Hard to Be a God- Book Review
After reading various history books and primary sources over the course of this fall semester, I decided to take a slight detour from my normal reading. I had seen this book previously and forgotten about it completely until I was going through my Amazon wish list a few weeks ago. I had never read any Soviet era science fiction so the opportunity to do so for an independent study was the perfect excuse to do so. Science fiction is a fantastic genre for exploring the human condition, since the themes that are discussed can take place outside of everyday life and in any fantastic future world imaginable.
Hard to Be a God is one book in a larger series set in the "Noon Universe" created by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. What I found interesting about this story is that it focuses almost entirely on the interactions between people. Spacecraft, replicators, and other futuristic devices are mentioned on the periphery but do not form a central part Strugatsky brothers to focus on the interactions of people instead of filling the dialogue with endless technobabble.
Hard to Be a God is a science fiction book that was written by the Strugatsky brothers in the 1960's. The story follows an undercover historian from a future Earth where the Soviet Union still exists. The planet that Anton, or as he is called on this alien world Don Rumata, is currently in a version of the Middle Ages. Anton is there to act as an observer, following a policy of noninterference similar to what developed in Star Trek as the Prime Directive.
“To conclude, we must be firmly aware of the fact that neither you nor I nor any of us will see the tangible fruits of our labors. We’re not physicists, we’re historians. For us, time isn’t measured in seconds but in centuries, and our work isn’t even sowing , it’s preparing the ground for sowing.”- Hard to Be a God (p. 40) Kindle Edition.
The narrative focuses almost entirely on Anton (Don Rumata) and his actions over the course of what seems to be a year or so in the book. There are numerous themes that are present in this work, from religion as a means of oppression, to the idea that feudalism and eventually capitalism are brutish systems that can hinder human progress.
In that sense, Don Condor is right: Reba is nothing, a tiny speck in comparison with the enormous influence of traditions, the rules of the herd— sanctified by centuries, unshakable, tested, accessible to the dullest of the dull, freeing one from the necessity of thinking and wondering.- Hard to Be a God (p. 85) Kindle Edition.
At every such dinner, vast quantities of fine food were devoured, whole lakes of ancient wines were drunk, and masses of dishes made from the famous Estorian china were damaged or broken. In one of his reports to the king, the Minister of Finance bragged that just one of His Majesty’s dinners costs as much as maintaining the Soanian Academy of Science for half a year.- Hard to Be a God (pp. 131-132) Kindle Edition.
To a visitor from Earth, they all had something in common. It was probably the fact that almost without exception, they were not yet humans in the modern sense of the world, but blanks, unfinished pieces, which only the bloody centuries of history could one day fashion into true men, proud and free. They were passive, greedy, and incredibly, fantastically selfish. Almost all of them had the psychology of slaves— slaves of religions, slaves of their own kind, slaves of their pathetic passions, slaves of avarice. And if the fates decreed for one of them to be born or become a master, he didn’t know what to do with his freedom. He would again hurry to become a slave— a slave of wealth , a slave of outlandish excesses, a slave of his slaves. The vast majority of them weren’t guilty of anything . They were too passive and too ignorant. Their slavery was the result of passivity and ignorance, and passivity and ignorance again and again breeds slavery. If they were all identical, there would be reason to throw up your hands and lose hope. But they were still people, the bearers of the spark of reason. And here and there in their midst, the fires of the incredibly distant and inevitable future would kindle and blaze up.- Hard to Be a God (p. 145-46) Kindle Edition.
These people’s souls are full of rot, and each hour of meek waiting contaminates them even more. This very moment , these silent houses are invisibly breeding rascals, informers, and murderers, thousands of people who will remain stricken by fear their whole lives, and who will mercilessly teach fear to their children and the children of their children.- Hard to Be a God (p. 174) Kindle Edition. In addition to the various anti-religious themes and passages in the book there were also many devoted to ideas of revolution. The exchange between Don Rumata and a blacksmith echoes many of the goals of communist revolutionaries:
Here’s something else for you to ponder, blacksmith. You’re all alone in the world, but there are ten thousand of you in the city.” “So?” said the blacksmith. “Think about it,” Rumata said irritably, and kept walking. The hell he’ll think of anything. It’s too early for him to think. And it seems so simple: ten thousand hammerers like that, in a rage , could crush anyone to a pulp. Except rage is what they don’t have yet. Only fear.- Hard to Be a God (p. 185) Kindle Edition.
The discussion of evil in Hard to Be a God is another central theme in the narrative. This passage between Don Rumata and a native doctor is a perfect example of how the Strugatsky brothers discuss evil. Whether or not you agree with any of the conclusions that the Strugatsky brothers come to, it is hard ignore the compelling narrative and originality of the story they created.
But what is evil? Everyone is free to understand this in his own way. For us scholars, evil is in ignorance, but the church teaches that ignorance is a blessing and that all evil comes from knowledge. For the plowman evil is taxes and drought, and for the bread-seller droughts are good. For a slave, evil is a drunk and cruel master; for a craftsman , a greedy moneylender. So what is this evil against which we must struggle, Don Rumata?” He looked sadly at his listeners . “Evil is ineradicable. No man is able to decrease its quantity in the world. He can improve his own fate somewhat, but it is always at the expense of the fate of others . And there will always be kings, some more cruel and some less, and barons, some more violent and some less, and there will always be the ignorant masses, who admire their oppressors and loathe their liberators. And it’s all because a slave has a much better understanding of his master, however brutal, than his liberator, for each slave can easily imagine himself in his master’s place, but few can imagine themselves in the place of a selfless liberator. That’s how people are, Don Rumata, and that’s how our world is."- Hard to Be a God (p. 206) Kindle Edition.
English Subtitle Trailer for the new film adaptation of Hard to Be a God-
Featured Image- Hard to Be a God promotional still.