Tarkovsky

sus

Well-known member
It seems to be that the traps, which the Stalkers refer to colloquially as Bug Traps, while the scientists who study The Zone (from a safe distance) call them gravicoconcentrates, a name that describes the phenomenon and gives them some false sense of understanding it

This is an ongoing theme Tarkovsky's interested in—think the scientists around Solaris. I think is something the anti-academic vibe of this forum gets right—the way many scholarly explanations are non-explanations, "semantic stop signs" I've heard them called—plugs on curiosity or inquiry that put on the image of understanding.
 

sus

Well-known member

You said take me to the zone
‘take me to the zone’
You said you want a rail ride I know you really don’t
Pay me with a time loan
‘take me to the zone’
You said you want a ride but I know you really don’t

Cause you never ask for what you really want
Antique fountain head lid is on a pot
When candles blow you better keep your eyes closed

And that’ll…
Take you to the zone

You said take me to the zone
‘take me to the zone’
You said you want hardcore I know you really don’t
Ski slopes overblown
‘take me to the zone'
Wanna save time but I know you really don’t

Cause theory never gets at what you really want
You never can escape motivation or a plot
What mirrors show you better keep exposed

And that’ll...
Take you to the zone

You were charmed by ‘Time’
Changed your whole paradigm
But now you won’t change your mind
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
This is an ongoing theme Tarkovsky's interested in—think the scientists around Solaris. I think is something the anti-academic vibe of this forum gets right—the way many scholarly explanations are non-explanations, "semantic stop signs" I've heard them called—plugs on curiosity or inquiry that put on the image of understanding.
I think Tarkovsky was interested in the unknowable... hence adapting both.
 
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linebaugh

Well-known member
Annihilation was straight-up an all-women's remake of Stalker in the same vein as Ghostbuster or Women in Black. I don't know why no one talks about this.

Instead of silent male bonding, it's like a long therapeutic group session. "Show me your scars," they say, swapping stories of gendered trauma around the campfire.
It was widely talked about. It doesn't persist in the cultural conscience because its a far cry from what was going on in Ghostbusters and woman in black.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I think Tarkovsky was in the unknowable... hence adapting both.
In the introduction to Roadside Picnic she mentions Lem's Solaris and she doesn't mention Tarkovsky so I'm thinking that a) it was written before the film was made and b) Tarkovsy wasn't the first to see similarities in the books.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Adam Curtis said roadside picnic was all about stalinism and the brothers had to make it Sci fi so it was properly disguised.

I started reading it but got distracted, only managed a few pages. That seems to be a theme atm lol.

I suppose tarkovsky was above considering such mundane things and just wanted source material to explore his own more transcendental ideas? Like Godard using American pulp novels? Dunno tho.
 

version

Well-known member
ok

SPOILER SPOILER VERSION DON'T READ ON SPOILER

It seems to be that the traps, which the Stalkers refer to colloquially as Bug Traps, while the scientists who study The Zone (from a safe distance) call them gravicoconcentrates, a name that describes the phenomenon and gives them some false sense of understanding it, and basically they are areas of super high gravity contained impossibly within certain boundaries. Anything that enters it gets literally squashed flat like in a cartoon (or that's how I envisage it) and can sometimes be seen there for years afterwards. They test for these things by throwing the nuts and bolts.
There are plenty of other things in The Zone though that they have to watch out for... happy ghosts, the hell slime, and the grinder (which it seems you can only get past by tricking someone else into it and then walking through while it's grinding them).

SPOILER OVER VERSION YOU CAN READ ON
I looked at the trap, Ray.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Adam Curtis said roadside picnic was all about stalinism and the brothers had to make it Sci fi so it was properly disguised.
I started reading it but got distracted, only managed a few pages. That seems to be a theme atm lol.
I suppose tarkovsky was above considering such mundane things and just wanted source material to explore his own more transcendental ideas? Like Godard using American pulp novels? Dunno tho.
A lot of Soviet sci-fi (Zulawski for instance) is like that but I don't see it here so much. What was his argument specifically?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I looked at the trap, Ray.
Well I did my best to signpost it and mark it so you didn't end up like Four-Eyes or Smartarse (although someone quoted it a bit later with no warning so you were always going to be in dangerous territory).
 

version

Well-known member
I was thinking of rewatching it later. It's a toss up between Silence, Stalker and Primary Colors.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Curtis'?

Mentioned in one of his blogs:


But the novel that fascinated Yegor Gaidar was "Roadside Picnic" written by Arkady Strugatsky. It is about a strange and enormous place called The Zone. It is a magical area that has been created on earth by an alien visitation. Inside the Zone among the ruins are alien artifacts that have dangerous powers - and daring individuals called Stalkers go into the zone to get the artefacts.
The Zone is ambiguous. On the one hand it is coded criticism of the Soviet experiment - a ruined empty world that no one understands any longer. And it opened Yegor Gaidar's eyes to a new and critical way of looking at the world around him.
But on the other - somewhere at the centre of The Zone - is a Golden Sphere which if found will grant the deepest desires of the person who discovers it.
Roadside Picnic was turned into a film - Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
OK, that's a pretty tenuous - just a throwaway line that he doesn't really dig into. I really think that they - like Tarkovsky - were attempting bigger things. Perhaps I'm wrong, I'd like to read more of their stuff to get a better idea.
 

luka

Well-known member
It's not a mere time-bound political allergory or it would hold no weight today. Po.itics doesn't exist. It's imaginary.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I guess they were a big deal (Lem too for that matter). Hard To Be A God was based on one of their books as well and I remember some Russians I knew being excited well in advance... hype around their name I guess is what I'm saying.
 
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