Page 10

[Alexandr Korol]

books before or is writing them now — what is the likelihood that God already knows in advance how many volumes this adventure will have? And if God, nature, knows everything from A to Z, from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end, then it is quite possible that everything included in the first volume was already written with the awareness that in some later volume — the fifth, sixth, or seventh — we will return to the first volume and be amazed to find that I had already spoken about it there. And this process, this cyclical, spiral- like, multi-layered nature — it is a very intriguing formula that is embedded throughout “Alternative History”. Some events that happen in the first volume of “Alternative History” may seem unclear as to why they are included, why they are even written there. But later, everything is deciphered, decoded, and complemented, and everything becomes interconnected across the other volumes — the second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on. That is where curiosity lies. But as I said, personally, as the protagonist of this book, and again, using this technique of a matrix within a matrix, applying this method of erasing boundaries — there is the author, the one who is a person in the world of people, where you, the readers, exist, writing these books, and then there is me, the writer, but the one who is specifically the writer as the protagonist of the book “Alternative History”. And this technique is very important. Yes, it confuses people, but on the other hand, it also offers a great deal. And what it offers is of immense value. When these boundaries are erased, and a person, interacting with the protagonist while reading “Alternative History”, still perceives it as current time and reality, when in fact, it is merely a first-person novel. And right now, as I am writing, it seems like a book, but it is already another world — it is already an alternative world. It is no longer Alexandr Korol, the author from your world. At this moment, I am the protagonist of the book who hears the voice. And as you know, in films, particularly mystical ones... Or even if we take “The Master and Margarita” as an example — as if I am walking through Patriarch’s Ponds, and a cat waves and smiles at me. Likewise, birds often fly up to me, passing on their greetings. And how should this be classified? A fairy tale, a myth, a fantastical novel — call it what you like. Why do people read books? First and foremost, everyone finds their own enjoyment in them. No one will engage in something unpleasant or harmful to them. Why would a person harm themselves? If someone derives pleasure from a film, a series, a literary work,