World of noon

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World of Noon is the name given to a future world devised by the Soviet science fiction authors Arkadi and Boris Strugazki , which is at the center of their works. The same figures, planets, technical achievements and a similar social order appear in different, independent stories, powesti and novels by these authors. The designation “Welt des Mittags” is taken from the volume with stories “ Mittag, 22nd Century ”, which was first published in German in 1967 and consisted mainly of stories from the 1962 episode novel Return in Russian . The name can also be found in the English- speaking world as "Noon Universe" and in Russian as "Мир Полудня". In the German-speaking world, the name appeared for the first time in an afterword by Erik Simon to the volume of stories Mittag, 22nd Century . The “noon” in this name stands for the “high level of development of human civilization”.

Works of the noon cycle

The works of the Strugazkis belonging to the world of noon, sorted according to the chronology of the plot, with the date of publication of the Russian original:

Society of the midday universe

The Strugazkis once described the society of their midday world as follows:

“We have represented a world that we dream of, a world that we would like to live and work in, a world that we strive to live and work for today. We tried to show a world that offers people unlimited possibilities for spiritual development and creativity. "

- Arkadi and Boris Strugazki : Foreword to "Noon, 22nd Century"

The authors, who are often in conflict with Soviet censorship , have refrained from using Marxist vocabulary to emphasize their loyalty to the line . Her “heroes” are never flawless “supermen”, as the Soviet propaganda used to predict when her early works were made, although their future society clearly bears traits of a communist society: There is no longer a money economy, people are free from material worries and their drive to work consists in their interest in knowledge or in creative or educational inclinations. Hierarchies still exist, however, and the fate of Lev Abalkin in “A Beetle in an Ant Hill” makes it clear that there are institutions that e.g. B. regulate the possibilities to study and to take up a certain profession - according to all the rules of the highly valued educational science. Erik Simon has therefore even described the world of noon as an “educational utopia”: In the course of the literary development of the world of noon, hierarchies seem to expressly increase: Maxim Kammerer in A Beetle in the Anthill addresses Rudolf Sikorski not only as a boss, but as an “Excellency ". »The future cycle of the Strugazkis is initially carried by the extrapolation towards a beautiful, sensible, progressive world, but when the authors gradually lose confidence in the basis of their extrapolations, they extrapolate completely different extrapolations from the idiocies of actually existing socialism experienced every day are able to deduce, noon darkens. "

Important people involved

Individuals from the world of midday appear in several works, sometimes as central acting persons, sometimes only as superiors giving instructions via radio - or they and their actions are mentioned as positive or deterrent examples in conversations. This includes:

  • Leonid Andrejewitsch Gorbowski ( Midday, 22nd Century , The Third Civilization , The Distant Rainbow , Unrest , The Waves Choke the Wind , mentioned in Escape Attempt and A Beetle in the Anthill )
  • Maxim Kammerer ( The inhabited island , A beetle in the anthill , The waves choke the wind , mentioned in The Third Civilization )
  • Rudolf Sikorski ( The inhabited island , A beetle in an anthill , The third civilization , mentioned in The waves choke the wind )
  • Lew Abalkin ( A beetle in the anthill )
  • Gennady Jurjewitsch Komow ( Midday, 22nd Century , The Third Civilization , A Beetle in the Anthill , The Waves Choke the Wind )
  • Don Rumata / Anton (active in It is not easy to be a god , mentioned as a Progressor in various works)
  • Isaak Bromberg (active in A beetle in an anthill , mentioned in several works)

Terms from the world of noon

  • Progressors: human observers and “development workers” on other planets
  • Die Wanderer: Term for a technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization, known only through its legacies on various planets
  • Contacts Commission: manages diplomatic relations between Earth and extraterrestrial civilizations
  • Large overall planetary information center: A comprehensive database that tends to include the current knowledge of mankind.

Planets of the world at noon

  • Pandora ( restlessness , mentioned in many others as "leisure planet")
  • Saraksh ( The Inhabited Island )
  • Rainbow ( the distant rainbow )
  • Leonida (subject of the story A Well-established Planet in the volume Noon, 22nd century , mentioned in other works as the home of an ecological civilization)
  • Tagora (mentioned in Escape Attempt and A Beetle in the Anthill )
  • Giganda ( The Boy from Hell )
  • Esperanza ( a beetle in an anthill )
  • Pantia (mentioned in The Third Civilization )
  • Vladislav (mentioned at noon in the 22nd century )
  • EN 7031 / Saula ( escape attempt )

Continuation of the "midday world"

Since 2002 Boris Strugazki has published an SF magazine that refers to the “world of noon” by its name “Noon, 21st Century” .

literature

Web links

  • Noon Universe in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)

swell

  1. ↑ a b Erik Simon: Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki: Life and Work (PDF; 1.4 MB) , p. 10.
  2. ↑ Erik Simon: The well arranged world of noon. Epilogue in: Arkadi and Boris Strugazki: Mittag 22. Jahrhundert , p. 329 of the edition of the publishing house Das Neue Berlin , 1980.
  3. ↑ For the novels according to the work edition Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki, Volume 1 (and others), Heyne Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-52630-3 .
  4. ^ According to the afterword by Erik Simon in Mittag, 22nd Century , Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1980, p. 333.
  5. ↑ Erik Simon : A future with two ends , epilogue in: Arkadi and Boris Strugazki: work edition 1st volume , Heyne Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-52630-3 .
  6. ^ Arkadi and Boris Strugazki: Work edition 1st volume. Heyne Verlag 2010, p. 429 ff.
  7. ↑ Karsten Kruschel : Alleged maps of the future. From the reflection of the present to the distant future. In: Sascha Mamczak, Sebastian Pirling, Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Das Heyne Science Fiction Year 2011. ISBN 978-3-453-53379-0 , p. 62.
  8. ↑ Erik Simon: Arkadi & Boris Strugatzki. Life and work. In: Golkonda Gazette (PDF; 1.4 MB) golkonda-verlag.de. Retrieved September 10, 2011. p. 9.