TY - JOUR
AU - 
AB - <jats:p>Largely and undeservedly ignored in the West, the SF of the Strugatsky brothers deals admirably with the theme of “otherness” as a potentially positive force in human affairs. The “other” serves—miraculously—in such works as Hard to be a God (1963), The Ugly Swans (1967; pub. 1972), and Roadside Picnic (1972) for exploring the problematics of human self-determination.</jats:p>
               <jats:p>Those problematics in God emerge out of the confrontation between two beings who are, by origin, literally worlds apart: the denizens of the medieval land of Arkanar and visitors from Earth of the future, from a vaguely utopian USSR. The spatio-temporal organization of the book makes the point of view of Anton (who during his stay in Arkanar goes under the name of Don Rumata) privileged. Coming from an advanced world, he should have a rational explanation for what he witnesses during his sojourn. Yet while relatively godlike in respect to his understanding of what is happening in Arkanar, Anton (as his exchanges with Budach and Arata make clear) is frustratedly powerless to control the course of history.</jats:p>
               <jats:p>The place in God which could be the source of a miraculous transformation is Arkanar’s Hiccup Forest. The Strugatskys, however, do not in this early work of theirs exploit its possibilities. The same cannot be said of the leprosarium in Swans or the Zone in Picnic. Both are the locus of an ambiguous miracle which might alter the world in the direction of human freedom and happiness. Both, that is, may offer a way out of a conflict-ridden world which in Picnic and in Swans is otherwise as suffocating to human aspirations as Arkanar is.</jats:p>
               <jats:p>Whether or not there is a way out is a question which the Strugatskys leave tantalizingly open. In the process, however, they put our existence under a magnifying glass, estranging the familiar so as to enable us to discern what we had not hitherto seen. (RMP)</jats:p>
TI - The Ambiguous Miracle in Three Novels By the Strugatsky Brothers
JF - Science Fiction Studies
DO - 10.1525/sfs.11.3.0291
DA - 1984-11-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/crossref/the-ambiguous-miracle-in-three-novels-by-the-strugatsky-brothers-pVEEr0GMB6
SP - 291
EP - 303
VL - 11
IS - Part 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -