Minaev's story about an unreal person. What is spiritless? What does the word "duhless" mean? The plot of a literary work

After the publication of the book “Duhless. The Tale of an Unreal Man" and its film adaptation, many began to ask the question: "What is duhless?" This is a complex word, and not only in translation, it has deep philosophical content, so it is necessary to understand its meaning.

Previously, this term was not used in Russian, but thanks to Sergei Minaev it has firmly entered our lexicon. The concept of “spiritless” and its meaning will be discussed in the article.

What is spiritless: definition of the concept

The word itself consists of two parts “spirit” and “less”, the first part of the word is spirit, spirituality, soulfulness, and the second is a borrowed English word that means “without”. So how do you understand what “spiritless” is? When translated into our language, this word is interpreted as lack of spirituality. It has become very popular among young people and is often used in the media, Internet slang, and cinema.

Synonyms for the concept are the words: baseness, unbridled consumption, moral emptiness, soullessness, general decline in morals. These qualities are now very inherent in society. That is, there has been a revaluation of values, which are also actively promoted.

Based on the plot of Sergei Minaev’s book, two films were made.

But in order to finally understand the philosophical meaning of the concept of “spiritless”, it is necessary to plunge into the world of the novel. So, what is spiritless and its essence through the eyes of the author?

The plot of a literary work

The main character heads the marketing department in the Moscow branch of a large company. He earns good money, lives in an expensive apartment, and drives a luxury car. He is successful: his life is a success. A young man goes to nightclubs and social gatherings and increasingly becomes immersed in alcohol and drug intoxication. But for some reason he gets more and more bored with everything every day, the reality around him becomes disgusting, and the idea of ​​​​finding new entertainment comes to mind. Perhaps he is thus trying to find a way to break out of this vicious circle. After all, he can feel calm and peaceful only when he is next to his girlfriend.

According to the plot of the novel, the main character is framed by anti-drug officers who plant cocaine, he learns what betrayal of a friend and fraud are, and sees how low a person can fall for the sake of money and the thirst for profit. The guy even manages to ruin his relationship with his girlfriend, because he constantly takes out his anger on her. It becomes difficult for him to communicate with others.

And one fine morning the hero realizes that everything that surrounds him is empty, like a white sheet. Everything in his life is frivolous. A young man boards a train and travels in an unknown direction, the hero gets off at an unfamiliar station, wanders through a strange area, finds a clearing, sits on a fallen tree and begins to think about life...

He is lost both in the world and in life, wanders without a goal, and unnoticed by himself ends up on a huge railway bridge. The hero enters its middle and his thoughts lead him to thoughts about death and about childhood, to which he would like to return. And only the best moments come to mind...

History of the name

The novel, according to the author, is autobiographical, but Minaev does not say what exactly prompted him to write the book. The creator explains the use of English in the titles of the chapters and the work itself as a desire to show his stylishness and education.

Critic and Russian literary critic Nikolai Alexandrov wrote in one of his notes that “duhless” is a strange hybrid that evokes an association with the word topless. According to him, the nature of the book corresponds completely to this type of exposure.

The main themes of the novel

The main theme addressed in the novel is ridicule of the cult of careerism and money in modern society. These concepts and success, according to the author, are completely different concepts. Of course, it is necessary to strive for success, but you absolutely should not extol your career and make it the meaning of your whole life.

Perhaps this is why the writer believes that the main character is wasting his life, wasting it. He tries to break out of this circle, but his attempts are in vain, since the young man is afraid to take responsibility and commit actions that are not dictated by his society. The character looks like an overly capricious and empty person. The author believes that only love can save him. At the end of the novel, the hero is at a crossroads in life, but this is not the end of the road, it is just a reason to rethink what is happening.

One of the striking plot lines in the novel is the theme of lack of spirituality. The action takes place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but there is no difference between the capital's clubs and any others. But there is a problem of brand mania, which has taken on enormous proportions all over the world; heroes also often use obscenities, without any embarrassment at all. In addition, the novel is filled with English words; the heroes of the novel “speak” with them, because foreign expressions are “symbols of prestige.”

The writer portrays managers of large corporations as stupid and petty people. He believes that such individuals are confidently moving towards dullness, because corporate thought erases personality, it destroys it as an individual, eradicates subjective thinking. The author is sure that the heroes are victims of large companies and the media; they live in a world of myths and prevailing stereotypes.

The creator of the novel compares his heroes with the characters in the works of Russian classics “Hero of Our Time”, “Woe from Wit”, “Eugene Onegin”. In his opinion, nothing has changed. Take Pechorin, for example, dress him in a modern “outfit”, sit him at a table in the office of any company, and instead of a ball send him to a nightclub - everything is the same.

That is, the lack of spirituality that is depicted in the novel is in fact the inner world of modern “successful” heroes. So this is what “spiritless” is.

The values ​​of a modern yuppie, according to the novel

The novel revealed the character of a modern successful young man and society as a whole. The moral and spiritual guidelines of the Russian public have undergone changes. The book clearly articulates the values ​​of the modern yuppie (a successful young man with an excellent higher education). He lives and works in a big city, strives to make a career and achieve a position in society.

It should be noted that such a stratum of society has really formed in our country. They work in companies, adopt the manners and style of behavior, speech characteristics of Western (mostly American) young successful people, “sharpened” on a career and money.

The values ​​of Russian yuppies are:

• financial solvency (apartment, expensive car, branded clothing);
• constant parties in prestigious and posh nightclubs;
• superficial love and friendship;
• maximum profit with minimum labor costs;
• skeptical attitude towards patriotism, family, honor, discipline, education and devotion.

Everything is questioned, all values ​​are rejected, many moral principles are violated, this is what spiritless means - a new worldview and a new lifestyle of the modern yuppie.

Screen adaptation of the work by Sergei Minaev. An excellent reason to get acquainted with the bestseller if you haven’t read it and don’t plan to.

The movie turned out to be glamorous and glossy with claims to philosophy. Actually, these thoughts are already old today. Is there anyone else who is unfamiliar with the idea that many people do not know how to manage the large amounts of money that come easily? Especially if you are young. Immediately a nice apartment, an expensive car, clubs and restaurants, women changing every night, etc. Life is wasted in drinking, which is comparable to earnings. And as a result, no matter how much you earn, there is almost no money.

As I understand it, the main idea of ​​the film is to show that the main character in the end understands that his life is a delusion. What does the viewer ultimately see? The main character becomes interested in a girl who is either a bandit or an extremist. If one thing is replaced by another, the morality becomes dubious. At certain times I’m surprised by the scriptwriters, maybe it’s different in the book.

It was interesting to watch. Another youth entertainment film made at the Western level.

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  Zhanna

  Newbie | Comments: 1

  Hero of our time. In every club, party, there are more than half of these partygoers, thoughtlessly spending their free time. They are fun, cool, at night they feel superior to the world, women, interlocutors, but during the day they are not, and they are not there during the day)). I often wondered what good can be found in this, what is the secret, what motivates them, where they strive. In the book everything is clear, they are dependent, unable to live normally, aimless. Mummies, moral monsters

Still from the film “Duhless” (2011)

Very briefly

The hero, full of self-criticism, self-irony and sarcasm, talks about the empty and false glamorous life around him.

The narration is told in the first person.

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Moscow 2000s. Sitting in a pretentious restaurant with a random friend and almost not listening to him, the nameless hero reflects on the life around him and the characters, fake and insincere. He hates this entire rich and show-off public and himself, who is an integral part of it. He spends a drunken, ugly evening with a random acquaintance.

In the morning, the hero comes to the office of the company, which he calls Mordor, where he has been working as a top manager for four years. This is a French company that sells canned food. He sarcastically characterizes the activities of the staff as throwing dust in the eyes, and the relations of the employees as in a wolf pack. He considers himself a “prostitute” who “pleasers” the management. He considers business methods to be stupid and soviet, the director is an alcoholic, and most of the employees are superfluous and lazy. “Hypocrisy and hypocrisy are the true kings of the world,” the cynical hero concludes. His style of work is to puzzle his subordinates so that he can work less himself.

After handing out assignments to employees he believes to be battery-powered androids, he clashes over production problems with financier Garido, with whom he has a long-standing corporate feud. Their boss watches the employees’ squabble with poorly hidden gloating: in the company it is customary not to cooperate, but to compete.

After work, the hero goes to a restaurant, not because he is hungry, but because it is customary. He sits down with professional partygoers he barely knows and takes part in meaningless conversation. Looking around, he sees empty faces.

And no one here is at all happy with each other; it’s just not customary to show your emotions. If we were to give free rein to our feelings even for a second, you would see exclusively faces crooked with envy and melancholy.

Suddenly the hero meets his old party-goer friend Misha Vuda - “the embodiment of club culture and night fever style, a man from the top five of Moscow club promoters.” There are rumors that he returned from abroad with the goal of starting his own business.

The friends are happy to see each other and rock out all night. Unlike the empty conversations of the surrounding partygoers, Misha is serious: he decided to open the coolest nightclub. He and his companion do not have enough money, and the hero is invited to become a co-investor. He promises to think about it and discuss the idea with a friend.

The hero and Misha's company roll into another club, where he is offered to snort cocaine. Suddenly, in a toilet stall, with a drug in his hands, he is arrested by FSKN operatives. The hero had already said goodbye to freedom when Misha buys him off from the police. In a fit of gratitude, the hero decides to invest in his business. He agrees with Vadim, a top manager with whom he has been friends for seven years, to become Misha’s co-investors.

The hero wants to see Julia, with whom he has been in love for a year. Their relationship is platonic, because the hero does not want to spoil their spiritual intimacy. The lovers walk on the Patriarch's Ponds, Julia convinces the hero that he is a good person, only tired and “playing too much of a cynic,” and he should notice the sea of ​​love around him. After dating a girl, he feels better than he thinks about himself.

Friends go to see the future business, where Misha and his companion show them the premises being renovated. Vadim decides to invest all his saved money in the business. After signing the documents, the hero is euphoric that he will soon become rich and famous and will finally do what he loves.

A meeting on the results of the financial year is taking place at the head office. French leadership and regional representatives are present. According to the hero, everyone present is not interested in the success of the company, but in the size of bonuses, especially those of others. And everyone here is jealous of Muscovites.

At that moment, a huge ball of lightning, woven from universal hatred, hung in the room... We can say that hatred is the main engine of our business.

Behind the paper indicators of success are human destinies - the hero is very well aware of this: “I can imagine how many people we rotted or fired in the name of achieving these notorious PLAN INDICATORS.”

The hero is overly pleased with himself and his professional, although not entirely deserved, successes.

The hero spends the evening in a new, just opened club, where everything is the same as everywhere else: booze, drugs, deafening music, prostitutes, semi-familiar friends... Returning home alone, the hero sobs with melancholy.

In the morning, suffering from a hangover and self-hatred, he thinks about when he stopped being a real person and managed to become nothing.

... the space inside the Garden Ring in the evenings is [populated] by empty-nesters. Once they were normal people... but then, at some point, they realized that it was easier to turn into characters in glamor magazines...

The hero calls the reality and characters around him “the zone” and “mummies”: “The length of your imprisonment here is not known. No one put you here, you... chose your own path. The opposite is not expected." Sometimes it seems to the hero that the head of this “zone” is himself, and the “mummies” are united by a common religion, the name of which is SPIRITUALITY. The hero comes to disappointing conclusions: “If earlier people solved the global problem of becoming successful in this life, today their great-great-great-grandchildren are solving the problem of how to get into this club and become successful tonight...”

On his day off, the hero plunges into the alluring world of the Internet, as fake as the real one. He tells how, amidst the militant grayness of the Internet, he searched for spirituality and allegedly even found it among admirers of counterculture and modern literature. But, having gone to a couple of meetings with them, I quickly realized that there was no smell of spirituality here, and “...the goals of all these revolutionaries are as primitive as those of many other representatives of society. Shoot money, find new drinking buddies... fuck while drunk with any chick...” The hero sadly advises: “If you see an interesting community of people on the Internet, ... under no circumstances seek to meet them in reality. Enjoy from a distance if you don’t want new disappointments.”

In the Kruzhka bar, the hero meets with representatives of the underground, with Limonov’s followers - the National Bolsheviks. The loud and empty speeches of adherents about the future proletarian revolution mask completely mundane desires: to socialize, get drunk for free, borrow money without return. The hero sarcastically ridicules pseudo-revolutionary slackers who only know how to criticize the regime, but do not want to work. Young National Bolsheviks try to object to him, but soon their fighting fervor fades and the gathering turns into a drinking party.

The hero communicates with the leader of the counterculture site, the drunkard Avdey. He first asks to get him a job, and not seeing a positive response, he offers to organize a business for website promotion, and with the hero’s money, since Avdey himself is always penniless. Already on the way out, the leader of the National Bolsheviks, who recently called the hero a “class enemy,” tries to get money from him for drinks. The “enemy” is overtaken by yet another disappointment in life.

In the morning, the hero will have to fly to St. Petersburg with an audit of the local branch. There is a suspicion that the branch management is stealing the company's money, and he has to prove or disprove it.

Insomnia

Before boarding the train, the hero meets Yulia and is again confused and fascinated by her, like a schoolboy in love.

On the train he is angry and irritated by everything: fellow passengers, food, service, and only a portion of cocaine found in his luggage returns him to a good mood. Satisfied with life, he gets off the train. They accept him as the big boss that he is.

The hero does not like St. Petersburg because of its depressive atmosphere, dankness and boredom. He speaks ironically about the city and its citizens: “The main theme of the highly spiritual residents of St. Petersburg is an obsession with their own significance and specialness.” Therefore, he refers to Northern Palmyra without sentimentality.

In the St. Petersburg branch there is an atmosphere of idleness, nepotism and theft. They fawn over the Moscow authorities and lie a lot. The hero notes the defiant appearance of large distributors and the unfortunate appearance of small ones. Average sales representatives leave the hero dirt on the St. Petersburg management.

In the evening he meets with his friend Misha - a great original and intellectual.

Perhaps he is the only one of my acquaintances, communication with whom is not built around a discussion of money, women, parties and business and lies on the plane of spiritual dialogues.

The heroes smoke weed until they pass out and talk about spirituality, which St. Petersburg residents have, but Muscovites do not. In Misha’s understanding, “...this cannot be explained, it can only be felt at the level of high matters.” The hero contradicts his friend and claims that “this is such a semantic connection among the St. Petersburg intelligentsia. Well, you know, like the drunks in the yard have a bunch of “fuck”... And instead of “fuck” you substitute “spirituality,” which in the essence of the context is simply the same thing.”

Then the friends casually stroll through politics, foreign and domestic, economics, the national idea, or rather the absence of it, social justice... In a narcotic stupor, the hero dreams of Russian President V. Putin in the form of Batman, fatherly scolding him for smoking marijuana.

The next morning the hero has lunch with the St. Petersburg branch director Gulyakin. They meet in the “USSR” cafe with the corresponding Soviet style, and the hero reflects on how the people of St. Petersburg love to commemorate their fellow countryman, the current President Putin, appropriately and inappropriately.

Peter suffered from “magnet” syndrome, as I call it. Almost every St. Petersburg resident tries to attract himself (directly or indirectly, through the city) to Putin.

The hero accuses Gulyakin of theft and promises to report this to the French leadership. The Petersburger stands bravely, denies it, but still confesses and offers the hero a bribe. The Muscovite refuses the money, but urges him not to steal anymore and offers to repay him with a favor in the future.

Gulyakin reproaches the hero for not being like those around him, not living like everyone else, and humiliating people who know how to work. In response to the accusations, the hero expresses his position in life: “...I live here, I work here,.. I love women,.. I have fun. And I don’t want to leave anywhere, I want all this (an honest and comfortable life) to be here in Russia... I don’t want to live in a world where everything happens “because it’s supposed to be that way.” And I don’t want to be like you...”

In the Onegin club, the hero and his friend Vadim put on airs like Muscovites, insult and be rude to those around them, snort cocaine and get drunk. In a fit of melancholy, he calls Yulia in Moscow, and she consoles him. After talking with her, the hero no longer feels lonely, cheers up and the evening ends in a drunken and drug-induced stupor.

In the morning, the hero reads SMS from Yulia and he becomes ashamed of his hypocrisy and cynicism. He responds to her with a heartfelt message.

It seems to me that the scales have tipped. And that cup of them, filled with pieces of good, fragments resting somewhere in the depths of me, went down, outweighing all my nasty things, which seemed dominant until tonight.

The hero’s conscientious attitude does not last long and, remembering the atmosphere around him, he comes to a negative conclusion: “I don’t trust anyone, I’m afraid of everyone... I deceive everyone, everyone deceives me. We are all hostages of our own lies...”

On the way home on the train, the hero is sadly nostalgic for his beautiful youth, comparing it with the terrible present. He philosophically summarizes the results of the activities of his generation of 30-year-olds, believing that on his mass grave they will write: “To the generation born in 1970–1976, so promising and so promising. Whose start was so bright and whose life was so wasted. May our dreams of a happy future, where everything should have been different, rest in peace...”

The hero meets Julia in a cafe. Because of her lateness, his jealousy and irritation, he is filled with unmotivated aggression. Accuses his girlfriend of naivety, lies and unnecessary interference in his life. He also does not spare himself: “I am a fool, ready to make fun of everyone, including myself. Since childhood, I quickly get tired of toys; give me something new right away. I’m wasting my life in this daily pursuit of entertainment. I’m running away from myself, I’m bored, sick and disgusted with myself.” Calls on her to run away from him without looking back before she gets stuck headlong in the vile swamp of his life. Julia leaves, and the hero is disgusted with himself and regrets that he destroyed the best thing he had.

On his way out of the club, he is beaten by homeless people and rescued by a police squad. He recognizes one of the police officers as an operative from the State Tax Committee, who arrested him a week earlier. He is overcome with suspicion.

The next day - the opening of a nightclub, co-owned by them with Vadim and Misha Voodoo. Misha's phones are not answered, and worried friends come to the club. They are surprised by the lack of festive decorations and the somewhat deserted appearance of the room. The club is closed, and the friends realize that their “partner” Misha deceived and robbed them. Vadim falls into hysterics, accuses his friend of frivolity and irresponsibility and leaves.

The hero goes to a club, gets drunk and snorts cocaine. He feels bad from all the failures that have come at once, and he wants to forget.

People, I feel bad. I feel terrible. You do not see? I'm going to die here now. I will die from your indifference and emptiness. Hey, somebody talk to me! You hear? - I yell into the audience, raising both hands up.

In a drunken stupor, he beats up a homosexual who pestered him.

On Sunday morning, the hero suffers from a hangover and depression. He thinks about how to spend his day off smarter, but realizes that he has no one to call, and he doesn’t want anyone because of the emptiness of the surrounding characters. He flips through glamor magazines, looks at invitations to clubs and his photos from there - it seems to him that he sees empty white sheets. Suddenly Yulia calls him and asks him to meet her from her trip in a few days. Delighted, he asks her for forgiveness, and the girl promises not to remember evil.

The hero meets Vadim in a cafe. He is hysterically looking for a way out of the trap he fell into after losing the company's money, and offers his friend a scam to compensate for the damage. He calls on his friend to come to his senses, forget everything and continue living without deceiving anyone. An angry Vadim suspects him of having connections with scammers and threatens him with problems.

Realizing that he has lost a friend, the hero goes to the station, boards a random train and falls asleep. He has a phantasmagoric dream involving semi-familiar characters who haunt him.

And here I have a complete feeling of a vicious circle and some stupid, but at the same time terrible offense that I committed.

Waking up, he gets off at an unfamiliar station, sits in a forest clearing, looks at the corpse of a rat and associates the glamorous party of Moscow with it.

The hero loses his cell phone, stands on a bridge and, for the first time in many years, admires the wonderful forest landscape illuminated by the rising sun. Pictures of his own life, filled with emptiness and falsehood, run before him as if in a kaleidoscope. Looking at the rising sun, the hero wishes that his fire would never go out.

The generation born in 1970–1976, so promising and so promising. Whose start was so bright and whose life was so wasted. May our dreams of a happy future rest in peace, where everything should have been different... R.I.P....I cannot afford to have a book with the title “The Battalion Combat Attacks” or “Special Forces Contact” lying in the back seat of my car. I don’t watch “Brigada”, I don’t like Russian rock, I don’t have Seryoga’s CD with “Black Boomer”. I read Houellebecq, Ellis, watch old movies with Marlene Dietrich. And I spent my first money not on a four-year-old baby, like the boys, but on a trip to Paris. And I am bursting with tenderness and romance of the situation, and I feel good, like in childhood, when my mother covered me, sleeping, with a blanket. And it seems to me that the scales have swung. And that cup of them, filled with pieces of good, fragments resting somewhere in the depths of me, went down, outweighing all my nasty things, which seemed dominant until tonight. Or is it all just me?

"SpiritLess." The Tale of an Unreal Man - plot

The main character is a top manager in the Russian branch of a large Russian-French company producing canned food under the Tanduelle brand. He heads the Moscow marketing department. He receives a lot of money for his work, drives an expensive car, lives in a luxurious apartment, and is constantly surrounded by beautiful girls. It would seem that life was good. But every day he gets more and more tired of this life, he is constantly looking for new entertainment. He wastes time and money in pretentious nightclubs and restaurants along with the entire social scene, while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Over time, all this begins to seem disgusting to him, he begins to look for an opportunity to escape from all this. And only communication with the girl Yulia helps him, at least for a while, feel calmer.

At one of the regular parties in a fashionable nightclub, the hero meets his old friend Mikhail. He was a promoter in the USA, and has now returned to Moscow. They start a conversation in which they find a common language. It turns out that they both don’t like all these social gatherings, where people are fake with fake feelings, talk about brands, spread gossip, and secretly envy each other in an evil way. Mikhail says that such people are also needed, you need to make money from them. He tells the main character that he is going to open a new club. Almost everything is ready, you just need to invest about another hundred thousand dollars. The hero decides that this is his opportunity to change something in his life. He trusts Mikhail because everyone knows him. He finally decides to invest in this business after Mikhail helps him out in a difficult situation when drug enforcement officers catch the hero by slipping a bag of cocaine into his pocket.

The hero doesn’t have a hundred thousand, so he entices his friend Vadim to do this. He, without hesitation, agrees to contribute his share in the amount of fifty thousand dollars. Mikhail brings them to the place where the future club will be, shows them the documents, listing them as co-founders. As a result, Vadim contributes an even larger amount, namely 75 thousand dollars. The main character settles on the amount of 25 thousand dollars, not wanting to borrow from Vadim and arguing that he is investing not for the sake of a larger share and more money, but in order to change his life.

After which the hero goes on a business trip to St. Petersburg to financially audit the activities of the St. Petersburg branch of the company. The head of the branch in St. Petersburg, Gulyakin, offers him a bribe, but the hero refuses, saying that now Gulyakin owes him. Upon returning from St. Petersburg, the hero, together with Vadim, goes to the club on the opening day of the new club, of which they are co-founders, but does not find any new sign there, no sounds of music, or even traces of construction work. The hero cannot reach Mikhail, realizing that he is a fraudster, and must have already left for America along with their money. Vadim is throwing a tantrum. The hero does not understand why he is so worried. Later, Vadim admits that he took all of his 100 thousand from the company. Vadim begins to blame the hero for all this, that it was he who dragged him into this scam. The hero begins to feel disgusted with him, realizing that he has lost his only friend.

The hero, meeting Julia, increasingly spoils his relationship with her with his behavior and rudeness, losing his temper and gradually losing her, not realizing that only with her he will feel good. While in a drunken stupor at a club, he talks to a homosexual who pesters him, who tries to win him over with conversations about the spiritual. The hero only realizes after a while that he is just one of those who pick up guys in clubs. The hero begins to beat him. After a while, readers understand that there is no homosexual, and he exists only in the imagination of the hero, whom security takes out of the club.

The next morning, the hero, waking up in his apartment, realizes that the TV is showing just a white screen, and in magazines all the pages are also white. He doesn't know where or with whom to go for breakfast. At this moment, Yulia calls him, he is very happy with her and invites her to have breakfast, but she cannot, since she is out of town. The hero apologizes to her for the rude words he said to her the last time. To which she replies that everything is fine and offers to talk about it when we meet. Julia asks to meet her at the station when she arrives, and the hero says that he will definitely meet her. After he hangs up, he realizes that he never told her anything serious.

After breakfast, the hero gets on the train, not even knowing where he is going. He falls asleep on the train and wakes up only nine hours later, getting off at an unknown station. He finds a clearing, where he sits on a fallen tree and begins to look at the surrounding landscape. Meanwhile, it is getting dark outside. He wanders along the road and comes out to a river with a huge railway bridge across it. He walks out into the middle of this bridge, feeling small compared to its huge arches. At this moment, various thoughts flash through his head: about death, about childhood, about a magical flower that grants wishes, from which he would probably ask to return back to childhood. It's starting to get light. The hero lies down on the bridge and lights a cigarette. He lies and remembers all the brightest moments of his life. All this passes through his head very slowly until the moment he goes on his first business trip to Paris. After this, his life speeds up and rapidly flashes through his head, ending with him meeting Yulia at some railway station, who comes towards him in a red dress, and then this gives way to the airport, where the hero twenty years ago is sitting on a red suitcase, so how he missed his flight and is not going on any business trip.

Story

The novel is to some extent autobiographical. By Minaev’s own admission, he copied the book from himself at the end of 1997, when he worked for the French company William Peters, which sold the French brand of Malezan wine in Russia. The writer was involved with this brand in particular in 1995-1998. In the novel, "William Peters" turned into a Russian-French company selling Tanduelle canned food in Russia. And 1997 turned into 2007. The main character of the novel is a collective image of many absolutely real people. The prototype of the main character's friend Yulia was Yulia Lashchinina, to whom the book is dedicated, but in the novel Minaev somewhat romanticized her. According to the writer, this character in real life is his favorite girl.

The author does not say what prompted him to write the book, answering that he himself does not know. Minaev explained the use of English in the titles of chapters and parts, as well as the use of two languages ​​in the word “spiritless,” which means “lack of spirituality,” by the “desire to show one’s learning” and style. Russian literary scholar, critic and radio host Nikolai Alexandrov wrote about the title of the novel: “The strange hybrid word “spiritless” almost automatically evokes an association with the banal word topless. By the way, it is quite consistent with the character of the book.” The subtitle “The Tale of an Unreal Man” refers the reader to the famous book by Boris Polevoy “The Tale of a Real Man.”

The author is inclined to explain the success of the book by the fact that he “hit the nerve of the generation.” Minaev also does not deny the help of a competent PR company - his friend Konstantin Rykov helped him promote the novel, who told Interfax that the publishing house “consciously tested this work on the Internet in order to understand how potential readers perceive it.” Many media outlets put forward the version that the book is a Kremlin project (pointing in particular to an episode of the novel in which Vladimir Putin, in the main character’s dream, appears in the form of Batman, protecting Russia from all troubles with his wings), but Minaev was never able to understand. where in the novel there can be an order, and what it consists of.

The book appeared on store shelves on March 7, 2006 and over the next 11 weeks of sales became a bestseller. The first edition of the book (10,000 copies) was sold out in a week. According to Alexander Grishchenkov, press secretary of the public relations and PR department of the AST publishing group, “they did not expect such success, the book was snapped up in just a few days, the circulation had to be reprinted.” In the ranking from March 27 to April 2, 2006, the book occupied a strong second place in sales at the Moscow trading house among hardcover fiction, second only to Nik Perumov’s book “The War of the Magician. Volume 3". In April 2006, the novel appeared in the Ozon.ru online store and immediately entered the bestseller list. AST called Dukhless “the most successful launch” in the history of the publishing house.

The company “S. B.A. Music Publishing”, which is the representative of EMI Music Publishing Ltd in the Russian Federation and CIS countries. The essence of the claim was that “an integral part of the book are the lyrics of musical works” by Lou Reed and The Smiths - three songs, the copyrights of which belong to EMI and S. B.A. Music Publishing" in the Russian Federation and CIS countries. The damage was estimated at 1 million rubles, moreover, “S. B.A. Music Publishing demanded that the book be withdrawn from retail sale. In addition, "S. B.A. Music Publishing also sent letters to stores where the book “Duhless” was sold, for example, the Moscow store and the Bookbury chain. The company demanded one hundred thousand rubles from the stores. During the proceedings, Minaev’s book was not included in the list of books for postal delivery. But in stores it was still on the list of top sellers.

Over the past six years, I have re-read Spiritless three times. The last time was timed to coincide with the preparation and gathering of one of the book clubs in Rostov, where there was a separate event to discuss this book. It’s not worth even saying anything about how much I liked this creation, because books are not simply re-read. Although usually, when people hear about how many times I returned to the book, they fall into a stupor, disgusted with both the work and the author. But in fact, the book is far from so simple. Let me break down all its advantages point by point: 1. Easy to read. Nowadays, so many modern authors use a light pen.2. Most of the characters have a subtle sense of humor, which makes it sometimes impossible to hold back a smile.3. There are a lot of arguments in the book with which you can disagree and debate.4. The book is extremely relevant even now and I am very interested in how long it will remain so. 5. No matter how strange it may sound, there is wisdom, kindness and love in it. But the most interesting thing is that the book contains a double, or maybe even a triple bottom. Or perhaps you think that there is an all-consuming emptiness at the center of the plot? Futile attempts to sense signs of life? A story about a major who has lost his last human qualities? What if everything that happens in the book is just a satirical image of our life and we have no choice but to be amazed by it? Or is all this empty chatter? And instead of a used car, should you always choose a trip to Paris? It is from all these questions that a genuine love for such a work as “Spiritless” awakens in me. After all, behind very standard and obvious truths lies something big that can be discussed for hours on end with other fans of the work.

The story of how I was able to read this. I’ll start with a short story from my life. I myself am from Donetsk, a city that was native to me at birth, but felt completely alienated. What can I say about Moscow, where I moved with great pleasure. And just recently, an acquaintance of mine uttered the following phrase: if you haven’t read “Dukhless”, then it’s hard to call yourself fully Russian. And so, being offended to the depths of my soul, I turned on the tablet and began to read. And from that moment my indignation began at everything written in this book. I would love to quit, but the habit of reading everything to the end simply left me no choice. While I was studying this “creation”, I learned about Sergei Minaev himself, who unexpectedly turned out to be a blogger. Shortly before this incident, in one of the disciplines I had to deal with the topic: “The Internet, blogs and social networks - the future of the media.” So, if all bloggers are even a little like Minaev, the media will have no future. However, I don’t know what kind of blogger he is. But as a writer, you can’t find anything worse. Previously, I spoke unflatteringly about the writing talent of Daria Dontsova, for which I want to apologize, because your talent is many times greater than the creation of this person. It’s as if Sergei every now and then sees as a masterpiece of literature everything where there is a huge amount of swearing and the more of it, the more beautiful the work. What is the point of the book? We have a manager named Max, who, having everything he needs for a comfortable human life, burns through my life, riding around clubs with girls of easy virtue. All this is imbued with pseudo-philosophical overtones that can cause vomiting. While in the process of reading a book, every now and then I want to understand: What kind of nonsense am I reading now and why? As a result, I want to say hello to my friend who recommended this book. This is the first time in my life that I read something so terrible.