School knowledge elevates the term “Baroque” to the image of an “irregularly shaped pearl.” This image is associated with the general emotional background of the era: a feeling of internal tension “between fiery passion and tough, cold control”, striving to break out. Why did Shakespeare and John Donne talk about the destruction of all connections, while their younger contemporary Athanasius Kircher painted an explosive globe permeated with currents of internal fire? How does this fit into the 20th century formula for self-perception? How do the Baroque and the inherently downscaled scale of objects, mechanicalness, the combination of the incompatible, the invasion of fantasy into reality relate to modern culture? In his book, Vladislav Degtyarev examines Baroque culture as a parallel and alternative to the futuristic 20th century and shows how a variety of Baroque intuitions remain frighteningly modern. Vladislav Degtyarev is a teacher at the Russian Chemical Academy, author of the book “The Past as an Area of Creativity” (M.: NLO, 2018).