Blue matter. Essay book. Nevglyadova E.V.

The book of Elena Nevzglyadova “Blue Matter” consists of articles and an essay about prose. The heroes of this book are Lev Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bunin, Yuri Trifonov, Valentin Kataev, Nabokov, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, as well as Graham Green, Knut Hamsun, Salinger.

Nevzglyadova believes that it is the lyrics that underlies all cultural beginnings, it is the spiritualizing the beginning of human behavior, the phenomenon is not only aesthetic, but also ethical. The lyrics, which she sees in prose, is understood not in the household, but in a broader, general cultural sense. Her essays are akin to the lyrics, she is spiritualized by feeling, no matter how far away from the actual lyrics are such writers as Tolstoy, Chekhov or Trifons.

What is “Blue Matter”? This is a metaphor for those several artistically significant, successfully found words or phrases that stand out in the text, play an increased role, hooking the soul, and ultimately create high prose. Just as, according to the Blok, “the poem is a bedspread stretched on the tinges of several words”, the prose depends on several outstanding details of the text. They “make the weather”, they are interesting to find and watch them. They are the essence of art: they are accurate, unexpected and, as a rule, poetic. All the heroes of this book became heroes thanks to “Blue Matter”. And why exactly such a metaphor came to the place, the reader learns from the essay with this name.