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diff --git a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md b/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md deleted file mode 100644 index cbda2e8..0000000 --- a/content/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/roadside-picnic-1972.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,82 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1972)" -author = ["Michał Sapka"] -date = 2024-07-15T21:35:00+02:00 -categories = ["brainrot"] -draft = false -weight = 3004 -image_dir = "screenshots" -image_max_width = 765 -primary_menu = "brain-rot" -menu_order = "name" -abstract = "A short review of an absolute marvel of a book" -image = "covers/roadside-picnic.jpg" -rating = 4.5 -[menu] - [menu.brain-rot-ebscifi] - weight = 3004 - identifier = "roadside-picnic-arkady-and-boris-strugatsky-1972" -+++ - -_Roadside Picnic_ has a very particular heritage. -There is a book. -It was then made into a movie, which took the last 30 pages and went its own way. It's great. -Then they made it into a game, which takes some ideas for the basic premise, and then the authors went their own way, creating an antithesis of the book. I've been told it's good. -But this time: the novel. - -In the near future, aliens have landed on Earth. -No one knows why, but they came and went without much ado. -Their landing site is now called _the zone_. -Before leaving, the aliens left some artifacts. -We don't know what they are, but there is the promise of giant leaps for mankind. -Therefore, a new occupation is born: - _stalkers_, who venture into the zone and try ans retrieve some alien leftovers. -The zone is dangerous, and stalkers often lose their lives upon making the smallest mistakes. - -But _Roadside Picnic_ is not a book about that. -It's depressing and full of commentary on humanity. -Very often, people call it the best book by the Strugatsky brothers, and who am I to disagree? - -But it is not a book about aliens, or the zone. -Those things exist, but first contact went and gone. -Stalkers are not the heroes of humanity, they are expendable criminals. -We think we may someday understand what happened, but we may as well not. -The aliens visited Earth, but most likely haven't found anything of interest. -What people are dying for, what may change the entire planet, may be nothing but some trash left on the side of the road. - -The cosmos is not something to explore or conquer. -It's vast, and our planet is insignificant. - -And this is what the book is about. -The Zone occupies very small portion of the novel, it's just means to an end. -Red, the main hero, is just trying to make a living. -He is not shy about drinking, visiting a bordello or cheating on his wife. -At the same time, he is not shown as an evil person, because his existence doesn't matter. -Even though he is one of the most experienced stalkers, his death would mean nothing. - -{{< rating 4.5 "roadside-picnic.jpg" >}} -Cover -{{< /rating >}} - -The novel is also much less adventurous than one could expect, knowing the movie or the games. -We spend just a handful of pages in the Zone, the rest happens in the nearby town. -_Roadside Picnic_ is beautiful as anti-SiFi story. -Everything we were taught to believe by western SciFi, the authors ignore. -There is nothing _there_ for us. -We are _nothing_. -Space exploration? -Meeting aliens? -We don't even have any hopes or dreams left. - -But this makes the novel timeless. -Our entertainment is no longer optimistic. -We are not going into _Star Trek_, we missed that ship. -Maybe hope in our insignificance is better than thinking we are our own worst enemy? - -_Roadside Picnic_ gets my high recommendation. -Similarly to _[Hard to be God](/brain-rot/eastern-block-scifi/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/)_, the reader may breeze through it. -It's short, and it's easy to read. -But then we reach the last pages, where the weight of the story is passed us. - -There was to be an American TV series based on _Roadside_. -All that we got was [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dts0rjp5V8) which clearly shows, that it is impossible to make an Americanized version. -In it, a shot of people saluting the stalker is shown, which is a complete antithesis of what the Stugatsky brothers are telling us. |