prickvixen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prickvixen) wrote2016-05-28 01:38 pm
prickvixen) wrote2016-05-28 01:38 pm
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Currently reading an anthology(?) of two novellas by Russian siblings Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The novellas are Roadside Picnic and Tale of the Troika.
The context of this publication interests me as much as the content. The book came out in 1977, and is part of Macmillan's "Best of Soviet Science Fiction." The 1970s were the era of détente, before Reagan shitted everything up again with his 'Evil Empire' nonsense, and for a brief period we were allowed to contemplate the Soviets as human beings rather than slavering pigbeasts. In a way, the book represented a nearly taboo artifact of an exotic alien culture.
You may know Roadside Picnic as the story which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is loosely based upon; I know little of the video game, so I'm coming into this the right way around. The premise of Picnic is that aliens briefly visited Earth, and their landing sites are littered with fragments of incomprehensible and often deadly alien technology; the story itself is about the people who traffic in, study, and attempt to control this technology.
At first I found the prose to be a bit meandering and hard to get through. This is not a bad thing. I enjoyed reading a story which unreeled things in a new way. I expect the impedance is deliberate; the story deals in the uncertainty which the characters experience in their unparalleled circumstances. It did become more accessible as I read.
I haven't completed Tale of the Troika, but the prose feels much more straightforward, and overtly satirical and humorous, in tone not far off from a Douglas Adams piece. Bureaucratic satire? A number of researchers discover that the elevator in their building is, at long last, prepared to take them above the thirteenth floor. What lies beyond the thirteenth is the subject of speculation and rumor. Two of their number are selected to embark upon this journey. It's difficult to know which details are 'real' and which are the characters' imaginings; still trying to get a handle on exactly what the setting is, within this range. Enjoying it so far.
(Was going to add, snarkily, that I bet the Soviet commissars weren't pleased by the Strugatskys taking the piss out of their bureaucracy. But I invite you to write similar satire about the business under which you are employed, and discover how delighted your bosses are by your sublime wit.)
The context of this publication interests me as much as the content. The book came out in 1977, and is part of Macmillan's "Best of Soviet Science Fiction." The 1970s were the era of détente, before Reagan shitted everything up again with his 'Evil Empire' nonsense, and for a brief period we were allowed to contemplate the Soviets as human beings rather than slavering pigbeasts. In a way, the book represented a nearly taboo artifact of an exotic alien culture.
You may know Roadside Picnic as the story which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is loosely based upon; I know little of the video game, so I'm coming into this the right way around. The premise of Picnic is that aliens briefly visited Earth, and their landing sites are littered with fragments of incomprehensible and often deadly alien technology; the story itself is about the people who traffic in, study, and attempt to control this technology.
At first I found the prose to be a bit meandering and hard to get through. This is not a bad thing. I enjoyed reading a story which unreeled things in a new way. I expect the impedance is deliberate; the story deals in the uncertainty which the characters experience in their unparalleled circumstances. It did become more accessible as I read.
I haven't completed Tale of the Troika, but the prose feels much more straightforward, and overtly satirical and humorous, in tone not far off from a Douglas Adams piece. Bureaucratic satire? A number of researchers discover that the elevator in their building is, at long last, prepared to take them above the thirteenth floor. What lies beyond the thirteenth is the subject of speculation and rumor. Two of their number are selected to embark upon this journey. It's difficult to know which details are 'real' and which are the characters' imaginings; still trying to get a handle on exactly what the setting is, within this range. Enjoying it so far.
(Was going to add, snarkily, that I bet the Soviet commissars weren't pleased by the Strugatskys taking the piss out of their bureaucracy. But I invite you to write similar satire about the business under which you are employed, and discover how delighted your bosses are by your sublime wit.)
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However, my boss was from Lebanon so there's that too.
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