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Chargement... Things from the Flood (2016)par Simon Stålenhag
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Big book, fascinating colour illustrations throughout with a story told in words and pictures. The story of a teenage boy growing up in a place devastated by a technological disaster, with rogue AI robots, poisoned water supplies, evacuation, domestic abuse, school bullying, mysterious organic growths feeding off the debris, etc. And yet the story is beautiful, the boy finds it exciting, makes friends, plays a lot, explores no-go zones, helps a friend to build amazing machines from collecting and repairing the defunct parts strewn across the landscape, has his first kiss and cigarette; and the government takes real action in decontaminating the land. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la sérieDistinctions
"Simon Stl?enhag is back. In his new artbook Things From The Flood, Stl?enhag continues the stories of Tales From the Loop, memories of a Nordic childhood infused with strange machines and weird creatures from other dimensions. In Things From The Flood, Stl?enhag moves his focus from the '80s to the '90s, the decade of great change when the outside world truly came to Scandinavia. These are tales of the trials of youth, of schoolyard hazings, of first kisses, of finding yourself -- and robots." -- Rear cover of book. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)759.85The arts Painting History, geographic treatment, biography Fenno-Scandinavia SwedenClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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One example that painfully struck me was "The Vagabonds", where fear ultimately decided the fate of these sentient robots which had fled one massacre in Russia... only to be rounded up a second time by the Swedish locals. And yet the robots' conduct seemed at worst simply childlike - they settled in abandoned houses, worshipping living creatures and collecting bright, soft objects out of fascination. It's yet another statement of how this world can be a cruel place, crushing those who are not prepared for it and had no choice in the matter, whether they are humans or robots, and how this cruelty may simply be a part of our nature. The narrator himself exhibits one such moment when, frustrated with an AI teddy bear that won't talk, he points a gun at it and finally receives a response.
Yet another, more horrifying dimension is added to the book when it turns out the flood might be more than just water clogging the Loop - and this is where I found some parallels to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which turned up a species of fungi that consumes radioactive material. In Things From the Flood an "unknown biological component" infects the hulking machines in a macabre and fascinating way, producing growths that look like flesh and blood and even, in some cases, entire series of limbs. Once again, as with Tales From the Loop, there's that quality that comes with anecdotes where you have no way of confirming what's true and what's false, and yet you can't help but suspect that the strangest rumors of why this happened might actually be true. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found myself sympathizing more with the robots than the humans, because all things considered they were created and brought into the world without a choice, and were doomed to destruction whether by human or alien hands.
On another note, the brief cyberpunk-like glimpse into city life (and the accompanying artwork) was so neatly conceived. I found the concept of vertical cities intriguing - entire megabuildings containing thousands of apartment units, with entire schools and subways on the bottom level, definitely seems like something a futuristic world would have to free up land for various purposes. The logistics of such a place would be mind-boggling but fascinating to consider. And this setting is also where the familiar phantasmagorical images of The Electric State begin to show themselves, from creepy grinning cat balloons to deceptively cheerful floating billboards. Once again I'm utterly impressed by Stalenhag's comprehensive vision of this alternate-universe dystopia, and I would love to know the process through which he created all this.
Finally, the ending seems to take us full circle - "closing the loop" as it were, even as we're reminded that what is buried does not always stay that way. The narrator returns to his home with a faint feeling of loss that he manages to shake off as the immediacy of everyday life begins to set in again. It really illustrates the fleeting nature of human memory, how quickly we can forget the darkness of our history, and I love the hints sprinkled here and there that the Loop and its mechanical children may not be completely gone.
Definitely recommending to all my sci-fi enthusiast friends!
Adding my favorite quotes to come back to later:
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