![]() ![]() On the whole, I read the book's philosophy to be one of cosmic indifferentism verging on existentialism. Surprisingly, it was a blinkered escapist editorial aesthetic that interfered with the Strugatskys' work in the publishing environment of 1970s Soviet sf. LeGuin in her 2012 foreword (drawing on a 1977 review) calls the story "indifferent to ideology" (vi), and it is in fact rather hostile to liberal economics and bourgeois morality. It wasn't Soviet political ideology they ran afoul of. ![]() An afterword by Boris Strugatsky provides a partial account of the authors' struggle with publishing authorities. The version I read was the 2012 "new translation" which freed the original Russian text from hostile Soviet publisher's edits. It was clearly an influence on some of my favorite 21st-century sf, notably VanderMeer's Annihilation and Harrison's Nova Swing. I had encountered enough references to Roadside Picnic for it to have been on my wishlist for years. ![]()
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