1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811405803321

Autore

Reese Kevin

Titolo

Celestial Hellscapes : Cosmology as the Key to the Strugatskiis' Science Fictions / / Kevin Reese

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston, MA : , : Academic Studies Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

1-61811-980-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (278 pages)

Collana

Real Twentieth Century

Disciplina

891.7344

Soggetti

Science fiction, Russian - Soviet Union - History and criticism

Cosmology in literature

Astronomy in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- A Note on the Names of Our "Author" -- The Strugatskiis' Pushkinian Cosmology -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. A Biography through Astronomy -- Chapter 2. Minor Planets: The Strugatskiis' Earlier Experiments in Cosmology -- Chapter 3. The Hell of the Ignorant: The Second Martian Invasion -- Chapter 4. Poincaré's Starless Hell: The Inhabited Island -- Chapter 5. Exceptions to the Laws of Thermodynamics: Roadside Picnic -- Chapter 6. "Long live darkness!": A Billion Years until the End of the World -- Chapter 7. The Island Universe and the Copper Doorknob: The Doomed City -- Chapter 8. Chronic Bewilderment and Astronomical "Fact": Those Burdened by Evil -- Coda. "Day and night my Man in Black gives me no peace...": The Yids of the City of Peter -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Appendix: The Altitude of Vega -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Neither Arkadii nor Boris Strugatskii had originally intended to make a living in writing. Arkadii dreamed of becoming an astronomer, but his wartime experience and training led him to work as a translator and editor of Japanese literature. Boris intended to become a physicist, trained as an astronomer, and ended up as a computer specialist at Pulkovo Observatory. This common thread of astronomy turns out to be fantastically important for understanding their works, as their most



important ones are experiments in cosmology, and their shared expertise is instrumental in their construction of literary hellscapes. This book explores how the Strugatskiis' cosmological explorations are among the most fundamental elements of their art. It examines also how these explorations connect to their predecessors in the Russian literary tradition-particularly to the poetry of Pushkin.