Read the book "Empire "V"" online in full - Victor Pelevin - MyBook. Read the book "Empire "V"" online in full - Viktor Pelevin - MyBook Viktor Pelevin empire v read online

- How do you know?

“Are you saying that vampires artificially bred a human?”

“Yes,” said Enlil Maratovich. “That's exactly what I want to say.

I thought he was joking. But his face was completely serious.

How did the vampires do it?

“You won’t understand anything anyway until you study glamor and discourse.

- I won't study what?

Enlil Maratovich laughed.

“Glamour and discourse,” he repeated. “The two main vampiric sciences. See, you don't even know what it is. And you're going to talk about such complex matters. When you get a decent education, I myself will tell you about the history of creation, and about how vampires use the human resource. Now we're just wasting our time.

– And when will I study glamor and discourse?

I thought.

“You say the vampires brought out the humans. And why then do people consider them evil monsters?

It hides the true state of affairs. And then, so much more fun.

“But humanoid primates have existed on Earth for many millions of years. A person is hundreds of thousands. How could the vampires bring him out?

“Vampires live on Earth for an immeasurably long time. And people are not the first thing that serves them as food. But now, I repeat, it is too early to talk about it. Do you have any other questions?

“Yes,” I said. “But I don’t know, maybe you will say again that it’s too early to talk about it.

- Try.

"Tell me, how does a vampire read another person's mind?" When does he suck blood?

Enlil Maratovich frowned.

“When he sucks blood,” he repeated. - Ugh. Remember, Rama, we don't say that. Not only is it vulgar, it may offend the feelings of some vampires. With me please. I myself can screw the red word. But others, - he shook his head somewhere to the side, - will not forgive.

What do vampires say?

- Vampires say "during the tasting."

- Good. How does a vampire read another person's mind during a tasting?

Are you interested in the practical method?

“I already know the method,” I said. “I want a scientific explanation.

Enlil Maratovich sighed.

- You see, Rama, any explanation is a function of existing ideas. If this is a scientific explanation, then it depends on the ideas that are in science. For example, in the Middle Ages, it was believed that the plague was transmitted through the pores of the body. Therefore, for prevention, people were forbidden to visit the bath, where the pores expand. And now science believes that fleas carry the plague, and for prevention, people are advised to go to the bathhouse as often as possible. As perceptions change, so does the verdict. Understand?

I nodded.

- So, - he continued, - in modern science there are no such ideas that would allow, relying on them, to scientifically answer your question. I can only explain this with an example from another field that you are familiar with... You are computer savvy, right?

“A little,” I said modestly.

- You understand, and not bad - I saw it. Remember why Microsoft tried so hard to oust the Netscape Internet browser from the market?

I was pleased to flaunt my erudition.

“At the time, no one knew how computers would evolve,” I said. – There were two development concepts. One by one, all of the user's personal information was to be stored on a hard drive. And according to another, the computer turned into a simple device for communicating with the network, and the information was stored on the network. The user connected to the line, entered the password and got access to his cell. If this concept had won, then it would not be Microsoft but Netscape that would have a monopoly on the market.

- Here! Enlil Maratovich said. - Exactly. I would never have made it so clear myself. Now imagine that human brain is a computer that no one knows anything about. Now scientists believe that it is similar to a hard disk, on which everything is recorded. known to man. But it may also turn out that the brain is just a modem for communicating with the network where all the information is stored. Can you imagine that?

“In general, yes,” I said. - Completely.

- Yeah. Understood. You want to say that the password is some kind of information code that is contained in the blood?

“Well, please don’t use that word,” Enlil Maratovich frowned. - Get out of the habit from the very beginning. Remember - in writing you can use the word with the letter "k" as much as you like, this is normal. But in spoken language, this is obscene and unacceptable for a vampire.

- And what to say instead of the word with the letter "k"?

“Red liquid,” said Enlil Maratovich.

- Red liquid? I asked.

I have heard this expression several times before.

“Americanism,” explained Enlil Maratovich. - Anglo-Saxon vampires say "red liquid", and we copy. Generally this Long story. In the nineteenth century they said "fluid". Then it became obscene. When electricity came into fashion, they began to say "electrolyte", or simply "electro". Then this word also began to seem rude, and they began to say "drug". Then, in the nineties, they began to say "solution". And now here's the "red liquid" ... Complete insanity, of course. But you can't go against the current.

The storyline of Empire V is based on the second's favorite scheme. Another Pinocchio read a smart book and went in search of a golden key, traveling through the country of fools. The characters from the author's latest works are distinguished by their innocence, they are not characterized by a manifestation of decisiveness, they are poorly versed in the reality around them. By the will of fate, they had to get involved in an unusual scam, which resulted in a complete loss of the ability to correctly navigate reality.

The main characters have to explore the universe again, using the Tibetan heritage, popular brands and drugs for this. Texts are unique and unpredictable; their curves are unpredictable. At the same time, the reader always has a firm belief that in the end the main character will cease to be a sucker and this will happen on the last pages of the work.

Read online Empire "V"

About the book

Other times are coming, and with it Pelevin's changes are observed. In the past, a significant part of the author's books contained simple metaphors in the form of dreams, shadows and beetles. Now the writer takes a different approach, demonstrating a combination of a stupid question to the teacher and his useless answer to the student. He appeals to the three pillars of the vampire world - glamour, discourse and bablos.

In terms of content, the author returned to the origins, he resorts to sharp criticism of modern absurdity, which could be observed in his works “The Yellow Arrow” and “Omon Ra”. Regarding style, the author returned to self-repetitions and self-citations, constantly trying to shuffle one deck of marked cards. He became interested not in the abstractions of the mind in its purest form, but in the concepts of well-being in society. The described transformation of the energy of human life into an oil product in Empire V is reproduced almost one to one. The only difference is that money acts as oil. The writer ceases to send ridicule to postmodern philosophers and builds a new conceptual base, claiming to receive the Nobel Prize, if not in the field of literature, then definitely in economics.

Pelevin remains true to himself, the reader will once again come across the author's crowning numbers, who literally juggles words, reverses the semantic content of what was said and makes comparisons that no one expects. He makes attacks towards Christianity, showing even greater causticity and anger, but at the same time refrains from speaking out about Islam.

Pelevin confirms his brilliant imagination and appears as the only one among the jokers, but even such people need to eat. Before the advent of "Generation" P "he wrote masterpieces from the heart, but after a break for 5 years, the author begins to create novels very similar in essence. The writer cannot be classified as a star that flared up only once. He does not tend to remix the same hit, so we can assume that Victor is in search of a new one. Readers love Pelevin for his sparkling humor and accurate observations of the environment. modern people reality. Empire V in this regard turned out to be very successful, no worse than other works of the author.

The steam locomotive is wisely arranged, but it does not realize it, and what purpose would it be to arrange a steam locomotive if there were no driver on it?

O. Mitrofan Srebryansky

BRAHMA

When I came to my senses, there was a large room around, furnished with antique furniture. The furniture was, perhaps, even antique - a mirror cabinet covered with carved stars, a fancy secretaire, two canvases with nudes and a small picture of Napoleon on horseback in battle smoke.

One wall was occupied by a file cabinet made of Karelian birch, reaching to the ceiling, of a very refined appearance. On its drawers there were plates with multi-colored inscriptions and badges, and next to it was a stepladder.

I realized that I was not lying, as it should be for a person who regained consciousness, but I was standing. I did not fall because my arms and legs were firmly tied to the Swedish wall. I guessed that this was a Swedish wall, feeling the wooden crossbar with my fingers. Other crossbars rested on my back.

Opposite, on a small red sofa against the wall, sat a man in a red coat and black mask. The mask resembled in its shape either a top hat pulled down to the shoulders, or a cardboard helmet of a dog-knight from the movie "Battle on the Ice". There was a sharp protrusion near the nose, two oval holes in place of the eyes, and a rectangular cutout in the mouth area, covered with a black cloth. This is what medieval doctors looked like on engravings depicting the plague in Europe.

I wasn't even scared.

“Good afternoon,” the masked man said.

“Hello,” I replied, parting my lips with difficulty.

- What is your name?

“Roman,” I said.

- How old are you?

- Nineteen.

Why not in the army?

I didn't answer the question, thinking it was a playful joke.

"I apologize for the somewhat theatrical nature of the situation," the masked man continued. - If you have a headache, now everything will pass. I put you to sleep with a special gas.

- What kind of gas?

- Which is used against terrorists. It's okay, it's all over. I warn you not to scream. There is no point in screaming. It won't help.

The result will be one - I will have a migraine, and the conversation will be spoiled.

- Who are you?

My name is Brama.

- Why are you wearing a mask?

“For many reasons,” Brahma said. - But it's in your favor. If our relationship doesn't work out, I can let you go safely because you won't know what I look like.

I felt great relief when I heard that they were going to let me go.

But these words could be a trick.

- What would you like? I asked.

“I want a keen interest in you to awaken in one very important part of my body and at the same time my spirit. But this, you see, can only happen if you are a person of a noble aristocratic family…

Maniac, I thought.

The steam locomotive is wisely arranged, but it does not realize it, and what purpose would it be to arrange a steam locomotive if there were no driver on it?

O. Mitrofan Srebryansky

When I came to my senses, there was a large room around, furnished with antique furniture. The furnishings were perhaps even antique—a mirrored cabinet covered with carved stars, a bizarre secretary, two nudes, and a small picture of Napoleon on horseback in battle smoke. One wall was occupied by a file cabinet made of Karelian birch, reaching to the ceiling, of a very refined appearance. On its drawers there were plates with multi-colored inscriptions and badges, and next to it was a stepladder.

I realized that I was not lying, as it should be for a person who regained consciousness, but I was standing. I did not fall because my arms and legs were firmly tied to the Swedish wall. I guessed that this was a Swedish wall, feeling the wooden crossbar with my fingers. Other crossbars rested on my back.

Opposite, on a small red sofa against the wall, sat a man in a red coat and black mask. The mask resembled in its shape either a top hat pulled down to the shoulders, or a cardboard helmet of a dog-knight from the movie “Battle on the Ice”. There was a sharp protrusion near the nose, two oval holes in place of the eyes, and a rectangular cutout in the mouth area, covered with a black cloth. This is what medieval doctors looked like on engravings depicting the plague in Europe.

I wasn't even scared.

“Good afternoon,” the masked man said.

“Hello,” I replied, parting my lips with difficulty.

- What is your name?

“Roman,” I said.

- How old are you?

- Nineteen.

Why not in the army?

I didn't answer the question, thinking it was a joke.

“I apologize for the somewhat theatrical nature of the situation,” the masked man continued. - If you have a headache, now everything will pass. I put you to sleep with a special gas.

- What kind of gas?

- Which is used against terrorists. It's okay, it's all over. I warn you not to scream. There is no point in screaming. It won't help. The result will be one - I will have a migraine, and the conversation will be spoiled.

- Who are you?

My name is Brama.

- Why are you wearing a mask?

“For many reasons,” Brahma said. But it's in your favor. If our relationship doesn't work out, I can let you go safely because you won't know what I look like.

I felt great relief when I heard that they were going to let me go. But these words could be a trick.

- What would you like? I asked.

– I want a keen interest in you to awaken in one very important part of my body and at the same time my spirit. But this, you see, can only happen if you are a person of a noble aristocratic family…

Maniac, I thought. - The main thing is not to be nervous ... Distract him with a conversation ... "

- Why necessarily a noble aristocratic family?

“The quality of the red fluid in your veins plays a big role. The chance is small.

What does live interest mean? I asked. "You mean while I'm still alive?"

“Ridiculous,” said Brahma. - Most likely, words will not achieve anything here. Need a demo.

Getting up from the sofa, he came up to me, threw back the black rag that covered his mouth and leaned towards my right ear. Feeling someone else's breath on my face, I cringed - something disgusting was about to happen.

“He came to visit,” I thought. “You had to, didn’t you?”

But nothing happened - breathing in my ear, Brahma turned away and went back to the sofa.

“I could have bitten your arm,” he said. “But your hands, unfortunately, are bound and numb. Therefore, the effect would not be the same.

“You tied my hands.

“Yes,” Brama sighed. “I should probably apologize for my actions – I guess they look rather strange and nasty. But now everything will become clear to you.

Sitting on the couch, he stared at me as if I were a picture on a television and studied for a few seconds, occasionally smacking his tongue.

“Don't worry,” he said, “I'm not a sex maniac. In this respect, you can be calm.

- And who are you?

- I'm a vampire. And vampires are not perverts. Sometimes they pretend to be perverts. But they have completely different interests and goals.

No, he's not a pervert, I thought. - He's a crazy pervert. You have to constantly talk to distract him ... "

- Vampire? Do you drink blood?

“It’s not like glasses,” Brahma answered, “and it’s not that my self-identification was built on this… But it also happens.

- Why are you drinking it?

- This is The best way meet a person.

- Like this?

The eyes in the oval holes of the mask blinked several times, and the mouth under the black cloth said:

- Once upon a time, two trees growing on the wall, lemon and orange, were not just trees, but a gateway to a magical and mysterious world. And then something happened. The gates disappeared, and instead of them there were just two rectangular pieces of cloth hanging on the wall. Not only were the gates gone, but the world they led to. And even the terrible flying dog that guarded the entrance to this world has become just a wicker fan from a tropical resort...

To say that I was amazed is to say nothing. I was stunned. These words, which would have seemed like complete gibberish to any normal person, were the secret code of my childhood. The most amazing thing was that only one person in the whole world could formulate everything in this way - myself. I was silent for a long time. Then he couldn't take it.

“I don't understand,” I said. – Suppose I could tell about the paintings when I was unconscious. But I couldn't tell you about this magical world outside the gates. Because I never called him that. Although now you said, and I see that all this is true, yes. And so it was…

“Do you know why this happened? Brama asked.

- Why?

- The magical world where you lived before was invented by a grasshopper hiding in the grass. And then the frog came and ate it. And you immediately had nowhere to live, although everything in your room remained the same.

“Yes,” I said, confused. - And this is also true ... Very accurately said.

“Remember some thing,” said Brahma, “that only you know about. Any. And ask me a question - one that only you know the answer to.

Victor Pelevin's novel "Empire" V ", released at the end of 2006, became a continuation of the traditions of Pelevin's style and, at the same time, turned out to be a new milestone in the writer's work.

The very title of the work intrigues the reader, and this mystery is not dispelled even after reading the novel. Either this is some kind of "Empire" V "(presumably vampires, judging by the content of the novel), or a kind of play on the word" vampire "(if you put the "V" at the end at the beginning of the word, it will turn out very similar to the English vampire) . It probably means both.

There is no annotation to the work, however, this is so characteristic of Pelevin's books that one should not be surprised. Whether this is a peculiar wish of the author to the publishers or the inability to cover in a few phrases the depth of the plot of Pelevin's works - who knows? In any case, the absence of an annotation seems to be calling: read, they say, yourself, then you will understand what it is about.

The events described in the novel take place in our time. The protagonist of the story, Roman Shtorkin, a young man of 19, due to a combination of circumstances, becomes a vampire. From that moment on, he acquires a new name and he has mentors who, after a course of lectures on "vampire sciences", introduce the young man into the society of bloodsuckers.

"The Tale of a Real Superman" - this is how Pelevin himself characterizes his work. Indeed, vampires in the novel appear as a superior race, superhumans. Moreover, according to the author's theory, it was they (and not God or the natural selection of nature) who created people to meet their needs.

The original versions of the universe are not the first time found in Pelevin's prose. An incubator world where the main characters turn out to be just broiler chickens (“The Recluse and Six-Claws”) or an insect universe where the main characters are just mosquitoes, flies and bedbugs (“The Life of Insects”) - the author has always liked to experiment with this theme .

But in "Empire "V" Pelevin goes to a completely different level. This is no longer a game with metaphors, but a cynical and crude theory of the existence of the human world, in which people are equated with cash cows. And the main goal of vampires is no longer human blood, as it was before. They suck on a special concentrate - "bubbles", obtained from the money that people earn.

According to Pelevin's theory, people are just organisms that exist to produce money, giving it all their energy, all their thoughts and aspirations, all their lives, after all. People are base and primitive, which allows vampires to use their "resources" to their heart's content. However, the author is far from irony. Sadness emanates from his narrative, and the seemingly fantastic theory of the universe “from vampires” painfully resembles the life of modern Russia.

I can say with confidence that of all the works of Viktor Pelevin, this is, if not the best in style, then certainly the most “adult” novel. At least, this is the only work of Pelevin, which I no doubt gave to close people to read, who are far from being fans of this author's work.

In the matter of style, Pelevin remains true to himself. Witty metaphors, sometimes reaching aphorisms. Rare, but so characteristic of the author, obscene language "on the topic of the day." Pelevin's "sense of time" in the saturation of the novel with the vocabulary of Internet users, fashion magazines and modern corporate culture. Not for the first time in the author's works, first-person narration, philosophy, notes of Buddhism. All this does not allow the experienced reader to doubt who is the author of "Empire" V, despite rumors that the novel was written by a completely different person.

"Empire" V "is easy to read, however, like the whole of Pelevin (except perhaps the chapters devoted to the theory of the main "vampire sciences" - glamor and discourse), they are attracted by the relevance and seriousness of the topic being disclosed. Despite the fact that true fans of Viktor Pelevin do not like the novel, and consider it "weak", for non-Pelevin people this is a great way to look at the "glamorous and scandalous" author from a completely different perspective.