Slashdot Mirror
Exploring The World Of Russian Science Fiction Online
jimharris writes: "There is a vast heritage of science fiction in Russian that is as large and diverse as SF in English. This Russian site has several complete science fiction novels in English. If you go to their home page you will feel the language barrier. Most of these are out of print in the English speaking world, but many were translated and published in the seventies, and can be found through AddAll.Com. I have found one Russian Science Fiction club that tries to help the English speaking world understand Russian SF, and also gives their view on Heinlein and Philip K. Dick. Only Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky appear on the Classics of Science Fiction list. I have to wonder what far-out concepts I might be missing because I only understand English -- maybe the Internet will help break down this barrier."
For the curious, is there a must read list of the russian sf?
So I guess Russian sci-fi from, say, the Cold War includes stuff like indoor plumbing, supermarkets with actual food, and the freedom of uncensored thought?
This is the NFL, which stands for "Not For Long" if you keep making those bulls*** calls.
"I have to wonder what far-out concepts I might be missing because I only understand English -- maybe the Internet will help break down this barrier."
Why don't you break it down yourself? Probably the vast majority of educated people outside the U.S. speak at least one other language.
i remember bumping into a russian s/f collection at a public library when i was in grade school (from the 70s) ... and have never found a good collection since. i found, then, that russian s/f was different - but quite cool. much of that particular collection was dark, but well concieved ... strange enough that it left me then wanting more (not far from some of the warped orson scott card short s/f). our puny little local library system, though, didn't have any other russian s/f - and since i've not seen many translated works around. *most* excellent.
mx
The truly original ideas should stand out as something very special
check out: Sovlit
Like languages, environment define the terms you associate with life.
... Snow, SnowFall, Blizzard... whiteout...
:(
300 words for snow? Yup, if you are from the north. I think I have 5 or 6
What's this have to do with SF? Even if there is a perfect, idiom-perfect translation, we Americans may simply not have the cultural background to understand it. Or even do it the justice it deserves.
This is by no means a reason to stop trying- I frankly love SF and have a library rapidly approaching 1000 books... but until I bone up on my russian history, I am afraid these wonderful texts will fall short
Of course, a 'monologue' like the put down at the bottom of those ancient texts you studied in Latin class (you DID read the Aeneid, didn't you?) was more than enough to get the underlying meaning, giving you the cultural explanations of the references provided. Maybe thats what their SF needs to be complete.
While we American fans of SF are still waiting for our flying cars and talking robots, our Russian friends are still waiting for their perpetual vodka stills and mutant psionic six-leged bears.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Back 5 (or so) years ago Amazon.com brought the world of (english language) books to the internet, and many have claimed the events of Septerm ber 11th brought the world of internet based news put pf the shadpws into the mainstream. Non-English language literature however, has not seen it's internet coming-of-age.
Perhaps, however, this is a good thing, not that non-english language literature isn't as widely availble on the net, but the fact that it isn't suggests a continued focus on treditional puslishing for such literature.
Whatever your view on electronic puslishing (eBooks, etc...) you must agree that electronic pusblishing is transient. when 'sponsorship' for a publisged work dries up, that work simply would simply disappear. Gone will be the days of 200 year old books being discovered in the musty corner of some atic, many years in the future. If the qualkity of a published work isn't recognized within the lifetime of the author, the work may disappear without a trace, without a single printed and bound copy to be found. While it's true that media (which un-like a website, doesn't require sponsorship to exist) containing the work may exist for a few years after the death of the author, even that is transient. Organizations such as the Long Now Foundation are working to preserve the vast expanse of knowlege published on the internet, but without such organizations, works not published in a physical sense may be lost to time.
For this reason, it's somewhat heartening to see that not all publishing is moving to the internet, even though it may reduce the exposure of the works in question. Granted it's more desirable to gain the widest exposure in the shortest period of time such that the publisher can turn a proffit on works of literature but that proffit margin shouldn't be at the expense of future generations' access to the work.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
300 words for snow? Yup, if you are from the north
Its an urban myth that eskimoes have 100+ words for Snow and the color white.
Help fight continental drift.
There is a lot of Russian books that are getting
published(OCR?) on the net, one thing I stubled on were real stories from Afganistan and Chechen Wars, they are incredible, told by real soldiers not writers. I only found one translated to English, but they're maybe more available.(I read them in Russian).
http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/CHECHNYA/chechen_war.txt
P.S. from SciFi I recomend brothers Strugatsky books, specificaly Roadside Picnic.
Well, we could Babelfish it, but I think it loses something in the translation.
I was half way through "23787324 32487432" when I realized that putting it through 1337 hax0r translator was useless because it was in Russian. Dammit.
I guess that's why all I got was a recipe for making meatballs with antimatter.. hmm
(replace 23787324 32487432 with Russian writing because the real stuff activated the lameness filter)
this mirror should be faster for all living outside of russia.
Monday Begins on Saturday great and funny book, kinda douglas adams style
Hard to be a god same writers, much darker sf
The Master and Margarita kinda Faust in USSR, funny
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I think Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is the best Russian SF I've ever read (and maybe the only Russian SF I've ever read, now that I think about it). Anyway, his metaphors are very mathematical (revolutions are like numbers, infinite; love is like the square root of -1; maybe he was a mathematician). Anyway, I highly recommend it.
One writer who has always strongly influenced western writers and readers is Polish SF writer Stanislaw Lem, whose Solaris was made by Russian movie director Andrei Tarkovsky into perhaps the best science fiction movie I have seen.
Man, that one page is *really* hard to read. Here:m l
http://www.sf.perm.ru/eng/solaris/sf_history.ht
At least in Galeon and Mozilla, anyway...maybe other browsers display this better? Hard on the ol' glazzies, and it's really distracting me from the content. I feel like I'm trying to read Wired.
I go to Brown University, and there is actually a Russian Studies course called Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy, which requires no knowledge of the Russian language. It's supposed to be an excellent class, and if I didn't have a conflict, I'd be takin it second semester this year.
I am really glad to see the unlikely break of microsoft-flaming and transmeta-worshipping programming schedule on slashdot - especially since it has to do with good books from Eastern-bloc countries. I wil second all recommendations already given for the Strugatsky brothers. Hwever, when I think of Russian sci-fi, the first name that actually comes to mind is Polish.
Stanilsaw Lem, a Polish author who is immensely popular in Russia and many European countries (but, alas, poorly known in the states) is, in my opinion, the most incredible sci-fi author I've ever had the privielege of reading. His books are above and beyond what is commonly referred to as "science fiction" by the people I meet. Lem's prevailing notion is that a laser gun on a spaceship does not make a rehashed soap opera plot into something that may be classified into the science fiction genre.
Lem's books go a full range from hillarious to serious to outright bizarre. His "Memoirs found in a bathtub" was Terry Gilliam's inspiration while the latter was shooting Brazil. Lem's "Solaris" has been made into an amazing movie by Russia's cinematography great Andrei Tarkovsky - and more likely than not, it is available in your local blockbuster or library. I can go on and on, but I figured that if you (the reader) have made it this far down this post, I might as well provide the links and let you figure out if that sounds like something you'd like to read for yourself. So,
Planet Solaris - The Official Lem site
A brief biography and overview of books
If you can read Russian, this contains the translations of the bulk of his work into Russian.
A really good fan site, with overviews of all major works
A short passage from The Cyberiad - one of Lem's most famous collections of short stories
List of Stanislaw Lem's books, sorted by average customer review rating, at amazon
Take care!
PsychoOne
You mean the Russians weren't just robots working on their potato farm for the greater good of Stalin?
Jeebus, that's scary, isn't it?
Ugh. Grow up, you freakin' losers. "Oh, you mean it's about indoor plumbing and.. and.."
Hey, jackasses, two words - Yuri Gagarin.
Gods below, I wish people would stop listening to media lies. Yeah, it's real cute when the news shows a bad part of Russia and insists the whole country's like that.
Maybe Russian TV should take a camera crew inside an inner city sometime and insist, "Yeah, this is how bad the US is."
As a russian speaker, and a SF fan Im reading quite a lot of russian SF
Older names include indeed strugatsky brothers
with a big amount of works,
from more resent authors there is pelevin with "generation "P" " "Omon Ra" and others,
there is Lukianenko with a big SF/Cyberpunk assortiment, and there is NIck Perumov, which is more fantasy.
Golovachev, Oldi and others are really interesting too.
Hope Yuo will find the books somewhere to enjoy them
one possible location is dwalin.wom.ru/books.html
And Stanislaw Lem, while Polish rather than Russian, has always been popular in Russia.
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
There is a website dedicated to Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy writers and gives bio's on the writers and what books they have released and so forth.. great site to check out
;-)
I've read a few Russian sci-fi books when I was young (i'm russian).. but unfortunately my knowledge of the language has started to fade
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
If you can't make it in America, the easiet place in the world to live and work, you deserve to starve. Period. You are unfit and need to be plucked out of the gene pool.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Crime and Punishment II: Mars needs Lenin.
ALSO. DID YOU KNOW that russia's next planned advance in their space program was going to be a beanstalk built out of exactly three copies of "War and Peace".
I have an old Asimov edited collection called "More Soviet Science Fiction". One of the more striking elements was the "heading to the best of all possible worlds" feeling.
"Any thinking being from some other world that has been able to reach the Cosmos must be just as perfect and universal as the humans of our Earth, and hence just as beautiful. There can be no thinking monsters, no mushroom-men, no octopus-men! "
[...]
"You suggest that even if they look quite different from us, we may not think them ugly? But supposing they resemble us but have horns and elephant-like trunks?"
"A thinking being does not need horns and hence will not have them. The nose may be somewhat elongated to form a trunk, although a trunk too is unnecesary for a being with hands, and a human being must have hands [...]"
"You win"
The Heart of the Serpent, Ivan Yefremov...Subject: is the song that plays to awaken them from their cronosleep
It's kind of an interesting "hard scifi" story, the two groups end up learning how to communicate partially with an exchange of information about the Periodic Table (they breathe flourine instead of oxygen....other than that they're pretty much greyish star trek aliens, minus the ridges.)
At first I was going to write this in kind of a condescending way, but actually they're stuff holds up pretty well against ours, though it definately has trouble shaking towing the Soviet party line about a bright future through human social(ist) advancement.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Great book and one of the best Russian Science Fiction novels of the "golden age." Considered the precursor to 1984 by Orwell, and definitely worth picking up if you can find it (not sure what the availability is on the English translation these days).
BTW, not to be a pompous or arrogant ass, but SF and Science Fiction are two totally different things.
-Rick
I'd love to start reading these stories, but I find it hard to sit and read off my monitor any large ammount of text. How do you all read books off the internet? Is there a way easier on the eyes? Printing them all out seems to be a little excessive.
(Yes I do have a 21in monitor, and would like something short of finding an english translation in book form.)
WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
Actually "The Master and Margarita" is not sf at all, but anyway it is great book. However I'm afraid that you need to live in Russia (or in USSR back then) to understand about 50% of it's beauty.
-------------------------------------------- http://futuris.plastiqueweb.com/
Check out some of the many books by Stanislav Lem,
my two favorites are "The Cyberiad" and "The
Futurological Congress"...think "Richard Adams"
and you'll know what I mean.
Asimov is my #1 choice in sci-fi reading for years.
I am sure there are probably many more awesome people from the country formerly known as the soviet Union that can write good Sci-fi. Too bad the site is slashdotted.... anyone have any good links to texts in english?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Much of Lem's writing was veiled criticism of communist rule, masquerading as fiction. It may be hard for younger generations to truly appreciate the political environment in which he was writing, and the very real personal risk involved in writing anything more pointed than he did.
Translated from Russian:
An optimist studies English
A pessimist studies Chinese
A realist studies Kalashnikov gun
Here is URL to the best collection of books in russian - Strugatsky brothers section. If you scroll down, you'll see 'Translation ...'. There are few in English. I highly recommend 'Snail on a slope'. This is my favorite. There are few others, I don't remember one. Unfortunately, the really good one, translated into English, 'Ugly swans', is not on-line.
http://lib.ru/STRUGACKIE/
The most comprehensive site on Russian SF is
http://rusf.ru
but it is in Russian.
I read them all, in Russian. I've just started reading Ph. K. Dick and seems like they are somehow similar. The same level of brilliance and imagination, sort of. Also quite depressing, most of the time. Strugatsky brothers at this time is really russian SF classic. Arkady has passed away a while ago. Boris is alive and maintains on-line interview, at rusf.ru. You can ask him anything you want - but without knowing Russian you'll get lost on that site.
Steven Soderbergh(Traffic) is doing an english remake of Solaris starring George Clooney.
coming attractions
This will probably bring a lot more well-deserved attention to Lem and hopefully Tarkovsky.
actually there is an english version of rusf.ru.
Go on site (http://rusf.ru) and then select 'english' on a top right corner.
He was actually writing the same communist propaganda stuff as many other "officially approved" writers, just disguised as SF.
One example is The Hour of The Bull, about perfect beautiful people from the 30th century Earth (where communism flourishes) going to a planet populated by ugly capitalism-worshipping people who left the Earth in 22th century fleeing from the World War IV. Since the book was written in late 60-s when Soviet-Chinese relationships were sour, he made those villians to be of Chinese descent. Of course, there were suffering working masses, President's daughter falling in love with the Captain, revolution, etc. Pretty crappy stuff.
Among other things on there is a complete (Russian) version of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you were expected to pay good money for that sort of thing...
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
From ,
...aka "Guest from the Future" (1984) (mini)
...aka "Failure of Engineer Garin" (1973) (mini)
...aka Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated To Steven Spielberg (1991)
...aka Revolt of the Robots (1924)
...aka Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924)
...aka Magicians (1982) (TV)
...aka Invisible Man, The (1984)
...aka Per Aspera Ad Astra (1981)
...aka To the Stars By Hard Ways (1982) (US title)
...aka Humanoid Woman (1981)
...aka Trudno Byt Bogom (1989)
...aka Hard to Be a God (1989) [from the novel by the Strugatski brothers]
...aka Extraterrestrial Women, The (1984)
...aka Temptation of B. (1990)
...aka Curse of Snakes Valley (1988)
...aka Zaklyatie doliny zmei (1988) (Russian title)
...aka Madude oru needus (1988)
...aka Cry of a Dolphin (1986)
...aka Moscow - Cassiopea (1973)
...aka Battle Beyond the Sun (1962) (US title)
...aka Sky Calls, The (1959)
...aka Heavens Call, The (1959)
...aka Sky Is Calling, The (1959)
...aka Charming Aliens (1991)
...aka Teenagers in Space (1974)
...aka Boys In the Universe (1974)
...aka Planet of Storms (1962)
...aka Planet of Tempests (1962)
...aka Storm Planet (1962)
...aka Cosmonauts on Venus (1962)
...aka Kidnapping of a Wizard (1989)
...aka Adventures of the Electronic, The (1979) (TV)
...aka Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The (1985)
...aka Secret of the Iron Door, The (1970)
...aka Phenomenon (1983)
...aka We Called Him Robert (1967)
...aka Testament of Professor Dowell (1984)
click on "Science Fiction", click on "Countries":
RUSSIA
A strong case can be made that Russian science fiction is second only to English-language science fiction in quality and quantity, and in many cases science fiction books sell in more copies in Russia than anywhere else. Whether or not the authors get paid is another story.
Of course, the American intelligence forces, with time-scanners, saw the impact of young Isaac Asimov, and covertly paid his family's way over to Brooklyn, New York, to keep Russia from taking over the SF world.
Russia beat America into space with Sputnik, the definitive event that showed the world that science fiction dreams of spaceflight were now
reality, and hammered home the point with the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Russian authors had created the fictions that led to this
reality.
1892 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), the Father of Space Rocketry, publishes his first science fiction story "On the Moon" in a Moscow magazine
1895 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), the Father of Space Rocketry, publishes his second science fiction story "Dreams of the Earth and the Sky and the Effects of Universal Gravitation" and describes in fiction an artificial satellite -- the predecessor of Sputnik, as it were
1895 A. N. Goncharov also publishes a satellite story "Fantasies of Earth and Sky" in Moscow
An important reference work on Russian SF is "Russian Science Fiction Novel" by Anatolij Britikov (Moscow: Nauka and the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, 1970).
I am going to add, soon, some notes on these particularly important Russian science fiction authors:
* A. Belayev
* M. A. Bulgakov
* Anatoly Dneprov
* Mikhail Emtsov
* I. Lukodianov
* Georgui Martinov
* V. A. Obruchev
* E. Parnov
* Victor Saparin, "The Trial of Tantalus"
* The Brothers Strugatsky (Arkadi and Boris)
* A. Tertz (A. D. Siniavskii)
* A. Tolstoi
* Konstantin Tsiolkovski (father of the Spaceship AND Rusian space fiction)
* Ilya Varshavsky
* I. A. Yefremov
* Evgeni Zamiatin
Filip Schils Abidjan, Ivory Coast, icq : 6951680 e-mailed on 2 June 1998 to say:
"I am familiar with the "Russian classics" re: Zamyatin, Jevgeni & Arkadi Strugatski. I think you could add Vassilli Akhsionov to your essay as he often uses "SF" settings and styles in his books. If I am not mistaken he has also a scientific education (doctor ?), his style is very experimental using poetry, song texts. He is a scion of the Thaw period and should surely have been mentioned by Yevtuchenko....I am very much interested in other links on Russian SF..."
Eugene Zamiatin (1884-Mar 1937) [Evgeni Ivanovich Zamiatin] Russian dystopian novelist, banned in the USSR, of the influential "We" (New York: Dutton, 1924, tr. by Gregory Zilboorg) which surely influenced George Orwell's "1984" -- a global state where people are denied names and love.
Important SF figures born in Russia who emigrated include:
* Boris Artzybasheff (25 May 1899-?) American artist born in Kharkov (Russia) and trained in St.Petersburg (1909-1918);
* Isaac Asimov
* Reginald Bretnor
* George Gamow (scientist/science writer)
* Ayn Rand
* many who recently emigrated to Israel (see entry on Israel)
Charles Angoff (1902-?), Russian-born American newpaperman, English professor, editor, author of fantasy anthology "Adventures in Heaven" (New York: Ackerman, 1945), nothing on the Web?
One Russian member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America:
* Alexander Korzhenevski
Russian SF book publishers include:
* Detgiz
* Mir
* Molodaja Gvardija
* Mysl
* Znanije
Important magazines include:
* Junost (circulation hit over 2,000,000)
* Nauka i zjisn
* Teknika-molodezji
* Sveta
* Vokrug Sveta (circulation almost 3,000,000)
* Znanije-Sila
32 Russian Science Fiction films/TV series include:
* The Amphibian Man (1962)
* "Gostya iz buduschego" (1984) (mini)TV Series
* "Krakh inzhenera Garina" (1973)(mini)TV Series
* Abdulladzhan, ili posvyaschayestya Stivenu Spilbergu (1991)
* Aelita (1924) a classic!
* Charodei (1982) (TV) very popular
* Chelovek-nevidimka (1984)
* Cherez ternii k zvezdam (1981)
* The Death Ray (1925)
* Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein (1989)
* I Was a Sputnik of the Sun (1958)
* Inoplanetyanka (1984)
* Iskusheniye B. (1990)
* Kin-Dza-Dza (1986) very popular
* Klatwa doliny wezy (1988)
* Krik delfina (1986)
* Moon Rainbow (1985)
* Moskva-Kassiopeya (1973)
* Nebo Zovet (1959)
* Ocharovatelnye prisheltsy (1991)
* Otroki vo Vselennoy (1974)
* Planeta Burg (1962)
* Pokhischeniye charodeya (1989)
* Priklyucheniya Elektronika (1979) (TV)
* Solaris (1972) classic, based on Staislaw Lem novel
* Stalker (1979)
* Strannaya istoriya doktora Dzhekila i mistera Haida (1985)
* Taina zheleznoi dveri (1970)
* Tretya planeta (1991)
* Unikum (1983)
* Yevo zvali Robert (1967)
* Zaveschaniye professora Dowelya (1984)
The story "The Blind Pilot" by Nathalie-Charles Henneberg, translated by
Damon Knight, appears (pp.250-265) in "The World Treasury of Science Fiction", edited by David G.
Hartwell, Boston: Little Brown, 1989 (and released by Book of the Month
Club).
Hartwell comments "Nathalie-Charles Henneberg, who is RUSSIAN, met her Alsatian-German husband in Syria when he was in the French Foreign Legion. They began writing SF in French in the 1950s, and until his death in 1959 they signed their collaborations with his name.... Nathalie went on to become a prolific novelist, the 'most read' French SF writer in France in the 1960s, according to [Damon] Knight. This story bears an
uncanny resemblance in atmosphere to the early works of the American writer Roger Zelazny, which it predates."
The story "I was the First to Find You" by Kirill Bulychev, translated by Helen Saltz Jacobson, appears (pp.690-700) in "The World Treasury of Science Fiction", edited by David G. Hartwell, Boston: Little Brown, 1989 (and released
by Book of the Month Club).
Hartwell comments "Among the most versatile and popular SF writers in the Soviet Union, Kirill Bulychev is one of a group of younger Soviet writers to emerge in the 1960s. Above all, his talent for storytelling and his interest in human characters interacting with SF problems make him a particularly effective representative of recent Soviet SF. The strain of utopianism remains strong in Eastern European SF and sinks many stories with didacticism, but Bulychev is able to sustain his delight in the wonders of the technological future, as in the days of [American
editor/author] John W. Campbell. And, of course, the influence of Campbell-style SF itself, in this case [A. E.] Van Vogt's 'Far Centaurus'
is clearly present."
SF is a very important part of both US and Russian culture.
I moved from Russia to Canada two years ago. Reading books and watching TV helped me a lot to understand the culture, and the most important things were Douglas Adams, JRRT, Star Trek etc.
But especially, The Simpsons! Kinda SF, too...
French? C'mon that's for fags.
When will you stupid dummies (as opposed to intelligent dummies) understand that the mother of your language is Italian?
Learn that for a change, if you can.
Your will not believe how far from reality your speculation is. Only living now in Canada I understand how distorted is the view of Russia here, in North America. If you think that somebody having not too big choice of a food is only dreaming of food, than it is mostly your characteristics . Believe me as a person who red many of those books, there are much more there then you think. I do not even want to start about all stupidity of your post - clearly you have never left your home town. Go ahead and mode me down, but I have to say it - my friend, there are cities in former Soviet Union with history much longer then the history of your whole country. Try to show some respect to the culture so different and reach, you can not even recognize it as a culture.
Cheers.
http://www.lib.ru/PELEWIN/omon_engl.txt
I think, considering the late geo-political history of Russia, broadening the subject to Eastern-European SF is perhaps more apt...if only to get Stanislav Lem in the list :)
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
I keep recommending these books to people I meet. It's wonderful literature; I keep saying it's literature, not deserving the restrictive label of "SF"; a good Strugatsky is the kind of book you don't fully appreciate until you have put it down, when its flavour lingers and you realize that, while reading it, your mind took flight, and that you're still flying a few days after.
It is sad, but not too surprising, to learn how unknown they are outside the literati (by which I don't mean the average Slashdot geek type with their Asimov and Trekkie stuff). The English translations are, as far as I can know, almost entirely out of print. Roadside Picnic was recently resurrected, at least in Europe, by Gollancz as part of their "Gollancz SF" series (instantly recognizable as trade-paperbacks with minimalistic yellow covers), a wonderful series which also includes other semi-forgotten masterpieces by the likes of Brunner, John Sladek, Heinlein, Thomas Disch and John Crowley.
Obtaining these absent volumes is not hard. ABE Books is your friend; basically it's a network of used-book sellers with a unified shopping cart -- it's an amazing system that has significantly added to my personal library. Books typically arrive by air mail within a week, even here in Europe (Norway). Also popular, but untested by me, is BookFinder.
There have been posts in this discussion, some serious and some not, about the readability/relevance of Russian fiction, comments pretty typical of ethnocentric Americans. I can't stress this enough: There is absolutely nothing that should prevent you from completely enjoying a Russian book (translated into English, to wit). The references to Russian culture/history/etc. are more or less nonexistent, and their stories are usually set outside the Soviet state. As for translations, most of the Strugatsky books were done by an extraordinary translator, Antonina W. Buois. I cannot vouch for their correctness, as I have not read the original texts, but I applaud their beauty, humanity, subtlety and ingenuity, qualities which I can only assume are also present in the originals.
As for what to read, I highly recommend Roadside Picnic, which is a masterpiece in any genre (it served as the inspiration for Tarkovsky's Stalker). It is about the aftermath of an alien visitation -- after the beings themselves have left and mysteriously, without having revealed themselves -- which has left the Earth riddled with small "Zones", contaminated by alien debris. One theme of the novel is that while we humans consider ourselves "rational beings", our sense of rationality -- a way of putting order to chaos -- is closely tied to our human form; an alien civilization may in fact appear beyond our capacity to understand, and therefore their nature will seem chaotic, irrational and impossible to us. The debris is wonderful stuff, often dangerous, often inexplicable, and humans scavenge it like ants over the trash left, as a character says, by a family "roadside picnic".
Their other works are similarly masterly: Far Rainbow, Hard to Be a God (actually made into a French-German-Russian-produced film in 1989) and Definitely Maybe. The latter's original title is, translated: "A Billion Years to the End of the World: A manuscript discovered under unusual circumstance". It tells the story of how one day all scientific progress is suddenly threatened by, well, hedonistic distractions. It was adapted into the film Days of the Eclipse (1988).
Many of the Strugatskys' books play out in the same "universe", or continuum, of the 22nd century, which includes several novels featuring intergalactic investigator Maxim Kammerer, and also developing the backstory of "the Wanderers", a mysterious, never-seen, incredibly powerful race of beings that seem to be silently following and manipulating the human race, similar to the Visitors in Roadside Picnic. The most chilling example is "Wanderers and Travellers", a hypnotic little short story about a diver who tags rare marine animals with radio tracking, and who then meets a man who suspects that, after a visit to a remote planet, he has somehow been... tagged himself.
On note: Alongside their SF production, the Strugatskys also produced some absurdist fables, including Tale of the Troika and The Second Invasion of Mars, and while this is great stuff, it's likely to shock and disappoint anyone looking for a "vintage Strugatsky".
I have to wonder what far-out concepts I might be missing because I only understand English -- maybe the Internet will help break down this barrier.
No, learning another language will help break down this barrier.
Don't worry, the Internet is the solution to all of your other problems though.
Up to some point in 60s Soviet Union designed and produced their own computers which was at least as good as American or even better. It was decided at some point by the Communist Party leaders to cut those programs and it was decided to base designs on american systems which KGB could easily obtain. Cybernetics as a science was considered a false-science (something like astronomy,medicine and chemistry in Europe in Middle Ages) and was called something like a "Cheap whore of Imprerialism" (very close translation). This pretty much killed any innovation in industry. Another thing that killed computer industry was economy. There was no need for automation. The workforce was cheap and Soviet Constitution guaranteed job to anyone.
IMNSHO the best current Russian fantasy writer is Nik Perumov. His books are not an average fantasy of Good vs Evil. But rather Dark Side vs Light Forces, with author siding with the Dark. It's either an exiled mage rising a rebellion against good benevolent Gods to save his imprisoned friend. Or a necromancer on a quest against the rest of the world. Noone is always good and noone is pure evil. Very good solid high paced reading. Very enjoyable. I don't know if he is translated to English though. He had one book in English with Alan Cole. Unfortunately that sorry piece of a crap is not worth the paper it's published on.
Another decent Russian writer is Sviatoslav Loginov - http://rusf.ru/english/loginov/ (in English). _Multiarm God of Dalayn_ is VERY original. I have not read anything like that either in English or Russian. It might be too original though. _Black Blood_ with Nik Perumov is very good. He also writes "village fantasy" which might be too thick with Russian culture and closer to common fiction than to fantasy.
One of the older writers is Kir Bulychev. Some of his writing is space sci fi, some is social sci fi set in a fictional Russian town "Veliky Gusliar". Mostly targeted to younger readers.
Brothers Strugatski are classics of Russian sci fi. Their earlier books are mostly space sci fi. Like _It's Hard to Be a God_ is about human outpost on a medieval planet. _Beetle in an Anthill_ is very original alien planet fiction. _Stalker_ is good reading. The _Monday Starts on Saturday_ is about government research facility studying magic (fun reading - government bureaucracy + magic). The later books tend to be more philosophical and are thick with Russian historical and cultural references.
A lot of people like Sergey Lukyanenko. He is probably the best selling contemporary Russian sci fi writer. Another popular writer is Vladimir Vasil'ev - sci fi, fantasy, cyber, alternative history. I did not read a lot of them, so I won't comment.
_Master and Margarita_ was written in the first half on 20th century. Classic translated to many languages including English. Satan come to Moscow. Very philosophical - love, responsibility, genius. Very very philosophical, but fun to read. Particularly if you took a course in Russian history.
Also, you may want to grab a copy of any of the following books and look at a modern re-incornation of communist ideas. Please also note that freedom is not always free, even when it comes to freeest speech country (not all of these books are available in US).
--AP
I think that even though your intention of helping overcome the language barrier is good, posting the link here in slashdot could hurt the site with extra traffic... :(
You didn't like it, fine. What about beloved by all geeks Star Trek? That is also some kind of communism. Watch the First Contact again, especially the part where Picard explains that women they brough on board about 24th century or some episode where they pick up some ship with frozen people from end of 20th century Earth. Idea of communism is not that bad, just all implementation sucked big time.
,despite what you called as propaganda which was added to text to soften up the censors and be able to print it.Especially it sour to read it from the guy with email address at mail.ru. Read http://www.kulichki.net/moshkow/EFREMOW/biography. txt
,"Lezvie Britvi" (Razor Blade), "Na krau Oikumeni" (On the edge of Oikumena). First one is about the future and the last one is simply marvelous adventure that started few thousand years ago. I will let you decide what was "Lezvie Britvi" about.
You can't even imagine how wrong you are about calling "The Hour of Bull" propaganda. It was banned from the print in Soviet Union and nobody could even mention this book
It seams that you like adventure in SciFi then read or watch "Tumannost Andromedi" (Andromeda Nebula)
Most of the russian scifi is not for everyone. It is food for your brain. It makes you think about yourself, society or just what it means to be a decent human being and not just another representative of the class of homo "sapiens".
Well, the French National Library did make available (as PDF images) 80 000 books, etc., before 1930. It is BY FAR the largest collection of old books on the Internet.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/
It is mostly in french but there is also Latin, German, English...
A Spanish University (Valence ?) has also a great old spanish books (PDF) collection online.
Russian University (Moscow Lomonossov ?) has a VERY BIG russian eTexts (~ Gutenberg Project) online.
Thanks for pointing out these sites; I hadn't run across them before. I'll have to grab the URLs for my own links. :)
I know enough Russian to get into trouble and I'm a filksinger, so I've been enjoying reading and translating Russian filksongs posted on the Web, as well as downloading filk mp3s and fanvideos (including some fun LARP ones). I've got a short list of links and translations I call Gateway to Russian Filk. I recommend it especially to Tolkien fans. (I also apologize for the ugly HTML.)
If you know Russian, Kilor's Catalog is a massive Russian filk mp3 link site, leading you to songs by over a hundred different filkers.
Russian fandom is immensely freer than it used to be, and they seem to be making the most of it.
Maureen
The Internet won't break down the barriers, people will. What the Internet will do is facilitate the transfer of information and ideas with far less restrictions (though that appears to be changing-YRO). What the Internet can do is allowed like minded individuals to gather in electronic forums where they can work on understanding each other. ;). Go find some material to help you learn a foreign language, then go to a chat room or board to practice it with someone from that country. They'll be glad to work with you. Ashamed of your fluency with that language? So are they about their fluency with English. Work together to communicate. Russian is hard to learn. English is hard to learn. So is Perl, so is multiprotocol networking in an enterprise environment, so is hacking a network. Yet lot's of us that lurk here do these things. Learn a language besides C, speak with the people that use that language and learn a culture. Dare to use the 'Net for more than pr0n, cracking and flaming.
;). And a smattering of standard Arabic. That only leaves over a hundred other languages to go ;). Plus Perl.
Get out from behind your keyboard, or at least point your browser somewhere besides here or a kernel mirror
The Russian language has a rich culture of literature. They are also not afraid to import literature from other lands. Mark Twain has been translated into Russian (amongst others) and is very popular there. I read, write and speak German, Russian (badly now) and have a working knowledge of English (American) and HTML
In a nutshell, the 'Net won't break down those barriers, we will. It will just help us like minded people to find each other to do it.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world - Ghandi
I never even considered Russian SCI-Fi before. This sounds cool. I checked out The "Snail on the Slope" story and its great. For me the fascination is to just see how these Soviet authors think and percieve the future from their unique point of view.
i am a bulgarian- for those from US it's a country on the balkans and to me, both russian and english were not mother-tongues. ;-)
i am exploring the English lit, and SF especially, for the latter half of my life so i have collected at least some experience.
and even as a slavonic person (cyrillc, anyone?) the russian lit is quite a challenge. english is more on the tech ingenuity, russian's on the spiritual inside, serious one, too. that's why asimov, clarke and bradbury are more akin to them. Heinlein isn't, at least not recently.
language learning IS much more than words- it's a gate to a whole new culture. it IS enriching, not only in terms of reading solaris or roadside picnick natively
for those who can aford to do it - expand your horizons. Eco rules, too!
Now, Make Your WISE Move...
first one has to overcome the inner cultural barier in order truly to start understanding another form of civilization and especially language. ;)
the language is the first "interface" to the folks, it is not onlymultinational, like english, it is unique full of clues bunch, baring the scars and marks of nature.
getting into other languages is quite enriching and the average americans (as usually) are far behind the rest of the wordl due to this.
simply the level of cultural identity , characteristic for the eastern countries and the slavonic ones in particular more than makes up for their size on the map
perhaps this is also true for quite a small minority of intelligentsia in the US, and only they can assert this truth.
linua franca is not a way of dominance for the English now - just a sign of what is coming.
a voluntary knighting - that's metaphorically what it is to learn a new language- it comes prebundled with its culture, so keep that in mind and venture into it, if you dare!
Now, Make Your WISE Move...
if you can imagine it, this masterpiece was SO human and "dangerous" that some idiots in the censorship department in bulgaria deided to cut off som of the last pages of the work- too much intrusive for the stupid bulgarians.
and only recently was this "feature" discovered.
human, only all too human...
Now, Make Your WISE Move...
format it in arial or the other tricky font used in corp sites like , urgh, MS's - sorry.
no better example.
in the cheaper life-stages in the east (the Balkans, anyone?) we devote quite more resource of our lives in reading it this way. it IS a kinda committment- i don't have a good monitor, nor will i ever do, but i will read THAT BIG PILE of quiality SF, rus and english, both. it IS worth the effort, for humans we are, too..
Now, Make Your WISE Move...
What I translated as Lame Fortune is A Lame Fate. The inner story of this novel, The Ugly Swans, has been translated to English, accordingly to this bibliography.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.