Empire V (Russian: «Ампир В. Повесть о настоящем сверхчеловеке») is a novel by Victor Pelevin first published in 2006.[1][2][3]
The title is a wordplay. The word Empire in the original title in Russian stands for Empire style (French pronunciation:[ɑ̃.piːʁ]), which is in Russian is written the way matching the French prononciation (ампир), rather than the translation of the word empire in the sense "a powerful state or a gang", which is империя. The letter V is a Roman numeral. If one swaps the words and removes the whitespace, he gets the word "вампир", that means "a vampire". Like the title of another Pelevin's novel, Generation "П", the letter V can also have the meaning of Pelevin's initials.
The second part of the original title, A Story About a Real Uberman (Повесть о настоящем сверхчеловеке) is a tribute to A Story About a Real Man (Повесть о настоящем человеке), a real-life-based patriotic story well-known within Russia and Soviet Union about an ace pilot Aleksey Maresyev who was doing dogfight having his feet amputated during WW2. Another reference to this pilot is present in Omon Ra story.
Empire V is set in modern times, and the protagonist, on whose behalf the story is being told, is about 20 years old. The corporations ("The Fifth Empire") and corporate culture occupy a special place in Empire V.[3]
The novel is about vampires, but in a different way than in the traditional one. In Pelevin's works, vampires are the ruling elite of the world, "The Fifth Empire", which once created man from an ape. The vampires' food, however, is not blood, but "bablos", the higher state of money that humans produce with their "money gland," and it is the seal of human vitality. The people themselves are unaware of all this, and the vampires rule them with glamour and discourse. Glamour seeks to make people feel inferior, and so they constantly seek and spend money on what the glossy advertisements offer. Discourse, in turn, limits people's thinking, so that they do not begin to approach the truth about the true order of the world.[4]
The satire of the novel is addressed primarily to Russians who have joined the consumerist feast spread by advertising; indeed, the pages of the book say that the spirituality of Russian life lies in convexity. The Russian is in no way trying to show that he is better than others with this bulge, but exactly like others. But Pelevin also takes his critique to a higher level, to apply in a broader sense to all world thinking, that monetary production becomes "the only morality, value and goal".[5][6]
^"Pelevin: Empire V | The Modern Novel". www.themodernnovel.org. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
^ ab"МАССОЛИТ - ВНИЗ ГОЛОВОЙ / О романе В. Пелевина "Ампир В" (Empire V)". old.lgz.ru. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
^"Viktor Pelevin Viides maailmanvalta". Kiiltomato.net. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
^"Наталья Кочеткова "Писатель Виктор Пелевин: "Вампир в России больше чем вампир"" / Интервью / Виктор Пелевин :: сайт творчества". pelevin.nov.ru. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
^"Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
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