Does literature help develop empathy? Are we always ready to let the author bring us to tears? Are there win-win topics that are guaranteed to evoke pity in the reader? Grushnitsky and Pippi Longstocking, clerk Korotkov from "The Diaboliad" and Jude from "Little Life"
What did we read this year - from books written in Russian, and what remained in our memory? The editors of the Shelf project discuss the main reader experiences with the heroes of 2018 - those whom we have read and watched in the past twelve months .
Varvara Babitskaya, Lev Oborin, Polina Ryzhova and Yuri Saprykin talk about Russian classical literature . They say Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are boring, boring, it's a "dusty yesterday"; it's not for us and not about today? Is it possible to make interesting old books that are boring?
To the 120th anniversary of Andrei Platonov, Polk editors Varvara Babitskaya, Lev Oborin, Polina Ryzhova and Yuri Saprykin are discussing . Why do his books look more modern today than ever? Is he a Soviet writer? And what is the Soviet project for him? What is the peculiarity and strangeness of his language?