Monday, February 26, 2007

This Is 15-Minutes: Russian Dreams


Some people may ask what the point is in these writing exercises I "borrowed" from gabe, the essence which is about writing non-stop for a time period (usually about 15 minutes and in my case, about a concept or a picture).

One can think the exercise akin to making paper airplanes: one uses the time and effort to craft a plane just to throw it in the air. And all for what? For the plane to crash somewhere where it can be picked up again-- or sometimes not, if it's too far to be retrieved?

Still, I figure it's worth it. After all, for one moment in time, one can experience the sheer wonder as the plane veers into the sky as if to fly forever. That's what it means to me when I do these exercises.

Sergey Korolyov heated more water again for coffee and as he waited, shivered in the early morning light.

Outside the bunker's window, he could see the slowly-rising sun light up the masive junkyard. He sighed.

At times like these, he saw how pathetically low the Russian motherland had fallen. He was a perfect example: once a brilliant scientist working for the Soviet Union, he was now nothing more than a security guard at the abandoned laboratories. How the mighty had fallen, he thought.

He lit a cigarette and exhaled a stream of smoke. Just like that, he thought, the Golden Age of Russian Scientific Dreams had blown away on the winds of history.

After the Great War, the Soviet Union had thought to come up with a more effective defense against invaders. Basing it on the ancient legend of the bronze giant Tálos, it had come up with a robot sentinel: 40-feet tall and bearing the hammer and sickle of the people it sought to protect. They called it the Iron Man.

He grinned, remembering in 1957 when their band of scientists, led by Valentin Glushko, celebrated the first activation of the robot. For almost one week, they were feted by the Soviet government.

Unfortunately, it all disappeared when the Japanese, finally done with conquering the American states in the aftermath of World War 2, started with their own version of gigantic robot warriors. First came Tetsujin-nijūhachi- in 1958, then Tetsuwan Atom in 1963.

But it was in 1972, when the Nippon Imperium unleashed the first human-piloted Romaji Majinga or the Demon-God against the world. Other countries, like the U.K. and the weary-beaten Germans, tried to fight back but their conventional armies were no match against the now-dubbed mecha. It was left to the Russians to stop the Japanese behemoth, as it had done before against Hitler and his Blitzkrieg.

They were so proud then, knowing that only the Soviet Union could save the world.

Sergey grimaced, his fingers dropping his now burnt-out cigarette. More fools they.

Thanks to jp for lending me the picture he found, taken from here. *winks*

13 comments:

JP said...

Haha! Neat - pop culture refs and a little alternate history all in a tiny little bundle! As usual, I'd love to explore this world more, and as usual you will play yhe tease and never return to it! :)

Get rid of one of those 'alas'es though. Just a thought. 'Alas' generally rings as a bit archaic and melodramatic to me - great for comedic interjections, but a little less effective than it once was in its primary purpose.

skinnyblackcladdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
skinnyblackcladdink said...

dammit, sorry bout that, had to edit that stupid typo (of course i never get problems with posting when i post mistakes):

the pic makes me think of M. John Harrison's 'Settling the World' (yes, i know, *him* again), one of the coolest shorts i've ever read. i get the feeling this image may have had a hand in inspiring Harrison to write that one; if so, you're in good company.

good show for a fifteen min exercise, dude. you should clean it up and actually do something more with it than just throw it into the air...

banzai cat said...

jp: Hehe thanks. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on the Russian scientists and the Japanese robots thing. And as for alas, consider it done! ;-)

skinny: Not a problem. Me blog su blog. ;-)

Actually, am considering of getting Harrison's Courses of the Heart collection as am on a short-story reading binge. In for a penny, in for a pound right?

On the other hand, some vignettes don't or can't stand expansion. This is one of them unfortunately; I fear any addition to this story would make it more of an anime story rather than a Tim Powers one.

skinnyblackcladdink said...

er, Course of the Heart is a novel, that's also collected with Signs of Life in Anima.

the definitive M. John Harrison short story collection is Things That Never Happen.

as for this fragment, i disagree...

and even if it does end up more 'anime than Tim Powers', so what?

skinnyblackcladdink said...

er, sorry, that sounded snotty...

JP said...

skinny: I've been mainlining Wolfe and Powers as my primary genre-fantasy reads for a while now, but your enthusiasm has me all boosted to explore Harrison further. Naturally, I've read - and loved - his Viriconium sequence (nearly the only 'deconstructionist' gesture I've seen that actually creates an equally compelling and better construct in itself), and I guess I'll open my copy of Anima once I'm done with my current reads. Sadly, his stuff turns up very sporadically here, first-hand, and even more so second-hand. I have a pretty substantial Gene Wolfe (and Vance and Leiber) collection acquired 2nd-hand, and a nicely brgeoning Powers one, but zilcho Harrison. They hardly sell them at all here, and when someone does get a copy it seems they never let it go.

2nd hand availability is of course no sing of merit. I find ample stocks of both Robertson Davies and Harrold RObbins in the 2nd-hand stores. I don't actually buy the Robbins books, you understand, I just note their presence...

JP said...

Joey: I noticed the edits - it flows even better now!

I can understand not wanting to expand everything - sometimes you're the better writer for what you *don't* choose to write, but I think this little story could support a little expansion. Your choice, of course.

skinnyblackcladdink said...

bc: i didn't necessarily mean *expand* the story, just clean it up, polish it; it's a vignette, but it could well be a substantial short short. (er, maybe i'm making up a difference there.)

i wish you hadn't overwritten the original, though; it was the product of an automatic writing exercise wasn't it?

jp: haha, i remember browsing through some Robbins books lying around back home when i was a little prepubescent kid and had no idea what i'd find in those things...

yeah, unfortunately, they only ever get one or two of Harrison's books per store (not even, probably) back there; i was hoping fullybooked would stock up on Nova Swing (excellent excellent book which i really must talk about on my review blog) when they got a few copies of Anima and Light a few months ago, but unless they've put the book on the shelves now, it doesn't look promising.

Harrison is not for everyone; but if you like writing you can obsess over repeatedly and still only pars out fragments of its meaning and beauty each time, then his stuff could be for you. (and, if you like Wolfe, you probably do; however...)

...unfortunately, i don't think liking Wolfe predisposes you to Harrison; i find them very different in terms of prose, the use of language, and the approach to *fiction*, and in those terms, Harrison can be a little inaccessible at times.

which Viriconium stories did you like best, i wonder?

banzai cat said...

skinny: Yowza. Sorry, yeah was referring to Things that Never Happen. And such a lovely edition also.

as for expansion... what overwritten? More or less this piece is as it is. It's a vignette habit of mine; clean up the flow a bit but essentially leave it alone, including the length. Else it defeats the whole purpose of the writing exercise.

jp: Likewise, the only edits I did was to take out 'alas' as requested. Unless there's an alternate history version of this story already going around? ;-)

And I gotta agree with skinny: liking Wolfe doesn't mean you'll like Harrison. Even the writing 'essences' feels different.

banzai cat said...

Actually, rather than an alternate history thing, if I were to expand this story, I'd like to do it as a secret history story. Of course I'd probably have problems with the copyright on the Japanese names of the robots...

skinnyblackcladdink said...

yeah, i meant your edit(s). you already 'defeated the purpose of the exercise' by putting up the edit; the change doesn't go into the fifteen minutes, yeah? so, no fair! hehe.

banzai cat said...

Well, jp did request it.

Heh I know, I'm such a pushover...