In the new novel by Viktor Pelevin, published by the Eksmo publishing house almost on the anniversary of the writer (November 22, the writer will turn 60 years old), a confusing story is told, conditionally divided into two unequal parts.
Fans of the writer's work will quickly realize that the protagonist of KGBT + is Sasaki-san, a character from the novel "Duel" from last year's book Transhumanism Inc.
Thus, the setting of the new work remains common for five books by the author - the events of Empire V, Batman Apollo and iPhuck 10 take place in the same universe.
Pelevin is a unique phenomenon for modern Russian literature.
The works of this author are either loved and are looking forward to each new book, or most often hated because of a lack of understanding of the material and the underlying ideas.
Because reading it “just like that” to kill time or get distracted, most likely, will not work.
The genre component in the new work of the author is also difficult and not easy to classify - philosophy, elements of Buddhism, esotericism, transhumanism, cyberpunk, science and social fiction are mixed here, and all this vinaigrette is seasoned with an incredible amount of post-irony and gloomy humor, typical for most works Pelevin.
So, the plot of KGBT+ continues the “Duel” line from the book Thanshumanism Inc., but despite the general setting, the approach to telling the story in the new novel is different - more traditional, with one main character and a description of his formation in a rather strange world.
While Pelevin's previous work was like a patchwork quilt of many stories that gradually formed into one, but in this one, first the second bottom, then the third was guessed ... And so almost to infinity, from where the masters of this absurd world - vampires - bared their teeth .
The first part of KGBT+, which takes place at the beginning of the 20th century, examines the human essence and the meaning of existence through the prism of Buddhism.
In it, the hero meets a Buddhist monk, who turned out to be the reincarnation of an ancient sage, and discovers the truth for himself - in the form that he can realize.
As a result, he fully remembers himself and his past lives, being already a disembodied brain "in a jar" - that is, in fact, an immortal being in a circle of those like him.
The society of "jars" has a hierarchy and is divided into conditional castes, depending on the size of the individual's accounts.
Sasaki-san, who has become an immortal sex toy for influential yakuza leaders in the form of manga girls, decides to run away and "launches" another rebirth to be born in the Good State - the heir to old Russia.
Over time, the young man discovers the culture of "beaters" - a kind of analogue of modern rappers, adjusted for a cyberpunk setting, and becomes one of the main stars of their community.
KGBT+ formally follows the canons of famous people's autobiographies, while subtly mocking the style of writing books by various "coaches", "gurus" and "trainers".
The retelling of the (evil) adventures of the protagonist in the first person is periodically interrupted by interruptions with his instructions to “young hackers”, and obligatory discussions on the topic of fashion, the relevance of certain topics, many of which are heard right now - these are various “abuses”, hypertrophied feminism and much more.
But it would not be Pelevin if most of the text had not turned into a grotesque predictive parody of modern society, absorbing and emphasizing its negative features, raised to an absolute, and multiplied by the exponential development, the distortion and deterioration of these features over the years before the onset of the future described by the author .
It would be wrong to say that KGBT+ has some kind of separate and pronounced central idea: there are more than enough thoughts and meanings here.
Moreover, each individual reader, like Sasaki-san at the beginning of his journey, will project the described events onto himself, through the prism of his experience, education and spiritual development, and see a completely different picture that does not coincide with what another sees.
What's the point then?
To quote the author, is to “change into clean clothes.
And here everyone has their own vision of the situation, and it depends on where we buy a ticket on the Samsara wheel.