For Victor Pelevin's short prose the main cycle-forming principle is the subjective
mystical-philosophical orientation common to all the stories. The title of Pelevin's first collection was given by the story of the same name
"Blue Lantern", where the image of the blue lantern acts as a
mystical symbol of the netherworld, or rather the illusory border between the two worlds. The image of the blue lantern is found in most of the stories in the cycle. The common
philosophical theme that unites the majority of the stories in the cycle is the understanding of death as the beginning of a new life. In the story
"The Blue Lantern" the characters playfully pose serious philosophical questions: what is death, who is called a dead man and who really is a dead man? However, the expected denouement at the end of the story does not happen: neither the heroes nor the author receive answers to the questions posed. But in the tradition of
Russian classical literature for Pelevin is more important not to get an answer to the question, but the formulation of the question itself. If in the story
"Blue Lantern" the author leaves these questions open, in essence only poses these questions, then in the story
"The Life and Adventure of Shed Number XII" the life story of the main character serves in part as an answer to the questions posed about the meaning of existence. The main character in the story is the shed who undergoes an inner evolution that leads him to the spiritual freedom that allows him to realize his cherished dream of transformation. His dream of becoming a bicycle.
Spiritual improvement, natural giftedness, subtle inner organization of the protagonist in the perception and understanding of the world around him leads him to the realization of the long-awaited dream. Thus, death in the story is understood as a peculiar step in achieving spiritual
freedom, the beginning of true and real life. It is noteworthy that in this case Pelevin's hero is an inanimate object - a shed. If in the first story children asked eternal questions, here the object is inanimate, far from poetic, but the author gives it the possibility not only to think, but also to dream, the father-in-law not simply spiritualizes, but creates a model of a thinking and deep being. The unity of the texts of Pelevin's cycle "Blue Lantern", his mystical worldview are supported not only at the level of fairy tale character system, but also with the help of
folklore motifs. Thus, in the story
"Crystal World" the names of the main characters Yuri Popovich and Nikolai Muromtsev refer to the names of the heroes of
Russian bylina, who are the patrons of the Russian land,
Alyosha Popovich and
Ilya Muromets. The hero of the story
"Sleep" Nikita Sonechkin is not aware of the boundary (or gradually loses the idea of the boundary) between
dream and
reality. The interchangeability of sleep and wakefulness, life and death, birth and death in Pelevin's stories loses its tragic intensity and becomes an objective component of human existence as a whole: to understand what is more real than life or sleep, death or sleep, day or night (dream time) in the world of Pelevin's stories is not possible. As in most of the works in the collection, in the story
"Uhryab" the main character at a certain point realizes the meaninglessness and emptiness of the world around him. And he must come to terms with it. But to come to terms with it not because he is a victim of the Soviet system, but because for Pelevin and his hero, who accepts the world in all its manifestations (life = death, life = dream, dream = death, day = night, dream = reality), there is no other way out. The exit in the usual sense is impossible because at any outcome Pelevin's hero will find himself only in the same world, only with a different name. In the story
"The Ontology of Childhood" Pelevin continues his search for answers to the eternal questions stated in most of the stories in the collection. The adult protagonist in this work is vividly alive those childhood impressions, when as a child he enthusiastically perceived reality, and the overwhelming thirst for comprehension of the world around him seized him. For the hero, the resurrection of the
emotions of childhood is his only
happiness. As a child, he is free and easy to contemplate his surroundings, to understand the world as
God (it seems) created it, but as he grows up, he realizes that gradually the colors of the world around him fade. Pelevin's reflections on the meaning and truth of existence lead him to the idea that the measure of happiness does not depend on man, it is inherent in being. Thus, and in this story, Pelevin actually arrives at a Buddhist understanding of the meaning of existence to the absence of all rational meaning: life for the sake of life. The author's mystical-fantastical two-world is realized in the stories of the collection not only in the recognition of the heroes false and finding true reality, or awareness of the illusory edges between realities. The author forces the reader through the contradictions and searches of his characters to doubt the present, which is based on materialism and pragmatism, he reminds the reader of the true purpose of man, who can exist in harmony with himself only in the awareness of its inseparable connection with the forces of
cosmic reality. ==Collected Stories==