Alexei Tolstoy's Aelita
Ed Nevsky Prospects, 2010
Translation: Marta Sanchez and Fernández Nieves
281 pp. 16 euros
Many has been the literary fascination with space travel has led to since Jules Verne made it a novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and also much that has fantasized about what the space we would find, not always with positive visions, quite the opposite from The War of the Worlds (1898) by HG Wells. Coincidentally The War of the Worlds also gives us a vision of what Mars could expect. However, in the world of the Soviet Union, the vision they had of Mars is given by other novels. Remember the fantastic Red Star (1908) by Alexander Bogdanov, also edited by Nevsky Prospects, which in this case, is a reference nearest to explain this Aelita (1922) Alexei Tolstoy (1833-1945). But before we delve into these distinctions, think a moment, from our perspective of English readers in some previous references, because, although Tolstoy's novel is much older, has come to us much later that his later works were more that known. To my mind come the fantastic story of Ray Bradbury, now a classic, Martian Chronicles (1950) or the humorous go home Marciano (1955) by Frederic Brown or nearest trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993), Blue Mars (1996) covering the human life on Mars during a period of 35 years and was praised by Arthur C. Clarke as the best novel of the colonization of Mars. Surely the reader will find many more references to complete this impromptu list. It is best to read Tolstoy's novel as a classic that has come late.
We talked about the work of Alexander Bogdanov because it is earlier than that of Alexei Tolstoy and I emphasize a few things in common: a very clear who is speaking from a trip to Mars. And another deep, it contains a political-ideological burden very much in keeping with the revolutionary events that accompanied the creation and early years of the Soviet Union. These aspects are also remarkable, perhaps a somewhat less designed or sketched in Aelita.
What is the argument Aelita? It's basically the story of an engineer who dreams of traveling to Mars for which a former soldier recruits recent graduates. On Mars you'll find a world that will open your eyes to what he left on Earth but at the same time, you can open your heart to love in a battered Mars. Because Aelita, under that layer of science fiction and revolution, is basically a love story. A story of love that redeems the protagonist, Loss, following the death of his wife, in a process similar to that suffered Martin Eden, hero of Jack London's work, for Ruth.
Tolstoy's novel has many parallels with works such as London, as the expression of the revolutionary process that also exists in Red Star. Also with respect to that innocence that exists in the telling of the story, sometimes a bit primitive, others maybe a little naive. On the other hand, the story initially surprised us all hard or scientific jargon, such as Red Star , reaching at times too slow to do the narration.
After a first third of the novel, the sensation of being a science fiction text disappears too hard to give way to a more allegorical text in which the author legend through narration and reflections Aelita of Loss, the engineer, and Gusev, the soldier, we enter the Martian culture. A story sometimes too slow and not always properly managed, which leads to the third most significant and interesting of the novel where the story of love and the revolutionary outcome. Highlight the final where, with skill, the author reserves information like a bomb dropping aircraft at the right time. Good conclusion, well run and certainly unexpected.
prepared the reader who wishes to confront the text of Tolstoy to read a classic such as Verne, HG Wells, or even Rider Haggard
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