Having finished my latest Pelevin novel, Generation «П» (1999), I’m simultaneously amused and a bit disappointed — I’m glad I read it, mind you, but it signals what from my point of view is a descent from a generalized mystico-sociopolitical madness grounded in history (Russian and Soviet) to a ripped-from-the-headlines version that made him even more popular at the time and that he has continued ever since. I’ll let Mark Lipovetsky provide a general description (from his chapter “Postmodernist Novel” in Russian Literature since 1991
When Generation “P” (translated in English as Homo Zapiens and Babylon) appeared, the majority of Russian critics contemptuously attributed the novel’s unprecedented success to its political relevance — a fantastic version of the 1998 “default” of Russia’s economy and the subsequent resignation of the government – as well as to Pelevin’s recognizable parodies of numerous TV commercials. It was the first of Pelevin’s novels in which the writer displayed his unique sensibility to the “political unconscious” of the given moment and his ability to materialize phantasms hidden in political rhetoric by captivating and grotesque plots and images. However, what initially seemed well-packed journalism, is today almost universally acknowledged as one of the most impressive snapshots of, if not monuments to, the first post-Soviet decade.
Furthermore, when rereading Pelevin’s novel today, one cannot fail to notice its prognostic aspect. Even on a surface level, the novel presents a shrewd political forecast for the 2000s. In Generation “P,” a graduate from the Literary Institute trained to translate poetry from languages he does not know, a character without features but with a “pile of cynicism,” Vavilen Tatarsky, a virtual non-entity and pawn on the chessboard of invisible mighty players, becomes a copywriter, first for commercial then subsequently political advertisements, and as a result rises to the position of the supreme ruler of the media space, the living god and head of the ancient Guild of Chaldeans secretly ruling post-Soviet Russia.
Lipovetsky goes on to analyze the mythological and political aspects, which don’t interest me very much (not to mention that the politicians and businessmen of the day have long been forgotten); what does, and what kept me reading with pleasure, is Pelevin’s unquenchable linguistic humor, which keeps coming up with gems like these:
Эти агентства множились неудержимо — как грибы после дождя или, как Татарский написал в одной концепции, гробы после вождя. ‘These agencies multiplied irrepressibly — like mushrooms after rain, or, as Tatarsky wrote in a conception [i.e., outline/plan for an ad — I don’t know what this would be in English], like graves after the Leader [i.e., Stalin; he changes griby posle dozhdya to groby posle vozhdya].’
МАЛ, ДА УД АЛ [a slogan for a condom] ‘SMALL, BUT THE PENIS IS RED’ [a slight deformation of the saying мал, да удал ‘small but bold’ — i.e., don’t judge a person by outward appearance]
Седера Луминоса [a play on Сендеро Луминосо ‘Sendero Luminoso’]
кока-колготки, кока-колбаски, кока-колымские рассказы ‘Coca-pantyhose [kolgotki], Coca-sausages [kolbaski], Coca-Kolyma stories’
Mercedes is transformed into Merdeses (to get merde) and then Merde-SS
«Богоносец Потемкин» [ship name Godcarrier Potemkin, with богоносец ‘God-carrier, bearer of a religious mission’ a play on броненосец ‘battleship’]
That’s just a random sampling; he tosses them off the way Mozart tossed off tunes. The ads are also hilarious even if you don’t know the originals he’s riffing off, and I loved the bit where Tatarsky calls a friend late at night because he’s having a bad acid trip — the friend gives him a mantra to repeat, Ом мелафефон бва кха ша [Om melafefon bva kkha sha], which he later admits is a slight alteration of the Hebrew phrase od melafefon bevakasha ‘more cucumber, please’ (which is especially amusing because the friend urges him to repeat it while drinking vodka, cucumber being a traditional zakuska). Pelevin’s obsession with drugs (especially hallucinogenic), organized crime (and its jargon), and Buddhism (in what I’m guessing is a very idiosyncratic version) can become wearying, but I never get tired of his jokes. (Incidentally, the name Vavilen is derived from Vasily Aksyonov + Vladimir Ilich Lenin, which is a good joke in itself; it also sounds like Vavilon ‘Babylon,’ which winds up being a reason he gets elevated to godlike status.) Of course, most of the jokes will be lost in translation, but it’s a fun read anyway. Oh, and the “P” in the title stands for Pepsi… but of course we can’t help but think of Pelevin as well.
Just to specify that богоносец isn’t just any old God-bearer: it’s a standard attribute of and substitute for the (genuine, true, unspoiled, etc.) Russian people in the Slavophilic discourse.
^ Wow, that’s almost like British Israelism.
(Or Austria’s national anthem, LOL.)
I thought Generation ‘P’ was entertaining enough, but not up to the mark. Maybe it is better in perspective. I didn’t reread it since late 90s, but Pelevin’s puns always felt to me somewhat simplistic. And his main parody, stretched over the whole book, is of the song “What is autumn?”. Parody is OK, but the song is really good, and maybe easier to appreciate now more than in the days when, as Russians say, it was blasting out of every iron.
Ом мелафефон бва кха ша
I sort of half-remember a joke (or maybe it was a scene in a movie) in which a seriously drunken person demands “one more glass and a cu-cum-ber” (еще стакан и о-гу-рец)
Also cf. the popular Brezhnev’s nickname бровеносец в потемках (eyebrow-carrier in the dark): dear Leonid Ilych was famous for his bushy eyebrows and (in his later years at least) his foggy mind.
Just to specify that богоносец isn’t just any old God-bearer: it’s a standard attribute of and substitute for the (genuine, true, unspoiled, etc.) Russian people in the Slavophilic discourse.
Yes, I’m glad you pointed that out.
Pelevin’s puns always felt to me somewhat simplistic.
I guess they are, but I have a simple mind!
I like The Yellow Arrow and the Prince of GOSPLAN better — or maybe equally.
I do too, and Hermit and Six-Toes as well (post). He started out great and slowly declined.
That was a gaping chasm in my general education.
The Russian-language film of the book, “Generation P” with English subtitles, is available free on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpAdOi1Vo5s
I’m not sure how many of the puns are retained, but I do remember that a bunch of the advertising guys were sitting around thinking up slogans, and one fellow suggested that the motto for their advertising agency should be “Man is a Wow to man”, a play on the Russian word for wolf. I thought it was pretty funny at the time.
the song is really good, and maybe easier to appreciate now more than in the days when, as Russians say, it was blasting out of every iron
And, unfortunately, it’s still topical…
You don’t say. The phrase that I cannot get out of my head for the last few days is “The fate of Russian liberal is to expectantly wait for further explanations”.
Maybe it is obvious to all people born Westerners, but I had no idea that Generation Pepsi was an American thing as well. (The title of the book is a riff on the slogan “New generation chooses Pepsi”)
So you’re identifying yourself as something opposed to a “westerner”? What does that entail?
I was born and raised East of the Berlin wall.
As Андрей Германов said: Омразата не само подхранва злото у тия, които мразим. Омразата изпепелява онзи, който мрази. EDIT I can translate that for you, if you would like.
ok, I just heard Bill Bailey say he wants to see ET chased on a horse, by Darth Vader. I just wanted to share.
@V
GT:
Hatred not only feeds evil on those we hate. Hatred incinerates those who hate.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s in North America, the song “Come alive … you’re in the Pepsi generation!” was ubiquitous. And recorded by an amazing number of famous performers.
And speaking as someone who lived through it, it’s totally meaningless. The Ur-exemplar of ad-babble. OK, maybe there was a generation, but it certainly was never defined by consumption of a fizzy sugar drink.
That said, there was, in an earlier time, a political dimension to soft drink marketing. Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, was closely associated with the old-school Southern power structure. In terms of things like who would get to operate a bottling plant and so on.
Pepsi (and other upstarts) targeted the African-American market and other minorities.
But I think those things were well in the past by the time of “the Pepsi generation” and “I’d like to teach the world to sing”.
Strange to think how those memes managed to leak across the Iron Curtain…
maidhc: Back in the 1960s and 1970s in North America, the song “Come alive … you’re in the Pepsi generation!” was ubiquitous. And recorded by an amazing number of famous performers. […] Strange to think how those memes managed to leak across the Iron Curtain…
I distinctly remember “The choice of a new generation” as the Pepsi slogan from the late eighties, with TV ads featuring Tina Turner.
Edit: And Michael Jackson on the top of his career. How could I forget that?
@maidhc: “Strange to think how those memes managed to leak across the Iron Curtain…”
Generation P is about the 1990s, when Pepsi was trying to shield its market share in the former Soviet Union from newcomers like Coca-Cola. As you probably know, Pepsi managed to sneak into the USSR in the 1970s: under its supervision, the Soviets built a dozen Pepsi production facilities across the country. In the early 1990s, as post-Soviet countries and markets opened up to the world, the brand started feeling a little passé there. Pepsi then launched a self-rejuvenation campaign in Russia, reusing its old American slogan, this time as “the new generation chooses Pepsi.”
There is or was a thing about the big two cola companies carving up the world: Québec—Pepsi, the rest of Canada—Coke; West Bank, Pepsi—Israel, Coke.
The funny thing is, as a countermove Coca-Cola later established itself in Bulgaria. The first Coca-Cola I had was Bulgarian produced, before the fall of the wall, and the label was in Bulgarian. EDIT: it’s especially funny because of the whole Russian “American soldiers getting drunk on Coca-cola” thing. Well not especially funny considering the corporation’s practices, but still a bit funny. EDIT2: Actually when was the “American soldiers getting drunk on Coca-cola” thing? Might have been a thing Pepsi came up with.
This 2001 Superbowl commercial features Britney Spears recreating a whole bunch of Pepsi marketing jingles from the twentieth century.
“American soldiers getting drunk on Coca-Cola” was a joke in the ’80s, based (purportedly) on some Soviet newspaper article.
Ты продаешь врагам Анголу
Купив и выпив Пепси-Колу
Apparently Google knows nothing about it. Huh?
You sell the enemy Angola, and buy and drink Pepsi-cola?
You sell the enemy Angola, and buy and drink Pepsi-cola?
Almost. Купив и выпив are past tense active verbal adverbs, meaning “having bought and drunk”.
So it’s analogous to Bulgarian “(бидейки) купил и изпил (Пепси-колата)”.