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[Alexandr Korol]

They’re often depicted in the form of little figures: a woman stands with a crescent
moon on her head, a man stands with the head of the sun, there stands, let’s say,
Mercury with a staff, with a caduceus, with such a staff with two serpents, and
the rest are the same kind of little figures — these are also other planets. And I
visually look at this scheme and try to understand all of this: when I’m the first,
when I’m the second, when I’m the third, when I’m the fourth, when I’m the fifth,
when I’m the sixth, when I’m the seventh. And right now I’m one of the seven:
now one, now another, now a third, now a fourth. This is what I’m occupied with
right now, what I’m working on right now.

Some more news… I got on a call today with an acquaintance who works with
performers in Moscow. He proposed to me that, for some platforms, video
platforms, we film a program where various guests, celebrities, could talk with
me on various interesting themes. And when he and I began to discuss this,
he made, let’s say, such an emphasis — he underscored it so nicely. He says:
“Alexandr, before, I didn’t understand who you are. That is, one always wanted
to call you a psychologist.” And I say to him in reply: “Well, why a psychologist?
I’ve been writing books ever since school days, after all.” He says: “Yes, it’s just
that the way you talk, the way you think, the associations that immediately come
into your head — you’re a psychologist. Now I understand that you’re a writer. But
this became clear precisely after your novel ‘Alternative History.’” And here he
says that it all became clear to him at once — that truly, I’m like a science-fiction
writer, and that even if I were invited to some interview, I’d be like a specialist,
like a researcher who fully understands, studies everything connected with the
time machine, with robots, flying saucers, mythical gods. He says that I’m a
specialist in this, because I’m a writer, a science-fiction writer. And he lists to me
the surnames of those — one wants to call them scientists — those science-fiction
writers who’ve been highlighted for me over the last years, especially over the
last year. And I think: “Wow, how unusual it is that people are finally beginning
to associate me with them, and finally I’m becoming more understandable
to society and to people.” And it’s pleasant. It’s pleasant after all when you’re
associated with a science-fiction writer of such a world level, from whose works
a whole heap of Hollywood films have been made, than if I were compared
to some magician. I do want to remain a writer, after all, and I like this a lot.
And I like it very much if this career ladder will, after all, continue and lead me
to being able, after all, to see a film adaptation of my book.