1. Wake up. 2. Reread. 3. Understand modernity.
1. Wake up. Many of us, when in contact with Russian classics, plunge into an indifferent and respectful slumber (only 9% of readers in Russia love classics, for comparison: female detectives – 24%*). It is possible that it will be even worse in the future, because the heroes of Pushkin or Chekhov are moving further and further into the vague depths of time. The points of contact with the fat man who buys dead souls, or the eccentric in the top hat, exclaiming: “Carriage for me, carriage!” disappear. To slow down this process, Limbus Press published an alternative “textbook”.
2. Reread. Hearing from Sergei Shargunov that Chatsky is the same punk, and Griboyedov’s poems resemble the songs of Yegor Letov, that Oblomov, as Mikhail Shishkin is convinced, is a “great Russian thriller”, and Solzhenitsyn, or simply Solzh, as Alexander Terekhov calls him, under the end of life has turned into a “forgotten physics teacher from Ryazan”, waving a flag in front of the train of rushing Russia, you will want to … That’s right – look into the books of these punks and switchmen.
3. Understand modernity. Although the views of the authors are directed at their heroes, all the same, “everyone writes as he breathes.” And that means that by reading Elena Schwartz’s wise and attentive essay on Tyutchev, whom she calls the “moon crescent of poetry”, we will better understand Schwartz’s poetry. And Olga Slavnikova’s reflections on Nabokov’s language will reveal something to us in her own creative laboratory. After all, readers accustomed to boiled chicken from the school cafeteria will have a stunningly fresh taste experience thanks to The Matrix.
“Literary Matrix. A textbook written by writers. Limbus Press, in 2 volumes, 464 p. and 790 s.
* According to the Levada Center – www.levada.ru