Vladimir Sorokin's new book is a collection of proverbs and sayings born in the depths of his artistic world and widely spread among the inhabitants of Telluria.

From this book you can learn that 'maybe what goes in one horse's ear and out the other'; that 'a witch is friends with a goat, and a warlock with a boar'; that 'holy water leads with all waters'; that 'a fool was respected for his patience'; that 'you can't bring happiness with a kick in the ass'; and several hundred other proverbs and sayings that Vladimir Sorokin has been recording since the 1980s, collecting them not from towns and villages, but as if eavesdropping on the heroes of his own books. These 'pearls of folk thought' can be heard throughout the vast expanses of 'Telluria,' as the collectors of 'Blue Ice,' the travelers of 'Metel,' and the inhabitants of 'Sugar Kremlin' say. Besides proverbs and sayings, both obscene and quite innocent, there are also riddles. Some are simple, for example: 'He led people on water, and led them to truth' (Christ), while others are impossible to guess: 'Vanya rode a pike to woo' (Khrapulya-honey-extractor). Avos, stupidity, vodka, fool, hedgehog, wife, ass, work, death, hiccups, pike, snitching... Dozens of words and concepts and hundreds of proverbs illustrating them. This collection, perhaps, is precisely what Sorokin's artistic world needed to become even more real, instantly recognizable, and frighteningly believable.

Abstract

Vladimir Sorokin's bizarre, phantasmagorical, yet painfully recognizable and frightening world lacked, perhaps, only one thing: his own proverbs and sayings. And now, this gap has been filled. These pearls of folk thought were not collected in the regions of boundless Russia during ethnographic expeditions; no, they belong to those who inhabit Telluria, those who wander in the endless blizzard or sit behind the walls of the Sugar Kremlin. An impeccable stylist, Sorokin captures the soul of his literary people, transmutes it into proverbs and sayings, and, with the meticulousness of a true philologist, compiles them into a collection, dividing the material into key words and concepts: stupidity, witch, vodka, rack, hedgehog, pike, snitch, hiccup. Hundreds of proverbs and sayings, both innocent and quite obscene, illustrate Sorokin's work better and more colorfully than any literary study.

Authors: Vladimir Sorokin