Aliens shade boring and uncivil humans
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| English edition. |
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
This is a very interesting book and hard to rate.
The premise: so very good. A no subtle punch to the “man as
the center of the universe” and our intelligent self-image, very refreshing.
There is a conversation in the middle (a scientist and some normal guy) that
lifted hugely my perception of the book, it wasn´t great till that point. I
suppose the execution of that nice premise wasn’t as good for me.
The atmosphere: great. It is a classic and they manage to
get an earie and mysterious atmosphere that leads to… almost nothing. It is
like those scary movies with strange noises, dark spaces, tension and tension
and little more (event wise). At least, it didn’t cut it for me.
The characters: oh, boy. I appreciate the not-a-hero, normal
and morally ambiguous kind of guy or the bleak cynical tortured soul, but most
of times it ended being the hard – cool – though guy stereotype. It seemed
forced. Like he loved hugely her daughter, no doubt, but calling her The
Monkey… considering the girl was a mutant covered in fur… maybe it is a cool
cynical thing that I don’t get. It seemed more a loosely fleshed vehicle for
the plot, our cardboard guide to the zone. Women were objects to take to a
picnic, no news there.
The system: critical. Very realist setting, with an absurd
(tragically funny, like the religious guy) and catastrophic way of living. No
future and barely holding.
The climax: very powerful. Without spoilers but… huh? It seems off
or I have prejudice maybe. I get that there is no future and the system tricks
you badly, but when you choose to endanger or hurt those equally desperate
people around you and transferring all the guilt away of you to the system, it
doesn’t hold. I live in a place where drug trade is rampant, a lot of people have
few choices and the system is at fault. But when you justify danger and
violence with that, is too convenient.
You see? I am very divided.
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