Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picninc

Roadside Picninc av Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Jag fick inspiration att läsa denna boken efter att ha sett filmen Stalker  i regi av Andrei Tarkovsky från 1979. Det var under ett "virtual fika" då en av mina kollegor hade en bild ur filmen som bakgrund på Teams-mötet som vi kom i diskussion om filmen. Efter att ha sett filmen, vilken är en lite "alternativ" skapelse så bestämde jag mig för att utforska bakgrunden till den genom att läsa boken. Som vanligt - boken är bättre.

Boken (och filmen) handlar om en så kallad stalker - en person som trots att det är förbjudet och förenat med livsfara, återkommande besöker zonen. Zonen är ett område där utomjordiska besökare stannade till på sin resa genom universum. De verkar ha varit helt ointresserade av jorden och använde vår planet enbart som en rastplats. De städade dock inte upp efter sig och mycket av deras skräp blir extremt värdefullt för innevånarna på jorden. Boken handlar om hur vår stalker, Red Schuhart, gör en sista vända till zonen för att ge sin dotter (som pga Reds besök till zonen är "muterad") en chans till en framtid.

Citat när de är på väg in till zonen:
Yeah, it looks like nothing happened here. That glass kiosk over there doesn't have a single scratch on it. And look at that stroller near the gates - even the linen in it looks clean. Only the TV antennas give the place away - they're overgrown with wispy hairs. Our eggheads have long been hankering after these antennas: they'd like to know, you see, what this hair is - we don't have it anywhere else, only in the Plague Quarter and olny on the antennas. But most important, it's right here, beneath our very own windows. Last year, they got an idea, lowered an anchor from a helicopter, and hooked a clump of hair. They gave it a pull - suddenly a psssst! We looked down and saw that the antenna was smoking, the anchor was smkoing, even the cable itself was smoking, and not just smoking but hissing poisonously, like a rattlesnake. Well, the pilot, never mind that he was a lieutenant, quickly figured out what's what, dumped the cable, and hightailed it out of there. There it is, their cable, hanging down almost to the ground and covered with hair...

Citat när man diskuterar utomjordingarnas besök:
"Listen Valentine," said Noonan, cutting a piece of meat and dipping it in the sauce. "How do you think it's all going to end?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The Visit. Zones, stalkers, military-industrial complexes - the whole stingking mess. How could it all end?"
For a long time, Valentine stared at him through his opaque black lenses. Then he lit up a cigarette and said, "For whom? Be more specific."
"Well, say, for humanity as a whole."
"That depends on your luck," said Valentine. "We now know that for humanity as a whole, the Visit has largely passed without a trace. For humanity everything passes without a trace. Of course, it's possible that by randomly pulling chestnuts out of this fire, we'll eventually stumble on something that will make life on earth completely unbearable. That would be bad luck. But you have to admit, that's a danger humanity has always faced." He waved away the cigarette smoke and smiled wryly. "You see, I've long since become unused to discussing humanity as a whole. Humanity as a whole is too stable a system, nothing upsets it."