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Девятый сон Веры Павловны
Файл электронной книги подготовлен в Агентстве ФТМ, Лтд., 2013
- GenresFiction
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 12, 2014
About the author
Victor Pelevin
222 books2,009 followersVictor Olegovich Pelevin is a Russian fiction writer. His books usually carry the outward conventions of the science fiction genre, but are used to construct involved, multi-layered postmodernist texts, fusing together elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies. Some critics relate his prose to the New Sincerity and New Realism literary movements.
RU: Виктор Пелевин
RU: Виктор Пелевин
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 1, 2025
In both "The Yellow Arrow" and "The Ninth Dream of Vera Pavlovna," Pelevin restricts his world-building to only a few characters existing within symbolic microcosms.
The restroom and the train both disclose their approximate setting: the fall of Socialism (e.g. “The Perestroika erupted into the public lavatory” [Ninth Dream, p. 36] or “When the communists were still in power” [The Yellow Arrow, p. 26]). However, they simultaneously unfold in timeless vacuums with cyclical features, as if to expand their allegories beyond “Soviet” or “Post-Soviet” and thematize narratives applicable to greater Russian histories. The timelessness of “Ninth Dream” is apparent through the vague time transitions: the characters’ ages are “indeterminate” (Ninth Dream, p. 36), the story rarely follows a chronologically consistent order, and the entire narrative concludes with a meta-textual hallucination.
Moreover, Moscow has always had (and always will have) shit to deal with, both literally and metaphorically. In other words, the Russian/Soviet project has always dealt with systemic and ideological issues underlying its massive empire (including abuse, corruption, lacking infrastructure, and civil mismanagement) that survived from one regime to the next. The “shit” somehow always persisted below different façades (be it the measly socialist restroom or the capitalist store) and, eventually, seeped through to the surface (like the aggressive smell noticed by Vera or her visions of sewage erupting all around the city).
The restroom setting also allows the author to portray invisible individuals living on the fringes. These outsiders (like Ruslan Stupin from ”My Perestroika”) often best illustrate the weaknesses and downfalls of any given society and thus offer perfect material for critique. Additionally, the train setting highlights Pelevin’s countless allusions to the greats of Russian literature, in which the train often serves as a metaphorical element (Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” to name one example).
(NOTE: The writer proudly exhibits his postmodern leanings—not only through author name-drops (Ninth Dream, p. 52) or pop-culture references (The Yellow Arrow, p. 58) but also through meta-textual games and self-referentiality, such as when Andrei reads a novel full of life philosophies, written by a train passenger much like himself.)
On top of admitting inspiration from Russian authors, Pelevin also seems to adopt their style far more than Petrushevskaya. His language offers expressive (though still important) detail, flowering syntax, and poetic passages, often verging on philosophical musings. Furthermore, both of his works feature an omniscient narrator, whose narration shifts freely between internal focalization (e.g. when we experience the world of "The Yellow Arrow" solely through Andrei) and zero focalization (e.g. when we alternate between Vera’s and Manyasha’s points of view in "Ninth Dream," p. 48).
From the very first line, “Vera Pavlovna’s Ninth Dream” sets up the main character's narrative as philosophical: solipsism pervades (and is illustrated by) both Vera and her story. Yet in the same breath, Pelevin presents a certain deconstruction of this philosophical theory. With Manyasha’s assistance, Vera grows to believe she creates her own reality, especially after observing how the mere intentions of an enlightened restroom worker shape the global landscape. But ultimately, either due to a mistake in her framing of perception or the external forces of reality, her illusions (and delusions) soon come crashing down, forcing an existential crisis.
Whether Vera's beliefs are true remains irrelevant. After all, Soviet realism itself was nothing but a fiction that came crashing down, leaving behind a world filled with contradictory absurdities—a world one could better understand through an esoteric lens of persona. Solipsism, then, concerned only with the self, naturally becomes one of the coping mechanisms within Russian reality.
The restroom and the train both disclose their approximate setting: the fall of Socialism (e.g. “The Perestroika erupted into the public lavatory” [Ninth Dream, p. 36] or “When the communists were still in power” [The Yellow Arrow, p. 26]). However, they simultaneously unfold in timeless vacuums with cyclical features, as if to expand their allegories beyond “Soviet” or “Post-Soviet” and thematize narratives applicable to greater Russian histories. The timelessness of “Ninth Dream” is apparent through the vague time transitions: the characters’ ages are “indeterminate” (Ninth Dream, p. 36), the story rarely follows a chronologically consistent order, and the entire narrative concludes with a meta-textual hallucination.
Moreover, Moscow has always had (and always will have) shit to deal with, both literally and metaphorically. In other words, the Russian/Soviet project has always dealt with systemic and ideological issues underlying its massive empire (including abuse, corruption, lacking infrastructure, and civil mismanagement) that survived from one regime to the next. The “shit” somehow always persisted below different façades (be it the measly socialist restroom or the capitalist store) and, eventually, seeped through to the surface (like the aggressive smell noticed by Vera or her visions of sewage erupting all around the city).
The restroom setting also allows the author to portray invisible individuals living on the fringes. These outsiders (like Ruslan Stupin from ”My Perestroika”) often best illustrate the weaknesses and downfalls of any given society and thus offer perfect material for critique. Additionally, the train setting highlights Pelevin’s countless allusions to the greats of Russian literature, in which the train often serves as a metaphorical element (Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” to name one example).
(NOTE: The writer proudly exhibits his postmodern leanings—not only through author name-drops (Ninth Dream, p. 52) or pop-culture references (The Yellow Arrow, p. 58) but also through meta-textual games and self-referentiality, such as when Andrei reads a novel full of life philosophies, written by a train passenger much like himself.)
On top of admitting inspiration from Russian authors, Pelevin also seems to adopt their style far more than Petrushevskaya. His language offers expressive (though still important) detail, flowering syntax, and poetic passages, often verging on philosophical musings. Furthermore, both of his works feature an omniscient narrator, whose narration shifts freely between internal focalization (e.g. when we experience the world of "The Yellow Arrow" solely through Andrei) and zero focalization (e.g. when we alternate between Vera’s and Manyasha’s points of view in "Ninth Dream," p. 48).
From the very first line, “Vera Pavlovna’s Ninth Dream” sets up the main character's narrative as philosophical: solipsism pervades (and is illustrated by) both Vera and her story. Yet in the same breath, Pelevin presents a certain deconstruction of this philosophical theory. With Manyasha’s assistance, Vera grows to believe she creates her own reality, especially after observing how the mere intentions of an enlightened restroom worker shape the global landscape. But ultimately, either due to a mistake in her framing of perception or the external forces of reality, her illusions (and delusions) soon come crashing down, forcing an existential crisis.
Whether Vera's beliefs are true remains irrelevant. After all, Soviet realism itself was nothing but a fiction that came crashing down, leaving behind a world filled with contradictory absurdities—a world one could better understand through an esoteric lens of persona. Solipsism, then, concerned only with the self, naturally becomes one of the coping mechanisms within Russian reality.
October 9, 2023
Another super funny story from the collection
February 12, 2017
"Перестройка ворвалась в сортир на Тимирязевском бульваре одновременно с нескольких направлений".
Иногда мне кажется, что у Пелевина в каждом произведении есть одна фраза, вокруг которой пишется весь остальной текст :)))
Иногда мне кажется, что у Пелевина в каждом произведении есть одна фраза, вокруг которой пишется весь остальной текст :)))
February 3, 2013
Черт, нельзя же так стебаться.
Read
May 7, 2019my recommends!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews