Bald and bankrupt went there a few times or on the edge and befriended an old man. The videos were very interesting to me and I highly recommend them.
Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
51–60 of 103 posts
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second this recommendation. And if you’re used to sci-fi by Western authors, books by Cold War, Iron Curtain authors like Strugatsky, Lem (Polish) and others are fascinating.
Thanks for that, anything in particular by Lem that you recommend getting started with? I find we get very little exposure to Russian / slavic authors in North America, and when I do occasionally get to read one (including the classics but also some paperbacks) I suspect how much we must be missing by not having more of them readily available and marketed.
"Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" punches above its weight for Lem. Solaris is good too. I find Lem interesting but only sporadically enjoyable.
The Strugatskys have gone from being "Roadside Picnic" + a largely unobtainable back catalogue - I expensively amused myself by putting together a collection of pretty much everything they published in English a few years back. They have been celebrated (arguably, over-celebrated) by SF Masterworks and other recent publications so almost everything is back in print.
I enjoyed the new mix-up of "Lame Fate / Ugly Swans" (Ugly Swans was previously published as a standalone book, but is now intertwined with a book about the hassles of dealing with an AI-based evaluator of book quality, the book in question being Ugly Swans). The Doomed City was the original candidate for that, but was too long to fit - that's also available on SF Masterworks.
If you want to see where Iain M Banks extracted a good quarter of his ideas for the Culture, "Hard to be a God" is a decent read.
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree. Tarkovski's movie is great also.
I like the movie but it’s also the ultimate nap movie.
I once ran across an inner city neighborhood with 4 friends to see Solaris, due to being a bit late. We got in just in time - I watched it raptly, and at the end of the movie, looked to my left to see all 4 of my friends angelically asleep in the front row of the theater. So Tarkovsky movies are at least 80% in this fashion.
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you liked it, watch the Russian Solaris. It's interesting to compare and contrast with 2001.
This is an amazing film. It was a real pleasure comparing it to the Hollywood version and also the book. The Hollywood version is also quite good, but focuses on different things (Kelvins relationship with his ex wife, as I recall) than the Soviet version.
Glad to see this comment. I like them both for different reasons, and feel the Clooney one gets trashed on unfairly for not being as art house smart. I thought the score and how it sets a mood was particularly well done.
Note if anyone is curious and goes looking for the trailer, be warned this is one of those movies where the studio edited the trailer to make it look like something totally different than what it is hoping to boost sales.
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#55So I stumbled across this multipart video series a while back. It's an urban explorer that gets a couple locals to guide him into the exclusion zone so they can climb the giant Duga radar. It's a bit on the long side, but I found it fascinating. They ended up getting spotted by some guards and had to do a cat and mouse game through the forest to get out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhuhnXvSCOE
Shiey is one of my favorite channel. Cudos to him.
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#56Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a US resident, both the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and the Metro 2033 game series have fascinated me in their different style of storytelling than most "traditional" FPS games. I have to put them in the same group as the Half Life series in terms of replay enjoy-ability for the story and engagement.
I think it's a reflection of the culture from the general area. Russian sci-fi, for example, tends to be heavily introspective (Roadside Picnic, Solaris, etc). While most other western/American sci fi is more about extraordinary world building/future scenarios. To a lesser or different degree, you see the same approach in videogames, software development, etc.
Nitpick: Solaris (the story) is by a Polish author (S. Lem).
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second this recommendation. And if you’re used to sci-fi by Western authors, books by Cold War, Iron Curtain authors like Strugatsky, Lem (Polish) and others are fascinating.
Thanks for that, anything in particular by Lem that you recommend getting started with? I find we get very little exposure to Russian / slavic authors in North America, and when I do occasionally get to read one (including the classics but also some paperbacks) I suspect how much we must be missing by not having more of them readily available and marketed.
Solaris is worth a read for sure.
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#59So I stumbled across this multipart video series a while back. It's an urban explorer that gets a couple locals to guide him into the exclusion zone so they can climb the giant Duga radar. It's a bit on the long side, but I found it fascinating. They ended up getting spotted by some guards and had to do a cat and mouse game through the forest to get out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhuhnXvSCOE
Shiey is one of my favorite channel. Cudos to him.
You meant kudos? Also another channel that has some videos from the zone: https://www.youtube.com/c/kreosann/
Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture
#60See, some people think our current culture/civilization/capitalism will not survive climate change, but clearly there is no wasteland too blasted and dangerous for it to eventually become a money-making tourist attraction. Our culture will live on in its perversity. I fully expect people to be huffing recreational Covid in 30 years’ time.
> I fully expect people to be huffing recreational Covid in 30 years’ time. How much are you willing to bet on this? (Normally I'd try to argue, but…)
Much like bug chasers I imagine there will be _someone_ out there trying to purposefully catch Covid for some (inexplicable) reason. There's always a few loose screws wandering around at any point in time.