Sergey Kuznetsov. NasNet: issue 31

NasNet: issue 31
Sergey Kuznetsov

Publication date: January 18, 2001

Project: nineties

(More details about the project - here )

Keywords: drugs, death, cinema

One day, film critic Kulikov came to visit his colleague Zhuravleva . As usual, he brought herbs with him. They put on their favorite Jim Jarmusch film , Dead Man, and started smoking. The hostess had just returned from some festival today and therefore felt tired. She had already begun to fall asleep a little when she heard Kulikov’s excited voice:

- I just saw a dog in that corner!

- Which one? - asked the hostess.

Kulikov began to describe, and she realized that he was describing her dog, who died five years ago. She never showed Kulikov her photographs and did not even talk about her. There was nothing left but to assume that Kulikov saw a ghost.

You can see a lot under the grass - but this story really becomes interesting when one of Kulikov and Zhuravleva’s colleagues realized what really happened that evening.

- He saw not just a dog! It was a ghost dog !

Someone - either Chernov or Belov - did not fail to notice that Kulikov had been standing on the path of the samurai for a long time .

* * *

An attentive reader might have pointed out to me that Jim Jarmusch's film " Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai " (the follow-up to "Dead Man") was released in Russia only in 2000 and therefore this story can hardly relate to the 90s. The reader is, of course, right - and here I must explain what is included in the “Nineties” project.

If you asked me about the 90s, I would say 1991-1998. The main elements of the cultural landscape of these years were the abundance of psychedelic drugs, controversy around the ideas of National Bolshevism , the flourishing of rave culture, the further actualization of the issue of money (including the subculture of the New Russians ), the emergence of the Internet, and so on. All these things did not disappear after 1998 - but their novelty was dulled and they no longer define that very landscape . But that doesn't preclude a lot of people from continuing to embrace '90s fashion - just as their parents tried to extend the '60s for another two decades. The stories that happen to them are still the stories of the 90s, and only in a few years will we understand that what is happening now expresses the spirit of the 2000s.

I deliberately do not want to think that the spirit of the 2000s will consist precisely in an attempt to prolong the spirit of the 90s - just as the spirit of the Russian 70s was largely determined by an attempt, overcoming the trauma of 1968, to prolong the 60s. e beyond their chronological framework.

As always, I look forward to your stories about the 90s.

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Self-advertisement

While the New Year holidays were underway, Weekend.ru little by little recovered from the design change and started working. And therefore, several links to those of my articles that are more worthy of attention than others.

"Society" by Brian Yuzna. Before Yuzna, no one had ever been able to so convincingly show the lust experienced by non-humans.

"The Pen of the Marquis de Sade" by Phil Kaufman. The stupid name was invented by Russian distributors. In the original - simply Quills . My companion turned out to be a local sadomasochist. The hall was about a third filled with her acquaintances in leather, chains and other jewelry. The remaining two-thirds of the audience were ordinary citizens, which this time included me.

"Shower" by Jan Jan. You involuntarily begin to hope: in “Soul” Jan Jan is washed with soap made in “Fight Club”.

"Cast Away" by Robert Zemeckis. in the Russian Journal . I would organize a vote

Now I kind of write the “Faces of Love” diary every day . The full - and apparently unchanged - schedule is here .

All this is on Weekend.ru (by the way, at the end of each article there is a button to post a review; don’t be lazy, write). And here is an article that you can view without leaving this server: my debut in the “Reading Circle” section, an article about the untranslated American novel “Valencia” - from the life of Californian lesbians. The book under review was given to me by a San Francisco friend, with whom the following story is indirectly connected.

Miniaturization, or Why is NASDAQ falling?

Because - miniaturization. Reduction to formula. Hieroglyph. Sign. These computer ones...what's their name. Well, when everything is the brain. The smaller, the larger the brain. Made from silicone

(Joseph Brodsky. "Marble").

With the friend mentioned in the previous paragraph, we once discussed the cultural consequences of miniaturization. As a feminist theorist, she has put forward an excellent theory.

But before moving on to its presentation, I would like to recall that in various versions of theoretical psychoanalysis - starting at least from Lacan - much attention is paid to the phallus, that is, the penis in its symbolic dimension. Men, when competing in any field, are really just trying to prove to each other whose phallus is longer and bigger. I repeat, we are talking about the penis as a metaphor, and not about a real sexual organ. More money, more women, more articles written and positive reviews are all forms of the same thing. What do we need Lacan for? Here, the insightful Dovlatov wrote, even using the same little-used word with the letter “f”:

Every animal has sexual characteristics. (This is in addition to the organs.) Male fish have some kind of scales on their belly. Insects have color details. Monkeys have monstrous calluses on their butts. For example, a rooster has a tail. So you look closely at the men around you - where is your tail? And you can easily spot this tail. For one, it's money. The other has humor. The third has courtesy, tact. The fourth has a pleasant appearance. The fifth has a soul. And only the most carefree have a simple phallus. Member as such

( "Solo na underwoode" ).

Due to the above, it is believed that the fixation of European culture on quantity and the idea of ​​“the more, the better” is the result of phallocentrism, that is, the primacy of the masculine principle. And therefore, my friend developed the theory, the moment when people began to compete over who had the smaller mobile phone was a turning point in the history of culture. Because the “more is better” attitude has been undermined. And she, as a feminist and lesbian, cannot but rejoice at this.

The conversation took place in the Mission district of San Francisco, where these girls hang out. It must be said that only in San Francisco did the “pink” culture manage to create a real reserve for itself. Already upon my arrival in Moscow, another friend of mine, Katya Virgilesova, suggested that San Francisco became such a place not by chance: Silicon Valley is nearby - and therefore miniaturization, and therefore the overthrow of phallocentrism with its “the more, the better” .

But how much does high-tech really attack this principle? Size, yes, size matters - but what about clock speed? It's still the same - the bigger the better! Again, all sorts of memory cards, hard drive capacities, and so on. Until recently, three things have been steadily decreasing: component prices and device sizes. But recently, another parameter related to high-tech has also begun to rapidly decrease. This is the notorious NASDAQ index. And no wonder - he called himself a milk mushroom, climb into the back. If you already said: “The less, the better,” then you have nowhere to escape from this.

So, maybe to hell with phallocentrism, let it grow, NASDAQ?

Impression

N.Zyrlin sent a story entitled “The most Slavic nationality is North American”:

I am looking for an apartment for a Canadian friend of mine who, for some unknown reason, has moved to Moscow for temporary residence. I call based on newspaper advertisements, including those that contain politically incorrect notes: “except for persons of Caucasian nationality,” “only for persons of Slavic nationality,” or “only for Russians.” However, when the interlocutor finds out that an apartment is needed for a Canadian citizen, the response every time is the most enthusiastic: immediately and only to us! The question that raises some concern is whether I am an intermediary. No, I say, I’m not an intermediary, I help completely free of charge, because she doesn’t speak Russian at all. It’s okay, they answer, we can do it in English!

This is the time to quote Misha Verbitsky’s favorite poem by Prokhanov “Don’t tell us that we are fascists” (the original is here, but I like it better here : firstly, because there is a beautiful picture at the top, and secondly, because it is followed by no less beautiful article by A. Timofeevsky).

And now we are waiting for your new aesthetic impressions.

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