Aniara Martinson in brief summary
The lyric “I”, on whose behalf the story is narrated, is a “mimic”, an unnamed engineer who serves Mima – a machine that reproduces sensual images captured from the remotest corners of the universe. Mimorob and Mima, along with eight thousand passengers and crew, are aboard the “Goldonder” Aniar, making an ordinary flight from Doris to the Planet Tundra. The flight of the gondondera ends in a catastrophe. Turning sharply and avoiding the collision with the asteroid, Aniara falls into a stream of stones. Maneuvering among them along a broken trajectory, she loses control and, finally losing her course, rushes into the void in the direction of the unreachable constellation of Lyra.
Fortunately, all the main nodes of the gondonder are in order. Falling into apathy after a flood of panic and desperation, the passengers gradually come to their senses. Their situation is unenviable. They will have to “endless odyssey”: neither to
Those who are in a state of forced idleness, people are looking for what to occupy themselves. Soon, there are exotic religious sects, a large part of the passengers and crew becomes “jour-worshipers” who spend all their time in carnal pleasures. They are helped in this by the priestesses of love – the “yurgini” Daisy, Yale, Trzebaeb and Libidel. Pleasures help to forget… but not completely: most of the eight thousand people of Aniara prefers to spend time in the halls of Mima, which transmits a stereoscopic picture of what is happening on other planets and star systems – wherever life exists. Created by man, Mima has the ability to self-development, moreover, she is endowed with consciousness and some degree of freedom – in any case, to force her to lie is impossible. Mime can only be turned off, with which the Aniarans
But in the sixth year of the journey, Mima begins transmitting the terrible visions of what is happening on Doris: the country of Gond burns in the whirlwinds of the fiery “photonoturb”, then the huge Dorisburg, the birthplace of Aniara turns into a boiling lava. Mima brings to the passengers not only the “picture”, but also the feelings and thoughts of those who are dying on the Earth: from the “stone thickness” they are called by the dead – deafened by the explosion and blinded by a flash of light. Now the Aniarans understand what the expression “when the stones cry out” means. What they see and hear for a long time will paralyze their will and desire to live. Strangely behaves after the transfer and Mima: first her work reveals interference, then she needs repair and asks to turn it off, on the sixth day Mima declares Mimorobu that she is blind and refuses to work: her mind is traumatized – Mima destroys herself.
From now on, people are completely alone. The last thread connecting them to the world is cut off. It’s no wonder that many aniarans indulge in memories of the past. Mimorob, as if replacing Mima, formalizes their internal monologues. In the most lengthy monologue, the Space Seaman, who previously worked on transporting people from Doris to the Planet Tundra, talks about his love for Nobby, a dedicated woman who helped miserable and desperate people and loved even the meager and stunted vegetation of the tundra and her animal-poisoned animal life. From the monologues it becomes clear which mechanized hell Doris-Earth has turned into – a living flame of burning wood is shown on it to schoolchildren as an example of a very ancient curiosity. In the memoirs of other passengers, by the way, the main milestones of the path traveled by mankind come to light: by the 23rd century “
But he looks extremely inhuman. Travel of people to Mars is forced: because of the long wars of earthlings among themselves and with other planets, Doris is poisoned by radioactivity. In the space portals of Dorisburg, people are sorted, according to their “psychophoto cards”. “Unfavorable gond”, and instead of the Planet of the Tundra it is sent to the marshes of Venus, and there they place in “Mansions and goals”, intended for the painless killing of their inhabitants. The terrestrial region of Gond, the refuge of fugitives from Dorisburg, was destroyed by a photonoturb. Exploded, apparently, on the orders of the rulers of Doris, the planet Rind with its main city Xinombe: a naked slave – a captive from this city adorns the “flying garden” of Sheforka, the absolute commander of Aniara, the phantoms “xenombras”, as furies of revenge, pursue aniarans in sleep. At all, the future of mankind appears on the pages of the poem frighteningly cruel, blurred and chaotic – that is exactly its passengers Aniara and remember. Still, they, desperate for the nonsense of being, are desirous, and they would give everything to go back.
In vain are the attempts of Mimorob to restore Mima. And as if in a laugh at the aspirations of the Aniar people, an incredible event is happening right next to them – in the same direction as Aniara, a spear sweeps past, overtaking it! It is released by unknown people. And it is not known for what purpose. But it sets a riddle to everyone – “the spear pierced all.” This happened on the tenth year of the trip. Aniarans now live in anticipation of a miracle. But they are in for a completely different surprises: they fall into a cluster of cosmic dust, which causes panic on the ship, then they are covered with a terrible feeling of endless fall into the well.
As it turns out, the most painful thing is the feeling of aimlessness of life. Szafork, the all-powerful leader of the flight, makes an attempt to overcome it in his own way: he establishes a cult of his personality, demanding the sacrifice of human victims. And what? He did not surprise the passengers of Aniara with this: Mima fed them with spectacles more scary, the fragments of them can be viewed anew in a partially restored Mimorob Mine. So twenty-four years pass. By the end of their many inhabitants of Aniara die a natural death. Among them, the terrible Shafork: having convinced that his powerful pretensions are not touched by the subjects, and having crucified in the end on the four powerful magnets of several ministers of his own cult, he, in the past, also a murderer, becomes on the eve of death the most ordinary inhabitant – the power eats the inspired illusions, which the inhabitants of Aniara can not perceive in their special situation. Mimorob recalls with sadness his attempt to forget himself in the arms of the absurd beauty Daisy and her love for Isagel, the female pilot who died of her own free will. The energy of Aniara is running out. Having settled around Mima, at its foot, the survivors, having gathered all their courage, “free time from space.”
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