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Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

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71–80 of 103 posts

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#71
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what you expected...all Tarkovski is like maximum artsy.

It was my first Tarkovski film and I wasn't aware of the directors style.

Try “Andrei Rublev” it’s (watched all his work) one of his more balanced films, as in its full of symbolism but it’s intertwined with the narration, so one may go through it without noticing then subtext, while it’s probably one of the best (if not the best) films about medieval ages.

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder still if much of the popularity of said stalking above is directly related to this game.

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.

Funny thing is that the Metro games are based on books by the same name. I tried reading the first one expecting horror and survivalism and action. Instead I got mysticism and philosophy.

Half the book reads like Dante's Inferno. Like its not supposed to be taken literally, but I'm not the right audience to get the references.

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#73
post #2

Website seems to be down: https://archive.is/vGC6C Anecdotally, I've visited Chernobyl and I remember seeing somewhere a few empty cans and an empty vodka bottle. Both looked pretty recent. I've also seen the bus that's photographed. There was something inside, the thing with a cardboard cover and metal rings where you can put pages inside (It's called a "classeur" in French, but I can't find how it's called in Engli…

Pripyat is mostly safe to visit, unless if you happen upon one of the unmarked spots where they dumped irradiated equipment or spent fuel. The area is just littered with extremely dangerous bulldozers that they just kind of buried in unmarked spots.

So it’s safe … until it isn’t.

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#74

I'm surprised nowhere in the article does it mention the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R .) They are loosely based on the novel, however perhaps more well known (in the US at least) than the book or movie.

The game has an interesting "meta" aspect because it incorporates the Chernobyl disaster into its storyline, twenty years after after the Chernobyl workers incorporated the novel and movie into their mythology. Real "art imitates life imitates art" stuff.

I don't understand why people associate Roadside Picnic with Chernobyl and what happenned there..

Is it only because of the game and its similarities to both novel and movie?

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#76
post #2

Website seems to be down: https://archive.is/vGC6C Anecdotally, I've visited Chernobyl and I remember seeing somewhere a few empty cans and an empty vodka bottle. Both looked pretty recent. I've also seen the bus that's photographed. There was something inside, the thing with a cardboard cover and metal rings where you can put pages inside (It's called a "classeur" in French, but I can't find how it's called in Engli…

Pripyat is mostly safe to visit, unless if you happen upon one of the unmarked spots where they dumped irradiated equipment or spent fuel. The area is just littered with extremely dangerous bulldozers that they just kind of buried in unmarked spots. So it’s safe … until it isn’t.

We had geiger counters at all time on us. The most radioactive areas were a buried village, the sand under the douga that was used to wash it, and a can filled with garbage in Pripyat (which was by far the most radioactive things). Probably some kind of trap? Or a form of sculpture?

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#77
post #27
post #2

Website seems to be down: https://archive.is/vGC6C Anecdotally, I've visited Chernobyl and I remember seeing somewhere a few empty cans and an empty vodka bottle. Both looked pretty recent. I've also seen the bus that's photographed. There was something inside, the thing with a cardboard cover and metal rings where you can put pages inside (It's called a "classeur" in French, but I can't find how it's called in Engli…

On a rather unrelated note, those binders are called "fardes à anneaux" in my dialect of French. Translating directly to "ring binders". Languages are fun

That's the first time I hear the word "farde". Thanks for sharing.

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be poor opsec to elaborate too heavily about a time you witnessed organized criminals concealing a murder.

At some point we're going to have to re-introduce the word dangerous to mean poor opsec in a non-CIA context.

It’s tragic to think that journalism has turned into a field where ‘opsec’ is actually an appropriate term.

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#79
I can only believe that people who enter highly radioactive areas illegally just have no idea what radioactivity is really like. It's invisible, so it's easy to imagine that nothing is really happening.

In my mind, the first image I get at the thought of radioactivity is how a cloud chamber is affected by it [1]. Imagine that, except everything around you, all the time, much more violently.

Yeah, no thanks.

1: https://youtu.be/ZiscokCGOhs?t=109

Re: Chernobyl's 'stalker' subculture

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The game has an interesting "meta" aspect because it incorporates the Chernobyl disaster into its storyline, twenty years after after the Chernobyl workers incorporated the novel and movie into their mythology. Real "art imitates life imitates art" stuff.

I don't understand why people associate Roadside Picnic with Chernobyl and what happenned there.. Is it only because of the game and its similarities to both novel and movie?

No. The cleanup workers after the Chernobyl accident noted the similarities between their "Exclusion zone" and the zone in the book and movie, and some started calling themselves stalkers. A dangerous zone, controlled by the government where only certain people are allowed to go, filled with invisible dangers.

The game just expanded that connection, mashing up Chernobyl history and Stalker/Picinic details, and brought it to the western gamer audience.

If part of Australia was overrun by biker gangs I'm sure people would start calling it the Max Max zone. Same thing.

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