Famous scientific discoveries in fiction. The Image of Science in Russian Fiction

The problem of the relationship between literature and science is not a new problem. She stood up more than once before art theorists, and before philosophers who develop the theory of knowledge, and before writers. However, she had never stood so sharply before. The gigantic successes achieved by science in recent decades are now having an unprecedented impact on all aspects of human life, including literature. At the same time, the role of art in our society is immeasurably growing, its cognitive and educational functions are intensifying, and its possibilities in promoting scientific knowledge are expanding.

What is the influence of science on literature? What are the tasks of literature in connection with the increased role of science in the life of society? And what are the ways to solve these problems?

These and many other questions are now worrying our writers, critics and scientists. That is why the editors of the journal Voprosy Literature decided to dedicate a special selection to this topic.

The problem of "Literature and Science" is unusually multifaceted. The articles and notes published below touch upon various aspects of it. First of all, it arises as a "theme of science" in art, as a task of creating bright, interesting images of scientists. This is the subject of articles by D. Granin, V. Kaverin, A. Koptyaeva, I. Grekova, A. Sharov, reflecting on the ways of solving this problem, telling about their work on books about scientists. At the time of Balzac, scientists did not yet occupy any prominent place in the minds of society, and consequently, in literature. Now the situation has changed radically. The scientist is increasingly becoming the protagonist of works of art. And this is no coincidence.

“Communist society is built on the basis of science. Science is the main weapon of communism. I believe that the role of scientists will grow every year and the future belongs to them. All this makes me go here, to physicists conducting research at the very forefront of science,” Galina Nikolayeva, who worked in last years over a novel about physics.

D. Granin emphasizes that scientific creativity should become one of the major topics of our literature, for here are opened for the writer heroic characters, sharp, often tragic conflicts. To reveal the poetry of creative work, to show people who are purposeful, convinced, passionately seeking the truth - the task is as responsible as it is fascinating.

Naturally, writers are primarily concerned with issues directly related to creative practice. So, A. Sharov, for example, speaks in detail about one of the main difficulties that an artist inevitably encounters when writing about scientists: whether to depict “science itself” with all its complexities, or is it enough to give everyone an understandable “model” of the scientific problem around which conflict unfolds? “... A writer who wants to portray a scientist and his work often finds himself in a dead end. Modern science is incomprehensible, and the model by its nature is conditional, approximate.”

But is incomprehensibility really an insurmountable obstacle? the author asks and expresses interesting considerations about how, in his opinion, this contradiction should be resolved.

In a number of articles published below, a persistent thought shines through: the writer must know well what he is going to tell the reader, and science is no exception in this respect. I. Grekova writes about this. This is also stated in the article by A. Koptyaeva: “... in whatever genre the writer works, he must carefully, conscientiously study the foundations of science and the very problem that he describes. Not only in journalism, but also in the novel, the essence of the scientific problem in question should be revealed with all clarity. Only then is it able to interest the reader, to involve him in the struggle that unfolds in the book, to make him worry about the outcome of this struggle and, thus, for the fate of the characters.

However, the task of the writer is not limited to studying the basics of science and the problem that he is going to describe. It is no less, and perhaps even more important, for a novelist to understand the psychology of a scientist.

V. Kaverin, recalling the work on the Open Book, says: “While working on The Two Captains, I surrounded myself with books on aviation and the history of the Arctic. Now their place was taken by microbiological works, and they turned out to be much more complicated. First of all, it was necessary to learn how to read these works differently from the way scientists themselves read them. To restore the train of thought of a scientist, to read behind the dry, short lines of a scientific article what this person lived, to understand the history and meaning of the struggle against enemies (and sometimes friends), which is almost always present in scientific work - this is the task, without solving which there was nothing to take on such a topic. It is necessary to understand what the scientist throws out of brackets - the psychology of creativity.

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences A. Kitaygorodsky devotes a significant part of his article to the same problem. It is the psychology of scientific creativity that often remains unknown and even distorted in books about scientists. The physicist's reflections on why this happens, although containing a lot of subjectivity, I think, will be of considerable interest to writers working in this field.

The range of issues related to popular science and science fiction literature is touched upon in an article by the Polish writer St. Lem, as well as in the speeches of our science fiction writers A. Dneprov, V. Saparin, A. and B. Strugatsky.

D. Danin's article is devoted to the "interaction" of the natural sciences and art. The author gives examples of such interaction, talks about how art attracts scientists, traces the ways in which science influences art and vice versa, reflects on the “probable patterns” of such mutual influence.

The question of the relationship between scientific and artistic thinking, about what makes scientific and artistic knowledge related and what distinguishes them, about the prospects for their development is considered in B. Runin's article.

There is a lot of controversy in the materials published below.

Yes, this is understandable: after all, the problem posed has hardly been developed theoretically. The articles by D. Danin and B. Runin are debatable in a number of their provisions. Some of the theses found in other speeches, as well as subjective assessments of the works of certain artists, may also raise objections.

One cannot agree, for example, with the Strugatskys when they assert that “only a “short leg” with science, with a scientific worldview, with the philosophy of science allows now to push the boundaries of traditional literary plots, look into a new, hitherto unseen world of gigantic human capabilities, extraterrestrial tendencies , hopes and mistakes. So to speak, the “scientific writer” can do more in literature than the “ordinary” writer!”

The following thesis of their article is clearly one-sided: “ Modern literature of the highest class is philosophical literature. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Feuchtwanger, Thomas Mann - these are gigantic examples of how every writer should approach his work today.

IN this case the authors of the article forget that the successful development of literature presupposes a variety of styles, forms, trends. It is impossible to declare one of its forms (in this case, "philosophical" literature) to be the most correct, the most fruitful and categorically declare that nowadays every writer should work in the traditions of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann. Are the traditions of Chekhov or Turgenev, Balzac and Hemingway, for example, bad?

There is no need to enumerate all those provisions that may cause controversy. In the published materials there is not, and cannot be, a complete unity of opinion, because each of the authors shares, first of all, his own experience.

However main pathos most speeches is very instructive and deserves unconditional support. Art and literature should not fence themselves off from science, but draw closer to it, propagandizing its achievements and setting new tasks before it.

An example for Soviet writers in this regard is M. Gorky, who was deeply interested in the problems of science, followed its development, and rejoiced at its successes. It is significant that the articles, speeches and letters of the remarkable Soviet writer devoted to science, made up a whole volume, which will soon be published by the Nauka publishing house. The reader will see for himself how wide was the circle scientific interests Alexei Maksimovich, how much strength and energy he gave to the rapprochement of science - with life, art - with science. In art and science, the writer saw not “antagonists”, but allies capable of working together miracles of transforming the world, awakening in a person his best qualities and aspirations. “I know of no force more fruitful, more capable of cultivating social instincts in man, than the forces of art and science,” he said in a speech he called “Science and Democracy.”

Many of Gorky's thoughts about the connection between literature and science, about the tasks and possibilities of a writer striving to be at the level of contemporary scientific knowledge, have not become outdated to this day. They help to better understand the problems now facing writers and other artists.

Science is now moving at such a pace that it is simply impossible to keep track of all its achievements. Even scientists themselves are not able to cover all branches of their science: there is an increasing differentiation and, accordingly, a narrower specialization. And if this is so, some writers conclude, then there is nothing to strive for mastering scientific knowledge. M. Gorky, faced with such conclusions, answered: “You say:“ It is almost impossible for a writer to be an encyclopedist. If this is your strong conviction, stop writing, because this conviction says that you are not able or do not want to learn. From a writer, unfortunately, they do not require that he be an encyclopedist - but they must be required. The writer must know as much as possible, must stand at the height of contemporary scientific knowledge. In our country, this is especially necessary and is achieved by many.”

But to think about the beauty and imperfection of knowledge, about the courage of scientific research, about love for truth and responsibility for one's discoveries, and in general about the limits of the power of scientists - fiction from our small selection will help with this.

1. Alan Lightman. "Einstein's Dreams"

Alan Lightman is a physicist and professor at MIT in both the natural sciences and the humanities. Alan Lightman, with his writing talent, made the inner workings of theoretical physics much clearer to those who literary language closer to formula language.

And if you want to comprehend the theory of relativity at least figuratively, Einstein's Dreams is for you. This is a collage of sketches in which the main variable is time.

The young scientist Einstein sees dreams, in each dream it is different: cyclic, going backwards, immovable, forgetful, alternative. And depending on the prevailing time, the plots of bizarre dreams are formed.

After that, who will say that the scientific and artistic perception of the world are incompatible things?

Who is better off in this world of intermittent time? Those who saw the future and lived only one life? Or those who did not see the future and delay starting life? Or, finally, those who turned their backs on the future and lived two lives?

2. Apostolos Doxiadis. "Uncle Petros and the Goldbach Problem"

"In mathematics, as in art - and in sports, by the way - if you are not the best, then you are not at all." The hero of the book of Doxiadis, Petros Papachristos, devotes his whole life great problem worthy of a great mathematician: the Goldbach problem. Any even number, starting from 4, can be represented as the sum of two prime numbers. Empirically, anyone who is not lazy can verify this, but no one has been able to prove it mathematically since the middle of the 18th century.

The character of Uncle Petros combines a thirst for discovery, vanity, sincere devotion to science and indifference to worldly success (“There is a black sheep in every family,” the narrator says about him at the very beginning of the book). But the novel is not even about the uncle, it is about mathematics. The one that is like art.

Perhaps the book will make you take out your old notes in higher mathematics to remember the taste of the joy of intellectual overcoming, or to regret that you never had such notes.

Real mathematics has nothing to do with applications or with the calculations that you are taught in school. She studies abstract intellectual constructions, which -at least while the mathematician is busy with them- have nothing to do with the physical, perceptible world.

3. Paul de Kruy. "Microbial Hunters"

The history of microbiology in tension and drama is not inferior to Hollywood films. Pathogenic microbes are not "Aliens", "Predators" and other fantastic enemies of humanity. They are here, nearby, and the hunt for them does not always have a happy ending.

Paul de Kruy's book was published in 1926. Strictly speaking, it is not artistic: no fiction, only facts. In the light manner of an adventure novel, she tells about the most striking discoveries in microbiology from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th. And although scientists have come a long way since the writing of Microbe Hunters (after all, even the first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928), this book gives a very vivid idea of ​​​​what a scientific search, experiment, discovery is.

Defeating diphtheria, curbing syphilis, saving humanity from yellow fever - these are just a few of the fascinating stories that read like a detective story.

Truth is the greatest anemone. You should never harass her too passionately, for she more often and more readily responds to cold indifference. She often slips away, almost already caught, and at the same time comes herself to give herself up to patient waiting.

4. Boris Bondarenko. "Pyramid"

If you love the movie "9 Days of One Year", then you should like the novel by Boris Bondarenko. This story about young Soviet atomic physicists, seasoned with a fair amount of humor and subtle worldly observations, begins with a student's bench and continues in the laboratories of research institutes. The main thing here is the atmosphere of scientific research, when the eyes are burning, the sea is knee-deep, and the great discovery is about to happen, you just need to bring another half of your life to the altar of science. And somewhere nearby there is a family, work colleagues and even spiteful critics. Phrases are pouring from the pages, ready to become an epigraph to any essay about science ...

The author himself, it must be said, at the time of writing the book was practically the same age as his main characters - young scientists - and also graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University. Some time after graduating from the university, he worked at one of the institutes in the science city of Obninsk. This city is very similar to Dolinsk, where the author places the action.

The characters in the book are fictional, but the scientific context in which they exist is documentary. Therefore, you will meet many names of real scientists and learn a little more about elementary particle physics.

Cognition is not a straight line or even a curve! This is a monstrously branched tree with an infinite number of branches and twigs, and somewhere there, on top, - Olf extended his hand to the sky with a powerful gesture, - that very precious apple that we need to pick!

5. Bertolt Brecht. "Life of Galileo"

Rumor attributed to Galileo the phrase “And yet it spins!”, But there is no documentary evidence that the scientist said it. “For centuries, people throughout Europe, having preserved the legend of Galileo, did him the honor not to believe in his renunciation,” writes the great 20th-century playwright Bertolt Brecht in one of the prefaces to his play “The Life of Galileo”.

Is the scientist guilty of having publicly renounced his views under pain of torture? Did he betray science or cheat in order to continue to do research?

In the historical episode, Brecht sees the eternal conflict between science and power, which in the 20th century is also “illuminated” by the explosion of the atomic bomb.

"Galileo's crime can be seen as the 'original sin' of the natural sciences," says Brecht. Is it possible to trace the path from this act to modern conflicts and compromises? The reader is free to reflect on this in terms of the play... and history.

He who does not know the truth is only stupid. But whoever knows it and calls it a lie is a criminal.

6. Vladimir Dudintsev. "White Clothes"

Atomic physicists were held in high esteem in the Soviet Union, but geneticists were in disgrace. The action of the novel begins in 1948, when genetics was called by the "People's Academician" Lysenko "a metaphysical trend in biology." Now everyone had to support Michurin's agrobiology (which, we note, was later recognized as pseudoscience: after all, real history is full of parables and metaphors even without literature).

Are the Party's instructions being followed correctly? The hero of the novel, Fyodor Dezhkin, who is sent to the agricultural institute of a small town, must figure it out. And in the city there is an "underground circle" of students and scientists who secretly continue to develop the scientific knowledge that they consider true ...

The romance is full complex characters, philosophical reasoning and endless pain for science at a time when white cannot be called white. It was completed after Stalin's death, published for the first time in the 1980s, and in 2013 it was included in the list of 100 books on the history, culture and literature of the peoples of the Russian Federation, recommended by the Ministry of Education for independent reading to schoolchildren.

The main reason for all the troubles of mankind is unreasonable confidence in one hundred percent rightness.

7. Sinclair Lewis. Arrowsmith

Between science and power always difficult relationship, under any political system, and even when it comes to the power of money! The hero of this novel is Martin Arrowsmith, a bacteriologist with a standard set of problems "Scientist and real life". He knows how to work hard, but often finds himself helpless in the face of everyday problems, squabbles between colleagues and accounts. What he is strong in is in his pure love to a science for which selfish momentary interests are too base.

The writer paints a vivid picture of American life in the 1920s, in which money does not smell and intrigue rules the show. But Arrowsmith manages to achieve success without betraying his beliefs and without selling his good name.

In 1930, Lewis received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his powerful and expressive art storytelling and for the rare ability to create new types and characters with satire and humor. So humor and satire, as you might guess, in the story of Arrowsmith should be full. And with the scientific component of the book, the famous microbiologist Paul de Kruy helped the author, who then, inspired by literary work, wrote the already mentioned "Microbe Hunters".

He was seized with disgust in front of the noisy, obscene creature called Success and demanding from a person that he leave quiet work and give himself up to be torn apart by blind admirers who will strangle him with flattery, and blind enemies who will pelt him with mud.

8. Kurt Vonnegut "Cat's Cradle"

A conversation about fiction, in the center of which scientists and science would be, is impossible without science fiction. The next three books are in this category.

Two global questions that often determine the plot within the genre: where are the limits of the possibilities of human knowledge and can the achievements of science destroy humanity?

Kurt Vonnegut is interested in the second question. And the writer is sure that humanity is quite capable of suicide (as follows from Vonnegut's biography, he saw evidence of this with his own eyes on the front of World War II).

The plot of the book is built around the most dangerous substance "ice-nine", invented by one brilliant scientist. This scientist was not at all interested in how his discoveries would affect the fate of mankind, and his “portfolio” already included work on the atomic bomb. And now his heirs handed out ice-nine strong of the world this for a good reward. The hero-narrator follows in the footsteps of a dangerous substance, along the way getting acquainted with a new religion and new utopias.

All the problems of mankind of the twentieth century (at least until 1963) fit compactly into two hundred pages of the novel. And there is, of course, neither a cat nor a cradle in it. Only sheer anxiety from the endless entanglement of the thread, which is being manipulated by someone's hands.

Can a reasonable person, taking into account the experience of past centuries, have even the slightest hope for a bright future for mankind?

9. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. "A Billion Years Before the End of the World"

In this story, humanity is threatened not by its own depravity, but by unknown forces: competitors? extraterrestrial civilizations? Or maybe the Universe itself?

Several scientists from different areas sciences approach, each in its own way, to major discoveries that can lead to a real scientific revolution. But with each of them, mysterious and dangerous events begin to occur that do not contribute to the work in any way: conflicts, explosions and even death. Someone clearly does not want a person to approach the deep secrets of nature. Will danger stop the scientists in their quest?

“The manuscript found under strange circumstances” (such is the subtitle of the story) does not try to be understandable to the reader. The reader is left with all the questions one on one.

10. Robert Stevenson. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

And how is humanity with an understanding of its own mind? With an understanding of personality psychology?

Robert Louis Stevenson's story was written in 1886. Good respectable Dr. Jekyll and his antipode - or double? - the terrible Mr. Hyde inspired many directors of plays, and then films, to show their thriller story.

The ideas of psychoanalysis were formulated only a decade later, but Stevenson's character is "ahead of the times", revealing that the human personality is a complex structure, with "good" and "evil" manifestations. As a result of an unsuccessful experiment, the evil component of the doctor's personality takes precedence over the decent and socially acceptable.

In the 21st century, scientists have adapted much better to laying out the human personality on the shelves, but again and again we doubt: do we have power over ourselves?

In conclusion, I would like to recommend one more book so that everything does not seem too hopeless. This is a story by Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon" in which science is the main driver of the plot, but not the main character. Crowds of readers wept over the story of mentally retarded Charlie, who, thanks to a successful experiment, became a brilliant scientist, and admitted in comments on Internet forums that they began to treat people better. I think it's a good effect.

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25 books that put forward bold and, most importantly, correct guesses about future technologies and events.

1. Mars has two natural satellites

Such an amazingly accurate guess can be found in the pages of Gulliver's Travels, written by Jonathan Swift in 1735. Only 142 years later, in 1872, the satellites of the Red Planet - Phobos and Deimos - were discovered by astronomers.

2. Solar sails

In 1865, in the fantasy novel From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne put forward the idea of ​​solar sails. This bold idea came to fruition 145 years later, when the first solar sail (IKAROS) was used.

3. Submarine on electricity

In the book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870) by the same Verne, the amazing submarine "Nautilus" runs on electricity. Real submarines with an electric engine appeared 90 years later - in the 60s of the twentieth century.

4. Credit cards

Edward Bellamy predicted credit cards in his science fiction work "Looking Back" 62 years before their invention, which happened in 1962.

And again we return to Jules Verne. A rich fantasy suggested to the writer the idea of ​​aerial advertising, when the inscription is drawn by an airplane in the air through a smoke trail.

The guess was made in a story written in 1889. It was realized quite soon - in 1915 at an air show in San Francisco.

6. Automatic sliding doors

Another great science fiction writer Herbert Wells predicted the appearance of automatic sliding doors in the novel When the Sleeper Wakes (1899). This type of door was invented 60 years later.

7. Tanks

And a few years later, Wells wrote the story "Land Battleships" (1903), in which he described the tanks. 13 years later, these combat vehicles appeared on the battlefields of the First World War.

8. Lie detector

In fiction, the first mention of a lie detector can be found in the work of E. Ballmer and W. Machagen "Luther Trent" ("The Achievements of Luther Trant", 1910). The first use of a real polygraph occurred in 1924.

9. Solar energy

In 1911, Hugo Gernsbeck began publishing his novel Ralph 124C 41+ (in the list of books with the strangest titles, this work can also take its rightful place) in Modern Electrics magazine.

One of the technical predictions concerned the use of solar energy for the benefit of mankind. 67 years have passed - and in 1978 the first calculators appeared, which were recharged by the energy of our luminary.

10. Atomic bomb

One of the darkest predictions made by HG Wells, and which, unfortunately, became a reality - the invention of the atomic bomb and nuclear war, described in the book "The Liberated World" (1914).

A little more than three decades passed and atomic bombs fell on Japanese cities. By the way, in the same novel, the English science fiction writer also spoke about

cheap nuclear power.

A little longer time - it took about 57 years for Wells' prediction about the use of voice mail to come true (the novel "People Are Like Gods"). This technical innovation became widespread after 1980.

12. Artificial insemination

J. B. S. Haldane became famous as a brilliant popularizer of science and a prominent scientist. In one of his books Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1924), along with other interesting conjectures, he expressed the idea of ​​artificial insemination.

The first successful "test tube conception" was carried out after more than five decades, in 1973.

13. Genetic engineering In his famous dystopia Brave New World, Aldous Huxley gave a vivid description of genetic engineering. Today's science has not yet reached the level described in the book, although the first genetic manipulations began in 1972.

14. Total control

A very impressive picture of the total control of the state over its citizens was drawn by George Orwell in his book "1984", written in 1948.

And recently, in 2013, a scandal erupted over the espionage activities of the NSA, which tapped the phones of many American

and foreign citizens.

15. Earbuds

A description of this type of miniature headphone can be found in the pages of Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, published in 1950. Music lovers had to wait a little more than half a century until Apple launched the first headphones of this kind on the market.

16. Communications satellites

In "Space Odyssey 2001" (1951), the American science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark predicted the appearance of artificial communications satellites in Earth's orbit. It did not take long to wait - already in 1965 the first such satellite was launched.

17. Virtual Reality

Five years later, Clarke wrote The City and the Stars, which mentions video games in virtual reality. In 1966, that is, only 10 years later, the first flight simulator was developed, which brought to life this conjecture of a brilliant science fiction writer.

18. Waterbeds

Distinguished himself in the field of predictions and another famous science fiction writer - Robert Heinlein. The 1961 book Stranger in a Strange Land describes waterbeds, and the first patent for them was issued in 1971.

19. Space tourism

The idea of ​​space travel with a tourist purpose was expressed by the same Clark in the novel Moondust, and in practice it was first implemented by Dennis Tito, the first space tourist.

20. European Union

In John Brunner's book "All Stand on Zanzibar" (1969), one can find a mention of the European Union, which received an official

clearance in 1993.

21. Bionic prosthetics

Martin Caidin expressed this idea in the pages of his "Cyborg" (1972). 41 years later, in 2013, the first bionic prosthetic leg was created.

22. Real-time translation

Douglas Adams' humorous The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1980) featured a "Babylonian fish" capable of real-time translation from one language to another.

In 2014, Google introduced a real-time translation feature to its app.

23. World Wide Web

The founder of the cyberpunk genre, William Gibson, predicted the emergence of cyberspace and hacking in his novel Neuromancer.

In the early 90s, the World Wide Web, or simply the Internet, began to cover the Earth with its web, involving more and more

PC users.

24. The best human chess player will be beaten by a computer before the year 2000

Precisely such a prediction was made by Raymond Kurzweil in the book The Age of Intelligent Machines, published in 1990, when chess computers were still rather weak and were beaten by grandmasters almost without problems.

However, after only 7 years, the Deep Blue supercomputer beat Garry Kasparov, the strongest chess player on the planet.

Today chess programs so strong that the match between a human and a computer has lost all sporting meaning.

25. The lunar module will be launched in Florida and, returning to Earth, splash down in the ocean

104 years before the flight of Apollo 11 to the Moon, this is how everything was described in Jules Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865).

Everything went according to the same scenario in reality - a team of American astronauts led by Neil Armstrong splashed down in a special module and was soon picked up by the Hornett aircraft carrier.

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E. V. Shlyuper

The scientific and artistic book is a remarkable phenomenon, which occupies an increasingly prominent place in modern book publishing practice.

Of course, works have been published before, as if combining the features of research work and lively, figurative narration. But in our time, we are no longer talking about individual books. Many publishing houses allocate special headings in templates, create separate editions; large book series, libraries (“Eureka”, “Brigantine”, “Roads to the Beautiful”), collections, the success of which with readers encourages publishers to make them “continuing editions” (“Prometheus”, “Ways into the Unknown”), were widely known.

Careful study of books, journal publications, in-house materials (author's applications, editorial opinions, reviews), readers' letters, critical speeches and theoretical works allows us to assert that an independent type of literature has developed and formed before our eyes. It arose, as it were, at the point of contact of three other types of literature: scientific, popular science and fiction.

Scientific literature has been defined as a species because it has a relatively stable system of properties. It performs its own special social functions, has its own specific subject and its own qualitatively different methods of mastering it, a characteristic "set" of elements and the structure of the text.

The ever closer interaction between scientific and artistic creativity today goes through many channels - theoretical and practical. This is reflected in the widespread use recent achievements science and technology television, cinema, radio, in the "avalanche" growth in the number of stories, plays, poems dedicated to the activities of scientists. For their part, mathematicians and cybernetics are turning to the study of samples of poetic skill. Rapprochement of science and art is recognized feature modern social development.

Reflecting this trend and contributing in every possible way to its development - this is the main role of a scientific and artistic book, its social function.

Of course, it solves this problem in a certain aspect inherent in it - the aspect of scientific popularization, responding to the spontaneous needs of the process itself.

Since this process is essentially two-sided, new moments are characteristic of each of its sides.

One side of it is the promotion of "big science" to the mass reader.

It is associated in our era with particular difficulties in the field of natural sciences. Having penetrated into the world of the microcosm, we are dealing with a multitude of phenomena, concepts, laws that are fundamentally impossible to translate into the language of everyday, everyday ideas. Scientific truth, as scientists say, has ceased to be visual, and this will create serious difficulties in explaining it to a wide range of readers.

This is where art comes to the rescue. Artistic image opens special ways"deabstractization" of a formula, law, concept. The main thing - its inherent property to highlight in the most distant and unusual something "its own", close to the subjective-emotional experience of each person - makes it possible to psychologically prepare the reader for the perception of the "strange world" of modern science. ABOUT significant role This factor is often written by both scientists and journalists, considering mass publications devoted to physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics.

Much less attention is paid to the psychological difficulties of popularizing the humanities. It is interesting to note that here the authors face difficulties of exactly the opposite nature. In the field of history, literature, sociology, everyone considers themselves "experts". With the phenomena that are investigated by these sciences, everyone encounters in everyday life. We perceive works of art, judge the abilities and behavior of others, willingly using the words: “beautiful” and “ugly”, “group”, “motivation” and so on. And it is not so easy to show a person the difference between an everyday and a truly scientific concept.

Paradoxically, it is the image that can help overcome the psychological barrier that arises in this case. This time, the opposite property of art is manifested: in the familiar, ordinary, to reveal the new, unexpected, unfamiliar.

So the features of various sciences separately and the patterns of development of this form public consciousness in general, they activate the functions of figurative means in the modern process of popularization.

New moments are also characteristic of the second side of this process - the desire of the mass reader for scientific knowledge.

Having become a "direct productive force", science has acquired extraordinary significance in the life of society, in the life of every person.

The reader wants not only to understand the essence of the discovery, theory, but also to feel their meaning, to develop their own own attitude to them, to comprehend the very process of creativity.

And here a book can help, allowing science to involve the arsenal of art into its sphere. The “effect of presence”, the illusion of direct knowledge, and knowledge precisely through a personal attitude to the depicted, emotional fullness, “appeal” to co-creation and empathy - all these properties of a scientific and artistic work become simply irreplaceable in this case.

Scientific activity is a very complex phenomenon, including many components. A storm of emotions and passions, suffering and joy, drama and poetry of the "relationships" of the scientist and the phenomena he studied, individual characteristics his work... All these aspects, as a rule, remain "outside the scope" of scientific and popular science books. But they attract the closest attention of the author of a scientific and artistic book. Let's add - and the general reader, as his interest in the subject of heuristic activity is growing rapidly.

Another thing is also significant. The political and moral problems of the work of scientists, the possibilities of using the results of their discoveries (for the good or to the detriment of society), depending on the social system, have acquired great importance.

It is these aspects scientific activity- subjective-personal and socio-philosophical - are primarily the subject of scientific literature.

We see that its subject is in some way “connected” with the subjects of some sciences (psychology, sociology, heuristics). However, it is by no means identified with them, because here neither man "outside of science", nor science in itself, "outside man" can become the main, the main thing. It is the relationship "science and personality" that is essential, as well as the relationship "science and society".

Thanks to this qualitative feature, scientific literature receives wide opportunity to show that "in the center of the scientific and technological revolution is a person, that ... the scientific and technological revolution is committed by a person and in the name of a person." The relevance and social significance of the successful solution of such a problem are undeniable.

How do the features of the social function and subject of the literature we study affect the elements and structure of works? What is their specificity?

First of all, let's note the obvious: the texts of such books (moreover, on the same rights) include scientific and artistic elements.

The first are the facts of science, theoretical concepts, laws. All the most important "components" are revealed here. scientific work, different approaches to the object of study. This is a description of observations and experiments, a statement of hypotheses, logical reasoning and generalizations.

But the characteristic components are just as legitimately introduced. artistic text- dialogue and monologue, portrait and landscape, plot situations and images of heroes.

Thus, a scientific-fiction book combines various elements that are usually incompatible in the same text structure. This forces the author of such a work to construct a fundamentally new structure of the text, in which incompatibility is "removed".

The structure of a scientific and artistic text combines not only logical-theoretical and figurative-emotional elements, but also logical and figurative types of connections.

The development of a theme in a chain of paintings, episodes, the depiction of general phenomena through concrete-sensory details connected by subjective-emotional associations - all these characteristics poetic structure we find in the scientific and artistic book. Hence, in its construction, such properties as metaphor at the level of style and plot at the level of composition are manifested.

But the selection and arrangement of these pictures, episodes, details in this case are not primarily subject to an aesthetic task, but to the desire to illuminate the topic scientifically reliably and conclusively, to introduce the reader into the course of scientific reasoning. Consequently, the ways of linking the individual elements of the text can by no means remain only in the figurative-emotional sphere.

Cognitive motives come to the fore and, accordingly, a division is clearly visible at the basis of the division of the text: the thesis is a system of evidence. Each new element, including figurative, already acts as a link in the chain of substantiation, clarification of scientific truth, that is, the systematization of the material begins to obey the "law of the plan."

The development of logical thought becomes the basis, the "center of attraction", concentrating, organizing the presentation.

As a result, emotional impressions and scientific reasoning, image and concept merge in a single dynamic system of a scientific and artistic text. Special terms acquire the “ability” to carry out image-building functions, and paths, as it were, become links in theoretical reasoning. This process is extremely interesting!

The "new code" seems to expand the possibilities of the "communication channel", causing the impact of a scientific and artistic book on almost all areas of the reader's spiritual world: mind, emotions, will...

However, this only happens if the use of different methodological techniques the combination of logical and figurative is not arbitrary, but strictly motivated, due to the social purpose and subject of this type of literature, as well as the specific properties of the author's talent.

But, obviously, the point is not so much in the “manner of presentation” adopted by this or that author, but in his ability to visualize and comprehend reality. And not some of its particular facets, but the main subject of this type of literature - scientific activity.

Some authors, masking the lack of special knowledge, choose a simple way: figuratively, emotionally recreating extra-scientific material (“landscape”, everyday details, experiences of heroes), they dryly, informatively report on open patterns, experiments.

Oddly enough, a similar phenomenon is observed in some works created by specialists. The most inexpressive, pale are the lines, paragraphs devoted directly to science. In such cases, the reason, of course, is not the limited knowledge of the author. On the contrary, the scientific material is perfectly familiar to him, familiar. But, apparently, it is precisely this circumstance that creates a special psychological difficulty: it is difficult for him “to move away from a deep knowledge of the subject in order to re-experience the admiration of science.”

As a result, many books are published in which landscapes, images of people, travel adventures - in a word, everything related to the conditions and circumstances in which the study was carried out, was written by a talented artist, observant and lyrical. But when it comes to the content of the study, instead of impressive pictures, visible, emotional - the dry language of a scientific article ... ".

In such books, artistically written pages alternate with pages containing quite accurate, strictly verified scientific data. However, a truly scientific and artistic work is not obtained. Firstly, there is no integral, unified text structure, and secondly, the social function of the publication is not carried out to the proper extent. Rejecting the figurative disclosure of the main thing - scientific activity - it is impossible to give the reader a complete and correct idea of ​​either a particular scientist (as a person, he manifests himself primarily in the process of scientific creativity), or a specific study.

Therefore, speaking about the inclination (and ability) of the author of a scientific and artistic book to figuratively reveal the topic, one should keep in mind not just the ability to operate with concretely sensual examples, visual means language. It's about about the system of thinking, about the fact that the facts of science enter the consciousness of the author already "aesthetically organized". “And I have no goal to attract a ready-made scientific fact and embellish it to shove it into the reader. I already see this fact as beautiful”, - writes N.N. Mikhailov (italics mine).

All this often affects the initial concept of the future work and, accordingly, is reflected in the plans, prospectuses, applications, annotations submitted to the publisher.

As you know, the work of the author on a book goes through various stages: the emergence of an idea, the collection and study of the entire complex of information, the planning of the architectonics of the future work, the selection of material directly included in the text, the search for presentation techniques, etc. Of course, all these moments are intertwined: the idea is specified, concretized, data that initially seemed important are discarded, new ones are introduced, compositional plans change ... But it is important to note something else: at all stages, logical-theoretical and emotional-figurative means are involved (should be involved!) . If the image is involved only at the last stage, for "literary design" - artistic means will always be something external, optional. And the reader will certainly notice that the true artistry of perception is replaced by a set of “revitalizing” tropes, and the unique individuality of impressions and experiences is replaced by a heap of expressive expressions (“wonderful”, “one cannot but be surprised”, “outstanding achievement”, etc.).

In itself, the field of activity of this or that author is by no means a "guarantor" or, on the contrary, an obstacle to the manifestation of abilities for a figurative story about scientific phenomena. “The literary talent of Aleksey Nikolayevich was manifested ... in the figurativeness and plasticity of statements, in the game with a sense of proportion, sometimes restrained, sometimes deliberately exaggerated, in picturesqueness and stage presence, in a rich plot”, - this is written about A.N. Krylov, a famous Soviet engineer, researcher and designer.

Here, factors such as the psychophysical properties of the personality of a given person, the individual traits of his mental disposition, temperament, and manners of communicating with other people are significant. A truly imaginative vision of the environment, increased impressionability, emotional responsiveness, and the ability to reincarnate are necessary. M. Ilyin once wrote: "The main property of a spring is stubbornness."

And in order to find such an image, he really had to “feel like a spring”, which is either compressed or stretched, and which so stubbornly seeks to preserve, defend its “immutability”!

Logical-theoretical and figurative means, in essence, should be equivalent, equivalent for the author of a scientific and artistic book (which, of course, does not contradict the quantitative predominance of one or the other in a particular publication). It was about such authors that M. Gorky spoke, noting that they are equally characteristic of the gift of a scientist and an artist.

L.N. had a similar gift. Tolstoy, who created 28 stories about physics for youth. As is known, great writer, having extensive knowledge in many areas of science, anticipated some ideas of mechanics, polarization of light, etc. Most importantly, in terms of his way of thinking, “in terms of objectivity and accuracy of observations, he was very close, according to Academician A.P. Karpinsky, to real great scientists, surpassing them in artistic talent.

“Duality or duality is inherent ... to all workers in the so-called scientific literature,” writes N.N. Mikhailov. Rightly reproaching psychologists, literary critics, and philosophers for the fact that the nature of the abilities of such authors, the features of their work have not yet been studied, he makes a number of very valuable remarks: “They have not just knowledge, but rather comprehension. A message along with an impression... A convergence of a concept and an image, if you like.”

Judgments N.N. Mikhailov are especially interesting because they are largely based on self-observation:

“When I later began to print essays, I think the same duality came out of them. Craving for business: to explain - this is how the Alibek glacier behaves. And a craving for art: to admire - that's how beautiful the Alibek glacier is ...

He called the Pamir valleys troughs, the image is true, but not mine, but scientific: those valleys smoothed by glaciers that once crawled and melted are called in geomorphology by the German word “trough”, which means “trough” ...

If you know, you can see what you can't see. I wrote about the Bosphorus, and sailed there in the spring, with favorable windless weather. To make the image of the strait more accurate, he said: “In winter, cold winds blew into the funnel of the Bosporus: the crowns of the Lebanese cedars were combed from the north.” I thought that the past wind was visible in the tilted crowns.

Here, surprisingly accurately and penetratingly, the process of formation in the mind of the author of the book is revealed, exactly what N.N. Mikhailov calls "cognitive image" and what is essentially the basis of a scientific and artistic work.

Of course, this process is complex, contradictory and does not always end in creative success (“The two sides of nature, as it seems, merged either chemically or mechanically, or they argued among themselves and destroyed each other”). But he introduces himself as N.N. Mikhailov, remarkable for our days. “I was chasing a cognitive image from the very beginning (of my literary path), when the word “informativeness” did not yet exist. Much later, I had an idea: these inclinations, perhaps, in some way correspond to modernity, to the aesthetics of our century.

Of course, not everyone has the gift to see the world at the same time through the eyes of a scientist and an artist. Nevertheless, people with such a "synthetic talent" can be found among scientists and among writers and journalists.

And publishing workers have many ways, real opportunities to "discover" this talent, to acquaint millions of readers with it.

Thus, thanks to the Nauka publishing house, which published V. Larin's collection On the Probable... On the Unbelievable (1973), one of the greatest Soviet physiologists appeared before us in a rather unexpected role of a scientific publicist. Although the book, after the death of the author, collected disparate materials published at different times in various newspapers and magazines, it is perceived as a holistic work that figuratively reveals the possibilities of new spiders - bionics, heuristics, cybernetics, their role in society.

This fact is also interesting. The publication of the scientific and artistic essay on modern geology "What are you looking for" was accompanied by the editors of the journal "Youth" (1974, No. 10) with a "sidebar": "Science and Technology". And then it is said that the author - associate professor of Lviv University, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences - for many years directs research on the deep tectonics of the Tien Shan. "He has a lot to say about modern geology and the people who create it."

Characteristic examples are given, in particular, by one of the most "representative" scientific and artistic publications - 15 volumes of the collection "Ways into the Unknown". The idea of ​​the publication was formulated 20 years ago in its subtitle: "Writers talk about science." But from the very beginning, the section "Scientists about science and about themselves" appeared.

“It is interesting that, - writes the chairman of the public editorial board of the collection D. Danin, - in the team of authors ... there are many "centaurs" - writers-scientists or scientists-writers. These are psychiatrist V. Levy, microbiologist D. Petrov, biologist Dm. Sukharev, chemist A. Rusov, archaeologist G. Fedorov, historian N. Eidelman.

Note that one of these "centaurs" is Dr. historical sciences G. Fedorov recently reviewed the scientific and artistic books of the publishing house "Children's Literature", and among the most successful he names the works of "physicist and writer" G. Anfnlov, "archaeologist and writer" A. Nikitin, "mathematician and writer" V. Levshin and some others, emphasizing the dual nature of the talent and creative interests of these authors. To this list one could add G. Fedorov's own book Daytime Surface (1977).

In a word, even in our days Gorky’s statement sounds as relevant as possible: “Only with the direct participation of genuine workers of science and writers of high verbal technique we can undertake edition books devoted to the artistic popularization of scientific knowledge(emphasis mine)."

This is how many editions approach this problem now. For example, the editor-in-chief of Atomizdat V. Kulyamin writes: “Tracking how interest in such publications is distributed, you are convinced that the main thing is that the book should be written by a person with broad views, to a certain extent an encyclopedist who creatively combines scientific and artistic thinking whether he is a scientist or a journalist."

True, another opinion has been expressed more than once: that such books should mainly be created by scientists.

For example, among the authors of the Eureka series published by the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, specialists from the relevant branches of knowledge clearly predominate. The editorial staff believes that a writer, a journalist is unlikely to be able to give an accurate picture of science, with which he is most often familiar superficially, in an amateurish way. The scientist, on the other hand, communicates information “first-hand”, therefore he manages to show the process of research “from the inside” more logically and emotionally, more reliably.

The editors of Eureka maintain the closest contacts with scientific workers, helping many of them to enter the field of popularization that is new for them or to master new literary topics. Often they go on creative business trips. “We consider the trip successful,” said Art. editor of the series "Eureka" V. Fedchenko - if in a year or two the editor will have at least one manuscript of the author from the city where he went. So, as a result of editorial trips, the authors of "Eureka" were Doctor of Sciences V. Larichev from Novosibirsk, head. Department of Philosophy of the Tomsk Medical Institute V. Sagatovsky, researcher from Minsk L. Kolominsky.

Yet, despite active search authors, purposeful and painstaking work with them, their circle in this publishing house is still not very wide. And this can be easily seen by looking at the thematic plans. Apparently, few scientists boldly and willingly take on the creation of scientific and artistic works.

By the way, I would like to cite an interesting observation by T. Vyshomirskaya, the head of the editorial office of the State Scientific Publishing House of Poland, which published more than 200 books of the widely known popularization Library of Problems.

Teresa Vyshomirska admits that among scientists, “writing” books addressed to “non-specialists”, figuratively telling about the world of science, is still considered not a very honorable occupation. But there are two "categories" of authors who "can afford it." Firstly, famous scientists, for whom the creation of such works is a kind of relaxation (as an example, she names one of the largest specialists in the field of optics, Prof. Arkady Pekaru).

On the other hand, young people who “do not yet have great merit” willingly make their debut in this type of literature, who see it as “an attempt to try their hand at something more than an article or a review ...”.

Involving as authors famous researchers, editors sometimes "connect" to them "literary processors" as assistants, mainly from the circle of experienced popularizers who are well acquainted with the specifics of this kind of publications. So, the book "Enemies of Our Enemies" I. Zayanchkovsky was helped to write by F. Arsky, who himself is the author of the book "In the Land of Myths".

The form of "open" co-authorship is also used. A good example is the book Faster than Thought. It was in connection with its graduation that Academician I. Artobolevsky noted: “We unjustifiably timidly use a fruitful form - the community of a scientist and a journalist. I remember a good popular science book about cybernetics. It was created as a result of the joint efforts of the scientist N. Kobrinsky and the journalist V. Pekelis.” The book "Equilibrium Profile" was written by the biologist V.V. Dezhkin and journalist T.I. Fetisov.

But even on this path, the publishing house faces serious obstacles. Each author is “an individual and outstanding. Try to create a literary alliance from such people - one will definitely be subordinated to the leadership aspirations of the other. And this leads to the fact that the hand of the leader is visible in the resulting text - either a scientist who does not own a pen, or a journalist who “leveled” the text to his level of knowledge of the subject.

Synthetic nature of the subject matter of a scientific and artistic book, the need for a wide "exit" to the social and philosophical plane, the need to combine disparate elements of scientific research in the overall picture, sometimes to talk about the joint efforts of researchers in various fields of knowledge - all this also creates considerable difficulties. And it is often easier for a writer or a journalist to overcome such difficulties than for a scientist. “I am almost convinced that no scientist, even the most committed to the popularization of science, would agree to digress from his beloved work in order to combine in one material the scientific research of a dozen institutes and laboratories working on various aspects of this problem. The author also visited machine builders, and forensic doctors, and geologists, and astronomers, and focused in one essay the most diverse aspects of this interesting field of physics. This is said about the work of V. Orlov "The Hunter and the Pheasant", dedicated to the successes of spectroscopy. However, the idea expressed here can rightly be attributed to many other scientific and artistic works.

Vivid works created by professional writers were published, for example, by the Znanie publishing house, where books by M. Yanovskaya, V. Pekelis and others were published.

The writer usually selects one or several close branches of science, trying to study them as deeply as possible.

On this path, not so much the usual "cognitive" difficulties await him - understanding, assimilation, etc. Here the problems of creative rethinking and critical evaluation also arise.

Not to get carried away by demonstrating knowledge so recently and with considerable difficulty... To carefully select what directly "works" for the book's intention, and at the same time to avoid bias, narrowness, one-sided approach... It is far from easy to solve such problems.

Other difficulties arise in the “relationships” of an author who is not a specialist in this science with the material. He should be especially tactful when he describes problems that have not yet received a final solution, talks about hypotheses, ongoing discussions. He must be especially restrained so that his own judgments and impressions do not obscure the main characters of the book - the creators of science.

Passion for catchy literary devices, "inserted episodes", flirting with the unexpectedness of associations, compositional transitions - all these dangers lie in wait, first of all, for authors who have professional writing skills. The fact that they are not always possible to avoid is evidenced, in our opinion, by the talented works of G. Bashkirova, for example, her article “Seventy Grams of Illusions” (collection “Ways into the Unknown”, issue 8) or the book “Alone with Myself "(Youth Guards, 1972).

Nevertheless, one thing is certain: publishing houses should more boldly attract writers and journalists as authors of scientific and artistic books, and look for new forms of work with them.

It is useful to recall that the method of "social order" is quite applicable to this type of literature.

It is well known what various paths M. Gorky found, trying to include the artists of the word in the field of scientific thought, to inspire them to create works about "the heroism of scientific work and the tragedy of scientific thinking." He connected writers with specialists, got the right materials, suggested topics, new angles of their coverage, discussed creative ideas.

“In 1936, M. Ilyin ... in collaboration with E. Segal began to work on a story about how a person appeared, how he learned to work and think, how he mastered iron and fire, how he achieved power over nature, how he learned and rebuilt the world. The idea of ​​such a book was suggested by A.M. Gorky, he also advised how to start the book.

“Imagine an infinite space,” said Alexei Maksimovich. - Somewhere in the depths of a giant nebula, the Sun lights up. Planets separate from it. On one small planet, matter comes to life, begins to be conscious of itself. A man appears."

The first part of the book "How a Man Became a Giant" was published in 1940, the second or third - at the end of 1946. "The authors dedicated it to Alexei Maksimovich."

Having familiarized himself with the recently published collection of works by B. Agapov, among which was the essay "Matter for the Creation of the World", Gorky advised the author to continue the artistic popularization of remarkable discoveries in the field of chemistry. “In connection with an essay on plastics, Gorky wrote to me: “Therefore, allow me to suggest at your discretion such a topic: the substance and energy of man. You take matter as something continuously fertilized by people's energy, by the labor of their thought and fantasy. It is your will to show this relationship from its beginning, from the Stone Age, or wherever you like.

Here, a broad socio-philosophical approach to the material is clearly outlined - an approach so close to the interests of B. Agapov, the journalistic orientation of his literary talent.

M. Ilyin told how Alexei Maksimovich, discussing the second part of the book "Mountains and People", recommended expanding the plan, "taking a person in his relation to space ...".

At the same time, he made a lot of efforts to attract scientists and researchers to the creation of scientific and artistic works. “The almanac “Year XVI” is being organized in Moscow. My dream is to gradually attract the best scientific forces to cooperation in it, ”he wrote to the director of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine L. N. Fedorov.

And indeed, on the pages of this almanac in the special section "Creative Laboratory" there appeared works by Academicians S. F. Oldenburg ("Thoughts on Scientific Creativity"), A. V. Winter ("My happy life”), Professor Ya.G. Dorfman ("Magnet of Science") and many others.

A similar role of a "creative laboratory" under Gorky's leadership was played by the magazine "Our Achievements" - for a number of future masters of scientific literature.

“...They call me to work in the editorial office of Our Achievements. I began to head a new department ... I received from Gorky the topic I was striving for: how the country and its map are changing ... Suddenly I see: from the works born of a running life, I have something like a book. Gorky published in the Almanac Year XIX. It was called "The Handwriting of History". Idea: a new history creates a new geography and is imprinted with strokes on the map. In a separate publication - "The face of the country is changing."

It is known that much earlier, back in 1917, M. Gorky turned to prominent cultural figures with a proposal to create scientific and artistic biographical books. “I beg you to write a biography of Beethoven for children. At the same time, I turn to G. Wells with a request to write a "Life of Edison", Frithiof Nansen will give a "Life of Christopher Columbus", I - "The Life of Garibaldi" ... I earnestly ask you, dear Romain Rolland, to write this biography of Beethoven, since I I am sure that no one will write it better than you!”.

A.V. Lunacharsky shared with Gorky his creative plans for writing biographical works about Francis Bacon and Denis Diderot for ZhZL.

M. Gorky also offered K. Timiryazev to write a book about Charles Darwin.

It should be noted that among the alleged authors of the scientific and artistic series conceived by Gorky there are also scientists (known for their ability to figuratively recreate phenomena and facts, simply, vividly and entertainingly talk about the complex) and writers (known for their steady interest in theoretical research).

“If you were to try to compile a list of Marshak's influence on the matter of finding new authors, creating new books, then, perhaps, such a list would take more than one page.

It often happened that Marshak's influence was direct. Having heard from a prominent theoretical physicist M.P. Bronstein's fascinating story about the discovery of helium, Samuil Yakovlevich convinced the scientist to take up the manuscript. This is how the very good book "Solar Matter" with a foreword by Landau appeared.

It seems that modern book publishers could develop these glorious traditions more consistently and persistently. “Somewhere, but in the scientific and artistic genre, one cannot rely only on the manuscripts proposed by the authors. An active editorial policy is needed ... "

The potential opportunities for more active work with authors of scientific and artistic works are evidenced, in particular, by an article by Bella Dizhur, whose books are widely known in our country and translated into many languages ​​of the world.

“I recall with gratitude that,” she writes, “that my first editors took into account the specifics of my interests and opportunities. Here I would like to name two names: Claudia Vasilievna Rozhdestvenskaya (in those years she was the chief editor of the Sverdlovsk publishing house) and Nadezhda Alexandrovna Maksimova (she supervised the work of the editorial office of scientific literature in Detgiz in Moscow). I owe a lot to them. They helped me find my path in literature...

I unexpectedly received a letter from Nadezhda Alexandrovna Maksimova, which began with the words: “We have learned that you are a chemist-biologist by profession. would you agree to write for our publishing house?..” This is how the Green Laboratory was born.

B. Dizhur shows well the specific difficulties and shortcomings characteristic of reviewing and editorial practice in this area.

She compares the process of creating a science fiction book to sailing a ship: “One side of the river is Science. The other is Art. The skill of the pilot lies in the fact that the ship goes exactly in the middle of the river. Otherwise, either false fiction, embellishment, or an overload of dry information arises. Her "Green Lab" is characterized by this second miscalculation, and it arose not without the fault of the publisher.

The theme of the manuscript - what the plant eats - required the involvement of data from various sciences: botany, soil science, plant physiology, and so on. Apparently, therefore, “the manuscript turned out to have too many scientific consultants and reviewers ... Everyone demanded some additions, changes, clarifications ... One in his scientific review suggested replacing the word “smoke” with a more, in his opinion, exact definition"outgoing gases..."

It is clear that such reviewers' wishes testified to a misunderstanding of the specifics of scientific literature. But under their influence, the young and timid author ("Is it a joke - the first book in the central publishing house!") Made numerous corrections, carefully expelling "personal, emotional coloring" from the text.

The fact that such facts in publishing practice are by no means “cases for a long time past days”, testifies to the revision that the book Biological Walks has recently undergone in preparation for reprinting. The only difference is that the Nauka publishing house in this case did not have to deal with the author at all: Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.S. Serebrovsky died 30 years ago.

“He was an author with a pronounced creative personality, a romantic scientist. The search for something new, originality and unexpectedness of solutions, the complete absence of fear to break with tradition. All these qualities are clearly reflected in the book, which until now (the first edition was published in 1923) remains one of the best works, "with great artistic power revealing to the reader the world of the most fascinating problems of biology."

In the 3rd edition, 15% of the text was abbreviated by the editor, and these abbreviations were made without understanding the peculiarities of not only the individual creative manner, but also scientific and fiction literature as a whole.

“First of all, everything that did not carry an obvious and direct utilitarian load was subjected to truncation. Bright epithets, juicy, colorful comparisons, " digressions"- all this was washed out ... The fact that such an abbreviation (which, in fact, is an edit) broke the whole system of a deeply thought-out and carefully polished text, its musicality, imagery, poetry - it's scary to say - it seems that the editors did not bother at all ”, - writes with pain and indignation, Doctor of Biological Sciences L.V. Bardunov.

He gives numerous examples of such editing. "Spring" is replaced by "spring", "creatures" by "animals" or "organisms". "Stinks" the editor replaced the delicate "smells". In the word "felt" the editor must have thought something mystical; this word is replaced by "seemed". The same mysticism, and perhaps even worse, was seen by the editor in the word “pray”: instead of it, in the third edition it is worth “admiring”. “Relative” was replaced by “relative”, instead of “struck”, “inconspicuous” appeared, instead of “listen” - “react”, “quiet”, replaced by “modest”, “wonderful” - “amazing”.

These corrections depersonalize the text, deprive it of liveliness, charm, and the direct power of influencing the reader. They testify to a kind of deafness of the editor to the figurative-emotional structure of presentation - the most important property of a scientific and artistic work.

Of course, the other extreme is equally unacceptable - dismissive attitude reviewer and editor to scientific accuracy. This side of the problem requires particularly close attention if the author is not an expert in this field, or if the book uses heterogeneous information.

For example, positively evaluating the book by S. Reznik "Swordsmen" (ZhZL, 1973), the reviewer notes that a number of scientific inaccuracies are made in the yen, which are characteristic of a non-specialist (it is not true that the hypothesis of ticks as "reservoirs of plague infection" was confirmed; infusoria belong to protists, not microbes, etc.).

Of course, all such errors could be eliminated when preparing the manuscript for publication. However, the serious difficulty of the work of the reviewer and editor in this case lies in the fact that the versatility of the activities of the great Mechnikov led to the inclusion in the book of material from the most diverse - social and natural - sciences. Apparently, it would be necessary to involve a number of specialist consultants. However, the question arises: would something similar to the case described above with B. Dizhur's "Green Laboratory" not happen to S. Reznik's manuscript?

In a scientific or popular science text, an individual author's style is a desirable quality, but not at all obligatory. Long lists of good publications can be cited both with and without this quality. Sometimes it is impossible for the reader to catch the originality of the person hiding behind the surname put on the cover, but he does not feel the need for this.

Another thing in the book of scientific and artistic. Due to the peculiarities of its social purpose, its subject and methods of its "development", the image of the author acts as an important component of the text structure. After all, one of its fundamental properties is precisely the imprinting (along with objective reality) of subjective moments.

It is through the personality of the writer, through his life experience and attitude, his experiences and impressions, reflections and memories, that in this case the connection between the story of science and the perception of the reader, acting as an “accomplice” and “empathizer” of the research process, is realized.

What are the fundamental changes in the reader's perception of the text caused by this circumstance?

Firstly, the very "attitude towards perception" here is such that the material is assimilated through the prism of the author's individual attitude towards it.

Secondly, the manifestation of the personal principle begins to act as an aesthetic category.

Thirdly, the author is perceived by the reader as a participant (or one of them) of the narrative. Moreover, even if he does not appear openly on the stage, does not resort to the form of a story in the first person, remarks like: “I think”, “it seems to me” ...

In other words, the author's individuality appears here no longer as one of the properties of the text (besides, it is optional), but as a structural and systemic feature, directly and necessarily associated with determining the value of this particular work.

All this is clearly heard in many letters from readers to publishing houses - lively and direct responses.

Here are examples from the Young Guard archive.

“When you read this book, it seems that you hear the voice of the author, you clearly imagine his feelings and experiences, and therefore you begin to listen,” one of the letters says.

“I received great aesthetic pleasure and moral satisfaction after reading this book,” writes another reader about the “Invisible Contemporary” N. Luchnik and explains such an impact of the work primarily by the fact that it “manifested the author’s spiritual generosity, his big love to people".

The author's individuality also acts as an essential evaluation criterion in some printed and in-house reviews.

So, in a response to the manuscript of the surgeon Yu.A. it is noted that, for all the significance of the information reported in it and the variety of fiction techniques, this work does not feel "the wealth of moral and practical experience, the individuality of the scientist's attitude." And this does not allow, according to the reviewer, to accept the manuscript for publication in the scientific and artistic series "Brigantine".

In conclusion to another book, on the contrary, it is emphasized that in it "the personality of the author is clearly manifested with all the originality of his perception and interests."

The author's ability to give his own assessment of facts and phenomena, his desire to acquaint the reader with his doubts, his special view of things - all this is noted as a "necessary condition" for the publication of the book by the editors of the Eureka series5.

Unfortunately, when looking at publishing materials and critical speeches, it is easy to see that individual creative manner the author is not always given due attention, the conversation about this often comes down to characterizing and evaluating individual methods of presentation.

The editor's task is to comprehend the originality of the author's intention, his approach to the topic, due not only to general factors (purpose, reader's address, material), but also to individual ones - the peculiarities of the intellect, the way of thinking, the temperament of this person, his likes and dislikes. Who are these authors? What do they like, what do they want? - such a question was asked by M. Gorky M.E. Koltsov, when the series “The Life of Remarkable People” appeared, conceived precisely as a scientific and artistic one.

The Gorky approach is invariably preserved by the editors of ZhZL even today. They strive to understand, to feel what is dear to this writer, which prompted him to turn to the topic. For one it is important above all public acceptance, the significance of the results of the work of a scientist, another cares about the greatness moral achievement in the name of science, the third is occupied by the dialectic of investigative thought, the secrets of intuition. It is quite understandable that such different approaches to the very “phenomenon of a remarkable person” determine the originality of the idea, the selection of material, the structure of the book, and the style of presentation.

The criterion of author's individuality enables the editor to more specifically, creatively apply other evaluative criteria, for example, to see more clearly what causes and how organic the appearance of individual compositional elements in the text - lyrical reflections, philosophical digressions, "examples from life." It allows you to more reasonably and demandingly evaluate the figurative and expressive means of the language, to notice whether there is a genuine originality of thoughts and feelings behind the “colorful” phrases.

The study of the text in the aspect of the author's individuality helps to improve the method of analysis, in particular, by considering the relationship between content and form in specific work. And these interconnections are especially close in scientific and artistic works. What we usually refer to as external "devices of entertainment", "means of revitalizing the narrative", sometimes turns out to be an essential component of the content, expressing the author's concept. For example, in V. Lvov's book "Einstein" there is such a paragraph: "He told how one evening he went to bed with a feeling of complete hopelessness of the answer to the riddle that tormented him. But suddenly the darkness lit up, and an answer arose” (p. 68). In this case, this is not a “literary move”, not an attempt to interest, entertain the reader, but an expression of the author’s view on the role of intuition in the process of scientific thinking, a moment of discovery, which often seems to the researcher himself as a sudden insight.

Consequently, the editor encounters manifestations of the author's individuality at all stages of the work on the book - from acquaintance with the initial concept of the application or prospectus to the stylistic "polishing" of the finished manuscript. And neglect of this problem often breaks the necessary contact between the author and the editor, hinders their joint work.

L. Uspensky recalls that in one of his scientific and artistic books, two words “were released by a not too ceremonious editor ... I made a considerable fuss about this, because the cuts of these two words ... to my ears significantly and unpleasantly changed the rhythmic structure of the paragraph, although their omission did not produce any semantic changes.

N.N. Mikhailov writes that, to a large extent, at the insistence of the editors, he deliberately eliminated from his first books everything related to personal perception - thoughts, experiences, impressions, considering this "unnecessary sentiment", "self-digging". “The editors helped me root in delusion. Once, after the war, I brought a manuscript of a book about a country where the author had already looked through - very timidly. The editor blotted it out "through himself" in one fell swoop.

According to N.N. Mikhailov, these works, which "lacked the author's personality", cannot be recognized as truly scientific and artistic, although they contain both images and narrative dynamics.

By the way, understanding the originality of the author's manner, the ability to "get used" to it - is characteristic of our largest scientists, who also act as editors. “I have seen the originals and galleys after they have been edited. Sometimes it is very significant. But the characteristic style of presentation does not change. On the contrary, one can see how scientists get involved in the figurative form creation of a publicist... This is how the Kurchatov plasma in a magnetic trap, “behaving like a squirrel in a wheel,” and the classic Veksler circus, depicting a synchrophasotron, were born, ”is the observation of the editor-in-chief of the journal Nauka and life” by V. Bolkhovitinov is extremely revealing.

In our country and abroad, recognized masters of Soviet scientific literature are well known - M. Ilyin, B. Zhitkov, B. Agapov, V. Orlov, I. Andronikov, D. Danin, A. Agranovsky, D. Granin and many others .... And all this, according to the apt expression of D. Danin, is “names are not interchangeable!” Each of them not only translates scientific data into a commonly understood language, but also tells a story about “the fullness of one’s own soul”, revealing “not pragmatics, but the poetry of science.”

Characteristic in this regard is the "reader's mail of one book" - "The Four-winged Corsairs" by I. Khalifman. Here are just three reviews.

“You are, so to speak, my “godfather” in the field of insect sociology. I am sure that your books have had a great influence (and will continue to do so for a long time) on many others,” writes V. Kipyatkov, an entomologist from Leningrad.

“I read your book with true pleasure, I learned a lot of new things, - I read it, was amazed, touched and admired every now and then. The book is labeled "non-fiction". I think she is very faithful,” notes the poet K. Vanshenkin.

And Lev Ozerov, adds that I. Khalifman's book “remains in the heart and mind, prompting reflection on Nature, on scientific research, on the people of science. All this is interdependent with you and sounds like a poem.”

What can be said about the “targeting” of a scientific and artistic book? Who acts as its real and potential reader?

In examining this problem, it is necessary first of all to abandon the prevailing opinion (it is very clear in the annotations of templates!) that any such book is addressed to the "general reader" simply because the special information is given here in an "entertaining and accessible form." It is necessary to be based on the specifics of public purpose, the features of the subject of this literature, the methods of organizing the text characteristic of it, and the methods of presenting the material.

Indeed, the "reader's range" of most scientific and artistic works is very wide - both in terms of age and educational aspects.

Moreover, it is impossible not to notice that the first has a tendency to further expand these days.

On the one hand, the inclusion of complex theoretical material in the primary school curriculum should undoubtedly cause a qualitative shift in the cognitive book addressed to preschoolers and younger schoolchildren. “They also want to know about the structure of a spaceship rushing to Mars, and about operations on a living heart, and about the writing of the disappeared people, solved by a thinking machine, and about growth hormones. That is why the scientific and artistic book for children has acquired such importance in our days. The publishing houses "Malysh" and "Children's Literature" face new challenges in this area. In "Children's Literature", by the way, the scientific and artistic editorial office is now the largest, it is not by chance that it is called "publishing within a publishing house"! A special scientific and artistic edition has also been created at the Malysh Publishing House.

On the other hand, the increase in life expectancy leads to an increase in the number of "very old" people. Namely, this contingent of readers is especially interested in the socio-philosophical problems of science, the psychology of creativity, that is, one of the essential aspects of the subject of scientific literature.

The foregoing, of course, does not mean that, releasing this or that book, the publishing house is addressed simultaneously "to the old and the small." On the contrary, there is a pronounced age gradation of the works we are considering. And when preparing a manuscript for publication, the editor must be aware of what exactly is in age features the future audience meets both the general properties of the scientific and artistic text, and specifically - the content and form of this publication.

The Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, for example, found it expedient to clarify the age gradation of the published literature by organizing a special department called "The Same Age", designed for teenagers. The division also affected scientific and artistic works. It is "Rovesnik" that produces the already mentioned collections and series "Eureka", "Brigantine", "Literature and You" and others.

The desire for independence, a hostile attitude to all kinds of teachings, didactics, cognitive activity and emotional responsiveness - all these properties of a teenager are best suited, according to the editors, just a scientific and artistic book.

At the same time, a modern eighth grader or tenth grader has a large stock of information in various fields of natural science, and this allows him to talk with him "on an equal footing", without avoiding special concepts, formulas, etc.

“Secondary education,” we wrote in the questionnaires, implying a standard set of knowledge. Now the run is so fast scientific and technological revolution that a date should be added to the qualification "average": "average - 47" is something different than "average - 74". This remark by V. Orlov brings us to a very curious phenomenon. In the type of literature under study, there is sometimes a kind of inverse relationship two "parameters" of a single bibliological category "reader's address" - the age of the reader and his preparation. In general, among the books we are considering, editions intended for children occupy especially significant place. A study conducted in 4,000 urban and rural school libraries showed that the greatest demand among children is not for stories “about spies”, not for adventure stories, but for the so-called educational books, most of which are scientific and artistic.

When addressing children, we obviously must first of all take into account the sensuously concrete nature of their thinking, the liveliness and immediacy, the synthetic nature of perception. Since the child has a very limited stock of empirical and scientific knowledge, for the implementation of the basic principle of popularization (to the unknown through the known), the “path through the image” acquires special significance. All these reasons prompted M. Gorky to repeatedly emphasize that a children's educational book "must speak the language of images, must be artistic."

However, it is impossible not to notice that in some publications it is precisely the calculation of the characteristics of child psychology that leads to characteristic errors: an excess of figurative elements that are random in relation to scientific material, performing purely "entertaining" functions. The text is cluttered with overly talkative characters and adventurous situations. The authors of some books, having first paid "obligatory tribute" to figurativeness, then "slip" either into dry information or into instructive recitation, which is poorly perceived by the child.

In books addressed to children, covering new branches of knowledge that have been developing especially actively in recent years, it is extremely important to correctly calculate the optimal “level of accessibility”. Do not create "outrageous inhibition", but do not underestimate the cognitive capabilities of the child, do not be afraid to put him in problem situation"intellectual difficulty" - that's what is especially valuable.

This approach is typical, for example, for the works of Yu. Dmitriev, in particular, his "Big Book of the Forest" ("Children's Literature", 1975) or essays "Hello, squirrel! How are you, crocodile? ("Children's Literature", 1970). In the first of these, the child is introduced into complex world bionics, the second one is specially devoted to still very little studied phenomena - the language of animals. And the critics rightly noted that the works of Yu. Dmitriev are designed to form a sustainable interest in science, the skills of focused attention.

It is gratifying that, meeting the requirements of reality, publishing houses are expanding the "thematic boundaries" of children's books, revising the usual ideas about what is "needed and available" to the young reader. An example is the "Little Encyclopedia of Big Cybernetics" by V. Pekelis, which reveals the concepts of an algorithm and a binary number system, talks about the recently emerging sciences - bionics, mathematical linguistics. Or G. Elizavetin's book "Money", which introduces the schoolchild into the world of economic knowledge, which, it would seem, is far from him. Or the work of B. Ehrengross "The Amazing Science of Aesthetics".

However, one should pay attention to the fact that it is in such works that the danger of falling into simplification, vulgarization, and popularism becomes especially real. Such miscalculations are noted, in particular, in the review of the book by B. Ehrengross.

Regarding the educational preparation of the reader, the following should be noted. Of course, in the literature we are considering, this factor has a significant impact on the selection and presentation of material. Let us compare, for example, in this regard, three scientific and artistic books that are close in subject matter: F.G. Lev "From what everything" (for younger students), E.A. Sedov "Interesting about electronics" (for graduating from high school), V.I. Rydnnk "Atoms talk to people" (for a reader with some special training).

F.G. Leo devotes a whole chapter to explaining the term "atom", E.A. Sedov does not consider it necessary to do this at all, but freely uses the term in explaining (rather detailed) the properties of the electron. And V.I. Rydnik, relying on the fact that these properties are already familiar to the reader, uses his knowledge to introduce and clarify the complex concept of "spin".

And yet, the stock of the reader's knowledge, the socio-cultural "matrix" in scientific literature does not have a direct and immediate impact on interest in the book. For a specialist, most of the information contained in the text may be familiar. But the work itself attracts his attention due to the fact that the experiences of researchers are figuratively and emotionally captured in it, an aesthetically affecting image of the cognizable is given.

It can, therefore, be argued that the interaction of a scientific and artistic text with a diverse audience, united under the heading "general reader", is a complex, "multilayered" process. In such a text, there are, as it were, various “layers” that are in dynamic correlation with the requests and capabilities of the perceiver. One or another “layer” for a given group of readers (or for a given specific reader) may turn out to be “redundant” (information was previously known) or perceived as “extraneous noise” (information is too complex and “outrageous inhibition” occurs). However, thanks to the successful influence of other "layers" of the text, the process of communicating with the book as a whole does not lose its value.

So if popular literature is most often focused on a reader with a certain level of training (schoolchildren, "humanists", readers who want to join the achievements of natural science, specialists in related professions, etc.), then a scientific and artistic book is deprived of such a specific address. It often attracts both an amateur and a scientist at the same time.

L.D. Landau, for example, called M. Bronstein's book "Solar Matter" (on the discovery of helium) an outstanding event and argued that, intended for children, it would captivate any professional physicist.

Many similar facts are given to us by the publishing practice of recent years.

What can be said about scientific literature? It seems that in this aspect, too, it largely (but not completely!) "inherits" the features of these two types of literature, synthesizing them in a peculiar way. This circumstance significantly affects the evaluation criteria. In particular, a very specific criterion for the need to include individual details in the text (“the right to exist”) is being formed.

For example, the author says that a scientist talks about his discovery with a friend "in the evening, after dinner, when they settled down by candlelight in comfortable office chairs." The reviewer considers this "unnecessary, distracting details": does it matter if he was sitting in a comfortable chair or on a chair?

Indeed, such strokes would seem unnecessary in a scientific or popular science text - they do not carry “useful information”, do not convey the necessary knowledge and do not help to present them more easily. Their function would be purely entertaining ("to rest the reader...").

And in the text of scientific and artistic? Here, in our opinion, the situation is changing. Details of the situation, behavior (of course, if they are not stereotyped and skillfully recreated figuratively) do not distract or scatter the reader's attention, but, on the contrary, make his communication with the book more effective. Because they perform the most important function in the process of perceiving such a text: they create an “illusion of presence”, help a person see what is happening and, therefore, feel like a living, interested witness, a direct participant.

The "accuracy" of the selection of such details depends on tact, sense of proportion, imaginative thinking, fine arts, i.e. artistic endowment of the author.

A curious example of how the readership of a scientific and artistic publication unexpectedly expands is given in the collection Artistic Perception. Studying the reading circle of the peoples living in the Far North of our country, sociologists were convinced that local residents uses ... "Children's Encyclopedia". “In it they find a popular explanation for those objects and phenomena of life familiar to us, which are completely unfamiliar to the indigenous population of the Far North.”

"Methods of communication" of the reader with various types literature is known to be qualitatively different.

A person picks up a work of art, wanting not only to learn about something, but also to experience, feel, and see something. For him, the effect of a personal - a living, momentary, direct experience that takes place “before his eyes” is infinitely important (even if the story is about the events of a thousand years ago).

The attitude to perception will be fundamentally different. scientific text. The reader always remembers: someone “before him” and “independently of him” studied the phenomenon, established a fact, formulated a pattern and prepared a message. He wants to perceive this message as objectively, accurately and unambiguously as possible, with the least possible expenditure of time and effort. “Before I didn’t know, but now I know,” “I managed to understand and assimilate” - this is the main effect in this case, giving rise to a sense of satisfaction from communicating with a book.

In recent years, a number of sociological research, revealing the motives for reading works of art.

Among them are common, so to speak, "utilitarian", related to other types of literature (consciousness of the benefits of reading, the desire for self-development, the need for knowledge, etc.). But a significant part of them does not play a significant role in the perception of "non-fiction" texts or cannot be applied to them at all. These are, in particular, such motives: the need for aesthetic experiences (caused by both the object of description and the qualities of the text itself); need for activation emotional sphere; the desire to activate the imagination, direct live perception, subjective associations, etc.

All these motives are very essential when a person turns to a scientific and artistic book.

Another interesting point is connected with the specifics of the perception of the literature we are studying.

When releasing a specific work, both the publisher and the author are guided by a certain “collective” reader. Individual psychological differences between people are essentially ignored.

However, the book is intended for the perception of "isolated individuals". And certain contradictions inevitably arise between the mass orientation of the publication and the process of individual perception. It seems that the scientific and artistic text to some extent removes this contradiction, giving each person different information to the extent of his understanding, his ability to empathize and co-create.

It is known that this property does genuine work art addressed simultaneously to the whole of humanity and to the individual. A scientific and artistic book partly accepts such "conversion" as a gift of art to the noble cause of popularization.

Let's add one more remark to what has been said.

Actually scientific and actually artistic means of assimilation of reality in the aggregate occupy "only rather narrow extreme bands" in the spectrum of human activity, the main part of which is occupied by "everyday used methods of communication and cognition".

That's why literary work, which intertwines the conceptual and figurative, rational and emotional, brings the subject closer to the reader, imitating the process of his "everyday thinking". And this can also be seen as one of the reasons for the effectiveness of the impact of a scientific and artistic book on the reader, the mass character of its audience.

All of the above allows us to assert that the features of the creation of a scientific and artistic work by the author and the features of its perception by the reader reflect the strengthening of ties characteristic of our modernity:

1. various forms of thinking - abstract-logical and concrete-figurative - in the process of comprehension by each person of the surrounding reality;
2. various forms of social consciousness - science and art - in the process of development of society.

As a result, a scientific and artistic book acts as a way of manifestation (for the author) and formation (for the reader) of the properties of an integral, harmoniously developed personality. That is why it occupies an increasingly prominent place in the plans of Soviet publishing houses, contributing to the implementation of the educational tasks set for them by the Communist Party.

One should not be surprised that only in the last third of the 20th century. in Russian literature, fiction about scientists and their work (the so-called "scientific" prose) appeared, but the fact that this had not happened before and on a much larger scale. The explanation, however, lies on the surface. Anything related to serious scientific research, in the country was strictly classified. They sometimes talked about the results, but the very process of scientific research and what accompanied it remained with seven seals. Although fiction, of course, was least of all interested in the technical side of scientific discoveries and inventions.

Modern scientific fiction prose short term managed to surpass the level that was achieved in the recent past by separate essays on this topic: V. Kaverin - "Open Book" (1946 - 1954, 1980), D. Granin - "I'm going into a thunderstorm" (1962). Scientific prose of the 1970s - 1990s is a layer of works rich in thematic, stylistic, and genre relations that explore various aspects of the life of science and scientists.

Firstly, it is scientific and artistic prose, which has achieved particular success in the biographical genre. Of great interest are the biographies of prominent scientists, allowing you to enter the circle of their ideas, to feel the confrontation of opinions, sharpness conflict situations through which the path of great science inevitably runs. It is known that the 20th century is not the time of brilliant singles. Success in modern science most often comes to a group, a team of like-minded people, although, of course, discoveries are not made without a leader. Scientific and artistic literature introduces this or that discovery into the history and recreates the characters of the leader and his followers, the features of their relationship. Such are the books of D. Danin "Niels Bohr" (1976) - about the Danish physicist, D. Granin "Zubr" (1987) - about the difficult fate of the famous biologist N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky and "This strange life"(1974) - about the mathematician A. A. Lyubishchev. Here one can also include M. Popovsky's book about the amazing, tragic, long-suffering fate of an outstanding person - "The Life and Life of Voyno-Yasenetsky, Archbishop and Surgeon" (1990).

Secondly, this is, relatively speaking, everyday prose, depicting the everyday life of scientists and the people around them, in all the variety of problems, conflicts, characters, interesting and sharp psychological conflicts. Such are the novels by I. Grekova "Department" (1978) and A. Kron "Insomnia" (1974). An unusual situation is described by D. Granin in the novel "Flight to Russia" (1994) - American scientists emigrate to our country.

Thirdly, these are books that explore the features of technocratic consciousness, the situation that arises when science becomes a means of establishing a "strong" personality who tramples on moral principles for the sake of career, fame, privileges, and power. As a rule, the central conflict in such cases is of a sharp, fundamental nature. Such are the books of V. Amlinsky "Every hour will be justified" and V. Dudintsev - "White clothes" (1987).

The confrontation in biological science between the supporters of academician T. Lysenko and geneticists has a whole history in our country. In the work of Dudintsev, geneticists prove their correctness with the help of the most convincing argument - the results of numerous and many years of experiments: "Nature itself speaks in their favor." But for the writer, the actual scientific side of the matter is in the background. No wonder his novel is called "White Clothes". The epigraph to it is taken from the "Revelation" of John the Theologian ":" These, clothed in white clothes, who are they and where did they come from? clothes

The writer's work belongs to the moral-philosophical type of narration. "You can't force a good person to be bad" - this is stated on the very first pages of the novel. Its protagonist, Candidate of Sciences Fyodor Ivanovich Dezhkin, although not without doubts, at first shares the scientific positions of the Lysenkoites, headed by Academician Ryadno. The central storyline of the book is connected with the gradual insight of Dezhkin and his transition to the camp of the Weismanists-Morganists, as opponents call them by the names of the founders of genetics A. Weisman and T. X. Morgan. Gradually Fyodor Ivanovich discovers not only the scientific inconsistency of Ryadno and his like-minded people, but also the methods by which they maintain their monopoly in biology. There is no such meanness, lies, meanness that the Ryadnovites would not go to, resorting to eavesdropping, fakes, speculation on ideological premises, etc. Dezhkin was shocked to find out that the powerful KGB was behind Ryadno. Well, when the arguments of such an institution are used, then it is time for the participants in the discussion, at least one of the parties, to think about personal security. Dezhkin himself manages to escape, but his fiancee and main opponent Ryadno Strigalev are arrested, Professor Pososhkov committed suicide.

But back to the novel. A large place on its pages is occupied by the dialogues of the characters, who often have to resort to allegories. Subtext is very important in the book. The reader will have to penetrate into the meaning of complex metaphors-symbols: white clothes, an hourglass, an iron pipe, a parachutist, etc. In addition to the change of events available for review that form the movement of the plot, there is a tense confrontation of worldviews in the novel. The humanistic, optimistic meaning of the work of V. Dudintsev is that justice triumphs and evil is defeated.

Scientific prose has a future. The reader's interest in such literature is unchanged. There are many more problems, the solution of which is possible only through the joint efforts of science and art.