Great optimists

The greatest optimist, without a doubt, can be called Louis XIV. He enjoyed life in all its manifestations, surrounded himself with the most beautiful women, got carried away, fell in love, started novels. It is no coincidence that the time of his reign remained in the history of France a bright period filled with various events that concerned both the king himself and his inner circle.

Great pessimists

A very pessimistic woman was the wife of Louis XIV - the Spanish princess, Infanta Maria Theresa. She was timid, uninteresting, liked silence, was mostly alone, spent her time in prayer or reading. No wonder that the cheerful monarch Louis XIV did not pay any attention to her, preferring to have fun on the side.

Great optimists

Marshal Richelieu, the great-grandnephew of the great cardinal, was known as a windy man and fond of women. Having changed three wives and many mistresses, he treated female infidelity very condescendingly. Finding his wife with her lover, he cheerfully advised her to be careful to avoid embarrassing situations, because someone else could be in his place.

Great optimists

One of the Presidents of France Charles de Gaulle was very optimistic. People who communicated with him during the formation of his political career noted his inexhaustible faith in success. It was thanks to this belief that de Gaulle was able to eventually get the presidency.

Great pessimists

famous sculptor Michelangelo had a rather quarrelsome character and unattractive appearance. All his life he was looking for a feeling consonant with his own, but he did not succeed in this matter, which gradually led him into deep melancholy.

Great optimists

Among the great people, one of the biggest optimists was considered Jean Jacques Rousseau. This Frenchman considered man the greatest creation of the universe, a perfect being, initially without any flaws. He was also optimistic about everyday life. He met all life's failures, even the most serious ones, with a smile, which surprised his friends and relatives a lot. There is a case when, because of his optimism, he even quarreled with his wife, who considered his reaction to troubles too easy.

Great optimists

great italian actress Sophia Loren known for her optimism. While still very young, she, armed only with her own beauty and faith in luck, decided to get out of the poverty that surrounded her. With age, Sophia Loren's optimism has not diminished. great actress, as her friends note, she perceives any trouble with a smile and knows how to find positive aspects in it.

Great pessimists

Depesh mode soloist Dave Gahan expresses his pessimism in his work. Lyrics suggest the imperfection of the world, and the music is chosen accordingly. Gahan's pessimism has already become a feature that distinguishes this group from many others, its peculiar brand.

Great optimists

The Russian ballerina was an optimist Maya Plisetskaya. Maybe, successful career influenced such a worldview of the ballerina, and maybe personal life. Be that as it may, the students of her school in Madrid noted: "Maya Mikhailovna's optimism was truly inexhaustible, she knew how to infect us with it."

Great optimists

To the two-time world champion in Formula 1 racing, the German Michael Schumacher it was optimism that helped to recover from a serious injury and return to sports again. Michael's friends did not expect that he would decide to return, but faith in luck does not leave the great racer. “I was lucky that everything ended well. So, it will go further.”

Great optimists

Famous French couturier Pierre Cardin characterized by an easy character and optimism. He believes in luck, knows how to use it, and fortune favors him. His colleagues believe that Cardin's optimism helped him become popular, gaining world fame.

Great pessimists

Great composer Ludwig van Beethoven had a pessimistic view of the world. However, life did not particularly pamper him. Genius did not find recognition, besides lovely ladies did not favor him with their location. All his life, the brilliant composer had to limit himself to friendly relations with beauties, for whom he often had a genuine passion.

Great optimists

The great Soviet composer was distinguished by optimism Sergei Prokofiev. Despite the fact that his work did not find a response in society, but rather was condemned in every possible way, he continued to write music full of light, life and sun. He knew how not to transfer his problems to creativity, which to this day inspires optimism in our souls.

Great pessimists

Known for his pessimism French writer Victor Hugo. All the memories left by his contemporaries testify to this. In the diary of a Parisian artist, the following entry was found: “He told me that all his past troubles were nothing compared to those that awaited him ahead. Hugo has always been a little gloomy, but this time he has outdone himself."

Great optimists

Probably none of the poets enjoyed such popularity and appreciation during his lifetime as Voltaire. At one time, among his contemporaries, he took the place of almost a demigod, since it was he who was worshiped as the highest being. Often his opinion about something meant more than the word of some high-ranking official. Despite his outward ugliness, Voltaire never lost his excellent mood and natural love of life.

Great pessimists

Great English writer Charles Dickens was very unhappy in his marriage. Perhaps it was this circumstance that left an indelible imprint on the writer's attitude. Gradually he forgot how to enjoy life and, despite the grandiose evenings that he arranged for the outstanding personalities of that time, he could not fully enjoy his well-being and social position.

Great optimists

poet Goethe considered to be a true darling of fate. At least in everything that concerned his relationship with the opposite sex, as well as in matters of creativity, fate was favorable to this brilliant person. Women idolized him, and already in his early youth the poet achieved universal recognition and fame.

Great pessimists

The Russian writer was a pessimist Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. His sense of self was dictated by the characteristics of the era and was reflected in his work of the later period. Even in successful days, Gogol was distrustful of his happiness, considered it accidental. “Luck is changeable,” the writer liked to say.

Great optimists

The greatest optimist can be considered Dale Carnegie. He was able to develop a theory that allows not only to improve mood, but also to keep it that way all the time. Dale Carnegie has gained genuine popularity in all countries of the world precisely because his principles are both simple and effective. The most interesting thing is that Carnegie more than successfully used his theories in his own life, thanks to which he achieved a lot.

Great pessimists

There are not so many pessimists among the representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, since their inherent qualities were not reflected in nature. Russian man. Perhaps one of the closest creative people to the pessimistic doctrine among our compatriots is Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov:

And boring, and sad, and there is no one to give a hand

In a moment of heartbreak...

Desires!.. What is the use of wishing in vain and forever?..

And the years pass - all the best years!

To love ... But who? .. For a while - it's not worth the trouble,

And it is impossible to love forever.

Do you look into yourself? There is no trace of the past.

And joy, and torment, and everything there is insignificant ...

Forbes magazine has compiled a rating of writers who managed to earn record amounts for last year. Not a single Russian name was included in this list. But our oligarchs are regularly on the Forbes list.
To my shame, I only read King and Grisham. And you?

1. James Patterson. Earnings for the year - $ 84 million

The author of numerous thrillers and detective stories, he is mainly known for a series of books about the American psychologist Alex Cross. He also published 10 novels in the Women's Murder Investigation Club series, and was repeatedly nominated for various awards and awards. The big win for Patterson was a contract to write 11 books for adults and 6 for children between 2009 and 2012. 20 of Patterson's books made the list of the world's best-selling books in 2010.

2. Daniela Steele, $35 million

She is the author of numerous novels and a regular on the New York Times weekly bestseller list (lasted #1 for 390 consecutive weeks). The total circulation of her books exceeds 800 million copies, thanks to which Steele took the 8th place in the list of the best-selling authors of all time. Steele's 24 novels were filmed, 2 films received the Golden Globe film award.

3. Stephen King, $28 million

He became famous as a master of horror, but for his long creative life managed to work in many genres, including mysticism, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, drama, etc. Several dozen of King's stories and novels have been filmed, however, there are rumors that the writer amuses himself by selling the film rights for only $ 1. As King himself admits, he likes to look at what will come out of his books on big screen, and by tradition he himself appears in film adaptations in episodic roles.

4. Janet Ivanovich, $22 million

She became famous thanks to a series of adventurous detective stories about the adventures of Stephanie Plum, who, after losing her job in a lingerie store, decided to take up catching criminals. Each of the 17 books in the series constantly pops up in the bestseller ratings of the largest online store Amazon.

5. Stephanie Meyer, $21 million

An American housewife and mother of three children, who one fine night had a dream about a vampire love story. Thus was born the Twilight series of novels, which brought Meyer and her publishers multi-million dollar profits. All film adaptations of the Twilight Saga were box office successes. In the immediate plans of the writer - mystical novels about ghosts and a book about time travel.

6. Rick Riordan, $21 million

The first series, created by Riordan, was awarded almost all the highest literary awards in America. These were mystical detective stories about a private investigator and an English professor. medieval literature Treze Navarre. Riordan's next series was intended for children and told about the adventures of a 12-year-old boy, Percy Jackson. In 2006, the book from this series was named the best children's book in the United States; In 2010, a film adaptation of the novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians was released.

7. Dean Koontz, $19 million

A modest Pennsylvania English teacher who always dreamed of writing career. He won the first fans in 1968, since then he has been considered one of the unsurpassed masters of action thrillers and horror films.

8. John Grisham, $18 million

The main income Grisham brought the so-called "legal" dramas and thrillers, many of which were filmed. Among them, for example, "The Firm" (the main role was played by Tom Cruise), "A Time to Kill" and "The Client". Like other members

9. Jeff Kinney, $17 million

An online game developer and cartoonist made his mark as a writer with the children's series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. In 2011, the second film adaptation of The Diary was released; it topped the North American box office in its opening weekend. In 2009, Kinney was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

10. Nicholas Sparks, $16 million

Most of Sparks' audience is made up of women over 30. From his pen came 16 novels, the main themes of which are personal tragedies, amazing destinies, fidelity and Christian love. 6 books by Sparks formed the basis of film scripts; Rumor has it that in 2012 wide screens There will be 2 more films based on his stories.

10 main writers of modern Russia

When it comes to contemporary literature, the reader often forms his reading circle based on existing ratings. But each niche of the book market has its own leaders, and none of them is an absolute literary authority. We decided to hold a kind of championship of Russia among writers. Out of 50 different writers From best-selling authors to intellectual critics, we've come up with 10 champions through complex calculations. These are writers who broadcast those ideologies that are in demand by the majority of readers and therefore are important today for the whole country.

1 place

Viktor Pelevin

What did you get
For painstaking and consistent deciphering of the present and explanation of life new Russia through absurdity and metaphysics.

How he does it
Starting from the first stories published back in the late 1980s, Pelevin has been doing the same thing: X-raying contemporary society, revealing the “true” background of any events recent history Russia.

He seems to offer us another Russia - a metaphysical, magical, absurd empire, in which "werewolves in uniform" turn into real wolf people ("The Sacred Book of the Werewolf"), cadets at the Maresyev Flight School are amputated ("Omon Ra") , instead of real politicians, the country is controlled by PR people through digital characters from the TV (“Generation “P””), and oil appears because the skull of a motley cow is crying with real tears over the bitter lot of Russian security forces (“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf”). At the same time, Pelevin’s portrait of Russia is almost always photographically accurate: in “Chapaev and Void” (1996) he gave a cut of the 90s with their “new Russians” and kitsch fashion for Eastern esotericism, in “Generation “P”” (1999) predicted the coming realm of PR and the agonizing search for a national idea that we embarked on in the 2000s.

Pelevin is the most sought-after writer in our country, in which the conspiracy spirit is still strong and many are sure that the authorities are hiding everything from them, but no one knows exactly what and how.

Points

• Prizes - 3("National Bestseller", 2004, "DPP NN" - 300 thousand rubles).
• Confession experts -5 (Even his consistent critics recognize Pelevin's importance for modern culture).
• Circulations - 5(since the mid-2000s, the starting circulation of his new books is about 200 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 5(the collective madness around Pelevin has been around for 15 years, in 1999 a rally of his fans even took place in Moscow).
• Publicity - 3(ignores the press, gives one or two interviews a year, but is still one of the key cultural newsmakers).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(The film "Generation "P"" is released in February 2010).
• Reputation - 5(no one knows his political views; people of various views find confirmation of their hypotheses and conjectures in his prose).
• Total 31

2nd place

Ludmila Ulitskaya

What did you get
For affirming the simple truth that modern man is essentially not so bad.

How does she do it
Ulitskaya is most interested in people. In this sense, she is unique. The focus of her attention is not fashion, not current politics, not the surprises of history, but people, our contemporaries with their shortcomings, virtues, sins, talents, faith and unbelief. She feels sincere sympathy for her characters - much like the protagonist of the novel "Sincerely Yours Shurik" feels sympathy for all women on her way.

Until 2006, Ulitskaya described simple, sometimes even average people, showing different facets of their characters. And then from the same material she created a "superman" - the translator Daniel Stein from the novel of the same name, who set as the goal of his life no less than the reconciliation of different nations and religions.

Points

• Prizes - 5(“Russian Booker”, 2001, “The Case of Kukotsky” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2007, “Daniel Stein, translator” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 5(Ulitskaya is loved by critics of various kinds).
• Circulations - 5(“Daniel Stein, translator” - more than 400 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 1(Ulitskaya's novels are usually about too intimate experiences, so her fans usually keep quiet and hide their feelings).
• Publicity - 3(does not like publicity, although he periodically gives interviews).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(film "The Case of Kukotsky" (2005) based on the book of the same name).
• Reputation - 5(the human theme chosen by Ulitskaya turns out to be a universal key to the hearts of various readers of all age groups and sometimes opposing views.
• Total 29

3rd place

Leonid Yuzefovich

What did you get
For explaining our present through the past and our past through the present.

How he does it
Yuzefovich composes historical thrillers, and in real history he finds plots richer and more interesting than any fiction. In his books, there is a conspiracy of Esperantists in the Urals during the Civil War; a Mongol prince trying to sell his soul to the devil; Russian impostor wandering around Europe in the 17th century. All this is a hybrid of historical reality and myths, which every time turns out to be relevant and helps the reader to understand the events of today. Yuzefovich nowhere claims that history is cyclical, but at the same time, for example, Time of Troubles from his novel "Cranes and Dwarfs" is strikingly reminiscent of the Russian 90s, and the problems of the police in Russian Empire late XIX centuries are very similar to those that are decided by the "cops" today. It turns out that we have already gone through all this, but we have not drawn any conclusions.

Points

• Prizes - 5(“National Bestseller”, 2001, “Prince of the Wind” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2009, “Cranes and Dwarfs” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 5(unanimously approved by almost all critics).
• Draws - 3(less than 100 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 1(The books of Yuzefovich did not give rise to a fan movement as such; he requires the reader to think and analyze the facts, and the mass audience is not always ready for this).
• Publicity - 3(does not rush into public characters, but communicates with the press).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(the film "Detective of the Petersburg Police" (1991) based on the story "The Situation in the Balkans"; the series "Kazarosa" (2005) based on the novel "Club" Espero ""; the series "Detective Putilin" (2007) based on the novels "Harlequin Costume", " Dating House”, “Prince of the Wind”).
• Reputation - 5(causes respect in different political camps - caution and deliberation of statements).
• Total 27

4th place

Vladimir Makanin

What did you get
For a detailed and merciless analysis of the most painful and acute social issues.

How he does it
Makanin keeps his own chronicle of Russian life, recording and analyzing such important components as the fate of the intelligentsia (“Underground, or Hero of Our Time”) or the war in the Caucasus (“Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Asan”).

Makanin works as a mirror of Russian reality with the effect of multiple magnification. This is not to say that he shows what is not there, but not everyone likes his pictures - just like few people can like the reflection of their own face with all its pores and blackheads. Six months after the Big Book Prize was awarded to him, the novel Asan was awarded the title of " worst book years”: this happened through the efforts of veterans of the Chechen wars, who were thoroughly offended by the writer.

Makanin is sometimes accused of "cheap provocations." Cheap or not, but "provocation" - precise definition: the writer chooses the most difficult topics for society and presents their research to the reader. And then everyone is free to either be indignant that everything is so bad with us, or to admire how skillfully the writer shows that everything is so bad with us.

Points

• Prizes - 5("Russian Booker", 1993, "A table covered with cloth and with a decanter in the middle" - $ 10 thousand; "Big Book", 2008, "Asan" - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 4(liberal-minded critics appreciate Makanin for the "truth of life", patriots are indignant and accuse the writer of distorting historical facts).
• Circulations - 5(At the end of the Soviet era, Makanin was published in thousands of copies).
• The presence of fans - 1(As such, Makanin did not acquire fans, there are only loyal readers).
• Publicity - 3(does not seek publicity, but gives interviews from time to time).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(the film "Eagle and Tails" (1995) based on the story "On the first breath"; the film "Prisoner" (2008) based on the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus").
• Reputation - 4(he enjoys absolute authority among liberals, for the conservative-patriotic part of society he is a liar and a provocateur).
• Total 27

5th-7th place

Alexander Kabakov

What did you get
For a true reflection of our fear of the future.

How he does it
Kabakov managed to capture the spirit of the times back in the late 80s, when he wrote the story "Defector" - a dystopia that captured the foreboding then hanging in the air civil war. For the first time in Soviet history, the future began to frighten the broad masses, and Kabakov verbalized the fear that was popular in those years: the total circulation of official publications alone exceeded 200,000 copies.

20 years after The Defector, Kabakov again wrote a dystopia - the novel The Fugitive, which takes place in 1917, in recent months pre-Soviet Russia. It would seem that these are things of the past, why be afraid of them? But the events of 1917 are painfully similar to our time. And most importantly, both then, and now, and 20 years ago, the future still scares us. In modern culture, Kabakov plays the role of a pessimistic reasoner who pronounces his “memento mori” (remember death) in place and out of place.

Points

• Prizes - 4(“The Big Book”, 2006, “Everything is fixable” - 1.5 million rubles).
• Confession experts -4 (causes respect, but not everyone, often scold him).
• Circulations - 5("Defector" - over 200 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 1(Kabakov has no ardent fans).
• Publicity — 3 (does not rush into public characters, but often appears in the media).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(film "Defector" (1991) based on the story of the same name).
• Reputation - 4(His moderate-liberal and moderate-conservative views both attract and repel both camps of critics).
• Total 26

5th-7th place

Sergey Lukyanenko

What did you get
For the popularization of conformism and traditional values.

How he does it
Like Pelevin, Lukyanenko shows the hidden mechanisms of the functioning of the reality around us. In "Patrols" and "Draft" you can find an explanation for a variety of events in modern life, from political to everyday. But the explanations offered by Lukyanenko are much simpler than Pelevin's: his world is Manichean-style divided into good and evil, black and white. At the same time, each political force tends to see its opponents in the "dark" Day Watch, and itself in the "light" Night Watch.

True, sometimes it turns out that evil is not so evil, and good uses its fists for no reason. But still, against the background of social postmodernism, which does not fundamentally distinguish between good and evil, Lukyanenko's prose looks like a breath of traditionalism. He continues to bend the line of Soviet science fiction, familiar to everyone since childhood. And his characters are for the most part conformists: even the most heroic of them now and then cease to be heroic and go with the flow. In this, the writer managed to catch the spirit of the time: the mass reader of the 2000s, a man of the “stability” era, gladly accepted this conformism, combined with the patriotic-conservative views of Lukyanenko himself.

Points

• Prizes - 1(did not receive).
• Expert Recognition - 3(Lukyanenko is the only one of the science fiction writers who is regularly written about by critics who are not from the science fiction crowd. True, he is rarely praised).
• Circulations - 5(starting circulation of 200 thousand copies for Lukyanenko's books is a common thing).
• The presence of fans - 5(For a good ten years now, Lukyanenko has been the idol of the masses; according to his books, role-playing games).
• Publicity — 3 (does not like publicity, but shows up in public and gives interviews).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(films “Night Watch” (2004) and “Day Watch” (2006) based on the novels of the same name; film “Aziris Nuna” (2006) based on the book “Today, Mom!”; several more films are planned).
• Reputation - 4(he is an authority for a large group of adherents of traditional values ​​\u200b\u200band “stability”; others rather repel his views).
• Total 26

5th-7th place

Boris Akunin

What did you get
For creating the escapist myth of Russia's golden age.

How he does it
The first novels about Erast Fandorin had a dedication: "To the memory of the 19th century, when literature was great, faith in progress was boundless, and crimes were committed and revealed with grace and taste." In the late 1990s, at the height of the revision Russian history From new ideological positions, the novelist Akunin began to create an escapist myth for the "smart" but not very intellectual reader - the myth of beautiful Russia at the end of the 19th century.

Akunin found an era that, on the one hand, is well known to everyone, and on the other, does not cause much controversy. From the language of classical literature XIX century, familiar to all school curriculum, out of elegant detective constructions and the general good-heartedness of heroes, even negative ones, he created the ideal world of an escapist, where one could escape from default, wars in Chechnya, politics and troubles at work. For a whole generation of Russian office workers Akunin gave a safe haven from the present.

Points

• Prizes - 1(He was not nominated for a prize and has no chance: prizes do not like entertainment literature).
• Expert Recognition - 3(“Intellectual” critics don’t like him, but for glossy publications he is a favorite).
• Circulations - 5(average circulation - more than 200 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 5(The world of Fandorin, Pelagia and other Akunin characters has been the subject of mass insanity for almost a decade).
• Publicity - 3(does not like to appear in the press, but sometimes reminds of himself with bright media gestures: for example, an interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Esquire magazine).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 5(films "Azazel" (2001), " Turkish gambit"(2004)," State Councilor "(2005), as well as the series (2009)" Pelagia and the White Bulldog ").
• Reputation - 4(known as a convinced liberal, for which we appreciate some and hate others).
• Total 26

8th place

Dmitry Bykov

What did you get
For the ability to find a common language with everyone - regardless of beliefs, political affiliations, etc.

How he does it
They once joked about Bykov that he, like a gas, fills any space allotted to him. He hosts programs on radio and, until recently, on television, publishes articles, reviews and columns in newspapers and magazines of various kinds. For lovers of poetry, he offers poetry, for lovers of prose - novels, moreover, written in the stream of fashion trends of his time. For those who do not like fiction, there is non-fiction: biographies of Boris Pasternak and Bulat Okudzhava.

For intellectuals, Bykov draws a portrait of Okudzhava as a representative of a special Soviet aristocracy, for pessimists - a scary dystopia "Decommissioned" about how the most different people suddenly found themselves in the ominous lists compiled by someone for no known reason. The ideal universal writer of the era of the total crisis of all ideologies.

Points

• Prizes - 5(“National Bestseller”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 3 million rubles).
• Expert recognition - 4(some critics dislike his ideological omnivorousness, but every A new book Bykov becomes an event).
• Draws - 2(not a single book has yet been published with a circulation of more than 50 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 3(there is a small but well-organized fan movement and fan clubs).
• Publicity — 4 (one way or another, he is constantly present in the media: he writes columns in magazines, a program on the City-FM radio, hosted the TV program Vremechko).
• Availability of screenshots 1 (so far they are only being negotiated).
• Reputation - 4(Bykov could be an authoritative writer, but he is harmed by the fact that he is not “above” any ideologies, but, on the contrary, is in solidarity with any of them).
• Total 23

9th-10th place

Evgeny Grishkovets

What did you get
For chanting the joys of life and everyday life simple modern man.

How he does it
Lenin stated that "the electron is as inexhaustible as the atom". Evgeniy Grishkovets proves that a person - and first of all his life, daily actions and thoughts - is as inexhaustible as an electron. His stories, novels and plays are statements of the most ordinary tales, diary entries, memories of his youth, school and university years, anecdotes about neighbors, fellow travelers or casual acquaintances, which are interspersed with reflections on the meaning of being. Readers can easily recognize themselves in all the above stories, tales and anecdotes, and even reflection in the works of Grishkovets is quite archetypal.

At the same time, Grishkovets' life of an ordinary person turns out to be joyful: even if there are sad episodes, they still cannot spoil the overall bright impression. All the troubles are drowned in a sweetly benevolent and forgiving style of presentation. Grishkovets, like a good storyteller, lulls the neurotic generation of 30-40-year-olds who have survived more than one crisis.

Points

• Prizes - 1(didn't get anything).
• Expert Recognition - 3(critics treat him coldly, but new books are still reviewed).
• Circulations - 4(in recent years, the average circulation has been more than 100,000 copies).
• The presence of fans - 3(there are active fan clubs of Grishkovets).
• Publicity - 4(Flashes in the press and on television, hosted his own TV show, but in the end he considered this experience unsuccessful).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 4(there are many theatrical productions based on the works of Grishkovets).
• Reputation - 3(it is not a moral authority of its own choice, since it prefers not to speak publicly on global issues at all).
• Total 22

9th-10th place

Aleksey Ivanov

What did you get
For the glorification of the Russian provinces and equalization of its rights with the capitals.

How he does it
Ivanov cut a window to the east of Russia, giving his Perm a semi-sacred status. It is possible that it was through this window that Marat Gelman and state money for culture came to Perm.

It cannot be said that before Ivanov no one had ever written about the Russian provinces. For example, Leonid Yuzefovich himself lived for many years in Perm, and in this city the action of his "Kazaroza" unfolds. But it was Ivanov who managed to create a stable myth about the self-sufficiency of the province in our centripetal country, where, according to the generally accepted opinion, everything that exists tends to move to Moscow, or at least to St. Petersburg.

In "Heart of Parma" and "Gold of Riot" the Permian version of history is much more interesting than the official one, which comes from Moscow and St. Petersburg. AT official version- kings, emperors, serfdom, decrees, ministers, riots and wars, everything boring and faceless; in Perm - magic, fighting elks, siege sleds, mysterious Voguls, beautiful rituals and the great river Chusovaya.

Points

• Prizes - 1(did not receive anything, although he was shortlisted several times).
• Expert recognition - 4(Among critics, Ivanov has both ardent supporters and ardent opponents).
• Draws - 3(the average circulation is not more than 100 thousand copies).
• The presence of fans - 5(The Permian public wears Ivanov in their arms, especially in his confrontation with Marat Gelman. Role-playing games are held based on his books, and in the summer of 2009, the Ivanov Heart of Parma festival was held in Perm).
• Publicity - 3(rarely leaves Perm, does not rush into public characters, but gives interviews).
• Availability of screen adaptations - 1(negotiations are underway, but the shooting has not yet reached).
• Reputation - 5(moral authority, has a reputation as a sage from the Ural hinterland, who can be contacted on especially important issues).
• Total 22

Illustrations: Maria Sosnina

Philosophy of healthy pessimism

It is pointless for a modern ordinary person from the crowd to talk about philosophy: who needs these philosophies, since the only concern is for the poor to survive, for the rich to earn? All these intricate philosophical constructions, terms, "things in themselves" and so on - try to figure it out. No wonder Hegel himself joked: "Only one person understood me, and even that one, to tell the truth, did not understand me." Understanding Schopenhauer to the end is also not easy, although his message to the philosophical understanding of the world and man is quite simple.

“Already at the age of 17,” Schopenhauer admitted, “I was so imbued with the bitterness of life, like Buddha in his youth, when he saw illness, old age, suffering and death ...” Most people try not to focus their attention on all the negatives of life, not to notice them, and even more so not to “chew” them in your head. But Schopenhauer, on the contrary, plunged into them without a trace. In his works, he wrote "about the insignificance and sorrows of life", which "both in great and small - universal grief, incessant work, incessant hustle, endless struggle, forced labor associated with the extreme strain of all physical and spiritual forces." He believed that man is “the main source of the most serious evils,” for man is homo homini lupusest (man is a wolf to man. - Yu.B.) and "the mutual relations of people are marked for the most part by untruth, extreme injustice, harshness and cruelty."

Schopenhauer wrote all this long before the 20th century, before the First and Second World Wars, before the use of gases, before the explosions of atomic bombs, before Auschwitz and Dachau, before Babi Yar, before the millions of victims of the Soviet Gulag. He seemed to foresee that human evil could rapidly grow. According to Schopenhauer, social optimism is without any foundation: “Progress is a dream of the 19th century, just as the resurrection from the dead was a dream of the 10th century; every time has its dreams.

“Everything is fine only as long as it doesn’t concern you ... - said Schopenhauer. - Life is never beautiful; only the picture of life is beautiful ... in the purifying mirror of art.

Schopenhauer outlined the main ideas of his philosophy in the first volume of The World as Will and Representation and partly in the book On Will in Nature. What is the world and what can we know about it? Schopenhauer argues that everything that exists around us is, in fact, not the world itself, not things in themselves, but our ideas about them. That is, everything is concentrated in the perception of a person, not the world itself - it is a blind "will to live", which is crushed in an infinite set of "objectification", a senseless river rotation. And the conclusion: life has no meaning, has no purpose, or, in other words, it is a goal for itself. “Always and everywhere the true emblem of nature is the circle, because it is the scheme of the return movement, and it is really the most general form in nature, which is used everywhere ... ”Constant dying and constant rebirth, like a change of seasons: spring - summer - autumn - winter - spring again and so on endlessly. And everything is subject to the will. Will is a dark, beginningless impulse - the will to exist. And this will is in man, in animals, in plants, in all animate and inanimate nature.

However, the will of a person is not only the achievement of some specific result, but the main thing is the awareness of the meaninglessness and hopelessness of one's own existence. Life is a change of suffering and boredom, boredom and suffering. Our life is faise nature, - as Lord Byron, revered by Schopenhauer, said, our life is a misunderstanding, and even suicide does not promise any way out.

But suicides are still units, and so a person in the mass loves his existence most of all, the instinct of self-preservation is the first commandment of the will to live. An irresistible, unceasing desire for good, for pleasure, for joy - her driving will, the will to live, is transformed into a relentless pursuit of happiness. And happiness is essentially a chimera. This was understood not only by Schopenhauer, but was understood before him and after him. Sigmund Freud melancholy remarked: "The task - to make a person happy - is not part of the plan for the creation of the world."

“The main and main spring in a person, as in an animal, is egoism,” Schopenhauer believed and distinguished two types of egoism: egoism, which wants its own good, and hypertrophied, malicious egoism, which wants someone else's grief. In the first case, he usually hides behind politeness, this "fig leaf of selfishness." In the second, he appears as a naked villainy: “Another person would be able to kill another only to grease his boots with his fat!” But at the same time, adds Schopenhauer, "I was left with a doubt whether this was really hyperbole."

The second type of egoism, or, in other words, envy, black envy flourished in Russia with the breakdown of the socialist system and the construction of the capitalist one. The whole society is saturated with black envy, malice and hatred.

Schopenhauer also singles out the third spring of human actions: compassion, which wants someone else's good, comes to nobility and even generosity. People would remain monsters if nature did not give them compassion to help the mind. But, alas, it is not as common as envy and hatred. It has long been noted that empathy with the joy of a neighbor (comrade, colleague, etc.) is usually more difficult for a person than empathy with his failures. The failure of the other is the quiet joy of the envious.

Human destiny, according to Schopenhauer, is "privations, grief, weeping, torment and death." The world - a vale of sorrow and suffering - such is the leitmotif of his entire philosophy. Schopenhauer's aphorism to the point: "All suffering is nothing but unfulfilled and suppressed desire."

“The life of any individual person ... in fact, is always a tragedy,” Schopenhauer makes such a bleak conclusion, “but analyzed in particular, it has the character of a comedy.” This world, according to Schopenhauer, is even more terrible than Dante's hell, because in it every person chasing his own happiness "must be a devil for another" ("Hell is others," Sartre would later say). In the end, the "devil" is nothing but the "personified will to live", or let's say from ourselves: the happiness of one is always based on the misfortune of another.

What can ease suffering? According to Schopenhauer, there are two things that bring relief. First of all, the contemplation of other people's suffering. Not some kind of assessment of them, which would make it possible to help those who suffer, but simply sympathy, temporarily distracting from their own suffering. Contemplation of the unfortunate fate of other people helps us to endure our own fate more easily, Schopenhauer argues.

Temporary relief can bring the contemplation of works of art. Contemplation suspends the action of the will. Immersion in beauty comforts us for a while. Another conclusion of the Frankfurt hermit. An example from personal life. When I arrived in Florence, it was raining, inclement weather spoiled my mood, despair crept into my soul. But, peering into Botticelli's painting "Spring", the soul cleared up and became happier. The beauty of colors and lines fascinated and made me forget about the world around me.

Schopenhauer looked at the history of mankind in a peculiar way, believing that its periods (or chapters) do not differ in essence from each other, but "only in names and chronology." “Everything that history tells about is, in essence, only a heavy, long and vague nightmare of mankind.” "Device human society swings like a pendulum between two evils" - despotism and anarchy. In relation to Russia, let's say: either Pugachev's freemen with razzor and violence and death, or Arakcheev's police muzzle. Extreme options: Ivan the Terrible and Joseph Stalin, and a sea of ​​blood.

Schopenhauer did not believe in reforms, he despised revolutions and believed that "no constitutions and laws, no locomotives and telegraphs will ever make something truly good out of life." Today we see how scientific and technological progress has done a lot to make people's work easier, but has it made them happier? - that's the question, a lot of all sorts of technical "tricks" appeared, but they could not solve human problems.

What is the use of enlighteners, reformers, humanists? - asked Schopenhauer: "What did Voltaire, Hume, Kant actually achieve?" All their efforts are futile and fruitless efforts, for "the world is a hospital for the incurable."

Speaking about the relationship between faith and knowledge, Schopenhauer said that they - faith and knowledge - "these are two scales: the higher one is, the lower the other." It is necessary to choose: either. "He who loves the truth hates the gods, both in the singular and in the plural."

Let's go back to the concept of happiness. Here, according to Schopenhauer, much depends on temperament. One continues to laugh where the other is close to despair. One, having achieved nine goals out of ten, does not rejoice at nine successes, but is sad about one failure, the other finds consolation and joy in a single success. Rich and poor. Each of them has its own joys and sorrows, on this account Schopenhauer has the following reasoning:

“Just as that country is happiest of all, which needs less or does not need imports at all, so it must be said about a person who has enough of his internal wealth and who feels little need for external goods, or even can do without them at all, for imported goods of this kind are expensive, deprive of independence, involve in dangers, cause annoyance, and in the end are still only a poor substitute for the products of their own soil.

Schopenhauer stands on the positions of the ancient Greek writer Lucian “Only in the wealth of the soul is our real wealth; everything else hides more sorrows in itself".

So Brunnhilde in the “Ring of the Nibelungs” says: “I am leaving the house of desires ...”

We must not wish for the useless, but we must act. “Our life is a non-stop movement, and complete idleness soon becomes unbearable, giving rise to desperate boredom. This need for movement must be regulated in order to satisfy it methodically - and therefore more fully ... ”But, alas, the world of values, both in the time of Schopegauer and in the present, is turned upside down. And as another German thinker Lessing accurately put it: "Some are famous, others deserve it." Schopenhauer also stated this situation with bitterness. Society repels smart people by its principle of equality, that is, equality of claims with an inequality of abilities, and therefore of merit, "in general, all social life," says Schopenhauer, "is a continuous playing of a comedy."

And final chord: “Therefore, no matter how plays and masks change on the world stage, the actors in them remain the same. We sit together and talk and excite each other, and eyes flare up, and voices become louder ... but others have sat in the same way for a thousand years: it was all the same, and it was all the same: just the same thing will happen in a thousand years".

Heroes and interlocutors leave, die, disappear, but everything is "non-disappearing" (such is the literal translation of Schopenhauer's expression). Matter and the world are eternal.

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Life is not sweet fruits and cream for you. What matters is how you feel about it. However, some zodiac signs can stubbornly focus on the very worst and naturally become very pessimistic and negative people, prone to gloomy critical thinking. Of course, we can all lose our temper, get upset and see the bad in everything, but basically we cope with this successfully, because being in the negative is very harmful and destructive. Yes, our lives are not always easy, but at least they are interesting. Check yourself how pessimistic you are in this regard according to astrology.

1. Cancer

Cancers can let their emotions get the better of them. When everything goes wrong, or they suddenly get up on the wrong foot in the morning, they become just the embodiment of continuous negativity. Cancers will immediately begin to play the most unfortunate victim of themselves and blame the whole world for their own problems. And, alas, for a long time. When this sign is in a good mood, it is sweeter than sugar, but if the reins fell under the tail, then others need to beware. Cancer uses his pessimism as a way to release negative emotions, but in reality, he only sinks deeper into depression.

2. Virgo

Virgos can become desperate pessimists when something doesn’t work out for them or doesn’t go according to plan at all. This sign wants to be a leader and a lucky person, but he is not good at controlling himself. As soon as Virgo sees failure or failure, she immediately becomes depressed and sad. She has only two opinions: her own and wrong, and if you try to challenge this, her state of mind will change for the worse. Virgos are capricious when they are pessimistic, and sometimes this capriciousness causes even more negativity. But there comes a moment when aggression is already overflowing, and then Virgo lets off steam and calms down.

3. Scorpio

Scorpios are very toxic and negative when something in life, in their opinion, goes completely wrong. This “not so” happens with enviable regularity, because this sign is often in a gloomy and wild rage because of a situation that, in fact, is absolutely harmless and completely solvable. Scorpio constantly thinks that everything around is falling apart without the possibility of recovery. He winds himself intensely, and his thinking moves more and more intensively along the spiral of pessimistic destruction. When Scorpio is in this state, it is almost impossible to be near him.

4. Capricorn

Capricorns are responsible and well-organized people, but when they get overwhelmed, negativity takes over. They are afraid that they will not cope with the task, problem, obstacle, and this will ruin their reputation. The self-discipline of this sign just rolls over, and when he really fails, he eats himself and everyone around him. Difficult times cause a pessimistic mood in Capricorn, and it is incredibly difficult for him to get out of this state. Of course, he tries not to completely absorb such moodiness and lingering gloom, but he does not always succeed.