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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
kittens at her feet. Bast was a defender of evil spirits. It is
important to note the external similarity between Muss and the
goddess Bast, as well as her need for pleasure and the
continuation of the family. Muss, as well as Bast, protected
Stepa from evil forces. Noteworthy in the Pelevin’s heroine is
the synthesis of the character traits of the masscult (Pokemon
Meowth) and mythology (the goddess-cat Bast). As in other
novels of the prose writer (The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, t,
Empire V), the mythological images in the Numbers are turned
inside out and rethinking parodically, and the point here is in the
prose writer's orientation to the modern reader, whose
consciousness is formed in originally given coordinates, similar
to the reality in which Pelevin's characters participate. The ironic
tone of the narrative and the "routine" of Step's spiritual quest,
his obsession with the "magic of numbers", game contamination
of various mythological images, with which Stepa and his
surroundings are fully correlated, reflect the futility of any quest
in the hope of self-acquisition by the hero himself, dissolved in
games with reason higher powers or the very law of being as a
whole.
Present in the novel is a goldfish, in which Stepa asks for help.
The image of a goldfish fulfilling its desires is correlated here
not only with Pushkin's fairy tale, but also with Finno-Ugric and
Slavic folklore. The image of fish, for example, is one of the
key in Mordovian folklore. So, in the Mordovian folk epic
Mastorava it is described in detail that it is on three fish that the
earth holds (Mastorava): "I created Nishkepaz great water, / I
created the largest water, / And in that great water to Nishka, /
Wise good Scuba put three fish, / Oh, three fishes are native to
each other: / All three fishes are blood sisters. // <...> The elder
sister, the big fish, / To the rest of the sisters told the rest: / <...>
For that, we came into the world, / In order to be born, born / To
keep the three great burdens / To carry them on your own on the
backs. // Three beginnings are at the Mastorava, / There are
three chasms at the Mastorava // " (Mastorava 2012, p. 37).
Moreover, in the myth about the fisherman, Andyamo, the
notions of "great waters" are associated primarily with the
possessions of Vedava and Vedyat, filled with "free fish":
"There are many fish here / With radiant eyes: / Many good fish
of God , / Together with her - the Shaitan fish. Who is the
master of fish? Who owns the fish? / White Sarage is their
master, / Murasei is a strict holder //" (Mastorava 2012, p. 100).
It is noteworthy that, on the one hand, in mythological
representations, fish is clearly associated with the underground
and underwater world as the realm of the dead and therefore
endowed with the magical power inherent in otherworldly
beings.
It is not by chance that in fairy tales the fish caught for eating is
unusual and golden, which in mythopoetic symbolism appears as
a sign of "another" world. On the other hand, in many cultures
of the early-natal structure, fish was considered an animal
ancestor and patron of the genus and, accordingly, an object of
religious veneration. In a number of myths, fish acts as a
demiurge, i.e. takes part in the creation of the world. For
example, fish brings from the bottom of the primeval ocean the
mud from which the land is created, or it serves as the support of
the earth. The ancient Semites had the deity Dagon (Dag),
which meant "fish", "guardian" or "Messiah", which was
depicted in the guise of a fish.
In V. Pelevin novel a goldfish rescues hero from death, while
being "in a hollow between his wet legs, next to a string of
seaweed and a piece of plastic". In the future, the characters treat
the fish as a symbol of life, abundance and luck (according to
Chinese mythology): "the chef's assistant returned to the kitchen
and poured water from the tap into the boat. "Come on, - he
said, placing the rook on the counter in front of Stepa. Stepa at
the second attempt picked up the fish in the palm of his hand and
let it into the boat. Nervously wagging its tail, the fish swam first
to one end of its new universe, then to the other and froze in
place" (Pelevin 2016, p. 48). In fact, people who have just
committed murder take care of the life of the fish.
As well as in mythology, the main character believes in the
miraculous power of the fish, its ability to fulfill desires and
appeals to her for help: "In the yellowish water before the Stepa's
eyes hung a large goldfish with a forked tail - shaking its fins,
she mysteriously looked at Stepa with a round eye-key. <...>
Stepa thought that just right it would be to ask for something
goldfish. "Fish, fish," he whispered inaudibly, "make me live
and healthy from here ... Eh, I would give any money" (Pelevin
2016, p. 43-44). The final phrase of the hero plays a fundamental
role: it turns out that the fish will fulfill his desire, because she
was promised material rewards. Thus, the initially sacrificed
image of the fish sets the reader to a special perception of it in
the "Numbers", but V. Pelevin profanates his original semantics.
Writer refashioned and mythological significance of animals, the
patron of heroes. As we know, animals could be represented in
the image space zone (in Egyptian mythology, for example, the
sky depicted as a cow); connected the underworld, the human
world and the heavenly world (Amerindian cosmic serpent); he
restored the original structure of the universe after the fall of
heaven to earth (Eastern-Bolivian mythology). Thus, animals
often acted as Creator of the universe. Sometimes the animal-
demiurge is in conflict with another animal. So, the Indians of
the Northwest coast of the Pacific Ocean believes that there is a
myth about the Raven who stole the Gray eagle of the sun,
moon, stars, fresh water and fire, strengthened the luminaries in
the sky, and dropped it to the ground. The Tlingit Raven, Eel
wins wolf Hanwha and takes away his fire and water, becoming
then a tribal deity.
According to the myths of the Nenets, people learned to use fire
due to the polar bear. In some myths, there is a motif of
metamorphosis; the transformation of the animal into man, man
into animal, animal into another animal. This kind of
transformation sometimes characterizes animal-trickster, which
often play the role of cultural hero (Meletinsky 2012). For
example, in Egyptian mythology, the gods were represented as
follows: Ra in the image of a golden calf, Anubis in the image of
a dog, Horus in the image of a falcon, Hator in the image of a
cow, etc. In ancient Greek myths, the transformations of gods in
animals were plotted deterministically: Zeus turned into a bull,
eagle, swan, ant; Dionysus appeared in the guise of a goat, a
lion, a panther; Poseidon took the form of a horse, etc.
Remarkable and reinterpretation by the prose writer in the
Numbers of the image of the donkey. With the donkey in the
novel, the antipode of the main character identifies himself -
George Varfolomeevich Srakandayev. Note that the donkey is a
very dualistic image: if in a number of mythological traditions it
symbolizes stupidity (it is enough to recall the donkey ears of
King Midas), meanness, lust, violence, then in the mythology of
Buddhism, the donkey, on the contrary, is a symbol of
asceticism, humiliation. In Hebrew mythology, the donkey is a
symbol of peace and salvation, in Egyptian mythology he is one
of the incarnations of the solar deity, in the image of the donkey,
Seth was also the god of deserts, the symbol of evil, the lower
world of Egypt was filled with demons with donkey heads. In
some mythological traditions, the donkey acts as a mount of any
deity (the Ashwinian chariot is harnessed by an ass, or by several
donkeys, by means of which the Ashvins won a competition for
the Soma and Surya weddings). According to ancient Greek
mythology, the donkey is a symbol of stupid idleness, lust and
laziness (it is no accident that Bacchus and his intoxicated suite
rode on donkeys); In the guise of a donkey, Priap was depicted -
the ancient Greek phallic deity of the productive forces of nature.
The donkey in many myths is a contradictory way: it can
perform both good deeds and blasphemous, depending on who
saddles it. For example, Messiah's donkey with the colt is the
sign of the humble peace of the King of Kings, while the giant
donkey carrying Dajjal symbolizes the threatening power of the
Muslim Antichrist. The color of the donkey also played a
significant role: white served the leaders, kings, prophets, the
gray donkey was subordinate to the lower classes.
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