The snail on the slope

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“The snail on the slope” ( Russian Улитка на склоне ) is a science fiction novel by Arkadi and Boris Strugazki . In the spring of 1966, the Strugatski brothers published in the USSR . The original edition appeared in 1968 under the title “Ulitka na sklone” and was published as one of the work pieces in the magazine “Baikal”. The novel had a difficult fate and was not published in full abroad until 1972; the German edition was first published in 1978.

The title refers to a haiku by Kobayashi Issa .

content

The novel consists of alternating chapters that belong to two loosely coupled parts: “Verwaltung” (or “Perez”, this part was published in 1968) and “Wald” (or “Candid”, published in 1966).

administration

The linguist Perez (in some German editions: Pfeffer), who dreamed of seeing the forest for a long time, is in the "Administration for Forest Affairs". However, he is unable to visit the forest as he is repeatedly denied the necessary permit. He is also unable to leave for the mainland; he is repeatedly promised that a car will be made available to him “tomorrow”, but that never happens. So he is forced to submit to the daily routine in the administration, which is characterized by nonsensical regulations, bureaucracy and strange incidents.

Forest

A few years ago, Candid, a researcher who originally worked for the administration, crashed his helicopter in the jungle and was taken in by a primitive village community. Their everyday life is determined by agriculture and the fight against the dangers of the forest, which consist of human predators, but also of the so-called corpse people, a kind of zombies that kidnap women and girls. Candid, who, like the rest of the forest population, is haunted by a kind of madness, tries in vain to return to the bio station that was built by the administration in the forest. However, this return to civilization is prevented by the impossibility of thinking clearly, apparently caused by the forest, and the forest.

website

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki: Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki . Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1978, ISBN 3-518-06934-9 , pp. 276 .
  2. ↑ Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki: Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-38799-5 , pp. 280 .
  3. ↑ Your opinion on "Arkadi & Boris Strugatzki: Die Schnecke am Hang" . Retrieved October 13, 2018.