Literary Speculation

The novel I chose for speculative Fiction was Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic. The high-level ideas explored within creates a fantastical landscape thrust into our reality by visitors. This event, “The Visitation”, results in military restricted zones containing fantastical trinkets and extraordinarily dangerous technology. Many comparisons can be made surrounding “The Visitation” the most intentional being garbage and forgotten items left behind after a roadside picnic. How would the creatures of the forest surrrounding would be affected by these treasures and threats laid in the shrubs and grass? Speculative fiction is essential when exploring the build-up to a fantastical reality. The treasures and dangers within the zones play a similar role to how a landfill, or toxic waste affects and warps the surrounding population. Members of society that surround the zones are obsessed with the contents of the zone and the focus shifts almost wholeheartedly to its study or its relation. The event is like a vortex pulling whatever surrounds it into its disorder and chaos. The text also explores how technology can be viewed as magical when its inner workings cannot be easily explained. These artifacts removed from the zone defy the laws of physics as understood. The wish-granting artifact the golden sphere brings a religious aspect into the text and allows us to more easily relate to the fantastical nature and brings us into a more accepting mindset. These thought-provoking works breed original thought and force us to reconcile the fantastical that resides within our own reality. This level of critical thinking in necessary to drive us into a brighter future and give us direction when a planet-wide event happens in the future.