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Reading Soviet Sci-Fi at the End of the World
- omega3 4y agoLem 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.
- chucksmash 4y agoWell, he did it on purpose at any rate: > I am a citizen of the sentence first and foremost, and so when I read Pelevin uncorking a massive, soaring line from within Omon’s young consciousness, I did not think: “does this qualify as Soviet if it’s about the Soviet space program but it’s published in 1991?”
- omega3 4y agoI think he's either intellectually lazy or dishonest vis a vis my other comments. Even the publishing date in this case is suspect, every single source I could find it lists it as 1992 and not 1991. Either way I'd expect better from someone who is an University teacher. > PATRICK MCGINTY (...) teaches in the Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Writing at Slippery Rock University
- defrost 4y agoPolish 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 Polish People's Republic (officially declared in 1952), the intellectual and academic community of Kraków came under complete political control. The universities were soon deprived of printing rights and autonomy.[79] The Stalinist government of Poland ordered the construction of the country's largest steel mill in the newly-created suburb of Nowa Huta.[80] The creation of the giant Lenin Steelworks (now Sendzimir Steelworks owned by Mittal) sealed Kraków's transformation from a university city into an industrial centre. It's a stretch, but not by much, to consider Lem as someone who spent time under the Soviet umbrella. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w
- omega3 4y agoPoland was never part of Soviet union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
- saiya-jin 4y agoThat's a mighty stretch you try to construct. Born in Poland, lived in Poland, just had the bad luck for being there during times when soviets cough cough russians were taking whatever want, and terrorizing the rest. For most Polish people this would be quite an insult even disregarding current war waged by russia just next to them, which is pretty much impossible to ignore if you live there.
- myth_drannon 4y agoBut wasn't Poland occupying the city from 1918-1939? It was Austro-Hungarian city beforehand? Also I wouldn't characterize Soviet occupation as bad luck and Polish as a heaven on earth. Yes, he was born in 1921, 3 years after Polish army invaded the city and terrorized it. I don't know enough history about the period until 1939, but just extrapolating 1918 events to the whole period of Polish occupation.
- omega3 4y ago> I don't know enough history Clearly.
- jeejay 4y agoAlso Pelevin is a postmodernist rather than a sci-fi writer
- monista 4y agoThe genre he works in is often described as hyper-realism.
- przefur 4y agoYeah, 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.
- thriftwy 4y agoThis 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 who I remember from my childhood is Pavel Vezhinov's Death of Ajax. UPD: Maybe we should use Eastern Bloc Science Fiction as a term?
- omega3 4y agoEven if he was a communist it still wouldn't make him soviet.
- thriftwy 4y agoThe issue here is "Soviet" is not a given name but (supposedly) a mode of government. One like Democracy and Republic and the literal translation is "Council". So, you can surely be democratic outside of (hypothetical) Democratic Union, much like you may be soviet outside of USSR.
- watwut 4y agoI think that Eastern European would be nuch better term then Soviet. Or post-communist if you limit yourself to after 1989.
- BrainVirus 4y agoThis 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-narrative.
- unity1001 4y ago> which pigeonhole each writer belongs to That strongly influences, actually directly shapes, what works does the writer or the artist produces.
- pessimizer 4y ago> That strongly influences, actually directly shapes, what works does the writer or the artist produces. You're putting the cart before the horse.
- unity1001 4y agoNope. 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.
- bootsup 4y agoYes, although sometimes people feel their country is not normal. "In a normal country, this would not happen," many Russian people said, especially in the '90s between Yeltsin's US-backed coup and the 1998 collapse.
- timonoko 4y ago"Soviet Block" maybe the correct expression. I (somehow) enjoyed subtle nuances they injected in opposition of Soviet Rule. But it did not go unnoticed. I remember very particular Russian TV-series about Arctic Explorers on Finnish TV, which censored scenes where the crew ignored stupid and repulsive Communist Party official.
- hutzlibu 4y agoSoviet fiction I know: Alexander Bogdanov, the Red Star Interesting person and interesting book, considering it is from 1905 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov
- Sin2x 4y agoNot exactly Soviet but "We" fits well here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)
- pjc50 4y ago"We" is remarkable in that it describes lots of failure modes of the Bolshevik revolution before they happened.
- Sin2x 4y agoWell, it was actually written after the revolution and the so-called "War communism" phase of the 1918-1921 Russia. To me it's more of a study on how the collectivist "paradise" would work after it works out its growing pains.
- daniel-cussen 4y agoThings got ironed out quite a bit, the fifties and sixties were really good. Cuban Revolution, suddenly there was sugar in the kitchen. Big sugar rations! Increased rations! Then later increased even more! And while yes basically they were poor they were at least all equally poor, that is a much better outcome. They had privacy from Capitalism (weren't getting big data analytics extracted from them), and plus, Russians never made the big bucks off their expansion, never cashed in on it. Unlike everybody else ever.
- Sin2x 4y agoFifties and sixties weren't really collectivist (neither was any time except for the war communism of 1918-1921 for that matter). Individual citizens had private property.
- yaky 4y agoI 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, or as a critique of the state suppressing unwanted research. (As far as I know, one of the brothers was involved with a dissident and questioned before writing it)
- metadaemon 4y agoYou'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.
- yamtaddle 4y ago> 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.
- thesz 4y agoI 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.
- yamtaddle 4y agoRight, 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) 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.
- fractallyte 4y agoMacmillan publisher's Best of Soviet Science Fiction series was a fantastic set of translations, which included novels and short stories: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?1107 https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?1107 Highly recommended!
- metadaemon 4y agoI just picked up a recently translated Stanslaw Lem collection of short stories, The Truth and Other Stories. I love Soviet era Sci-Fi, a lot of it is actually written by scientists of the time. I've also heard that We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is good.
- livindub 4y ago"We" was so ahead of its time, it's absolutely mind-blowing.
- baybal2 4y ago
- thriftwy 4y agoThe protestors in Russia (the small number which is still on the streets) likely did not read any Soviet Sci-Fi at all. What they read is Harry Potter. The parable from Soviet Sci-Fi to the current events is quite confusing. It's an attempt to create a narrative where there isn't.
- FpUser 4y ago"The protestors in Russia (the small number which is still on the streets) likely did not read any Soviet Sci-Fi at all. What they read is Harry Potter." Likely why? You got any real info?
- thriftwy 4y agoThat's Twitter crowd in Russia. Russian culture is not on Twitter hence it never existed as far as they are concerned.
- trhway 4y ago>The protestors in Russia (the small number which is still on the streets) likely did not read any Soviet Sci-Fi at all. They are living in it. Right now they moved from the chapters in the "Inhabited Island/Prisoners of Power" describing totalitarian state covered with propaganda broadcasting towers and dissent suppression into the chapter where the main characters are loaded into tanks and sent into [tactical] nukes battlefield. The power of Dostoyevsky/Strugatskis/Pelevin (to me they are parts of the same axis, though it is hard to describe why in short post) is whatever happens (or yet to happen) in Russia you still feel like you're inside one of their novel.
- kwyjibo1230 4y agoWhenever 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
- ainar-g 4y agoYou can add “The Doomed City” to the list as well. It's an interesting take on the “aliens pull people from different places and times to conduct a social experiment” trope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doomed_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doomed_City
- kej 4y ago>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.
- bootsup 4y agoMy favorite Soviet/Eastern Bloc scifi novel is The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years (1981) by Chingiz Aitmatov. "Ethnic" writers were accorded more freedom of topic than white Russians, confined to village prose in the Breznev era. Aitmatov's book sweeps the vast steppes of Central Asia and interstellar space, begins from the perspective of a fox, considers traumas of the Great Patriotic War and Stalin's resettlement, thousand-year-old traditions, the quest to give a dead railroad switchman a proper Muslim burial, and an international incident caused in space. Aitmatov was ethnically Kyrgyz. The book's mostly set on Kazakh steppes. OP was looking for context on the meat-grinder in Ukraine. He won't find it in the meat-grinder near the end of Roadsite Picnic. Sienkiewicz (1884), With Fire and Sword, set in 1640s-1650s Khmelnytsky Uprising (Cossacks of Zaporozhian Sich vs Polish-Lithuanian empire) is remarkably good, and geographically contiguous with the current meat grinder in Ukraine. A pre-Soviet book from outside what became USSR (Polish), not scifi, but which clearly inspired Frank Herbert and possibly Tolkein. Scifi and fantasy continued the adventure genre, after all. If you read it, be prepared for Iliad or The Bridge on the Drina-level violence at times. For more non-scifi lit grounded in war in previous iterations of Ukrainian statehood, see especially Bulgakov's (1925) The White Guard. A love song to Kiev, loving and complex critique of its bourgeoisie that could only have been written by a physician. Roadside Picnic's a fast-paced philosophical read. Solaris (yes it's Polish, but Tarkovsky painted it in film) has the dreamy, encyclopedic quality of something like Moby-Dick. (Post-Soviet) Metro 2033 is lower quality, more pulpy, feels like it was written to be turned into a series, video game, etc. (it was), but it's an interesting page-turner.
- EugeneOZ 4y agoReading Pelevin without knowing the cultural context is absolutely pointless. His books consist of references to movies, books, historical events, anecdotes, fairy tales, folklore songs, and many other elements of cultural heritage. I emphasize: his books consist of references, not just have them. Stories are based on intersections of meanings of different references. Pelevin is not a sci-fi writer, and Pelevin is anything but a “soviet” writer. Pelevin is a 100% anti-soviet writer.
- SirLJ 4y agoI had the privilege to read most of those books long time ago, but the best and pretty much the only one I reread every few years is "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov... Even now as an adult, sometimes I would dream that I can fly in the same way as Margot flew on top of the streets in Moscow... It is just one of the greatest books ever, but I am not sure it can be fully understood and appreciated by people that did not spent some time behind the iron curtain... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
- bootsup 4y agoIt isn't scifi, but it's certainly one of the best fantasy novels ever written.
- timonoko 4y agoHas anybody tried original books but translated by Google? Some Eastern Bloc Literature is suffering from bad translations, because artsy or political ambitions of woke westerns commies. Solaris in particular.