The inhabited island

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inhabited Island ( Russian Обитаемый остров ) is a science fiction - novel by Strugatsky Brothers . The original was published in Russian in 1969 and forms the first part of the three-part Maxim-Kammerer series .

content

The young Maxim Kammerer is a member of the “Free Search” group, which explores foreign planets on its own . In the fiction of this novel , humans are able to overcome even the greatest distances in space. Thus, numerous extraterrestrial species are known to mankind. When approaching a strange planet, Maxim's space glider is severely damaged by a meteorite , Maxim suspects; he has to make an emergency landing. Fortunately for him, he comes across a life-friendly environment on the surface and leaves his damaged spacecraft. As he explores his immediate surroundings, strangers destroy his space glider: Maxim is cut off from contact with his homeworld, like Robinson on his island. However, his island is inhabited. Maxim seeks contact with the natives of the planet called "Sarraksch" and is arrested by gunmen. First attempts at communication lead to the fact that he is mistaken for a madman. The inhabitants of the world of Sarraksch cannot see a starry sky due to atmospheric peculiarities and therefore know nothing about space and other planets. Little by little, Maxim realizes that he has found himself in a country destroyed by war and terror and that he is sliding further and further into a conflict that is alien to him. Since he inevitably has to share the fate of the inhabitants of this strange world with no possibility of escape, he decides to actively change something. Maxim realizes that he has to break with his ideas of justice and human morality if he wants to turn something for the better.

style

The narrative perspective in the book alternates between Maxim and the residents of Sarraksch. Tension is mainly built up by the fact that Maxim can usually only assess his situation correctly in retrospect and, unlike the reader, only slowly gets an idea of ​​the circumstances of his new environment. The sobriety and objectivity of the narrator puts the reader in a position to apply moral and ethical values ​​to the events of the story and its actors and to evaluate Maxim's actions.

The world of the novel

Sarraksch imagines itself to the reader as an earth-like planet, a world with several continents and numerous hostile states and ethnic groups. Most of the action takes place in a dictatorial state that is not only at war with several neighboring states, including the "island empire" of the "white submariners", but is also exterminating genetically modified descendants of the contaminated nuclear war victims. The everyday life of the residents is characterized by burdens and dangers from past wars as well as constant poverty and incapacitation. The population is kept under control by an anonymous clique of dictators who control the population by means of mind-altering radiation and brutal police violence and who ruthlessly take action against a minority who are immune to the radiation.

The novel is set in the “World of Noon”, like most of the Strugazkis' books. At various points it becomes clear that Maxim Kammerer comes from an earth that functions according to communist principles. For example, he eats in an inn without having working means of payment and is amazed at the anger of the owners about his bullying. His moral ideas, which he expresses from time to time, also suggest that the authors portray the earth as a socialist utopia . The dictatorial maladministration on the Sarraksch forms the stark contrast to this, here there is hostility to one another and property-driven obstinacy. Maxim realizes only at the end of the book that it is the control center of the radiation towers - transfigured by those in power as "missile defense towers" against enemy attacks - that prevents the majority of the population from reflecting on their own situation and taking action against the dictators.

Two versions

There are two German translations of the "Inhabited Island" with the same title. In 1969 the first translation appeared, based on a magazine preprint and shortened by several chapters. This version can be recognized by the fact that Maxim Kammerer is still called Maxim Rostislawski. (This translation was published by Ullstein Taschenbuch Verlag in 1982, for example.) According to Erik Simon , a Strugatzki expert , this is the much weaker version.

Others

  • The novel was first published in German in 1972 in a translation by Hermann Buchner by Marion von Schröder Verlag (Germany).
  • The revised and completed edition from 1971 was translated by Erika Pietraß and was first published in 1982 by the publishing house Das Neue Berlin (GDR).
  • A complete version of the novel (and the entire trilogy) was published in 2010 as the first volume of the Gesammelte Werke by Heyne Verlag, revised and supplemented by Erik Simon , with a foreword by Dmitri Gluchowski and numerous comments. ISBN 978-3-453-52630-3
  • At the same time, a limited edition collector's edition, bound in linen or leather, will be published by Golkonda-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-942396-06-6

filming

In 2008, an elaborate two-part film adaptation of the novel, directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk , which adheres closely to the literary model, was released. Dark Planet: The Inhabited Island was produced at a cost of US $ 30 million as the most expensive Russian film to date. Outside Russia it is sold under the title Dark Planet . There is a very heavily cut 120-minute version ( Dark Planet: Prisoners of Power ) and an edition with the complete film of 220 minutes ( Dark Planet: The Inhabited Island + Rebellion ).

See also

The books from the Maxim-Kammerer series:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erik Simon: Arkadi & Boris Strugatzki: Leben und Werk, in: Hannes Riffel (Ed.): Golkonda Gazette (PDF; 1.4 MB). Issue 1, April 2010.
  2. ↑ Hannah Beitzer: Planet of Darkness. , Report in the Moscow German newspaper of April 2, 2009
  3. ↑ Manfred Quiring: Russia's Most Expensive Film , message from February 2, 2008 in Die Welt Online
  4. ↑ Prisoners of Power is the name of the English translation of the novel The Inhabited Island .
  5. ↑ Overview of the international version