Rhinoplasty, Stalker.

[Judy]

Thanks for  mentioning "Roadside Picnic". I've read it twice this weekend
and have been completely captivated by it. After the first read it was
impossible to pick anything else up; I had to start into it again right
away. I'm still trying to figure out what it has touched in me. Too bad it's
out of print.
-Judy

From: Otto Sell <o.sell at telda.net>
To: Ralph Blunsom <quino.phec at btinternet.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: Rhinoplasty, Stalker.


> > Also, this may well have been recommended before (perhaps by Romeo),
> > but do try and watch Tarkovsky's S t a l k e r if you can -- lots of
Zone
> > craziness and any number of other Pynchon references for those seeking
> > them (and what happens where nothing is connected to Pynchon, surely a
> > condition some of us couldn't bear for long?!). A taster from the movie:
> >
> >"Well naturally they started to guard the Zone like a treasure, for who
> >knows what desires a person might have?"
> >
> >The movie is dancing around the schedules on FilmFour currently, for
> >anyone with access.
> >
> >--
> >You can't have one without the zero.
>
> "Stalker" is made after the novel "Roadside Picnic" (1972), a wonderful
> black fairytale by the Russian Brothers Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki with
> lots of zeros (even empty ones!) and I agree with you that there are some
> "references" to the Strugatzkis in Pynchon, not vice versa, as you might
> think when you see only Tarkovsky's movie which is mainly made of the
fourth
> chapter of the novel. In an interview Arkadi Strugatzki called the movie
> most of all the work of the director. From the original book only remained
> the termini "Stalker" and the "zone" as the mystic place where requests
are
> fulfilled.
>
> One of their early novels is "The Far Rainbow" (1964) which deals with the
> responsibility of mankind for the technology, uses children as metaphor
for
> the future, which is the fairytale we all hope that it will have a happy
> ending (as fairytales use to have).
>
> Their importance on the Russian literature and society should not be
> underestimated.
> http://www-win.rusf.ru/abs/english/e-books.htm
> - here you can download some of their novels in English, including
"Roadside
> Picnic" for free.
>
> "Roadside Picnic" is definitely one of the five books I'd take with me to
> the proverbial island.
>
> ...'HAPPINESS  FOR  EVERYBODY,
> FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!' "
>
> Otto
>
>
>