Pavel Basinsky: “I’m not a Tolstoyan, I eat meat”

And since this trio consisted exclusively of men (also a trend?), Basinsky made a woman the heroine of his book, the interview turned out to be gender, post-premium and a little New Year’s Eve, because at the end of December you always want to look into the future.

– Pavel Valerievich, answering my “tricky” question about why all three winners of the “Big Book” in 2022 turned out to be men, you said that now the triumph of women is already in literature. And most of the readers are women. It is clear that it is half a joke, but what are the arguments in favor of “women’s dominance”? And is it only in the West or in our country too? In Russia, it turns out that men should demand gender equality?

– There was no joke. Not just the majority of readers are women, but about ninety percent. I realized this a long time ago, ten years ago. Of course, I’m not a public opinion polling center, but I see who comes to writers’ talks in any city in Russia, and I travel a lot around the country giving speeches. In the audience always – I emphasize: always! – the ratio of men and women is one to nine. But I do not write “women’s prose”. Only one of my novels was called “Love Fiction”, and it was more of a parody of “romance novels”. But this does not mean that there is a dominance of women in Russia. Look at the gender composition of, for example, the richest people in the country. The proportion will be strictly inverse. And the fact that women read more than men only speaks in favor of their intellectual development, and we men should be ashamed of it. And I’m not kidding again.

– In 2022, a set of BK prizes went to the authors of three non-fiction books. On this occasion, there were exclamations: they say, we have come the moment of the triumph of this genre. But I considered this a manifestation of self-censorship, when it is easier for the organizers of any premium institution to protect themselves from criticism of political bias (from each side), by awarding the authors of “neutral” works from the point of view of the agenda. Is this assumption fair – or did the expert cards just lay down like that?

– Excuse me, you have a common belief that someone somehow “organizes” the awards and gives them to the “correct” authors from the point of view of political or any other conjuncture. This is an erroneous opinion of people who have never worked in award juries. It all depends on the opinions and tastes of individual members of the jury, and they are almost always different, even if the jury works in the same composition for several years in a row. There are more than a hundred people on the BK jury, if I’m not mistaken. These are writers, critics, philologists, teachers, businessmen, and public figures. Each of them has his own idea of ​​literature. Yes, they can be influenced by fashion, even some political views that are currently triumphant in society. But first and foremost, they are readers. They are either interested in reading a book or they are not. And the fact that two biographies and a book about the most famous novel in the world won this year shows that they were just interested in reading it. There are a lot of fiction novels coming out now. There are far fewer biographies. There are practically no new studies of Anna Karenina. That’s how, I think, the jury’s assessments were formed. But to be honest, I’m sorry that fiction lost this year. Dmitry Danilov, Anna Matveeva, Oleg Ermakov, Afanasy Mamedov have excellent novels! And if they won, I would not consider myself offended.

– As a literary critic, you are a convinced Tolstoyan. Why exactly Lev Nikolaevich? We remember the colorful story about Nabokov, who opened the windows of a darkened auditorium for students to show the scale of the classic. (Screaming “It’s Tolstoy!” as the audience was flooded with bright light.) Do you also consider Tolstoy the greatest author of Russian literature?

“Tolstoy is something else, after all. I’m not a fat man. I eat meat, I do not deny the Church and the State, I do not live on my piece of land, which I cultivate myself. From Tolstoy’s point of view, I generally live incorrectly. But the fact that Tolstoy is the main prose writer not only in Russia, but also in the world, is obvious. Say in any country in the world: “Writer.” You will be answered: Tolstoy. Well, or Dostoevsky. And the fact that Anna Karenina is the world’s best novel is not only my or Nabokov’s opinion. Faulkner, Proust, Virginia Woolf, and so on down the list.

Is the “true” story of Anna Karenina a clickbait, or did you really manage to reconstruct the personality of the heroine of the novel? Again, a philological thing comes to mind, but there is Pushkin’s Tatyana, “jumping into marriage” against the will of Alexander Sergeevich, and Anna, continuing in the texts of the 21st century. What did you see as the purpose of your book? Define its genre.

It is difficult for me to define the genre of my book. I spoke about this in my speech at the ceremony. This is not criticism, not literary criticism, and certainly not a “novel”. This is simply an expression of my great, many years of love for Anna Karenina, for the characters of this novel and, of course, for its author. I kind of take my reader by the hand and say: “Let’s go through this amazing book! I think I can tell you a lot of interesting things about her. But I would like to hear from you too.

– In 2010, you received a “BK” for the book “Leo Tolstoy: Escape from Paradise.” Is the repetition of the situation in 2022 an accident or a pattern? Inwardly, did you feel that you were moving along a knurled track, or are these two completely different things?

The first book is a biography. If you like, the true story of Tolstoy’s departure from Yasnaya Polyana. But this book is completely different. This is an attempt to tell what is actually happening in the novel and what many do not notice, although it seems to be on the surface.

– You became the hero of the books by Pelevin and Sorokin and entered them into your own book context. Was there something similar in the classic books, or is it a trend of our century (they say that it has become widespread almost at the suggestion of Viktor Olegovich)?

– What are you doing! Viktor Olegovich is not a pioneer here at all. Dostoevsky had Karmazinov, a parody of Turgenev. In Nabokov’s The Gift, the poet Koncheev is Khodasevich. In War and Peace, Vasily Denisov is the poet and hero of the war of 1812, Denis Davydov. Many examples can be given. And the fact that the writer displays criticism in his novel is not news either. The critic Latunsky in The Master and Margarita is a collective image of all Bulgakov’s detractors. As for my answer to Pelevin in my novel… There is not only Victor Sornyakov there. There are also writers Sidor Dorofeev and Tusklevich. I will not disclose who it is, but perhaps the readers of “MK” will guess for themselves.

Which of your books do you consider the most important? What genre dominates in your work? Are you a religious writer? In 2022, for obvious reasons, it has become fashionable to talk about the fate of Russian culture and Russian literature in particular. Is it time for these topics?

– For any writer, the main book is the one that came out last, or, as they say now, the last one. For me, this is the “True story …” Then there will be another. I am a religious person, not an atheist for sure. But I’m not a religious writer. Just a writer.

— How do you write? Do you live according to Olesha’s testament, not allowing a single day without a line? Or is creativity for you a naive, impulsive process? I wake up, open my laptop and write – this is how your working day looks like?

– I’m a classic lark. I get up early and work in the morning. Then I start living. “Not a day without a line” is too much! But I try to work methodically, almost every day. I also work for Rossiyskaya Gazeta as an observer and columnist. Once a week, on Mondays, my column “Play on Words” comes out.

– Now everything is moving towards the fact that writing in Russia will again become a profession. Do you think that the state can feed writers disinterestedly? In general, what attitude should be guided by – reach out to the party, be part of the literary process or a team – or exist according to Pushkin’s testament: “you are the king – live alone.”

“I am not a king and I do not live alone. I need friends, including literary ones. But he was never drawn to parties. I feel hard at various presentations and receptions, I go there only if my acquaintances writers present their new books. And it is better to drink and eat in a narrow circle of just friends.

– New Years is soon. If you were instructed to speak to the Russians instead of the president, what would you say? Or this option: imagine that you can make a wish with 100% fulfillment. Your choice?

I don’t think I’ll say anything special. I want there to be peace, so that people do not kill each other, so that there are fewer poor people, so that the rich are not so greedy, so that they steal less and share more. So that children – all children – do not get sick and suffer. So that the elderly do not feel superfluous on Earth. That’s all. Doesn’t seem like much?