Kushner's precepts are true

“Znamya” again released a “not like that” issue

For the third time, the editors of Znamya magazine are organizing the November issue according to a special recipe. I remember a wonderful poem by Alexander Kushner. I would walk on my hands, / So that everyone would say “Oh!” / I would eat grass and moss, / So that everyone would say “Oh!” Two years ago, the magazine launched a “small stage” on which texts appeared that allegedly did not fit into the usual format. Last year the issue was dedicated to non-fiction literature. An intellectual discussion at the book fair of the same name was devoted to that project and the grandiose prospects of non-fiction literature in general. A similar debate will take place on the same site tomorrow at noon - this time the subject will be “Ultra-fiction, or the Fantastic Possibilities of Russian Literature.” This is the title of Natalya Ivanova’s article under the avanti heading, memorable from last year.

Pure Kushner! I would put on my trousers, hat and coat inside out/ And go to the Fontanka,/ So that everyone would cry out: “Who?!/ Who is this terrible?/ Infinitely ugly?/ Who is this dangerous?/ Who is he? Where is his family?/ Hey, hold his paw!/ Yes, grab him!”/ I would take off my coat and hat/ And say: “It’s me.” Who else?

A year ago there was Ivanova’s manifesto and Sergei Chuprinin’s notes classifying “not that kind” of literature in alphabetical order - and now they exist. A year ago, Anatoly Korolev embodied non-fictionality - now the equally mannered and banal “Collection of Ashes” marks the triumph of ultra-fictionality. A year ago, Timur Kibirov's poems were attached to the project with white threads - now this fate has befallen Alexander Levin. A year ago they flaunted unvarnished “evidence”, now - homemade fables and ironic horror stories (“The Last Reader” by Oleg Khafizov is funnier, “Apocalypse Ku” by Vasily Golovanov is more boring). And good luck, as before, there is an excerpt from Marina Vishnevetskaya’s poetic fairy-tale novel “Heavenly Sword” (the continuation of “Koshchei and Yagda”). As for “Phoenix Syndrome” by Alexei Slapovsky, it’s worth talking about it after the publication is completed. However, even now it is clear: this novel is ultra-fictional to the same extent as “The Man with No Name” by Nikolai Verevochkin or “The Devil” by Natalya Smirnova, published, however, in the usual November issues of “Friendship of Peoples” and “New World”.

Well, free will. I fell in love with Kushner’s hero about twenty-five years ago. And my feelings are unchanged.

Andrey NEMZER