Let's talk about one of the most famous Russian science fiction novels of the XX century. By the way, he gained special fame thanks to the film "Stalker" by Andrei Tarkovsky. And later, the novel's popularity was increased by a series of books and games that were published in the early 2000s and dedicated to the adventures of stalkers.
The article will summarize. “Picnic on the sidelines” - this is the name of the work that we retell and analyze.
The authors
The creators of the amazing and attractive world of the novel were Soviet science fiction brothers Strugatsky. The “Roadside Picnic”, a brief summary of which will be presented later, is a science fiction novel written by them in 1972. In addition to fame at home, it received wide publicity abroad - this novel ranks first among the Strugatsky’s works, in terms of the number of translations to other languages.
The novel was first published in 1972 on the pages of Aurora magazine. However, for a long time, writers in the Soviet Union did not succeed in releasing the work in its final form, like a whole book. It was only in 1980 that it was printed, and that with big corrections.
Introducing the Visiting Area
"Picnic on the sidelines", a summary of which we will discuss in the article, tells about the events that unfold at the end of the 20th century. The scene is the town of Harmont, located next to the Visitation Zone. This is the name of the place on Earth where, shortly before the described story, several alien ships landed. They did not stay on Earth for long, but left behind a lot of things incomprehensible to humans. There are a total of six Zones.
The territory visited by aliens was fenced, and entry to it was allowed only for employees of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures. But there are those who illegally enter the Zone to get various alien objects and sell them. Such people are called stalkers.
Scientists have proposed several hypotheses for the origin of the Zones: extraterrestrial intelligence placed samples of its culture on Earth; aliens settled on the territory of the Zones, from where they study people; or maybe the aliens simply stopped to rest on the way to another goal, as people stop for a picnic, and what is left of them is equivalent to human wrappers from sweets, traces of a fireplace, tin cans, gas stains, etc.
The main character
Let’s try to put the voluminous work into a summary. The “Roadside Picnic” describes the lives of Redrick Schuhart, a former stalker, now an employee of the Institute for Extraterrestrial Cultures. He holds the position of laboratory assistant, helping the Russian scientist Kirill Panov, who explores one of the types of artifacts of the Zone - the so-called dummies. "Dummy" - two discs of copper, the size of a tea saucer, between them constantly keeps the same distance of 40 centimeters. It is impossible to squeeze them or spread them to a greater distance.
Zone
Red has a good relationship with Cyril, and he offers the scientist to go to the Zone together to get a “dummy” that has something blue inside. Red saw her during previous outings. Having dressed in special suits, the researchers go to the Zone.
During the study, Cyril accidentally touches some silver cobweb. The scientist himself does not notice this, but Red begins to worry. However, the expedition ended successfully, and the scientists returned from the Zone intact. True, after a few hours, the scientist dies due to a heart attack.
Red blames himself for the death of a colleague. He, an experienced stalker, did not finish! He knew that in the Zone there can be no trifles - every trifle can have serious consequences.
Back to the stalkers
The Zone World is the most popular of all that the Strugatsky brothers created. The “Roadside Picnic”, the brief content of which we are considering, takes the reader into a gloomy, incomprehensible and deadly reality. And the life of the protagonist is not distinguished by joy and carelessness.
Cherz several years after the death of Cyril Redrick leaves the Institute, returning to the profession of stalker. Red has a wife, Guta, and they have a daughter, Maria, whom they call the Monkey. It has long been noticed that the children of stalkers are slightly different from other people. Maria is no exception - her face and body are covered with hair. Otherwise, she is an ordinary child.
About the new adventures of Red in the Zone, only a brief summary can tell. A Roadside Picnic, whose author spares no paints, describes a raid into the Redrick Zone with Vulture Barbridge. He became famous for cruelty to other stalkers. However, this time the life of Barbridge himself was in danger - he stepped into the “witch’s jelly”, and now below his knees his legs became like rubber. The vulture asks him to help, in return promising to help Rad find the Golden Ball.
The Golden Ball is a mythical artifact that is credited with the power to fulfill wishes. Barbridge claims to have found him, and even the artifact fulfilled his desire. Redrick did not take his word seriously, but helps a friend.
On the same day, Red goes with booty to the artifact buyer, where he is arrested and imprisoned.
Return from prison
Of course, all the nuances of the unfolding events will not be able to convey a brief summary. “A picnic on the sidelines” is a novel whose plot is developing rapidly. So, Red, having sat his term, returns home. Here he learns unpleasant news - his daughter has changed so much that doctors doubt whether she is a man. In addition to changes in appearance, she ceased to understand human speech.
Red decides to go to the Zone in search of the Golden Ball. However, the Vulture warned him that serious trials were possible on the way. The worst of them is the "meat grinder." In order to go through it, you will need to sacrifice another person. Red elects the victims of the son of Burbridge Arthur. Stalkers overcome all the traps and Red’s companion, rushing forward with a cry: “Happiness for all!”, Perishes in a “meat grinder”.
A wish
That’s the end of the novel "Roadside Picnic", a summary of which you are reading. Red looks at the Golden Ball and realizes that he, in fact, does not know what to ask for, except for the health of his daughter. All his life he was engaged in going to the Zone to feed his family. He simply does not know anything else. And then it becomes clear to him that Arthur was right, so unlike his father, and that he could not come up with a better desire: “Happiness is for everyone! For free! "
Analysis
Unfortunately, it cannot contain the depth and duality of everything that the Strugatsky describe, a brief retelling.
“A picnic on the sidelines,” according to critics, fits two definitions. Some believe that this is a science fiction novel, while others claim that it is social science fiction. The latter give such arguments - in the work there are no scientific descriptions of the artifacts of the Zone, the origin and purpose of the aliens are incomprehensible and there is no scientific justification for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Instead, the work abounds with descriptions of everyday scenes, which does not convey a brief summary. "Picnic on the sidelines" affects social issues to a greater extent, telling about the difficult life and the fate of an ordinary guy in an unusual situation. The reader reveals the complex inner world of a person who paid a huge price, but for what? Therefore, the end of the novel cannot be considered unambiguous, and everyone will understand it in their own way.