Roads of Fury: Alexei Ivanov wrote the Russian "Fallout"
Almost without warning, the biggest Russian writer Alexei Ivanov has published a new novel. "Vegetation" comes out Nov. 28 in audio format and as a printed book at once. But the surprising thing is not that, but that Ivanov, who in his work intersperses historicism with modernity, this time rushed into the future. There Russian forests will become radioactive, China will be at war with the West, and the most valuable people will be stalkers-"vagabonds". Small gangs on huge cars will run through the taiga, fight each other and die in the swamps, reaping the fruits of the new gold rush. "Izvestia" read the book before release.
"Fallout" in Russian
"Vegetation" - the title is repellent. But, unfortunately, "Mad Max" and "Fallout" are already busy, and even "Heart of Parma", which would also be very suitable, Ivanov had time to use. Though if the novel had been called "Heart of Parma - 2", it would have been stylish, bright and sharp, especially since a lot of things in these two novels coincide quite accurately.
There is still something here from the early story "Earth-Sorting" and other, later works of his, where the evil Rock always hangs over myopic heroes who do not know that their passions lead them to a dead end, where they are at best waiting for the moment of truth before death. And most likely they will disappear among the endless forests and mountains, only a piece of text in the book of a great Russian writer, which, of course, has long been Alexei Ivanov. And once again he proved that the status of this he is well-deserved.
The plot pivot here is quite simple - exactly to the extent to make the book not just available to a mass audience, but to turn it into a big fall bestseller. From the forest and swamps comes to Magnitogorsk a man named Mitya. He remembers nothing, dirty, naive, not of this world. This is a kind of Prince Myshkin (and Mitya is a very "Dostoevsky" name), through his eyes we will discover not just reality, but the universe that Ivanov created for us.
Mitya is told that several decades ago a nuclear war broke out in which Russia lost and became a raw material appendage of China. The country is overrun by a fast-growing radioactive forest, from which the world's most valuable fuel, brizol, is extracted. China is using brizol to resist the West, while Russia itself is secretly preparing brizol weapons to strike the West on its own.
Soon Mitya realizes that the truth about the state of affairs is at least not one, because in big cities people see the geopolitical situation differently. But it is not easy to find out about all this, and Ivanov makes one picture of the world destroyed by a subsequent one, and then reports that even that one was false. What Mitya sees is small "brigades" prowling the forests, searching for valuable brizol trees, and helping them are stalkers-"vagabonds" with special abilities. Together with one of these brigades Mitya goes to the side of the Yamantau mountain (between Ufa and Chelyabinsk). Among the members of this squad is a local guy Seryoga: in Mitya he unexpectedly considered his twin brother, whom he had never met before.
"Vegetation" as a movie on paper
The world of "Vegetation" is, firstly, poaching brigades and places where you need to sell the spoils. Secondly, these are futuristic machines, which Ivanov describes in more than detail. Let's not forget that we are dealing not only with the most screened, but also the most cinematic writer in the country. Ivanov even names each chapter here as a place of action, without any other details: Chapter 1: Sotsgorod Magnitka, Chapter 2: Sotsgorod Magnitka (II), Chapter 3: Sotsgorod Magnitka (III), and so on. He switches between characters in a very montage-like way, allowing us to look at what's going on a little wider than Mitya sees, but not too much so that the reader is still wandering and stumbling around like the novel's protagonist. To be like in the deep forest - impenetrable and fearful.
Just as cinematically, as if in the director's explication, Ivanov describes the device, appearance and choreography of post-apocalyptic technology, which combines utilitarian properties with combat. "Chumokhodov," "harvesters" (hello "Dune"), "rippers," "motorcycles" - all of this can be immediately transferred to the screen in all details and along with numerous battles between these machines, with some of them controlled by humans and some by artificial intelligence.
This is both the most spectacular and weakest part of the novel. In the sense that with action Ivanov so overdoes that by the second half of the 500-page book, you catch yourself wanting to leaf through these scenes. This bias seems to be justified by the fact that in the Russia of the future there is a sluggish war, and people see each other only as competitors in the struggle for resources. The population is myopic, blinded by rage, intolerance and greed, violence is the basis of life, just like in Fallout with Mad Max.
On the other hand, Ivanov explicitly hints also that this is a continuation of the millennial Russian paradigm, where between "Heart of Parma", "Tobol", "Armored Steamers" and "Vegetation" the difference is rather cosmetic. The only difference is that in his historical novels we knew how it would end, while here we get further into the woods the less we realize what's going on here. Blood and brizol flood the space so that it is difficult to navigate, and since Ivanov adds mysticism (there is even a real witch), the reality of the novel becomes quite shaky, a mirage from which silhouettes with vague outlines emerge.
War for no particular reason
"Listen, I can't understand anything," Mitya reported guiltily. - I look at the war, and they write about everything... That there were atomic explosions, that the whole country is radioactive, that there was no war, that there was a war between the West and China, and China was shooting down European missiles over us, that we defeated everyone, that China won, that the West won, that China is in decline, that China is the strongest and has taken us over... How to interpret all this? Forty years ago all this happened, so why is there still no adequate information?"
On the rights of Prince Myshkin and at the same time Stalker, Mitya is the only one who has the ability to reflect. Everything is clear to the rest of us here; the characters are pragmatic and simple, though not one-dimensional. One wants fast money, one wants power, one wants dangerous adventures. Ivanov even inserts a monologue that paraphrases Gorky's Luka and defends the right of everyone to believe in anything, as long as the heart feels good. Mita is the only one who can't stop worrying, he has to figure out how existence works, why the world is evil, why people are angry, and whether it is possible to do anything about it. All around him people are being shot at point-blank range with machine-guns, they speak only in mate, the Ural forests are being cut down, and he, like a spectator, is looking for the key to what is happening.
"The cause of the disaster that has unfolded is not war," Mitya ponders. - War and catastrophe are only the consequence of the basic cause. And the base cause is over there, by the helicopter. One man decided to steal those who are richer, and then went under the radiation, hoping for something incomprehensible - the fact that the laws of physics do not apply to him, because he is better than all.
To what in the end Mitya and his companions, we will not say, although the final in rough outlines can be predicted in the middle of the book. This is not the main thing. The main thing is scattered over the pages of the book in small crumbs, scraps, somewhere between scenes of perverted sexual pleasures, one-on-one and wall-to-wall battles, with and without cars, and long passages with cumbersome biological vocabulary. "Vegetation" doesn't have much in common with the "universe" of "Transhumanism". And now that this parallel has been drawn, one has to wonder whether this is a stand-alone novel or an introduction to Ivanov's big post-apocalypse. Too much is stated here, but left behind the scenes, too small a part of the Russian "Fallout" is shown to us.
So far Ivanov has often thought in conceptual dialogues: a work of fiction + historical essay, along the lines of Pushkin's Captain's Daughter. Perhaps this time he will choose an even larger form, although, on the other hand, "Vegetation" is already embedded in the history of Russia from the most ancient times, which Ivanov has been writing for a quarter of a century.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
