The Russian writer and editor, Mikhail Morgulis, has posed a number of questions concerning the essence of Russian literature. I am eager to hear your opinions?
1. Russian literature has much that is pure, but life has so much that is putrid. Why? Is the same for other nations?
2. The Nobel Prize winner, Iosif Brodsky once said that all “exalted” poetery, “high” literature is spiritual. But it seems to me , that it is not always the case. There are great works, imbued with teh spirit of the Anti-Christ.
What do you think?
3. Some literature is not bad. But it is a fake. Just as some people are not genuine, they are frauds. For we live in a world of imitations, frauds. Just as there are genuine people and fakes. How does one in this life attempt to separate the genuine from the fraudulent? Even when there are real and capable people, and their literature is a fraud. People have learned to imitate almost everything: love, friendship, and yes, literature, too. And the majority of those in the world make use on a daily basis not of the real thing, but of fake imitations, yet don’t know it. Have you had any personal experience with how to distinguish the real from the imitation? Depending on our ability to distinguish between them we will either remain human beings or turn into robots.
What would you tell Mikhail?