Knowing a foreign language in Russia is a bit of a luxury so people who do know enough to hold a conversation with a teletubby tend to be dismissive towards domestic literature, if only to shout "hey, I know western authors, too." So all talk about modern Russian literature will eventually end up with someone telling you Limonov and Sorokin are copying "the American beatniks, primarily Burroughs", Linor Goralik is "an archetypical confessional poet" while Pelevin "does Pynchon both in his works and in his personality mystification thing".
Since I like Pelevin very much I thought I must read this Pynchon dude as well.
Where do you start with him and what should you know before you do?
For Pelevin it is Russian culture and history (what you get in a Russian school is enough), certain underground writers like Venedikt Yerofeyev, Buddhist memes, computer scientist debates from the 1990s and such pop culture memes as the Pokemanz, the Orcs and the Vampires. The covers to his books are nescessarily Pop Art although we never had any of the persiflaged 1950s comic books.
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