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Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

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Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#51

Post by thriftwy »

metadaemon wrote: post #12
yaky wrote: post #9

I originally read Roadside Picnic as a teen, which, at the time, impressed me as an exciting sci-fi adventure. When I re-read it as a young adult, i saw it as a rather depressing tale asking the questions of sacrifice and duty. My other favorite by Strugatskys is A Billion Years Before The End Of The World (translated as Definitely Maybe), which you can read as a somewhat humorous story involving paranormal events, o…

You've got to love Roadside Picnic as it can be seen as the predecessor to other stories and games, like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Escape from Tarkov. It's core trope is unique enough to have spawned an entire generation of content. I'd say the same about Blindsight, but it hasn't spawned much. Although, it's core trope is arguably the most unique I've ever read before.

I'm not sure how Blindsight is different in its essense from Arthur Clarke's Rama I. Even the social commentary layer in both books is very similar.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#52

Post by kej »

kwyjibo1230 wrote: post #27

Whenever a reading list gets to the front page of HN, I always find the most interesting books to add from the comments! I did add Roadside Picnic from the link to my list, but thanks commenters for helping me find: - We (very excited about this one given the possible influence to 1984 and Brave New World) - Red Star - Monday Starts on Saturday

>Whenever a reading list gets to the front page of HN, I always find the most interesting books to add from the comments!

Do you maintain this list publicly anywhere? "Books that have been recommended in HN comments" would be an interesting list to see.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#53

Post by thesz »

yamtaddle wrote: post #37
metadaemon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got to love Roadside Picnic as it can be seen as the predecessor to other stories and games, like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Escape from Tarkov. It's core trope is unique enough to have spawned an entire generation of content. I'd say the same about Blindsight, but it hasn't spawned much. Although, it's core trope is arguably the most unique I've ever read before.

> I'd say the same about Blindsight, but it hasn't spawned much. Although, it's core trope is arguably the most unique I've ever read before. I don't want to go into too much for fear of spoilers, but the video game Prey is at least playing in the same ballpark as Blindsight.

I think you are talking about second Prey game, not the first. First Prey game was unusual first person shooter, very interesting one. I haven't played second game.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#54

Post by yamtaddle »

thesz wrote: post #53
yamtaddle wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd say the same about Blindsight, but it hasn't spawned much. Although, it's core trope is arguably the most unique I've ever read before. I don't want to go into too much for fear of spoilers, but the video game Prey is at least playing in the same ballpark as Blindsight.

I think you are talking about second Prey game, not the first. First Prey game was unusual first person shooter, very interesting one. I haven't played second game.

Right, the basically entirely-unrelated game under the exact same name, from 2017, not the one from 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(2017_video_game)

(tons of spoilers there, I'm sure)

[EDIT] It'd also have been pretty weird if the '06 Prey had seemed like it had some Blindsight DNA, since that novel was released a few months after the '06 Prey. And I don't want to overstate the connection, but it's enough that I'm reasonably sure that someone involved in writing '17 Prey had read Blindsight.

[EDIT AGAIN] In fact, I'd literally bet money someone involved had also read a certain Watts short story in addition to Blindsight, which story I hesitate to even name for super-spoilery reasons.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#55

Post by Sin2x »

notahacker wrote: post #44
pjc50 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We" is remarkable in that it describes lots of failure modes of the Bolshevik revolution before they happened.

And also remarkable in that Orwell described its plot as "rather weak and episodic" before cheerfully ripping it off in his most famous work...

That quote is very much taken out of the context...

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#56

Post by unity1001 »

pessimizer wrote: post #50
unity1001 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which pigeonhole each writer belongs to That strongly influences, actually directly shapes, what works does the writer or the artist produces.

> That strongly influences, actually directly shapes, what works does the writer or the artist produces. You're putting the cart before the horse.

Nope. We are all products of our culture. Our parents, our upbringing, education in school. Our friends. Our first experiences, and of course, the ideology that we have obtained during the process. The ideology mostly comes built into the society's culture, education and work life. So there is no such thing as 'ideologically neutral' or "I don't have an ideology". Its just that people think that the ideology that they have is 'normal', and they don't identify it as an ideology unless it conflicts with the incumbent ideology in the society.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#57

Post by yaky »

petre wrote: post #29
ThaDood wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I enjoyed Roadside Picnic as its such a unique take on the ET visitation genre but my god is it depressing. I still think it could have the potential be a really interesting TV show. Personally I think the slow nature of the book lends itself towards the show format. Further, IIRC I believe that soviet authors/translators were able to skirt censorship for the LoTR books by wrapping them in a Sci-Fi setting.…

It possibly reflects on daily life in the Soviet Union. Beetle in the Anthill is even more depressing. Still, the Strugatsky brothers are two of my favourite authors. I re-read their books every ten years or so (along with some of Philip K. Dick's) because I keep forgetting the plot and the details. The Noon Universe books, along with Roadside Picnic are quite cryptic. Anyway, The Doomed City is considered one of the…

I read somewhere that Strugatskys were once asked whether Inhabited Island was a satire of the Soviet Union, to which they responded with something like “it was not supposed to be the Soviet Union or any country specifically, but because we lived there, that is what we inadvertently ended up writing about”

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#58

Post by watwut »

BrainVirus wrote: post #28
omega3 wrote: post #2

Lem wasn't Soviet, he was Polish. It's strange he also considers Victor Pelevin to be a Soviet writer as all his novels were released after 1991.

This is a great comment to illustrate how ideology (especially various brands of nationalism) destroys genuine dialog. Instead of talking about the writers and their works people are now talking about which pigeonhole each writer belongs to. Not because those pigeonholes improve anyone's understanding of the books, mind you. It's a matter of taking credit for their works and applying those credits to the current meta…

Difference between Polish and Soviet is not tiny pidgeon hole difference. It is giving proper attribution. Not everything was done by Soviet. And for that matter, Soviet does not mean Russian automatically either.

And specifically, Poland was occupied by Soviet long enough to deserve not tonhave own art attributes to them.

Also, literature before revolutions and after them is much different. Topics, style of writing, who could get published or become famous are all much different. You can't attribute to Soviet what was done after Soviet broke up.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#59

Post by watwut »

thriftwy wrote: post #25
przefur wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it felt so wrong to see Lem up there. The fact that he was renowned in Soviet Union does not make him any Soviet. From what I've read of his works + his biography, he reminds me more of early US science-fiction writers than any of soviet ones.

This is only if you discount his early works such as The Magellanic Cloud, where he is a world communism adept wearing rose-coloured glasses, through which many of his readers, including ones in core Soviet Union, would perceive reality and future prospects. Eastern European writers did contribute a sizeable bookshelf of writings about bright space communist future, until it began to turn sour. One lesser-known one w…

I think that Eastern European would be nuch better term then Soviet. Or post-communist if you limit yourself to after 1989.

Re: Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World

#60

Post by ogurechny »

defrost wrote: post #4
omega3 wrote: post #2

Lem wasn't Soviet, he was Polish. It's strange he also considers Victor Pelevin to be a Soviet writer as all his novels were released after 1991.

Polish in birth and in spirit, a Soviet writer by location duing his more productive years: > Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, interwar Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) > In 1945, Lwow was annexed into the Soviet Ukraine, and the family, along with many other Polish citizens, was resettled to Kraków, where Lem, at his father's insistence, took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. > After the war, under the Polis…

All I can say is that if you could tell an average Soviet citizen that Lem was a Soviet writer, you would see a very surprised face.
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