oh good analysis, and re similarity between pulp stories and some parts of the RP - Arkady was a great fan of Chandler and Hammet, especially of Maltese (again maltese) falcon. So it's quite possible he could not resist the possibility to play this little game.
I am much better :))), thanks, and thinking abt making a food test - take a bit of chicken...
There is another Bros. novel - "Хромая судьба", Limping Fate, where protagonist's biography actually represents a lot of real biography of Arkady Strugatsky :))) So the one reading this novel could learn alot about what where his favorite books, about his working as a military translator on Far East etc.
Arkady's youth was epic to a certain degree... and Boris survived Leningrad siege at the age of 6-7 (that is why he became later so pessimistic, I believe)
oh i would like to know more about the Brothers for sure. This is such a superficial piece really, but I wondered about the seige you know, the humour in the book is dark - but survival tough, steely like laughter in the trenches.
But a love of life also:)
Well, i will post the last bit of this late tonight, i hope it will conclude ok - but it has been very interesting to explore THE ZONE:))
Ah! I think, once you've finished with it, I'll have to translate all parts into Russian. Excellent analysis. What I will add to this? Did the translator use the name Monkey for Red's daughter? Well, in my opinion Marmoset would be closer. You said the novel is even bleaker that the movie... but an interesting moment here that the copies of the film that initially were demonstrated in the USSR were black-and-white and only in 90s I saw it in colours. So, the aesthetics of filme noir was thus presented even more powerfully. The book, however, with all its grim tones at the time I read it for the first time, didn't make such a "black" impression. I'll have to reread it, probably, to find different tones in the context of the present reality. :)
Ah, Marmoset, interesting - i have to say to read Monkey is funny because that was my cousin's nickname when she was very small.
Stalker in black and white i think would be bleak indeed, the visual sense of wreckage is already strong. The book is bleak in someways but it is 'between the lines' so to speak, the surface is adventure and humour.
If you can think of a place this might be appropriate then your offer of translation is very generous!:)) I shall post the last piece tonight, which is called 'The perilous miracle of transformation'.
incidentally, you are one of those people who share the sense of humour i describe, i remember your description of that faery story about the princes and the arrows; 'Because the Prince of course, absolute idiot." ha ha ha!:)
=Because the Prince of course, absolute idiot= So, he was indeed. ;) That is a typical prerequisite of a Russian fairy-tale, just ask anybody. Mine was only adding the tones to the joke long-existent. And with all differences of Russian and English humour, they do have much in common. :) I should mention I still cannot find space enough for X-Files - and I am trying not to be a man who brakes promises. It simply is going to be AFTER Roadside Picnic.
Roadside Picnic - Russian and English textsalek_morseMarch 15 2009, 23:15:56 UTC
As for “Stalker” and “Roadside Picnic”, I have to say that before yesterday I even didn’t know the novel’s events have been in CANADA (!). I always supposed that Strugatsky brothers just thought up some Middle-Western-European location in unknown elsewhere ;))) pure fantastic way… Some Babylon, it’s mix of nations, locations under label O.U.N. (United Nations). But yesterday I have found in Internet English introduce to the novel and read that “Zone in Canada’s Harmont”. It’s interesting that Western publishers emphasis this detail
( ... )
Re: Roadside Picnic - Russian and English texts - хабар and swagalek_morseMarch 15 2009, 23:27:28 UTC
By the way, I guess that word «хабар» yet has a some gypsy colour. Interesting that in Ekaterinburg (where I live) there is a local politican Alexander Khabarov (Флександр Хабаров). So, his surname comes from word «хабар».
location location locationwytchcroftMarch 15 2009, 23:29:48 UTC
indeed - this allows for punning word 'Harmonites' "A great day for Harmonites" etc. But the word Canada is never used. But also, and i deleted this in the article, the description of mystery man from Malta is obviously taken from famous Photo of Keith Richards at canadian US border.!!
Swag is very cute word - well known but archaic in UK.
Boot, well it's just a great word - many connotation, "Where is my boot, put the boot in, das boot, I give him the boot, boot up the computer" and many more, and also children's series Mr Men where characters drive around in a giant shoe. :))
///But this is momentary, Police lights flash and the extent to which Red represents the black market is finally revealed. The hiding from authority, the selling of illegally obtained goods and the poor conditions in which the townsfolk live, all suggest a resistant underclass. I am surprised that such a book was not suppressed.///
why?
Formally, Strugatsky brothers wrote a book about unnamed Western country. Of course, in Capitalist state there are sordid machination schemes, black market of illegal dangerous products (like drugs, instance), and dehumanization of society...
and capitalist meanies toowytchcroftMarch 16 2009, 06:14:04 UTC
Oh of course that is so, Alek, obviously - and i can cite a million examples from Police tales to Puckoon from comic Irish stories to harsh punk sci-fi and gangsta thrillers. But Zheglov woud call it banditry surely? Therefore as a Westerner (and considering the pressures put on Tarkovsky) i am surprised there was no alteration or limiting of this novel when first published
Re: Western view and black marketwytchcroftMarch 16 2009, 16:19:33 UTC
i always enjoy discovering what is behind the sterotype - i am a little less nervous to give a Western view now, because that way i learn what may be (partly) true or false:)))
Comments 29
re similarity between pulp stories and some parts of the RP - Arkady was a great fan of Chandler and Hammet, especially of Maltese (again maltese) falcon.
So it's quite possible he could not resist the possibility to play this little game.
Reply
and to know this about the Brothers, for certain - is a big relief!:)
have a good sunday:) i hope you have been feeling better.
Reply
There is another Bros. novel - "Хромая судьба", Limping Fate, where protagonist's biography actually represents a lot of real biography of Arkady Strugatsky :))) So the one reading this novel could learn alot about what where his favorite books, about his working as a military translator on Far East etc.
Arkady's youth was epic to a certain degree... and Boris survived Leningrad siege at the age of 6-7 (that is why he became later so pessimistic, I believe)
Reply
oh i would like to know more about the Brothers for sure. This is such a superficial piece really, but I wondered about the seige you know, the humour in the book is dark - but survival tough, steely like laughter in the trenches.
But a love of life also:)
Well, i will post the last bit of this late tonight, i hope it will conclude ok - but it has been very interesting to explore THE ZONE:))
Reply
What I will add to this? Did the translator use the name Monkey for Red's daughter? Well, in my opinion Marmoset would be closer.
You said the novel is even bleaker that the movie... but an interesting moment here that the copies of the film that initially were demonstrated in the USSR were black-and-white and only in 90s I saw it in colours. So, the aesthetics of filme noir was thus presented even more powerfully. The book, however, with all its grim tones at the time I read it for the first time, didn't make such a "black" impression. I'll have to reread it, probably, to find different tones in the context of the present reality. :)
Reply
Ah, Marmoset, interesting - i have to say to read Monkey is funny because that was my cousin's nickname when she was very small.
Stalker in black and white i think would be bleak indeed, the visual sense of wreckage is already strong. The book is bleak in someways but it is 'between the lines' so to speak, the surface is adventure and humour.
If you can think of a place this might be appropriate then your offer of translation is very generous!:)) I shall post the last piece tonight, which is called 'The perilous miracle of transformation'.
incidentally, you are one of those people who share the sense of humour i describe, i remember your description of that faery story about the princes and the arrows; 'Because the Prince of course, absolute idiot." ha ha ha!:)
all the best to you,
wytch
Reply
So, he was indeed. ;) That is a typical prerequisite of a Russian fairy-tale, just ask anybody. Mine was only adding the tones to the joke long-existent.
And with all differences of Russian and English humour, they do have much in common. :)
I should mention I still cannot find space enough for X-Files - and I am trying not to be a man who brakes promises. It simply is going to be AFTER Roadside Picnic.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Swag is very cute word - well known but archaic in UK.
Boot, well it's just a great word - many connotation, "Where is my boot, put the boot in, das boot, I give him the boot, boot up the computer" and many more, and also children's series Mr Men where characters drive around in a giant shoe. :))
Reply
why?
Formally, Strugatsky brothers wrote a book about unnamed Western country. Of course, in Capitalist state there are sordid machination schemes, black market of illegal dangerous products (like drugs, instance), and dehumanization of society...
Reply
Oh of course that is so, Alek, obviously - and i can cite a million examples from Police tales to Puckoon from comic Irish stories to harsh punk sci-fi and gangsta thrillers. But Zheglov woud call it banditry surely? Therefore as a Westerner (and considering the pressures put on Tarkovsky) i am surprised there was no alteration or limiting of this novel when first published
Reply
Reply
Reply
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