[HN Gopher] Astronautilia
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       Astronautilia
        
       Author : tintinnabula
       Score  : 168 points
       Date   : 2023-01-22 00:43 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | boomboomsubban wrote:
       | I wonder what inspired OudeisPloiarkhos to create an account and
       | upload the plot summary. It's their only contribution to
       | Wikipedia, and it's so detailed I somewhat wonder if it's really
       | proper for the site.
       | 
       | I'd guess some kind of academic assignment, though it's strange
       | that they spent a few more months editing it after the original
       | post.
        
         | ricardobayes wrote:
         | Some weird stuff has cult-like following in some countries.
         | Meaning, in Hungary, the Bud Spencer movies, Torrente and Ford
         | Fairlane script punchlines are something almost every hungarian
         | can recite by heart. I didn't occur this phenomenon anywhere
         | else (yet).
        
       | TbobbyZ wrote:
       | I would love to know how Czech culture influenced the novel.
        
         | stjnvcm wrote:
         | Sadly I hear about this for first time myself. The word
         | hvezdoplavba is somehow know and used, mostly in poetic
         | context. I don't think it had any particular affect on the
         | society tho. I'll go check some second hand bookstores for this
         | gem.
         | 
         | Edit: after reading bit more about this, the author was kind of
         | inspired by another Czech author Karel Capek, whose works did
         | and keeps influencing people (also coined the word Robot for
         | "mechanical worker" (that's enough bragging for today)
        
         | legerdemain wrote:
         | My impression is that central Europe (which I apologize for
         | lumping together) has a pretty long-running tradition of
         | literary absurdism and surrealism. They're works that are more
         | allegorical than "scientific" or "futuristic," even though they
         | might be responding to (or "riffing on") actual early sci-fi of
         | the techno-futurism variety.
         | 
         | As some examples, besides his _R.U.R._ , Capek (Czech) also
         | wrote _The War with the Newts_. It 's an animal fairy tale that
         | predates George Orwell's animal fairy tale by a decade.
         | 
         | Franz Kafka, obviously, was born in Prague and spent his life
         | in central Europe.
         | 
         | Witold Gombrowicz's _Ferdydurke_ (1937) is a Polish analogue
         | from the same decade. Bruno Schulz 's short story anthology
         | _The Street of Crocodiles_ is another one.
         | 
         | After World War 2, you have people like Stanislaw Lem (Polish)
         | writing a lot of farcical science fiction and Jan Svankmajer
         | (Czech) making a lot of grotesque, farcical stop-motion
         | animation.
        
           | legerdemain wrote:
           | Adjacently, on the Russian side you have SF-flavored satire
           | like Bulgakov's _Heart of a Dog_ , and on the French side you
           | have stuff like _L 'Ecume des jours_.
        
         | RektBoy wrote:
         | First time hearing about this book.
        
       | JasonFruit wrote:
       | I can't help but wonder if this is a parody article inserted into
       | Wikipedia by some brilliant vandal.
        
       | pattisapu wrote:
       | As science fiction and fantasy have evolved, they have converged.
       | 
       | We can see plenty of fantasy in works of science fiction in the
       | conventional _forms_ of science fiction -- short stories, novels,
       | TV shows, movies, video games.
       | 
       | It will be interesting to see science fiction in the conventional
       | _forms_ of fantasy -- epics, ballads, poetry, fairy tales,
       | onomastics, runic and incantatory forms of language....
       | 
       | (As an aside, I've heard rumors of published contemporary sci-fi
       | written in classical Sanskrit verse but I can't find any -- is
       | this really a thing?)
        
         | strbean wrote:
         | > It will be interesting to see science fiction in the
         | conventional _forms_ of fantasy
         | 
         | I think this happened a fair amount in the forms of religious
         | texts / mythology and mysticism in the early/mid 20th century,
         | no?
        
       | chadlavi wrote:
       | I am too stupid to even understand the wikipedia summary of this
       | book.
        
       | foxh0und wrote:
       | Is there any work being done currently for a full English
       | translation?
        
       | tntermini wrote:
       | "but a violent revolution breaks out amongst the women; one
       | approaches the Queen and, pulling out a penis, rapes her. The
       | other rebel women follow suit." (quoting from wikipedia summary)
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | NKosmatos wrote:
       | That's one of the reasons I love HN, you find some posts like
       | this that are completely out of this world!!! Being Greek and a
       | sci-fi fan, I need to find this book :-)
        
       | algon33 wrote:
       | This is the most insane thing I've read about this year.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | It's been 23 days.
        
           | oh_sigh wrote:
           | Nah, OP is Chinese and it's been about 24 hours
        
           | algon33 wrote:
           | It's been strange these last 23 days.
        
         | airstrike wrote:
         | For the most insane thing you've listened to this year, try
         | Mouth Dreams
        
           | adzm wrote:
           | Oh wow I had no idea this was the same person from Lemon
           | Demon
        
           | sdwr wrote:
           | It's been...
        
           | mtizim wrote:
           | Thank you
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | _Tell me about a complicated sheep, o Muse,_
       | 
       |  _of how it bleated as it saw all of our world_
       | 
       |  _and made it real just being there, a holy ewe_
       | 
       | Maybe we'll have an Emily Wilson translation of the Astronautilia
       | one day, I'd read that for sure!
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | 867-5309 wrote:
       | sort-of related (scifi, poetry) is the book _Tau Zero_ [1] and
       | its similarities with the Swedish epic poem _Aniara_ [2]
       | 
       | [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero
       | 
       | [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniara
        
       | mjfl wrote:
       | I always wonder what books there are out there, that are very
       | interesting, with no English translation. Must be a lot of them.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | giraffe_lady wrote:
         | Arabic and chinese each have literary traditions approximately
         | as broad and deep as the western canon. I'm sure there are
         | plenty of others. In all likelihood _most_ excellent and
         | interesting works are not available in english.
        
           | bipop5000 wrote:
           | Same with the Hindu mythology. As rich or even richer in
           | terms of metaphors and knowledge that can transfer over to
           | modern life.
        
         | yourself92 wrote:
         | I have the same thoughts about content on the web
        
           | wongarsu wrote:
           | The Russian web is surprisingly helpful for cyber security or
           | undocumented Windows APIs. They also seem to have a better
           | ecosystem of small Windows utilities to do obscure system
           | tasks (like look up your connected USB devices, or check your
           | memory for defects).
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-23 23:00 UTC)