2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
It is unlikely that the work of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, whose works date back to the 60s - the end of the 80s, can be called Soviet science fiction. They reveal too deep layers of human relationships both with the real world and with other worlds and the people who inhabit them. Strugatsky's books have become a guide to the world of fantasy for several generations of readers.
Arkady Strugatsky
In the writing tandem of the Strugatskys, the main literary word belonged to Arkady Natanovich, the elder brother.
He was born on August 28, 1925 in Batumi. He survived the evacuation from besieged Leningrad and, upon conscription, went to study at the Aktobe Artillery School, from which in 1943 he was transferred to the Moscow Military Institute of Foreign Languages to the department of "translator from English and Japanese". After graduation, he taught at a special school for military translators, served in the Far East until demobilization in 1955.
The first fantastic works,written in collaboration with his brother, were published in 1958. Fame brothers brought the story "Country of Crimson Clouds" (1959).
Even in Soviet times, the books of the Strugatskys, whose list includes more than 60 novels, short stories, short stories and screenplays, became classics of the science fiction genre. They have been translated into over 40 languages and published in 33 countries.
Arkady Naumovich Strugatsky died on 1991-12-10 in Moscow.
Boris Strugatsky
Boris Natanovich was born on April 15, 1933 in Leningrad, was evacuated during the siege, and after his return became a student at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Leningrad State University. Having received a diploma in astronomy, he worked at the observatory (Pulkovo) until 1960.
Member of the Union of Writers, Boris Natanovich wrote not only in collaboration with his brother, but also separately under the pseudonym S. Vititsky. The writer passed away on 2012-19-11.
The Strugatskys' books became the best works of the Soviet period, in which their own model of the future was created, far from "bright" communism. The utopian "tomorrow" is the backdrop for the main theme of their work - the place of man in general and the scientist in particular in the universe and society.
Best of the 60s
Writing in such a way as to provoke the reader to think, argue, try to understand the work - this is what the Strugatsky brothers laid in each of their novels. The best books of the authors have some understatement, which especially attracts people who seek and think to their works.
One of the first controversial works of the brothersStrugatsky was the novel It's Hard to Be a God (1964). It was meant to be a light adventure read, but turned into an ethical digression about trying to change human nature in order to turn history in a different direction.
The main questions that the Strugatskys' books deal with are the legitimacy of interference in the lives of other people, in the events of the past or in scientific progress. This is how the Soviet intelligentsia perceived the plot of the novel It's Hard to Be a God. They saw in it the reality surrounding them - interference in the development of other countries, the "fraternal" help of the Soviet Union in building socialism, attempts to keep the state within the socialist camp even at the cost of blood.
In 1965, two sensational novels written by the Strugatskys were published - the books "Monday begins on Saturday" and "Predatory things of the century".
A cheerful tale about enthusiastic scientists who are passionate about their work - the search for absolute happiness, became a reference book for the creative intelligentsia of that time. Based on this novel, the New Year's cheerful comedy "Magicians" was filmed in 1982.
The novel "The Predatory Things of the Age" became to some extent prophetic, as the authors drew a future similar to today's present. The world is filled with things that have enslaved people, they depend on them. The main theme of the novel is that a person without a goal, without interest in finding a new, unknown, is just an animal consuming things likedrugs.
Early 70s
The books of the Strugatskys, written in the period from the late 60s to the early 80s, have a new direction in the worldview of the authors. Now the main theme of their works is the search for an answer to the question: who are we, why are we here?
If we take all the works of the authors as a whole, it is clear that the Strugatskys wrote the best books in this particular time period.
- Inhabited Island (1969) was the first novel to expose a system of injustice and inequality. A very bold and powerful book for its time. The application of idealistic, “correct” principles of life for everyone from the point of view of the protagonist can become the same cause of disaster as a totalitarian regime.
- "Hotel "At the Dead Climber" (1970) - a detective fiction novel that, with Strugatsky's characteristic sense of humor, tells about the events in a high- altitude hotel with the participation of aliens.
These works were included in the category of novels that brought world fame to writers.
Roadside Picnic
There are not many works of the Soviet era that would change the minds and worldviews of people. The Strugatskys, the books "Roadside Picnic", "Doomed City", "A Billion Years Before the End of the World" and "The Beetle in the Anthill" - fell on the most fruitful creative period of the authors and were able to evoke a response in the minds and souls of the Soviet reader.
Roadside Picnic (1972) is one of the writers' most significant novels. Realization that the earth is notthe only and unique planet in the Universe inhabited by highly developed creatures, but just a roadside in the Universe, where you can stop for a picnic, leave garbage behind and fly away, turned the minds of many people not only of that time. An amazing novel about a person's search for an answer to the question: what am I?
Creativity of the Strugatskys today
Books of writers are written in such a way that their relevance today is even higher than in Soviet times. The future that the authors drew has already arrived, which means that the problems described 40 years ago have become a reality for a person in the world of high technologies.
Nothing has changed, a man without a goal has always been the lost hero of his time.
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