Victor Pelevin
Victor Olegovich Pelevin (Russian: Виктор
Олегович Пелевин, born 22 November 1962 in
Moscow) 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.
After high school Pelevin received a degree in
electromechanical engineering from the Moscow
Power Engineering Institute, then attended
seminars in creative writing at the Literature
Institute. As an editor of "Science and
Religion" magazine, he was responsible for an
ongoing series of articles on Eastern mysticism.
Pelevin's first
story was published in 1989, and for the next
three years his short stories appeared in
various magazines and compilations. In 1992 a
book of Pelevin's collected stories The Blue
Lantern received the first annual Russian Little
Booker Prize. His first novel, Omon Ra, appeared
in 1992.
Pelevin rarely
gives interviews; when he does, he is known to
talk about the nature of the mind rather than
his own writing. He has permitted all of his
texts in Russian predating 2006 to be published
on the Internet for non-commercial use. Some
novels are also available as voice files in
Russian.
Pelevin's prose
is usually devoid of dialogue between the author
and the reader, whether through plot, character
development, literary form or narrative
language. This corresponds to his philosophy
(both stated[where?] and unstated) that, for the
most part, it is the reader who infuses the text
with meaning. His novel Babylon bears on its
cover the inscription, Any thought that occurs
in the process of reading this book is subject
to copyright. Unauthorized thinking of it is
prohibited.
