Miscellaneous: Chernobyl and SF, an Exhibition and the Genre Jungle
MISCELLANEOUS
By Péter MARTON
** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. **
Another major work I would highlight here is Hungarian artist István Orosz's "anamorphosis" of Jules Verne and a scene from The Mysterious Island. Behold (from here). Don't miss how Verne's portrait appears as a reflection on top.
3. The Genre Jungle
I read all kinds of stuff, not just SF, and recently I once again found myself pondering where the boundaries of this project (European SF) lay.
After all: the fantastic, the grotesque, the absurd and the surreal (as the means) can all serve the ways of magical realism, surrealism, fantasy and science fiction, while the latter can all serve the ends of expressing something meaningful about the conditions we find ourselves in, how societies are organised, how they may be organised, and what the future may look like if we extrapolate from a trend or a process we observe.
Two works in particular that made me think in this direction were "Nothing New" (Nincs semmi újság), a "one-minute" (egyperces) short by Hungarian writer István Örkény (available here) and "Miracle" (Cud), a novel by Polish writer Ignacy Karpowicz. Both feature undead or semi-undead characters but certainly not for the purposes of some cheap thrills and entertainment. Örkény uses the spontaneous resurrection of a young bride deceased in 1848 (when big things were afoot in Hungarian history) to offer sarcastic commentary on how people cannot really relate to their own lives as high drama and how Eastern European history taught them a lot of skepticism, mostly. Karpowicz's novel has similarities to this but uses the extraordinary with the aim to show how some people are just dead inside and that it may take the extraordinary to truly awaken them. Similarly absurdist as Örkény in many of its moments, but in comparison to Örkény it still comes off as comparatively optimistic I guess...
Well, that's it for today. More to come soon, including French and Russian SF.
By Péter MARTON
This is a post devoted to a couple of only loosely related subjects, to bring you some news.
1. Chernobyl in SF
The HBO series (directed by Craig Mazin) was absolutely amazing, down to the collection of Soviet-era ashtrays used in different scenes. Russia's Ministry of Culture sponsoring a counter-series to air on Gazprom-owned NTV, with a trouble-making and (of course) entirely fictive CIA agent at the centre of its plot, is probably the best compliment it can get besides its current IMDB score of 9.6.
If you're interested in reading about Chernobyl from SF authors, there is of course Frederik Pohl's Chernobyl novel, a piece of non-fiction. For fiction, check out "Cap Tchernobyl" (Direction: Chernobyl) by Sylvie Denis, a short story in French from 1997, with intelligent robots conspiring to come together near deserted Chernobyl to make decisions for themselves and a broken human family travelling east to meet tigers in Siberia. A very moody piece where the finale and its promise of a new beginning between robots and humans feels right even if you know that radiation doesn't spare robots, either, depending on the dose they get.
2. The Night of Museums
Just yesterday we went to visit the Moon Museum here in Hungary on the occasion of the Night of Museums. The Moon Museum collects art related to space exploration and research, with special regard to lunar exploration and Hungarian-French Victor Vasarely's op art (besides much else).
A screening of SF-themed animated short films was also held and we saw "A flying craft's launching in 2895 in New York City", directed by Sándor Reisenbüchler (1981), and "Fly Me to the Moon", directed by Miklós Felvidéki (2014), among others. The former was brilliant, with its ironic take on how Jules Verne and many in his era saw the future. The latter -- Fly Me to the Moon -- is a subtle little piece about our intimate/internal lives and the Big Wide Out There of space. You can watch it below (from the director's YouTube channel).
Another major work I would highlight here is Hungarian artist István Orosz's "anamorphosis" of Jules Verne and a scene from The Mysterious Island. Behold (from here). Don't miss how Verne's portrait appears as a reflection on top.
3. The Genre Jungle
I read all kinds of stuff, not just SF, and recently I once again found myself pondering where the boundaries of this project (European SF) lay.
After all: the fantastic, the grotesque, the absurd and the surreal (as the means) can all serve the ways of magical realism, surrealism, fantasy and science fiction, while the latter can all serve the ends of expressing something meaningful about the conditions we find ourselves in, how societies are organised, how they may be organised, and what the future may look like if we extrapolate from a trend or a process we observe.
Two works in particular that made me think in this direction were "Nothing New" (Nincs semmi újság), a "one-minute" (egyperces) short by Hungarian writer István Örkény (available here) and "Miracle" (Cud), a novel by Polish writer Ignacy Karpowicz. Both feature undead or semi-undead characters but certainly not for the purposes of some cheap thrills and entertainment. Örkény uses the spontaneous resurrection of a young bride deceased in 1848 (when big things were afoot in Hungarian history) to offer sarcastic commentary on how people cannot really relate to their own lives as high drama and how Eastern European history taught them a lot of skepticism, mostly. Karpowicz's novel has similarities to this but uses the extraordinary with the aim to show how some people are just dead inside and that it may take the extraordinary to truly awaken them. Similarly absurdist as Örkény in many of its moments, but in comparison to Örkény it still comes off as comparatively optimistic I guess...
Well, that's it for today. More to come soon, including French and Russian SF.
Comments
Post a Comment