What does "neglect, w altz" mean? Where did the expression come from?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

If you are an observant person, then a strange trend that has been observed recently cannot escape you. In some segments of the population, changes are taking place regarding turns of speech. They say that it came from the city on the Neva, in which the percentage of "intelligentsia - proletariat" has always been significantly shifted towards the intelligentsia compared to the national average.

St. Petersburg is a city with history. If I may say so, then with historical energy. Some tourists who have visited the northern capital admit that the inclusions of profanity, which were previously common for them, upon arrival in St. Petersburg are somehow transformed into turns of speech that were in use before the "revolutionary advent". And what is interesting: phrases such as, for example, "neglect,w altz", emerge from the depths of the subconscious in some inexplicable way. Let's talk about it.

Petersburg revolutions

The information field is a category proven by science, that is, an axiom. Therefore, it is not surprising that lexical phrases that have become popular and in demand in some part of the country are spreading at lightning speed throughout the territory, united by a single language. And if you take into account the factor of iPhones, the Internet and the same television, then there is no doubt that the speed of distribution has overcome the sound threshold.

And here it is important to have time to catch: where was the pebble thrown, and where did the circles go on the water, or on the information field?

So: for some time now, instead of the usual "hello" or "listening" you can hear "listen" as a response to your call. Particularly artistic and witty subscribers will respond to you with the phrase: "Who needed me (needed)?" And if, for example, you begin to "load" your interlocutor with your complaints about the "surrounding abomination of the world", then you may well hear something like: "Neglect, w altz" or similar phrases.

Connoisseurs attribute the epicenter of distribution to St. Petersburg, which is quite likely, given the linguistic culture of this city, including the pre-revolutionary one.

Being determines consciousness

So, there has been a turn in the "lexical" consciousness of the population. What is it connected with? Perhaps with the fact that the genetic "culturalmemory". There are two questions here. For what reason? What was the trigger?

Let's try to analyze the emerging direction in the language culture using the example of the phrase "neglect, let's w altz".

Let's start with the circumstances about which an individual could use this phraseological phrase. They could be described as "reaching the heights of the London bottom" in all senses at once: material, emotional, everyday, existential; or in one of the areas listed. There is a more common expression that describes "tragic life circumstances" - everything is "worse than anywhere."

Master class by Alexander Zbruev

Do you remember the episode from the film "Everything will be fine", where a successful oligarch, performed by actor Zbruev, conducts a master class on the topic "How to let go of trouble"? This training consists of four points:

• raise your right hand up;
• dramatically lower it down;
• lowering your hand, "with feeling" say: "Fuck it on …!"
• then do what brings joy at the moment.

The film premiered in 1996, at the memorable moment of the presidential elections, remembered by the people with the phrase: "Vote, otherwise you will lose!" At that time, this master class corresponded to the mentality of the population as well as possible.

Today the mentality has changed, and hence the way of responding to "life in shades of gray". And therefore, a person formulates a response to circumstances in a more sarcastic or ironic form, for example: "Neglect, w altz!"

Illustration for the theme

In 2018, on March 18, the next presidential elections in Russia took place, the results of which were a complete surprise not only for the inhabitants of the country, but also for the world community. Yes, we know how to surprise!

Many "dear Russians" have formed an ambivalent attitude towards the prospects for Russia's development in the coming years: on the one hand, "if only there was no war," on the other hand, "a bright path to where?" Now let's return to the question of the "trigger" of the "lexical reset" process in the context of the election results.

The response of the new format called "Neglect, w altz!" Slava ATGM, an artist from Yekaterinburg, offered an event called "Elections Again"

Directly, the answer itself was a w altz of 50 pairs to the music of the People's Artist of the USSR Georgy Sviridov from the film version of A. S. Pushkin "Snowstorm". The collective performance of the w altz took place on the icy surface of the Verkh-Isetsky Pond on March 19, 2018.

At the "X moment" the music stops and the couples stop dancing. From above, the resulting figure is read as the phrase "By, we dance!", which means "Neglect, we w altz!"

Optimism rules

No, it'snot a political action, not a protest march and not a demonstration of defiance. This is a way out of reality, which has ceased to suit its, let's say, recognition. The project proposes to replace the zombifying version of Groundhog Day with something new, thus forming a different reality beyond the comfort zone.

So, "Neglect, w altz" - what does it mean? The idea is that when you change sluggish everyday life for something unusual for your consciousness, and therefore joyful for the unconscious part of the personality, then you expand the boundaries of your "I".

Slava ATGM, speaking about the creation of a performance, admits that the idea was suggested to him by an interview with journalist and video blogger Dudya, where the idea was expressed that even if things are not going brilliantly in the country, you can simply by doing your job with enthusiasm, change the world inside and around.

Michelangelo once said that in order to create an ingenious sculpture, it is necessary to cut off all unnecessary. Slava ATGM seems to have done something similar: it placed 50 pairs on a white field under a pale blue spring sky. If we translate this into the language of symbols, then it can be commented as follows: forget about the surrounding negativity, go forward with faith in yourself and hope for the best!

50 years ago, this mood was conveyed by the phrase "Damn, let's dance!"

New format made a reality

Slava ATGM was assisted in the implementation of his project by many residents of Yekaterinburg: dance instructors, cameramen, director-director, just students and young people who were fascinated by this idea. Given the possibilities of information dissemination, it can be assumed that this answer choice will develop.

So we figured out where the phrase "Neglect, w altz" came from in the modern lexicon. In its subtext, there is a different, freer and context-independent way of solving problems by taking them to a new level.