The Ugly Swans
Encyclopedia
The Ugly Swans is a science fiction
novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
. In the USSR, it was published in 1987, in the Latvia
n magazine "Daugava", with the title "The Time of Rains" . Later it was included as a story within a story
in Strugatsky's "Crooked Destiny", where the protagonist, Felix Sorokin, secretly works on the novel.
Initially, the novel was written in 1966-1967 to be published in the Soviet literary magazine "Molodaya Gvardiya", but the publication was rejected by censor due to prominent political and free-thought overtones in the novel. It circulated in samizdat
, and in 1972 was published without the authors' permission abroad, in the Federal Republic of Germany
.
In 2006, a loose film adaptation
of the novel was made by Konstantin Lopushansky
.
Banev finds himself in the middle of strange events linked to slimies or four-eyes - strange leper people suffering from disfiguring "yellow leprosy" manifesting itself as yellow circles around the eyes. These slimies live in a former leper colony. The town's adult population is terrified by their existence, considering them to be the cause of all the bad and odd things in the town. Nevertheless, the town's teenagers simply adore slimies, that including Banev's daughter Irma. A boy named Bol-Kunats, Irma's friend, invites the writer to a meeting with the town scool's students. Banev is deeply shocked by teenagers' high intelligence and disullusioned point of view. They appear as superhuman geniuses despising the dirty and corrupt human world and having no pity for the adults.
Banev makes acquaintance with Diana, and discusses slimies in dinner conversations with the chief doctor of the leprosarium Yul Golem, a drunken artist Ram Quadriga and sanitary inspector Favor Summan. Banev dislikes the mayor, a patron of local fascist thugs, and also the military who guard the slimies. Golem mentions that the genetic disease of slimies represents the future of humanity, a new genetic type of people, intellectually and morally superior to ordinary people.
Events begin to unfold dramatically. Banev discovers that Favor Summan works for counterintelligence, and, learning he's guilty of kidnapping and killing of a slimy, notifies the military out of spite. The town's children leave their parents' homes and move into the leper colony. Adults of the town are gripped with a sudden overpowering feeling of terror, and exodus begins. As soon as all the residents have left town, the rain stops. Golem leaves the last. Banev and Diana enter the city, now disappearing under the rays of Sun. They see Irma and Bol-Kunats all grown up in a day and happy, and Banev's saying to himself: "All this is nice and fine, but I mustn't forget to return."
and Roadside Picnic
(a non-standard alien invasion), and The Time Wanderers
(the birth of Übermensch
).
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are Soviet Jewish-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction.-Life and work:...
. In the USSR, it was published in 1987, in the Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n magazine "Daugava", with the title "The Time of Rains" . Later it was included as a story within a story
Story within a story
A story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...
in Strugatsky's "Crooked Destiny", where the protagonist, Felix Sorokin, secretly works on the novel.
Initially, the novel was written in 1966-1967 to be published in the Soviet literary magazine "Molodaya Gvardiya", but the publication was rejected by censor due to prominent political and free-thought overtones in the novel. It circulated in samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
, and in 1972 was published without the authors' permission abroad, in the Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
In 2006, a loose film adaptation
The Ugly Swans (film)
The Ugly Swans is a 2006 Russian science fiction film directed by Konstantin Lopushansky, based on the novel of the same name by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The film is often compared to Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, also adapted from a Strugatsky book....
of the novel was made by Konstantin Lopushansky
Konstantin Lopushansky
Konstantin Sergeyevich Lopushansky is a Soviet and Russian film director, film theorist and author. He is perhaps best known for his post-apocalyptic film Pisma Myortvogo Cheloveka aka Dead Man's Letters ....
.
Plot summary
The action takes place in an uncertain mildly-autoritarian country, in an unnamed town. Famous writer Victor Banev, a middle-aged heavy drinker, comes from the capital city to the town of his childhood where the rain never stops.Banev finds himself in the middle of strange events linked to slimies or four-eyes - strange leper people suffering from disfiguring "yellow leprosy" manifesting itself as yellow circles around the eyes. These slimies live in a former leper colony. The town's adult population is terrified by their existence, considering them to be the cause of all the bad and odd things in the town. Nevertheless, the town's teenagers simply adore slimies, that including Banev's daughter Irma. A boy named Bol-Kunats, Irma's friend, invites the writer to a meeting with the town scool's students. Banev is deeply shocked by teenagers' high intelligence and disullusioned point of view. They appear as superhuman geniuses despising the dirty and corrupt human world and having no pity for the adults.
Banev makes acquaintance with Diana, and discusses slimies in dinner conversations with the chief doctor of the leprosarium Yul Golem, a drunken artist Ram Quadriga and sanitary inspector Favor Summan. Banev dislikes the mayor, a patron of local fascist thugs, and also the military who guard the slimies. Golem mentions that the genetic disease of slimies represents the future of humanity, a new genetic type of people, intellectually and morally superior to ordinary people.
Events begin to unfold dramatically. Banev discovers that Favor Summan works for counterintelligence, and, learning he's guilty of kidnapping and killing of a slimy, notifies the military out of spite. The town's children leave their parents' homes and move into the leper colony. Adults of the town are gripped with a sudden overpowering feeling of terror, and exodus begins. As soon as all the residents have left town, the rain stops. Golem leaves the last. Banev and Diana enter the city, now disappearing under the rays of Sun. They see Irma and Bol-Kunats all grown up in a day and happy, and Banev's saying to himself: "All this is nice and fine, but I mustn't forget to return."
Shared Ideas
The novel shares some ideas with later works like The Second Invasion from MarsThe Second Invasion from Mars
The Second Invasion from Mars , subtitled Diary of a Sane [Person] , is a relatively short 1968 science fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky that portrays two weeks from the life of a common person in highly unusual circumstances...
and Roadside Picnic
Roadside Picnic
Roadside Picnic is a short science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky between January 18 and November 3 of 1971. As of 1998, 38 editions of the novel were published in 20 countries. The novel was first translated to English by Antonina W. Bouis...
(a non-standard alien invasion), and The Time Wanderers
The Time Wanderers
The Time Wanderers is a 1985 science fiction novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, set in the Noon Universe...
(the birth of Übermensch
Übermensch
The Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
).
Interesting facts
- The prototype of Victor Banev is, according to Boris Strugatsky, "a generalized image of the BardBardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
." Among those included in this image, Strugatsky named Alexander GalichAlexander GalichAlexander Galich , was a Russian poet, screenwriter, playwright, and singer-songwriter. Galich is a pen name, a sort of acronym of his last name, first name, and patronymic: Ginzburg Alexander Arkadievich. He adopted this name to conceal his Jewish ancestry in the face of antisemitism in the Soviet...
, Yuliy KimYuliy KimYuliy Chersanovich Kim is one of Russia's foremost bards and playwrights. His most famous works, encompassing everything from mild humor to biting political satire, include songs for movies such as Bumbarash, The Twelve Chairs, and An Ordinary Miracle, as well as the songs "The Brave Captain,"...
, Bulat OkudzhavaBulat OkudzhavaBulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author song"...
and Vladimir VysotskyVladimir VysotskyVladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had an immense and enduring effect on Russian culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street...
. With the permission of Vladimir Vysotsky, a slightly modified version of his song "I'm fed up to the neck, chin up .... " is used in the story.
- Boris Strugatsky explained that the original story ended with the Golem's words, "... poor beautiful duckling", and that the ending with a happy ending, writers came up with later, while trying to prepare the story for publication.
- In an off-line interview, Boris Strugatsky confirmed that slimies came from the future. But this future is a terrible thing and they returned to the past, trying to change it. The success of the operation changed the future and destroyed slimies.
- The names of many characters in the story are borrowed from the classical mythologies and reflect the essence of their carriers. For example:
-
- Favor Summan, "medical officer", but actually a counter-intelligence officer
- FavorPhobos (mythology)Phobos is the personification of horror in Greek mythology. He is the offspring of Ares and Aphrodite. He was known for accompanying Ares into battle along with his brother, Deimos, the goddess Enyo, and his father’s attendants. Timor is his Roman equivalent...
- Greek god of fear, moon god of war MarsMars (mythology)Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
; SummanSummanusIn ancient Roman religion, Summanus was the god of nocturnal thunder, as counterposed to Jupiter, the god of diurnal thunder. His precise nature was unclear even to Ovid....
- Roman god of nocturnal lightning.
-
- Flamen Juventa, the nephew of the chief of police, "a member of the Legion of liberty", "the young Goliath in a sports jacket, sparkling with numerous logos, our simple home SturmführerSturmführerSturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party which began as a title used by the Sturmabteilung in 1925 and became an actual SA rank in 1928...
, faithful to support the nation with a rubber truncheon in his back pocket, storm Left, right and moderates - FlamenFlamenIn ancient Roman religion, a flamen was a priest assigned to one of fifteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important three were the flamines maiores , who served the three chief Roman gods of the Archaic Triad. The remaining twelve were the flamines minores...
- priests in ancient Rome. Juventas - the Roman goddess of youth.
- Flamen Juventa, the nephew of the chief of police, "a member of the Legion of liberty", "the young Goliath in a sports jacket, sparkling with numerous logos, our simple home Sturmführer
-
- Yule Golem - head doctor leprosarium, playing the role of mediator between slimies and the outside world
- GolemGolemIn Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
- from Jewish mythologyJewish mythologyJewish mythology is generally the sacred and traditional narratives that help explain and symbolize the Jewish religion, whereas Jewish folklore consists of the folk tales and legends that existed in the general Jewish culture. There is very little early folklore distinct from the aggadah literature...
, artificial person, created out of clay and execute the instructions of its creator.
English releases
- Arkadii Natanovich Strugatskii, The Ugly Swans translated by Alice Stone Nakhimovsky and Alexander Nakhimovsky, New York: MacMillan, ISBN 0026151901
- Arkady Strugatsky, The Ugly Swans, New York: Collier Books, 1980, 234pp, ISBN 0020072406