern Russian literature?
— I think that at a certain, good level, hierarchies do not exist. Not to say that there are many such writers, but they exist, and each of them knows something that the others cannot. Which is better – violin or horn? They are different and good in their own way. Of course, it is human nature to build hierarchies. Because it’s easier this way. Each culture has its own national genius – a kind of attempt to build a vertical of spiritual power. But culture is a special sphere. There everyone has a direct telephone to the top and talks to the sky. As the unforgettable Alexander Galich sang: “Good morning, Bach,” says God. “Good morning, God,” says Bach.”
— You were received very well in the West: you were included in prestigious rankings, researched and translated. Has this process slowed down now? Were there any refusals from foreign publishing houses or Slavists? Does the political situation influence authors who are far from politics? “Cancel Russian culture” – if you consider it a reality – does it affect everyone or is it selective?
— I would not overestimate our popularity abroad even before the sanctions. I have not heard that the situation in the field of literature has changed radically after the introduction of sanctions. As for me, those of my books that were planned for publication were published: in the USA, Spain, France, Romania and so on. I wouldn’t say that the tone of reviews in major publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, has changed either. Perhaps because after the first strange cases of “cancel culture” everyone realized that it is impossible to cancel culture.
— Is your Chagin, whom the Soviet secret services forced to become an “informer” who betrays his friends, a version of Raskolnikov from Vodolazkin? I thought so, because in the text there is Vera, to whom he confesses everything – quite a reference to Sonya Marmeladova, in whose face the murderer in Dostoevsky repents.
“Crime and Punishment” is a very important text. And in “Aviator” I have a direct reference to him. But, fortunately, the St. Petersburg text also contains many other plots that are not related to the murder of old women. Vera in Chagin, unlike Sonechka Marmeladova, accepts the hero’s repentance only at the very end of his life. Understanding comes to her quite late – but it comes, which is important.
Remembering the Gospel parable (which is read during the Easter service – I.V.), we can say that there are also workers of the eleventh, last hour, and they receive a reward. And the conclusion is this: as long as you live, it’s never too late.
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