5 books to be (not) smart

Questions about what to watch or what to read can be asked, it seems, endlessly and more than once – after all, any good work, be it a book, movie or TV series, unfortunately, sooner or later ends and leaves. Its audience or reader is in the throes of new searches. But there is some good news, too.

To make your task easier, every week we ask our columnist Konstantin Obraztsov, the writer, author of “Red Chains”, “Hammer of the Witches” and other books, as well as the creator of the “Sample Reading” show on YouTube. (in the past National Internet Content Awards – in 2024 the project won, by the way, in the category “Art of Enlightenment”) and the “Obraztsov” channel in Telegram – to share the diamonds of the best collection of literature and series in the world.

Konstantin Obraztsov

Books are on the agenda today to appear Be the smartest.

The characters Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady in the TV series “White Lotus” would always take volumes of Friedrich Nietzsche or Sigmund Freud with them when they went to the pool of the holiday hotel and sit on the sun loungers with proud faces. The books are opened so everyone can see the covers.

Because being smart is sexy.

This fact has been proven not only by British scientists, but also by scientists: the smarter a woman, the sexier she is, and creative self-realization increases orgasm – at least this is what Bill’s cultural scientist and political advisor Naomi Wolf says. Clinton and Al Gore say. There is even a concept of sapiosexuality, where attraction arises from education, intelligence, eloquence and creative achievements.

However, an educated and intelligent partner attracts not only sapiosexuals – successful and self-confident people prefer to communicate with those who can support an intellectual conversation or, in any case, with those with whom they will not have to be embarrassed in society. But the traditional type of stupid blonde will be preferred by people whose own level of development leaves much to be desired, so all that remains is to highlight their patriarchal ego at the expense of a submissive and narrow-minded partner.

At the White Lotus, the charming hotel guests weren’t reading books, they were just using them as a feature. This is not our way. We are for being, not appearing, and today’s selection includes five authors whose books will not only position you as the smartest person in the pool, but will also really help you develop your ability to feel and understand complex literary texts.

Of course, if you can handle them.

Thomas Pynchon, “Gravity’s Rainbow”

Pynchon is a true icon of twentieth-century literary postmodernism and one of the most enigmatic writers of our time. Born in New York State in 1937, he served in the Navy, attended Nabokov’s classes, earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and published his first novel in 1963. Not a single photograph of Thomas Pynchon has been taken since; only photographs of his youth exist, and the author himself is not so public that some critics and literary scholars doubt his existence.

The novel “Gravity’s Rainbow” was written in 1973 and is considered the most complex literary work of all time. The action takes place during World War II: in fact, the phrase “Gravity’s Rainbow” is a metaphor for the ballistic trajectory of the German V-2 rocket.

It is absolutely impossible to try to retell what happened in the novel: 700 pages of strange footage, compiled from references to Kabbalah, post-modern popular culture, with the participation of almost 400 characters, none of whom can be called normal. various mental aberrations, conspiracy theories, Tarot, drug hallucinations, secret laboratories, the essence of perverted sexuality, Egyptian gods, octopuses in love, white papers, magic, real history, pseudo-science fiction, numerology and mathematics.

“Gravity’s Rainbow” breaks the patterns of perception and crushes common sense on every page, while the author’s unique narrative style is as overly complex as possible, making the novel a real challenge for the advanced reader. This is the same book after reading which you can say: now I saw everything!

By the way, “Gravity’s Rainbow” is mentioned in the speech of Daniel Craig’s character in the movie “Knives Out”, which emphasizes his unattainably high intellectual level.

James Joyce, “Ulysses”

“Joyce’s book is a feature of a subtle nature“, the bard Timur Shaov once remarked.

Joyce’s Ulysses appears on every list of books with the word “brilliant” or “compelling” in the title. Gravity’s Rainbow has been called the most important postmodern text of the twentieth century, and Ulysses is considered the highest achievement of literary modernism. Almost everyone has heard of it, many have tried to read it, some have succeeded, and very few have been able to truly feel and perceive this strange story.

Thanks to Ulysses, the expression “stream of consciousness” became popular: we often use it ironically, but for Joyce it was an artistic device through which he talked about his hero and his inner journey.

In fact, Ulysses is the Latin form of the name of the famous mythological Odysseus, whose travels lasted only ten years throughout the then-known ancient world, and Joyce’s hero, Leopold Bloom, travels for a day in his hometown of Dublin. This day, June 16, 1904, is now celebrated by fans of Ulysses – yes, there are some! – Like “Blooming Day”, when they follow the route of the heroes of the novel, order the same dishes at their workplaces and even dress in the style of the 20s of the twentieth century.

Besides direct references to the Odyssey, Ulysses is full of literary and cultural quotations that even a highly educated reader might not notice all of them. Joyce himself said that he put so many riddles, internal codes and riddles into his text that there would be enough decoding and discussion for centuries. If you read a very dense text of eight hundred pages, you can try to unravel the mysteries of Joyce’s stream of consciousness and then discuss these issues with experts.

Marcel Proust, “In Search of Lost Time”

I believe that special reader awards can be given for some works – for example, “For reading the epilogue to War and Peace.”

In this case, in order to fully read Proust’s novel, the person must be given an honorary medal and special social aid.

In Search of Lost Time is a massive work in seven chapters, consisting of 3,500 pages and 2,500 characters. It took Marcel Proust thirty years to create it, and there are many opinions about what he ended up with. Definitions range from the simple “novel cycle” to the romantic “cathedral novel” to the “psychological epic” to the “symphony novel.” In terms of plot, Proust’s epic seems quite simple – a series of memories of the narrator from childhood to old age, but it is presented at unusual length – Nabokov, for example, noted that a dinner party scene could last one hundred and fifty pages. and an evening reception – half the price of a book.

Like Joyce, the apparent simplicity of the narrative develops into a magnificent internal complexity: if Ulysses is a stream of consciousness, then In Search of Lost Time is a river novel, composed of digressions, lyrical digressions, and instead a series of reflections and impressions. of a linear narrative

Proust is generally considered a recognized master of impressions, of describing reality through sensory experience; he is a kind of literary impressionist, choosing his words as carefully as an artist chooses the hue of flowers. He led a reclusive lifestyle and was extremely demanding of himself – he once burned 33 handwritten notebooks of the finished text! – and I could struggle to find a single word all day. In fact, that’s why the creation of “In Search of Lost Time” took thirty years.

Reading will be faster. But it’s not exactly like that.

Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea”

The name of the famous French philosopher and writer was a sign of intellectual superiority even in the late USSR:

“He’s got Sartre in his pocket, his countrymen have a dime at best– he sang in a famous song of that time.

Jean-Paul Sartre is known primarily as one of the brightest representatives of atheist existentialism. This word became part of fixed expressions such as “.existential crisis” or “existential threat“The term comes from:existence“, well”existence” is the subject of study of the philosophy of existentialism in its most truly existential sense.

“An empty gift, a random gift, life, why were you given to me?“Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin once wrote on his birthday. These words express the essence of the existential crisis, in which existence, existence is perceived as an imposed duty. This crisis is experienced in its most extreme form by the main character of Antoine Roquentin’s novel “Nausea”. Once he threw pebbles into the water and suddenly felt tangibly the sickening certainty of bodily existence. The world around him seems cumbersome, people seem trapped in rotting bodies, and Roquentin’s existential nausea with his own existence is the subject of his experiences and the theme of the novel.

Reading Sartre will reveal not only your intelligence and sophistication, but also your rebellious nature. Atheist existentialism isn’t just about nausea, it’s also about “If there is no God, anything is possible!“pronounced in a positive way. Sartre himself was extremely rebellious: a committed socialist, a critic of capitalism and a symbol of the left-wing radical student revolution in France in 1968: the students who took over the Sorbonne only allowed Sartre in. They started riots He was arrested for his participation, but was released by direct order of French President Charles de Gaulle, who uttered the following historic sentence: “France does not imprison Voltaires.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”

After Pynchon, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s not-so-easy-to-understand syllable will seem understandable and close, like his parents’ house. However, in terms of meaning, Dostoevsky’s last novel is deep and ambiguous, just as he is one of the most powerful writers and philosophers of world literature.

Surprisingly, Dostoevsky is also thought to be an existentialist of only a religious kind. Sartre’sIf there is no God, anything is possible!“is a statement, and in Dostoevsky it is a polemical thesis expressed in the context of the search for an artistic answer to fundamental philosophical questions.

What is peace? Is there a god? What is a human being and where are the limits of his freedom?

As is typical of Dostoyevsky, ideological debates are set in a tense detective plot, and it is worth being grateful to the reader for this concern. But what is really important here, of course, are the images of the brothers, each of whom answers the existential questions of existence in their own way.

“The Brothers Karamazov” is both the famous “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” and “Satan fights with God and the battlefield is people’s hearts” and a very important thing that is always said about the tears of a single tortured child, which is not worth any world harmony.

Note: An obvious bonus of reading intellectual books: men do not need to look for a reason to talk, and a girl can immediately understand who is in front of her from the first word.

“What are you reading?» – not immediately necessary;

“Is such a beautiful girl reading Dostoyevsky?» – stereotyping and intense sexism;

“I also tried to read Joyce but failed.“, – laudable honesty and desire for self-improvement, but admirable…

“Wow, Pynchon! So how did you find this?” – remarkable: one not only hears Pynchon, but also knows “Wow!” If it also looks good, it definitely makes sense to give it a chance.