4 ms·

What's interesting in Lem, as well as the Strugatsky, is first how alien their aliens are; then how powerless humans are. In contrast to the too common US trope

by wazoox 7y ago

What's interesting in Lem, as well as the Strugatsky, is first how alien their aliens are; then how powerless humans are. In contrast to the too common US trope of "everything is possible, and if you want it you can make it", their heroes are constantly sent back to their limitations and deep powerlessness.

cpeterso 7y ago
Lem's "His Master's Voice" is a great example of this. The novel is all about humans trying to decipher an alien transmission. There was a 2018 film adaptation, but I haven't been able to find it yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4795062 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4795062
- toddgruben 7y ago
  https://mubi.com/films/his-master-s-voice-2017 https://mubi.com/films/his-master-s-voice-2017
  - cpeterso 7y ago
    Wow. I know films take liberties when translating novels to the screen, but the story shown in that trailer contains only a few hints of Lem's original novel (the scientist father's research and he isn't a father in the novel).
atombender 7y ago
Indeed. One of my favourite anti-anthropocentric Strugatsky stories is "Wanderers and Travellers" [1], from 1968. It's a very short story, almost a vignette, about a scientist ("stro-archaeologist") who returns from space. He happens to talk to a marine biologist whose project involves putting tracking transmitters on a newly discovered species of cephalopod that seems to have become partly land-dwelling. The scientist then tunes the biologist's radio receiver to a certain wavelength, and reveals, sadly, that the signal they're hearing is coming from himself. He has no idea how, but ever since he and some other scientists visited a certain planet, he's been emitting radio waves. He's been living, powerless and in fear, knowing that, apparently, something out there has "tagged" him with a tracker, just like the biologist with his cephalopods. The story ties in with the Strugatsky's "Noon universe" explored in several other books, such as Beetle in the Anthill [2], which explores the same purported aliens, the Wanderers, which seem to operate invisibly behind the scenes, subtly manipulating humankind. The aliens may or may not be same ones that caused the Zone in their masterpiece Roadside Picnic. [1] https://archive.org/details/WanderersAndTravellers https://archive.org/details/WanderersAndTravellers [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_in_the_Anthill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_in_the_Anthill
aasasd 7y ago
> In contrast to the too common US trope of "everything is possible, and if you want it you can make it" Lem himself said pretty much exactly this, in one of the essays in the collection “The Mask.” Humans in Western SF had distinctly colonial tendencies: they went to space and bent whomever they met to their will. (Not sure if the collection is translated to English, the eponymous short story is among the stories in the book along with the essays. The book might even have been compiled by an editor for the Russian market.)

by wazoox 7y ago

cpeterso 7y ago

Lem's "His Master's Voice" is a great example of this. The novel is all about humans trying to decipher an alien transmission. There was a 2018 film adaptation, but I haven't been able to find it yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4795062 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4795062

toddgruben 7y ago
https://mubi.com/films/his-master-s-voice-2017 https://mubi.com/films/his-master-s-voice-2017
- cpeterso 7y ago
  Wow. I know films take liberties when translating novels to the screen, but the story shown in that trailer contains only a few hints of Lem's original novel (the scientist father's research and he isn't a father in the novel).

atombender 7y ago

Indeed. One of my favourite anti-anthropocentric Strugatsky stories is "Wanderers and Travellers" [1], from 1968. It's a very short story, almost a vignette, about a scientist ("stro-archaeologist") who returns from space. He happens to talk to a marine biologist whose project involves putting tracking transmitters on a newly discovered species of cephalopod that seems to have become partly land-dwelling. The scientist then tunes the biologist's radio receiver to a certain wavelength, and reveals, sadly, that the signal they're hearing is coming from himself. He has no idea how, but ever since he and some other scientists visited a certain planet, he's been emitting radio waves. He's been living, powerless and in fear, knowing that, apparently, something out there has "tagged" him with a tracker, just like the biologist with his cephalopods. The story ties in with the Strugatsky's "Noon universe" explored in several other books, such as Beetle in the Anthill [2], which explores the same purported aliens, the Wanderers, which seem to operate invisibly behind the scenes, subtly manipulating humankind. The aliens may or may not be same ones that caused the Zone in their masterpiece Roadside Picnic. [1] https://archive.org/details/WanderersAndTravellers https://archive.org/details/WanderersAndTravellers [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_in_the_Anthill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_in_the_Anthill

aasasd 7y ago

> In contrast to the too common US trope of "everything is possible, and if you want it you can make it" Lem himself said pretty much exactly this, in one of the essays in the collection “The Mask.” Humans in Western SF had distinctly colonial tendencies: they went to space and bent whomever they met to their will. (Not sure if the collection is translated to English, the eponymous short story is among the stories in the book along with the essays. The book might even have been compiled by an editor for the Russian market.)