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authormms <git@sapka.me>2024-12-01 22:48:35 +0100
committermms <git@sapka.me>2024-12-01 22:48:35 +0100
commitd23145dae775f4cd68378b9d97e55b2d58cc1f0a (patch)
tree192626718c722b7588cf74f875dcf24589a4d067
parentfcb5a52a1d1e072eec8b7c25abf59876f7e10f61 (diff)
feat: moscow 2042
-rw-r--r--assets/reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpgbin0 -> 46610 bytes
-rw-r--r--content-org/finger.org4
-rw-r--r--content-org/reviews.org57
-rw-r--r--content/projects/finger/_index.md4
-rw-r--r--content/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986.md58
5 files changed, 118 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/assets/reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpg b/assets/reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61fe00a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/assets/reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpg
Binary files differ
diff --git a/content-org/finger.org b/content-org/finger.org
index ef5f456..7a9bde8 100644
--- a/content-org/finger.org
+++ b/content-org/finger.org
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ The actual reader data is contained within text files.
The text files are not a timeline, but rather a snapshot.
Publishers are discoureged from creating archives but this is not forbidden.
-A publisher MUST publish at leat a ".plan" file.
+A publisher MUST publish at leat a ".plan.txt" file.
All files SHOULD be stored under the same path as the Metadata file, but any URL can be provided in the Metadata files list.
A text file MUST BE
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ Jokes, ASCII art, thoughts are highly encouraged.
Note, that ".plan" file MAY be present in the metadata file, but if it follows naming convetion (.plan file under the same root dir as the metadata file) it's not necessary.
-Publisher MAY publish any sensible (up to dozens) of other files, but each filename MUST start with a dot "." and not have any extension.
+Publisher MAY publish any sensible (up to dozens) of other files, but each filename MUST start with a dot "." and have a ".txt".
Exact contents of such files is not normalyzed, and should be reflected in the "name" field of Metadata file.
Each file SHOULD include creation and/or update date.
diff --git a/content-org/reviews.org b/content-org/reviews.org
index 5183920..3c16bc4 100644
--- a/content-org/reviews.org
+++ b/content-org/reviews.org
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
My reviews of fun things!
-* Books [0/0] :@reviews:
+* Books [14/14] :@reviews:
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: reviews/books
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :reviewSection '(Books)
@@ -809,6 +809,61 @@ All that we got was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8][trailer]] whi
In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us.
+** DONE Moscow 2042 (Vladimir Voinovich, 1986)
+CLOSED: [2024-12-01 Sun 21:28]
+:PROPERTIES:
+:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: moscow-2042-1986
+:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract A short review of an absolute marvel of a book
+:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpg
+:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 5
+:END:
+
+Up till recently, I have not heard of Vladimir Voinovich.
+As you may have noticed, my knowledge of Russian SF literature is quite shallow.
+Everyone has read at leat a few novels from Strugatsky brothers, and I am only now doing it.
+But as it turns out (thanks Mastodon!), Voinovich was a prolific writer.
+At least enough prolific and critical to be forced into exile from Russia!
+Somehow, it seems that only a few years Russian literature was considered to be up there, right among the final bosses of literature!
+But I'm too shallow for that.
+I will finish Solzhenitsyn's /Gulag Archipelago/ one day (the third book is wainting for me for some 15 years), but right now I NEED some fantastic elements in my critique of Communists regime.
+Luckily, Voinovich has me covered.
+
+/Moscow 2042/ is satirical novel where the author describes his fantastical time travel into the future, where he is sent to learn about and report on the Communism to come.
+You may have already guessed, that the painted picture is not pretty at all.
+
+It doesn't start like that.
+At first, Voinovich gets enticed with what he is presented with.
+It seem that the Communists of 2042 have learned from the past.
+They removed all the evil parts that /we/ have seem (and there were lots of them), but kept the spirit of communism: brothership, unity, and happiness.
+
+I will not spoil anything for the Curious Reader, but we spend the rest of the novel destroying that picture.
+Now, I am a bit too young to fully appreciate that (being born only 4 years before Poland regained it's independence from USSR), and I am sure to have missed a lot nuances, but I laughed and I cried.
+Author dissects all the horrors of communism then exaggerates them to absurd.
+It's kept light in tone, the atrocities seem distant and therefore funny.
+No chance in hell a system like that could ever be conceived.
+No one is cynical enough to establish it (but they did!)
+Fictionalized Voinoich is not a /member/ of this society.
+He is a VIP guest.
+He is able to get all the benefits it can give to the chosen few.
+And boy, if he doesn't!
+He takes all he can, not caring where it came from - as he starts to see behind the cracks.
+It's very hard to feel any sympathy for him.
+But then the bill comes... and I'll stop here.
+The story is masterfully crafted.
+
+I was, however, surprised by the SF elements.
+For most of the text, they are reduced to a MacGuffin, a non important tool to tell the story.
+If it stayed like this, /Moscow 2042/ (I keep writing it as 2024...) would be an excellent story.
+However, this changes significantly.
+Again, I won't go into spoiler territory (it came as a huge surprise!) but it is a time travel story with all of it's possibilities and paradoxes.
+Up till it is revealed, the time travel story make the book make very little sense (still great), but as a complete package it does.
+It may not go as hard into it like, let's say /All You Zombies/, but it goes hard enough to go into my personal "top time travel stories", together with the aforementioned short story, /Time Crimes/, /Looper/ and /Primer/.
+I have a type it seems.
+
+/Moscow 2024/ is one of the greatest SF books I've ever read.
+It's fantastical in it's nature, but the story is humanist.
+A true marvel you owe yourself to experience.
+
* Movies [15/15] :@reviews:
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: reviews/movies
diff --git a/content/projects/finger/_index.md b/content/projects/finger/_index.md
index 2ffee25..bd902ed 100644
--- a/content/projects/finger/_index.md
+++ b/content/projects/finger/_index.md
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ All of those files NEED be accessible via HTTP, HTTPS, or both.
The text files are not a timeline, but rather a snapshot.
Publishers are discoureged from creating archives but this is not forbidden.
- A publisher MUST publish at leat a ".plan" file.
+ A publisher MUST publish at leat a ".plan.txt" file.
All files SHOULD be stored under the same path as the Metadata file, but any URL can be provided in the Metadata files list.
A text file MUST BE
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ All of those files NEED be accessible via HTTP, HTTPS, or both.
Note, that ".plan" file MAY be present in the metadata file, but if it follows naming convetion (.plan file under the same root dir as the metadata file) it's not necessary.
- Publisher MAY publish any sensible (up to dozens) of other files, but each filename MUST start with a dot "." and not have any extension.
+ Publisher MAY publish any sensible (up to dozens) of other files, but each filename MUST start with a dot "." and have a ".txt".
Exact contents of such files is not normalyzed, and should be reflected in the "name" field of Metadata file.
Each file SHOULD include creation and/or update date.
diff --git a/content/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986.md b/content/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d701895
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986.md
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
++++
+title = "Moscow 2042 (Vladimir Voinovich, 1986)"
+author = ["MichaƂ Sapka"]
+date = 2024-12-01T21:28:00+01:00
+categories = ["reviews"]
+draft = false
+weight = 2015
+reviewSection = ["Books"]
+abstract = "A short review of an absolute marvel of a book"
+image = "reviews/covers/moscow-2042.jpg"
+rating = 5
++++
+
+Up till recently, I have not heard of Vladimir Voinovich.
+As you may have noticed, my knowledge of Russian SF literature is quite shallow.
+Everyone has read at leat a few novels from Strugatsky brothers, and I am only now doing it.
+But as it turns out (thanks Mastodon!), Voinovich was a prolific writer.
+At least enough prolific and critical to be forced into exile from Russia!
+Somehow, it seems that only a few years Russian literature was considered to be up there, right among the final bosses of literature!
+But I'm too shallow for that.
+I will finish Solzhenitsyn's _Gulag Archipelago_ one day (the third book is wainting for me for some 15 years), but right now I NEED some fantastic elements in my critique of Communists regime.
+Luckily, Voinovich has me covered.
+
+_Moscow 2042_ is satirical novel where the author describes his fantastical time travel into the future, where he is sent to learn about and report on the Communism to come.
+You may have already guessed, that the painted picture is not pretty at all.
+
+It doesn't start like that.
+At first, Voinovich gets enticed with what he is presented with.
+It seem that the Communists of 2042 have learned from the past.
+They removed all the evil parts that _we_ have seem (and there were lots of them), but kept the spirit of communism: brothership, unity, and happiness.
+
+I will not spoil anything for the Curious Reader, but we spend the rest of the novel destroying that picture.
+Now, I am a bit too young to fully appreciate that (being born only 4 years before Poland regained it's independence from USSR), and I am sure to have missed a lot nuances, but I laughed and I cried.
+Author dissects all the horrors of communism then exaggerates them to absurd.
+It's kept light in tone, the atrocities seem distant and therefore funny.
+No chance in hell a system like that could ever be conceived.
+No one is cynical enough to establish it (but they did!)
+Fictionalized Voinoich is not a _member_ of this society.
+He is a VIP guest.
+He is able to get all the benefits it can give to the chosen few.
+And boy, if he doesn't!
+He takes all he can, not caring where it came from - as he starts to see behind the cracks.
+It's very hard to feel any sympathy for him.
+But then the bill comes... and I'll stop here.
+The story is masterfully crafted.
+
+I was, however, surprised by the SF elements.
+For most of the text, they are reduced to a MacGuffin, a non important tool to tell the story.
+If it stayed like this, _Moscow 2042_ (I keep writing it as 2024...) would be an excellent story.
+However, this changes significantly.
+Again, I won't go into spoiler territory (it came as a huge surprise!) but it is a time travel story with all of it's possibilities and paradoxes.
+Up till it is revealed, the time travel story make the book make very little sense (still great), but as a complete package it does.
+It may not go as hard into it like, let's say _All You Zombies_, but it goes hard enough to go into my personal "top time travel stories", together with the aforementioned short story, _Time Crimes_, _Looper_ and _Primer_.
+I have a type it seems.
+
+_Moscow 2024_ is one of the greatest SF books I've ever read.
+It's fantastical in it's nature, but the story is humanist.
+A true marvel you owe yourself to experience.