The forbidden continent

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The forbidden continent is a 1983 published post-apocalyptic science fiction - novel by Georg Zauner . It was Zauners second novel after the Kurd Lasswitz Prize winning The grandson of rocket builders .

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The novel is set in a future in which Western civilization has perished due to an unspecified catastrophe. Europe is considered uninhabited and it is assumed that large areas are radioactively contaminated. The sea level has risen significantly and much of the former coastal areas are under the sea. In Africa and America ( Blackamerica ) new civilizations created by black people have emerged. The whites have disappeared and become legendary demons, still the subject of superstitious fear that has carried over to the Europe they once inhabited.

After all, there is the Omaburu research station, which is located in the area of ​​the former Piacenza on the coast of the now flooded Po plain . From there, solar planes are used to make reconnaissance flights over the Alps in order to identify any dangers emanating from the depopulated areas at an early stage and, in particular, to monitor the slow spread of a mysterious "yellow spot" that is in the foothills of the Alps near the river WO- 5s, i.e. the fifth tributary from the south into the "Great West-East River" (the former Danube). When the scientist Ossaman and the pilot Wakaale have to make an emergency landing near the “Yellow Spot” on one of these exploratory flights, they consider their fate to be sealed and for fear of contamination and other dangers initially hardly venture out of the plane wreck. But soon they become more courageous and explore the area. To their astonishment, the jungle is not uninhabited, and not only that, the inhabitants are completely white-skinned and apparently descendants of the "white demons" from the past.

The two stranded people are taken into the village of the white forest people and now begin to research the manners, customs and language of the savages. Customs include consuming a hallucinogenic yellow mushroom called Biir, which they meet at a festival. They suspect that this fungus is the cause of the “yellow spot” and that it slowly overgrows all other vegetation and causes it to die off, spreading like a witch's ring . These assumptions are confirmed when they find two women in a tower-like building near the "Yellow Spot" who are busy preparing the beer. The older one seems to be a kind of sorceress or seer, the younger one, Moi-ka, has long, light hair and appears perverse to the two researchers.

The novel reflects the point of view of travel reports and ethnographic literature on "primitive" cultures, which is characterized by unconscious prejudices, incomprehension, erotic fascination for the "exotic" and a thoroughly experimental interest in the hallucinogenic drugs used by foreign cultures easily converted into visions of colonialist exploitation:

"BIIR, that was the one with which one could make many people happy - here it grew in large quantities and was just waiting to make its way into the whole world as a gift from the" forbidden continent "whose nature had produced this miracle. Why shouldn't he and Ossaman, along with the two wise women, do the preparation of BIIR on a grand scale? - They would make larger and larger quantities available to mankind, flying machines would land and take off non-stop. A new time would dawn for the natives as well, a time of prosperity - they would be able to help with the harvest of the mushroom, with building access roads and landing areas, and thus become advanced people who live in permanent houses, always sufficient food and salt And a school would be built for their children where they could learn to read and write. Weapons should also be given to the natives so that they could destroy the hostile beasts and overcome their fear of the jungle, and above all clothes: they should have trousers for the men and colorful skirts for the women! "

In the meantime it had been possible to establish contact with the outside world using the aircraft's radio. A rescue mission is planned to start from Omaburu, and Sahal, Ossaman's assistant and lover, is also involved. There is a barely overgrown stretch of old motorway near the crash site where the plane can land. Finally they succeed in flying wakaals out. When Ossaman is to be picked up, he is found dead with no visible injury. While searching the tower, Ossaman found the diary of an expedition that had failed 100 years earlier in a wall niche. In the wall niche there was also the sacred snake of the seer, which Ossaman kills because he disgusts snakes and knows nothing of the meaning of the animal for the seer. When she discovers the loss of the animal, she curses Ossaman. Gwane Goru, a member of the rescue expedition, is also killed. When, after landing, he sees himself surrounded and beset by "white demons", his panic causes a heart attack. It is not the real or imagined dangers of the “forbidden continent” that two out of three of those who set foot fall victim to, but rather ignorance and irrational fears.

output

  • The forbidden continent. Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4024, 1983, ISBN 3-453-31025-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Zauner: The forbidden continent. Heyne, 1983, chap. 33, p. 193.