''The Helmet of Horror '' (russian: «Шлем ужаса: Креатифф о Тесее и Минотавре») is a novel by
Victor Pelevin
Victor Olegovich Pelevin ( rus, Виктор Олегович Пелевин, p=ˈvʲiktər ɐˈlʲɛɡəvʲɪtɕ pʲɪˈlʲevʲɪn; born 22 November 1962) is a Russian fiction writer. His novels include ''Omon Ra'' (1992), ''The Life of Insects ...
first published in 2005. The novel consists of 6 chapters, and was commissioned by the British publisher
Canongate
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...
as part of the international
Canongate Myth Series
The ''Canongate Myth Series'' is a series of novellas published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate Books, in which ancient myths from various cultures are reimagined and rewritten. The project was conceived in 1999 by Jamie Byng, ow ...
.
Plot
The genre of this work is a piece written in the form of a chat between the characters. But in Pelevin's production, on his site, it is listed in the novel category, and several articles on the subject also use the name novel. But some critics refer to the work as a play genre, or as a dramatic narrative.
Eight characters are participants in a very strange chat. Each of them, in an unknown way, finds himself in one of the very similar rooms with a keyboard and a computer. Soon they understand that they have become participants in the myth of
Theseus
Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages.
Theseus is sometimes describe ...
and the
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...
. But the situation is much more complex than it seems at first glance.
Each character has his or her own
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
behind the door of his or her room.
Analysis
Pelevin's play describes what happens before the birth of a person, it becomes clear what the parts of the personality are doing: they are naturally attracted to each other, trying to bring to life a new personality in which they will all unite. This identity is Theseus, whose necessity the characters talk about throughout the play: his appearance must coincide with their exit from the
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
. At the end of the play, Theseus appears for a moment, but immediately disintegrates again. Thus, Pelevin describes a joyous event for the Buddhist: the birth of an enlightened man.
With this interpretation, the seemingly contradictory behavior of the characters also becomes understandable. Why do some of them throughout the play express ideas close to
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
(Ariane, Sartrinet), while others rebuke them for it or try to stop them (UGLI 666, IsoldA)? Apparently Ariadne and Sartrinet retain the fragmented memory that in a past life this person sought enlightenment, while UGLI 666 and IsoldA express the simple egoistic desire of parts of the personality to continue to exist forever within an ever reborn structure.
Thus, the Buddhist interpretation of this text appears to be the most natural and consistent. Both of the myths stated in the title are rejected: Pelevin's helmet is able to generate terror not in those around him but in the person who might wear it—and remains unworn, while Pelevin's Theseus refuses to walk the labyrinth and does not take Ariadne with him.
It may be noted that despite the presence of Buddhist motifs in Pelevin's other books, Helmet of Terror is probably his only text in which enlightenment is presented as closely as possible to the way it is understood in classical Buddhism.
In almost all of the previous texts the transformation of the hero was more akin to symbolic death and rebirth than to enlightenment. This rebirth (as the Buddhists put it, "in accordance with the accumulated merits") took place either in a more romantic and spiritual world or, on the contrary, in a world that was extremely unpleasant and uncomfortable. Pelevin experimented with inner dialogue in
The Life of Insects
''The Life of Insects '' (russian: «Жизнь насекомых») is a novel by Victor Pelevin first published in 1993. The novel consists of 15 chapters.
Plot
The novel is set in the early 1990s in the Crimea. All the characters in the no ...
: In this novel, two characters (Dima and Mitya) have long philosophical dialogues with each other and gradually merge, turning out to be different parts of one soul; this merger is exactly the opposite of what, according to Buddhism, should happen to the parts of the personality at enlightenment.
In classical
fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fan ...
, the mind of the hero moves from one body to another or several personalities collide in one body. However, as a rule, if the text describes how the mind disintegrates into parts, these parts are unequal: one of them is more representative of the hero's ego than all the others.
A rare example that comes close to what happens in "Helmet of Horror" is the ironic "
Journey of the Seventh" from
Stanislaw Lem Stanislav and variants may refer to:
People
*Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.)
Places
* Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine
* Stanislaus County, Cali ...
's "
The Star Diaries
, image = File:TheStarDiaries.jpg
, caption = First edition
, author = Stanisław Lem
, translator = ''English:'' Michael Kandel
, illustrator = Stanisław Lem
, cover_artist = Marian Stachurski
, country = Poland
, language = Polish, Engli ...
": the author constructs this story in such a way that it is impossible in principle to say that of the many Ions who appear in this text, one is more real than the others.
"Helmet of Horror" is very important in Russian literature because this work presents a Buddhist picture of the world in the absence of Buddhist heroes (or preacher heroes) or specifically Buddhist environments.
For several decades after the
Silver Age of Russian Poetry
Silver Age (Сере́бряный век) is a term traditionally applied by Russian philologists to the last decade of the 19th century and first two or three decades of the 20th century. It was an exceptionally creative period in the history of ...
, Russian religious-mystical fiction was in crisis. After it revived, and until today, it is dominated by two types of stories: the return of the characters to Christianity or the appeal to pagan or New Age teachings, in which all teachings, from Indian to Native American, may be intermingled. However, Christian themes always remain dominant, which is natural for an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
country.
In Pelevin's books, Buddhism appears not only as a full-fledged worldview (which, moreover, is not reduced to the idea of "if you die, you start over again"), but also as a method of literary writing. This becomes especially clear in the play-novel Helmet of Horror.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmet of Horror
Novels by Victor Pelevin
2005 novels
Novels set in Russia
2005 Russian novels
Cultural depictions of Theseus
Minotaur in popular culture
Novels based on classical mythology