The hour of the bull
The hour of the bull ( Russian Час Быка , Chas Byka ) is a science fiction novel by Russian author Ivan Yefremov .
After the abridged preprint in the journal Technika-Molodjoshi from 1968/1969, the complete edition appeared in 1970. Just six months later the book was removed from the libraries and any mention of the novel was forbidden. The book was not published again until 1988. The novel belongs to the cycle The Great Ring , consisting of The Andromeda Nebula , The Heart of the Snake and the book described here.
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A few hundred years after the events of the novel The Andromeda Nebula , a school class is discussing the question of whether the general development law would allow other developments besides the path to the highest ( communist ) society. After all, a generally applicable law must always allow exceptions, otherwise it would not be universally applicable. Inspired by this question, the teacher suggests a visit to the monument in honor of the space expedition to the planet Tormans . After the visit, the students watch a film about the events that occurred around a hundred years ago. At that time, the earth received information about a human-inhabited planet. It was the descendants of earthly refugees who left the earth in the warlike times of transition to a united world, were thrown into space due to fortunate coincidences and had found a habitable planet.
The Council for Interstellar Travel decides to send an expedition with a new spaceship - the Dark Flame , the first spacecraft faster than light - to the planet in order to re-establish contact with the inhabitants. Landing is already proving difficult - the planet is ruled by a bureaucratic oligarchy that is not interested in visiting. Expedition leader Fay Rodis uses a not undisputed trick to force the landing.
The planet called Torman by the people on earth is dying. Overpopulation, unrestrained overexploitation of nature and environmental pollution have destroyed the basis of life. The capital is characterized by noise and dirt, unjust distribution of food and inhumane living conditions. Society has split into two groups - the long-lived and the short-lived who are hostile to each other. The oligarchy rules with its own means: demagoguery and manipulation, oppression and censorship of the fine arts, literature and music, an inhuman philosophy that propagates suicide at the age of 25, the abuse of science, a system of informers and, as a counterpart, sponsored athletes and artists. It can still keep the people under control, but the first resistance groups have formed, other displaced people have become criminals and live in a lawless area according to the law of the mob .
First, the spacemen make contact with the rulers - the Council of Four . For them it is completely unfamiliar that people do not think in the category of masters and subordinates and that women hold the leading positions. Out of the justified fear that the presence of the spacemen would stir up unrest, the council tries to cut off all contact with the Tormansians. But the spacemen insist on contact with the residents of Torman. You want to help people - with the power of knowledge. They show films from the earth, tell of life in communist society, of their moral concepts and of the ways into a better future. At the same time they refuse to supply the resistance groups with weapons or to overthrow the government. In their view, the long-lived and the short-lived must unite. They explain that the Tormansians must find their own way into the future.
At the same time, the space travelers are exploring the planet. They split up into several groups - one visits an old, now abandoned settlement area, another lives in the capital. Meanwhile, the expedition leader studies old documents. But this work is not without its dangers. Three space travelers die when they encounter the mob, another space traveler, the young sociologist Tschedy Dhaan, is seriously injured in the capital. Finally, a Tormansian scientist discovers the possibility of blocking the space travelers' protective devices. Faced with the danger that her knowledge will be misused, the expedition leader kills herself, but appeals to her comrades to return to earth and not avenge her death.
With that the film ends. The students are deeply impressed by the difficult return of the spaceship to earth and the early death of the returned spacemen - the price for the experiences and hardships of space flight and return. But her death was not in vain: new film recordings of the planet that came to earth show a memorial to the space travelers together with resistance fighters, 'long-lived' and 'short-lived'. A spaceship is already on its way to the planet - which now bears the name Tor-Mi-Oss.
The first law of the great ring
The first law of the Great Ring is the law of freedom of information . Jefremov describes the importance of this law as follows:
»... Who can dare to block a thinking being on the way to world knowledge? The fascist dictatorships from the past of the earth and other planets committed similar crimes and thereby caused unimaginable catastrophes. Therefore, if the Great Ring finds a state that denies its citizens the right to know, that state will be destroyed. This is the only case that gives authority to intervene in the affairs of an alien planet. "
Translations
Translations appeared in France in 1969 under the title L'heure du toureau , in 1973 in Czechoslovakia and in 1970 and 1984 in Bulgaria. There is no translation into English.
expenditure
- Ivan Yefremov: The Hour of the Bull. Scientific and fantastic novel. Translated from the Russian by Maxim Knoll. Edition TES from Ulenspiegel-Verlag Waltershausen - Erfurt, 2010, ISBN 978-3-932655-40-1
Web links
swell
- Sergei Klimanov: Ivan Efremov as a pioneer of Soviet literature . ( Memento of April 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Hartmut Lück: The Soviet scientific-fantastic literature in: Socialist magazine for art and society , issue 18/19, July 1973 p. 97ff
- Hans Földeak: Ideological Didactics. I. Efremov: 'Cas Byka' in: Slavistic Contributions Volume 88: Hans Földeak: Newer tendencies in Soviet Science Fiction , Munich 1985 pp. 69–90
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ivan Jefremow: The Hour of the Bull , Waltershausen - Erfurt 2010, p. 278
- ^ Edition L'Âge d'Homme EFREMOV Ivan • L'HEURE DU TAUREAU
- ↑ Various editions in Bulgaria and the CSSR: see lower picture line: Иван Ефремов "Час Быка" ( Memento from March 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )