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The common thread of astronomy is fantastically important for understanding the Strugatskiis¿ works¿their most important works are experiments in cosmology. This book explores how the Strugatskiis cosmological explorations are among the most fundamental elements of their art. It also examines how these explorations connect to their predecessors in the Russian literary tradition.
List of contents
A note on the names of our ¿author¿
The Strugatskiis¿ Pushkinian Cosmology
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 InvasionChapter 4: Poincaré¿s Starless Hell:
The Inhabited IslandChapter 5: Exceptions to the Laws of Thermodynamics:
Roadside PicnicChapter 6: ¿Long live darkness!¿:
A Billion Years Until the End of the WorldChapter 7: The Island Universe and the Copper Doorknob:
The Doomed CityChapter 8: Chronic Bewilderment and Astronomical ¿Fact¿:
Those Burdened by EvilCoda: ¿Day and night my Man in Black gives me no peace¿¿:
The Yids of the City of PeterAfterword
Bibliography
Appendix I: The Altitude of Vega
About the author
Kevin Reese has been studying the Strugatskii brothers for twenty years. At UNC, he developed a course on Soviet science fiction centered around their works. Currently, he is translating the Strugatskiis¿ final works¿their novel Those Burdened by Evil and their play The Yids of the City of Peter.
Summary
Explores how Arkadi and Boris Strugatskii’s cosmological explorations are among the most fundamental elements of their art. The book also examines how these explorations connect to their predecessors in the Russian literary tradition - particularly to the poetry of Pushkin.
Additional text
“This book is a first-rate contribution to scholarship on the Strugatskys. The brotherly duo of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky combine the best of the sciences and the humanities—what the late Soviet intelligentsia called ‘physicist’ and ‘lyricist.’ As a literary scholar and an amateur astronomer, Kevin Reese is well-positioned to explore their universes. … Reese has written an intelligent and enjoyable study that will speak to scholars, students, and fans of the worlds of the Strugatsky brothers.” —Sofya Khagi, University of Michigan, Russian Review
