Stalker 1979 vs Roadside Picnic

[razielim]

Watched Stalker while swimming in a post-vaccine haze.

I don’t know if this added to or detracted from the experience, but I got very Crime and Punishment vibes from the themes and feel about the same about it. As in, liked it in concept, enjoyed most of the execution, but felt let down by the central message and conclusion.

Perhaps worth a watch, but not in relation to Roadside Picnic. Not because it’s not a direct adaptation, but because the book speaking to you has no correlation with the film speaking to you. They speak of entirely unrelated things, and I think the book is more subtle and profound in the emotions it allows the reader to experience for themselves, it’s a classic and masterful tragedy, while Stalker kind of hammers you with an ideology and is overly sentimental to boot. Stillness and space on their own are insufficient ingredients for nuance and revelation.

Comments

[dr_zook]

Haha, I wonder what watching the movie in a drug-induced haze would be like! (Tried it once with Fight Club, wouldn't recommend that, though...) XD

It's been a while since I read the book and watched the movie, but I do remember indeed that Roadside Picnic told a profoundly different tale, much more complex, witty and amusing. It's more like Stalker was kind of inspired by the book, I guess. Since I read it in German, is there a English translation you'd especially recommend? Now that we're talking about it I find I'd love to read it again.

Stillness and space on their own are insufficient ingredients for nuance and revelation. - Ah, interesting! But what if there is nothing to be revealed? Think maybe of Kafka's Before the Law. Anyways, I have to think about that more, thanks for the impetus!

[razielim]

You know, nothing has ever gotten me interested in reading Kafka more than the urge to understand your comparison here. I realize now I'd never so much as looked him up on Wikipedia. Oh boy oh boy.

Unfortunately I have no translation recommendations, as I read Roadside Picnic in Russian. I imagine German would be capable of a less clunky translation than English, in general, of most Russian works. (Last time I recommended Strugatsky's Monday Begins On Saturday to someone, I was neurotically compelled to go ahead and explain the funniest pun in the novel just in case the translators missed it by a longshot. Folly.)

[dr_zook]

Alas, I remember my uncle-in-law (is this even a thing? now it is I guess) used to teach himself all kinds of languages in order to be able to read them in their original language-- Russian being among them. I think I read somewhere that you can read German? If that's indeed the case, Kafka's Vor dem Gesetz / Before the Law is here to be found, a short, devastating thing. (A decent English translation is linked within, but much of the ingenuity of Kafka's language is nevertheless lost.)

I'm a bit ashamed I haven't gotten around to learn Russian; I thoroughly enjoyed the few things I read by Bulgakov and Lermontov.

I was neurotically compelled to go ahead and explain the funniest pun in the novel just in case the translators missed it by a longshot. -- XD

[razielim]

Yeah, I actually started picking up German for the same reason, with limited success. Slowly (slowly!) working my way through Nietzsche's BG&E in German with the English copy in my other hand. So this is actually perfect!

Since you're interested in feedback about translations, I'll say that Pevear and Volokhonsky's English translation of Master & Margarita is so sensitive, I could hear the construction of the original Russian phrasings as I read it.

[dr_zook]

Oh, thank you for the translation rec!! I'll look out for that issue. :)

I remember being giddy about a new translation for Celine's Journey to the End of the Night a few years ago by a quite reputable translator, but when I leafed through it I had to put it away-- the language felt too... modern? Somehow I think a contemporary translation would be 'more true' to the original, but what would I know. What do you think?

Apart from that I'm very impressed by your devotion to reading (and understanding) any language that isn't your mother tongue, chapeau! I'd be interested in what you think about the Kafka in case you'd like to share.

[razielim]

:O I've never even heard of Journey to the End of the Night. *jots that down*

My friend likes to quote a translator page that says, "Reader, I have taken liberties," which honestly is a really funny summary of what most translator's notes say. I typically read those notes fully and they wring their hands and angst about their choices terribly because ultimately, yeah, the translator can make what they think is absolutely best for the translation and execute that direction flawlessly, and a vast swath of readers will still disagree with their initial decision. Fathers and Sons, my favorite classic from Russian literature, I've only read it in a very modern English tongue and I was hissing and spitting the entire time, cursing the damn translator and his apology letter for choosing to use such casual modern language, which I felt was out of place. And yet, it's still my favorite, without having ever gotten around to reading it in either Russian or from another translator. In this case, the wrong words simply could not get in the way of the right substance.

So I don't know if I have a particular perspective. Translations can make or break an experience, but which one they'll do and why is so... personal. And often even surprising as you start to develop your own sense of what the story you're reading really needs or even is.

[dr_zook]

See, I have an inkling you'd like Celine. ;)

Fascinating to read about your relationship with Father and Sons, wow. Hm, would you consider reading it in Russian one time?

the wrong words simply could not get in the way of the right substance - Wonderfully put, and you're right I think.