Dematerialization

What a shame that I talked about presuppositions last time! Here is just such a wonderful example. In some crime TV show, the plot is about a conflict that flared up between neighbors. The reason for the conflict: a certain lady terrorized the entire entrance by the fact that her scary dogs constantly walk without a muzzle. They show neighbors vying with each other to complain about the dog owner, and in response she yells something implausible. And then she temperamentally declares: “I never lie, even though I was in the party for 30 years!”

But today I'm talking about something else. I was here on the program “School of Scandal” with Tatyana Tolstoy and Avdotya Smirnova. Naturally, we talked about the Russian language. The conversation was very interesting for me, and - as after any interesting conversation - I want to finish something, to finish arguing. In particular, we talked about the buzzword project. Indeed, lately there have been nothing but projects all around. Independent theater project. National project "Health". Auto-inform.rf project blog on blogspot. The Khakass delegation took part in the IX Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, where they presented the pilot project “Development of the Abakan-Montenegrin agglomeration.”

In accordance with the draft (Sic!) of new educational standards, “independent project” seems to have been included in the short list of compulsory subjects - along with life safety (basics of life safety), but unlike the Russian language. A whole generation of junior schoolchildren has grown up and is sure that the word project means “report with presentation.” And so Avdotya Smirnova said that for her and her fellow filmmakers, the word project instead of script or film is a reflection of the fragility and uncertainty of current existence. Like, you start some kind of work, and it’s unclear whether it will happen or not, and it’s scary to name it correctly - whether it’s a script or a film. Suddenly it breaks. And the project - well, that’s almost nothing, you don’t have to be afraid of jinxing it.

I also have some thoughts about this word. It seems to me that two important changes have happened to him over the past twenty years. Firstly, it has largely lost its prospectivity - its focus on the future. Initially, a project is a certain idea, a long-term plan. Something that has yet to be accomplished. Now they say I am working on several projects, the Project started a month ago and even the Project is completed or closed. I think the spread of this use was facilitated by the grant system of financing in science, art, and social activities. A person submits an application for a competition to finance scientific research, a radio broadcast, an artistic event, or some socially useful idea. In the application he outlines his project. The project has a name and number. Next comes a competition of projects. But now a person receives money and carries out his plans. Continuing to call it a project.

And one more very important thing. plan , which are similar in meaning Above I mentioned the words plan and . Meanwhile, they are all slightly different in meaning. A concept always presupposes some kind of creative idea, a general concept of something, but usually not developed in too much detail. special What makes the plan is its emphasis on temporary deployment. First this, then that. These may even be unrelated actions. And against this background, the peculiarity of the project - the project that was before - is that here the design, the structure, is in the foreground. There may be a bridge project, but not a novel project. 2The novel has a plan. There may be a reform project and a reform plan. But the reform project expresses its essence, and the plan is a breakdown into stages. Project is an engineering word in a broad sense. Was. This is where we come to the second change. They began to talk about projects in relation to cinema, literature, theater - or anything. They began to say: This does not fit into my life project. Apparently, our life and our language somehow lacked such cheerful constructiveness and optimistic efficiency. Project is a word for a successful person aimed at social recognition.

In this new use of the word project, it seems to me that its substantial indeterminacy is very important. I have a new project - what is it, exactly? Who knows. It is important that a person has conceived something, and now it is being implemented. There is another buzzword that is very similar in this regard to project. It is not so striking, but in some sense no less characteristic. This is the word platform. They provide us with a platform. What is this they provide? Maybe the bookstore allowed to set up a table where the author will sign books that readers buy in advance (autograph session). Maybe the institute provided its conference room to a public organization for a meeting. Perhaps this is a clearing in the forest, convenient for a sports, fitness or team building event. Maybe the party is looking for a suitable area for a rally. Otherwise, maybe we are talking about a website that is ready to hang something like that on its site. That is, a site is a place on which something can be placed, no matter whether it is real or virtual. Pure function. The place for…

Perhaps we can mention one more word on the same topic. This is the word position, which is now used very widely. For example, order five items - that is, five items from the list. Or there is also a position in the sense of “vacancy, position”.

In general, for the project they found a site and recruited people, but two positions are still free... Where, what will they do? Who are these people, finally? Unknown. It seems to me that here one can very clearly see, I would say, a managerial view of life: it doesn’t matter what, for whom, why - it’s important to organize everything correctly. Effective. Of course, the very presence of words with very abstract meanings is not at all new for the Russian language. But the fact that such words related to the organization of activities are so rapidly coming into fashion is, as they now say, a trend. A person has become more mobile, less attached to the material details of his work. And he can look not only at work, but also at life itself as an ambitious project.

Irina Levontina