
Chernobyl's Literary Legacy - lermontov
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/chernobyls-literary-legacy/479769/?single_page=true
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ttctciyf
Since it was written in 1971, well before the Chernobyl disaster, it's not
surprising that the Strugatsky brothers' _Roadside Picnic_ doesn't appear in
the article. The book's theme and narrative are so redolent of Chernobyl,
however - telling about perilous journeys into the Zone, an area infested with
inexplicable, often invisible, and frequently deadly remnants of some alien
Visitation - that the comparison is almost irresistible. Some of the
caretakers of Chernobyl call themselves "Stalkers"[1] after the book's name
for those venturing into the Zone (and also the name of Tarkovsky's film
adapting the novel) for example.

With this in mind, if you've read _Roadside Picnic_ it's hard not to see a
reference to it in the article's closing words:

 _For 30 years, authors have heaved their imaginations into the Zone, trying
to crack the riddle of the sarcophagus—how to make sense of Chernobyl? Their
imperfect answers keep the question alive._

1:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%281979_film%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%281979_film%29)

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hga
Ah, that's why the games based in the exclusion zone are named S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
[something]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Cher...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl)

Ah, it's explicit in a paragraph in the intro which I had not previously
noted:

 _The background and some terminology of the game ( "The Zone", "Stalker") are
borrowed from the popular science fiction novella Roadside Picnic by Boris and
Arkady Strugatsky and the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker that was loosely
based on it, as well as Stalker, the film's subsequent novelization by the
original authors. The term "Stalkers" was later used for the scientists and
engineers who explored the interior of Chernobyl's "sarcophagus" after its
hasty construction in 1986. In addition, 'The Zone' is also a term used to
refer to the 30 kilometer Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, established after the
accident._

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camperman
I cannot recommend Roadside Picnic highly enough. Possibly one of the greatest
science fiction novellas ever written.

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hga
Do you have an English translation to recommend? Sounds like I should check it
out.

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camperman
This is the best one:

[http://soviethistory.msu.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/picn...](http://soviethistory.msu.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/picnic.pdf)

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hga
Thanks!

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camperman
Hope you enjoyed it :)

