The Skin of Time: A Book of Changes

In front of you is a journalistic collection by the well-known Russian writer, journalist, and literary scholar Alexander Genis. The book includes about a hundred cultural studies essays and the author’s reflections on life and modern society. The texts in this collection are divided into three parts: to say goodbye to the past, the book opens with “Obituaries” for things and concepts that have fallen out of use; the present is examined in “The Skin of Time”; and the whole thing is concluded with the author’s lyrical interpretation of the future, presented in “The Commandments.”

Any reason could serve as a trigger for the essays unified by a common theme and building the author’s own narrative. A note in a newspaper, a fleeting thought, a fashionable rumor, a remark overheard, an important number—anything that happened around Alexander Genis in recent decades and became a spark for reflection, memories, forecasts, and free associations. This is how ironic and profound texts about telegrams, the Arctic, virtual sex, Facebook, TV series, metempsychosis, America, quarantine, emigration, obesity, and much more were born.