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СТРУГАЦКИЕ. Библиография: 1994
(на английском языке)
ЛИТЕРАТУРА О ЖИЗНИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ
Rottensteiner Franz. The Human/Machine Interface: Richard D. Erlich and Thomas P. Dunn, eds. Clockworks: A Multimedia Bibliography of Works Useful for the Study of the Human/Machine Interface in SF // Science-Fiction Studies (Montreal). – 1994. – Vol. 21, Part 2, # 63 (July). – P. 247-249.
But the Strugatskys are definitely under-represented. Only Far Rainbow is listed, but not Prisoners of Power (with its variety of advanced machinery) or Monday Begins on Saturday or The Tale of the Troika (with its talking black box). And what about Roadside Picnic? The alien artifacts clearly are machines, and the whole novel is about human interaction with them. On the other hand, Frederik Pohl's Heechee novels, in which the subject matter is identical, are of course included. It is hardly surprising that Pohl's novels are more popular than the Strugatsky work, but it is surprising that apparently nobody has commented on the similarities between them. Both are about alien artifacts found in the cosmos or at certain locations on Earth. But while Pohl treats the interface with the often dangerous artifacts as a lottery which costs some people their lives and makes others incredibly rich, with the banal message that it is better to be rich than dead, the Strugatskys treat their mystery in an existential manner: it brings out the hidden qualities in their protagonists. In sf, it is the fate of the thoughtful works to be largely ignored, while those that are colorful and (because of their banality) very readable sweep the awards.
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