Cycles, Layers, Fragmentariness, Creation Myths, and Thread, or Why Is Bitov's Man in the Landscape?

Andrei Bitov addresses questions of man's purpose, of human imperfection, of how the human being fits into the landscape. Pavel Petrovich, a main character of ‘Man in the Landscape’, discusses the artist's attempt not just to reflect the world, but to understand. The human being lives in a narrow layer of reality, and, says Pavel Petrovich, the artist attempts to go from the earthly to the divine layer. That thread of striving, he says, is life. He asks what the human being's purpose is, and concludes that the Creator, as an artist, needs man to see and appreciate his creation.