Russian writer Alex Exler is a very multifaceted personality. From under his pen, both training aids and perky books like "Notes of the Programmer's Bride" come out with equal ease. And even reviews of a variety of films. Learn more about the biography of this man, as well as about the features of his work and what he does today.
Alex Exler: critic, writer and just a guy with humor
They say that if a person is talented, then in everything. Although this is not always a fair statement, it is applicable to Alex Exler (in the world Alexei Borisovich Exler). After all, almost all the projects he took on were successful.
In addition to directly writing books and reviews, he successfully broadcast on the radio for five years, and also popularized the Fidonet. This project, of course, turned out to be a failure, but this happened after Exler left it.
According to his own statement, forhis very fruitful professional life, he happened to change many speci alties: from a groom to an astrologer. But it was programming that became the turning point in his fate, from which his writing career began.
Biography of Alex Exler
The future author of textbooks was born in the capital of the USSR in 1966
After graduating from school, Alex (then Alexei) received his higher education at the Moscow Aviation Institute, which he graduated with honors in 1991. This significant event coincided with the beginning of the collapse of the USSR. As a result, finding a job in the speci alty was very, very difficult.
Exler's hobby of programming came to the rescue. While still gnawing on the granite of science in his native alma mater, the future writer became interested in computers. Having independently mastered not only the basics of working with these devices, but also learning how to create programs, Alex Exler began to earn his living as a system administrator.
Often faced with a lack of elementary computer literacy at work, Exler began to think about writing his own textbook. Soon he managed to realize his plan, and in 1992 his first book "Archivers. Programs for storing and processing information in a compressed form" was published. Written in accessible language, readers liked it.
Encouraged by the successful debut, Alex Exler began to publish more and more tutorials all the time. In parallel, he continued to work as a system administrator. But now morereputable institutions.
In 1997, the writer tries his hand at fiction. Together with Oleg Bocharov, he publishes a collection of humorous stories "Such is the story".
The first real fame in this area was brought to Exler by the book "Notes of a Programmer's Bride". After her, the writer created several more fiction stories on various topics, written in the same style.
A little later, Alex became interested in writing film reviews.
Of course, with the development of the Internet and the increase in computer literacy, his teaching aids gradually began to lose their relevance. However, artistic humorous stories and novellas, as well as witty reviews of travels abroad, are still read with interest by many.
What is the writer doing today
In this period of time, Alex Exler, as always, is not sitting idle. His main project is now the author's site of the same name. Here he blogs, publishes stories, reviews and reviews.
At the same time, Exler travels a lot, which he often talks about on his Facebook page and website.
Educational books by A. Exler
Having considered the biography of the writer, it is worth paying more attention to his work.
As mentioned above, Exler's name was helped to make his tutorials. Although there are several dozen, the most famous, judging by sales and reader reviews, are the following.
- "WebMoney. A Guide to Online Payments".
- "What does it consist ofcomputer".
- "The most complete and understandable tutorial on how to surf the web or tame the web".
- "Creation and promotion of sites on the Internet".
- "OZON.ru: The history of successful Internet business in Russia".
In addition to the above, "Windows XP: installation, configuration, programs" and "Windows Vista, or the most complete and understandable tutorial" were previously very popular. However, with the moral obsolescence of these programs, the need for manuals for working with them has disappeared. Alas, progress spares no one.
Humorous prose
For most fans of his work, first of all, Alexei Borisovich Exler is a satirist.
It was his unobtrusive humor, with a touch of self-irony, so well understood by immigrants from the USSR, that became his hallmark. By the way, this manner is typical for non-humorous works of the author, as well as his reviews.
Exler was originally famous in fiction as the creator of short satirical stories, most of which were devoted to computer topics ("Cinderella 2000", "Windows 95 and phone sex"). A logical continuation was "Notes of the programmer's bride".
Later, the author began to try to write humorous prose on abstract topics. The most successful examples of such books can be considered the cycle "Funny Diaries". This, in addition to the above-mentioned work, includes "Katyusha's Diary", "FullDiary of Angelica Panteleimonovna", "Notes of the Shashlyk Cat" and "Vasya Pupkin's Complete Diary".
Humoresques occupy a special place in Exler's satirical prose. In these short works, the author reflects on food ("About dumplings", "About cocktails"), gives witty advice for all occasions ("How to communicate with your mother-in-law", "Advice for newlyweds", "Filing an application", "A few tips on communicating with superiors", "How to hold a New Year's Eve party in the office") and tells funny stories ("The museum watchman's story: the battle for the premises", "A day in the life of Matilda the hen").
Books about other countries
Another huge layer of Alex Exler's work is his travel writing (not to be confused with the travel articles that the writer often publishes on his blog, such as "Renting a home in Spain for a long period").
Conventionally, all creations of this kind are united in the series "Untravelling notes on different countries". In these witty and sometimes very instructive stories, Alex Exler writes about Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, the Czech Republic, etc.
This category can also conditionally include the author's satirical books, the characters of which, for one reason or another, end up in other countries. These are "Prince Igor's Aria, or Ours in Turkey" and "Prince Igor's American Aria".
It is worth noting that in reader reviews of the books by Alex Exler mentioned above, they are often compared to the cycle"Funny Diaries" in favor of the latter. The fact is that many admirers of the writer's work find that his later major prose is significantly inferior to his earlier one. Although, there are those who like "arias" more than "diaries" as an example. As they say: the taste and color of markers are different.
Reviews on various devices and programs
This category of Exler's works is not as well known and popular as the above. But that doesn't stop her from being important. In the old days, the writer published reviews of any new computer or simply innovative devices and programs in the Computerra magazine on an ongoing basis. And also in publications like him as a sessional IT journalist.
Today, Alex Exler increasingly places his articles on this subject on his own website in the "Reviews" section. It is noteworthy that the writer considers not only modern devices and programs, but also ordinary things, which he, with his inherent humor, calls "devices". For example, in an article about sneakers brand "Two Balls" he called this device "a device for moving outside the home." And Nabeimei plush slippers are "a device for moving around the house".
Besides subjects, the writer also reviews various exhibitions as well as language schools.
To be fair, it's worth noting that although these sketches are very interesting to read, it still feels like an advertisement. Let it be very solid.
On the other hand, are articles about cosmeticsor a new generation of vacuum cleaners that can almost read the thoughts of their mistresses (placed in fashion glossy magazines) is not the same?
Film reviews
Especially, among everything written by this author, it is worth highlighting Exler's reviews on films and television series. It was they who helped him make both a crowd of enemies and fans who respect Alex for his honest, incorruptible look at works of this kind. As a rule, reviews of a particular film production are published under the title "A. Exler's Subjective Notes".
How do they differ from the reviews of other film critics? Unlike the aforementioned articles about various devices (which are more like advertisements for them) when writing reviews, Exler shows amazing honesty and independence. He chooses tapes and series to his taste, even if the general public did not like them. Moreover, the author is equally demanding both to domestic production projects and to foreign ones. Dividing all of them into: filmed well and filmed badly.
While such independence is so rare and therefore valuable in today's film business, it has brought some notoriety to critics.
For example, in a review of the film "Boomer", Alex Exler smashed this picture to smithereens, as well as those who sang her praises. Such courage to honestly say: "The king is naked!", while the forces of the mass media presented "Boomer" as a masterpiece of Russian cinema - became a real highlight amongboring molasses of paid praise, this, indeed, is a very mediocre film work. By the way, time has shown that the writer was right, because at the end of his article he predicted that the tape would have a sequel. And so it happened.
In an interview with various periodicals, Alex Exler has repeatedly noted that he writes so few film reviews of domestic films, not because he considers them worse than foreign ones. And due to the fact that, in relation to Western film production, there are far fewer films being shot in the Russian Federation that really deserve attention. At the same time, if Exler finds that the Russian tape is good, he does not skimp on praise. As it was in the film reviews of "East-West" or "Deja Vu".
The writer has a similar attitude towards foreign film production. Successful projects, he praises, and unsuccessful ones - quite caustically ridicules. An example is Alex Exler's review of the thriller "Tentacles", filmed in the USA in 2000. In it, the writer more than caustically goes through all the plot inconsistencies and frank shortcomings of this picture.
This despite the fact that according to the statistics of Google users, this picture was liked by 72% of viewers.
Exler's personal website
After the writer stopped working on the fidonet in 1998, he organized his own online resource of the same name, which still functions to this day. Here you can read not only the most famous fictionworks of the author, but also get acquainted with reviews of the latest programs and devices.
In the section "Likbez" Alex Exler gives advice for all occasions. Most often, articles are devoted to working with computers and smartphones. However, he does not limit himself to only this subject, and also gives quite competent advice on photography and other similar areas.
Proper nutrition and weight control is dedicated to a separate section of the site - "Weight Loss". The name speaks for itself.
About movies and TV shows critic Alex Exler places reviews in "Film Reviews". It is worth noting that the writer discusses only those projects that interested him or outraged him in some way. Therefore, among Exler's reviews, one can find those dedicated to both box office films and little-known projects.
Criticism of Exler's work
Like any successful person, Alex Exler managed to earn not only praise and admiration, but also a lot of resentment and indignation. Sometimes this reaction is justified.
The writer is often criticized for "heavy author's egocentrism, games with language and monstrous, unjustified lengths". True, this is more about his film reviews. On the other hand, the point of writing such articles is precisely to express your own opinion about something. So it's silly to judge a man for putting his opinion of the film at the center of the review. Isn't it?
A lot of angry responses can be found on the Internet about the work of Alex Exler asauthor of advertising reviews. Most talk about his dishonesty as a performer and frank disregard for work.
Is this criticism fair? It's hard to say without knowing all the facts for sure. However, the specifics of the advertising sphere is such that if the contractor for one reason or another does not suit customers, they will not deal with him in the future. And judging by the fact that advertising reviews still appear on the Exler author's site, it continues to be in demand in this area. Apparently, he is still not as hopeless as they say about him.
Fun Facts
- In 2001, Alex Exler was awarded the "Russian Online TOP" award in the "Network Writer" nomination.
- Among the kaschenites (network trolls), Exler has many nicknames. The most famous pseudonyms with which he was awarded are Iksler, Kryaksler, Skunksler, and also Fduch Uchduk.
- Alex Exler's author's site forum has rather strict rules regarding the content of visitors' comments. Therefore, the "victims" of the moderator's "autocracy" created their own LJ group dedicated to criticizing and ridiculing the writer.
- With the light hand of Leonid Kaganov, a myth has been circulating on the net for a long time that the writer and film critic Alexei Borisovich Exler is not a real person, but a composite image. Allegedly, all works under this "brand" are written by five different people. Although it was just a joke, many believed it.
