The Bull's Hour
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Hour of the Bull'' (, ''Chas Byká'') is a social science fiction novel written by
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
author and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov in
1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
. Six months after its publication in book form in 1970 Soviet authorities attempted to remove it from libraries and bookshops after realizing that it contained a sharp criticism of the current state of affairs in the USSR disguised as a critique of "Capitalism" and Chinese-style communism of that time. It was published again in the 1980s " perestrojka" and thereafter. This novel is considered a sequel to the
1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...
novel '' Andromeda'', taking place in the same universe some century or more later. Even though the cast of characters is entirely different, an occasional reference is made to the events and characters of the previous volume. For example, the main character in ''The Hour of the Bull'' is a female historian who on one occasion remembers most of the notable ''Andromeda'' characters as historical figures.


Plot summary

The plot is of the "
story within a story A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometime ...
" format. The actual story is told as an answer to a question asked in school at a lesson about the patterns of the development of societies. The story goes as follows. :Some 3000 years in the future, a Communist Earth has just developed
faster-than-light Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...
space travel based on the experiment of Ren Boz (from the ''Andromeda'' novel). Using the new technology, Earth constructs "straight-beam" starships which travel by sliding on the edge between our Universe (''"Shakti"'') and the Anti-Universe (''"Tamas"''). The second ship of that kind, ''Dark Flame'', departs from the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
on a mission to a habitable planet Tormance (named after the planet in '' A Voyage to Arcturus'' by David Lindsay—whom Yefremov erroneously refers to as Arthur Lindsay) in the
Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...
constellation, which was reported by alien space voyagers from Cepheus to be colonized by humans, thought to be Earth escapees from the Age before World Unification. :The society of this distant planet is labelled by Efremov as "an amalgamation of a
Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
in its worst form and of a Chinese pseudo-
socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
" and a part of "Inferno" (a deep philosophical concept of Efremov's relating to the Nature and the natural way of things, always as he claims infernal towards the living thinking sentient beings), a society in which ordinary workers' lives are limited to 26 local years ("short-living", KJI, or КЖИ for ) while scientists, engineers and other selected qualified professionals live out their natural lives ("long-living", DJI, or ДЖИ for ), with artists, sportspeople and "models" given somewhat longer life-spans than that of KJI (up to about 34 years). Both KJI and DJI are under the ruthless totalitarian control of the ruling class of government bureaucracy ("snake-carriers", similar to the prototypical "inner-party members" of
Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
's ''
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
'') and the police forces ("the lilac"), which in turn are under the direct command of the Council of Four and its Chairman, the actual Ruler of the planet. The most shocking aspect of its civilization for the
Earthling Earthling or Earthlings may refer to: Film and television * ''Earthling'' (film), a 2010 sci-fi film * ''Earthlings'' (film), a 2005 animal rights documentary * '' The Earthling'', a 1980 drama film * "Earthling" (''Fringe''), a 2009 TV episod ...
s is its total control of information, maintaining separate information systems for separate social strata, with full and true information available ultimately only to the Supreme Leader (who, for example, is the only one on the whole planet knowing that Tormance people are, in fact, from Earth). :The plot follows the Communist crew as they establish contact and explore the planet's society, eventually sacrificing some lives including that of the expedition leader, female historian Fay Rodis, for the sake of free future of the planet and its people. Their influence is predominantly through providing full and true information freely to all people about Earth's past and present, and their views of the situation on the planet. They also provide a selective short memory-eraser to be used against the system's spies by the nascent resistance. Also, some of the crew (esp. Rodis) have the mental capacity to do the same sort of influence without use of the device. Every member of the crew was also accompanied by a nine-legged discoid robot called SDF (Servant, Defender and Freighter). :As the Earth spaceship prepares to depart home, the astronavigator Vir Norin volunteers to stay and help the resistance fighters. After the story of Tormance has been told in the classroom it was clarified by the teacher that the contact with the Earth people had eventually indeed helped the people of Tormance to achieve Freedom. Now, some 130 years after the events, the Earth had just received a message from the Tormancians, and a starship from one of Earth colonies was being prepared to be sent to Tormance.


Main concepts

*''Inferno'', the Nature and Nature's way of death and suffering at the basis of life and development (evolution etc.). Main measure of societal infernality is how much efforts are the individuals forced to spend "for nothing", without contributing to their well-being. The main achievement of Humanity in the novel is that it overcame the ''Inferno'' through arduous journey finally achieving "free and rational life for everyone". *''
Ahriman Angra Mainyu (; ) is the Avestan name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive/evil spirit" and the main adversary in Zoroastrianism either of the Spenta Mainyu, the "holy/creative spirits/mentality", or directly of Ahura Mazda, th ...
's arrow'', the apparent selection and forces in the infernal societies directed against their best and brightest and most good-willing. *Communist moneyless Earth society, self-organizing through interactions of free highly morally developed responsible individuals, with collective child-rearing, direct planet-wide voting and discussions on every issue, and High Councils coordinating people's efforts each in its area of expertise. *Protective societal systems, targeted at preventing the lowly infernal parts of human psyche to resurface and break the finely tuned societal order of Communist Earth (e.g. counteracting aggressive tendencies in advance, that would otherwise necessitate counter-force in self-defense, if allowed to develop into actions). *''The Great Ring of Civilizations'' communicating with each other by sending radio signals through space each to its closest neighbor, enduring the delays as determined by the laws of physics, exchanging ideas and information about each other's culture, history and values. The sending of the signal is described as taking an enormous amount of energy, on planetary scale, in order to reach even the closest neighboring civilization in the Ring. *The cardinal law of the Great Ring whereas any interference in a state's internal affairs is forbidden unless that civilization is impeding free access to the full, unaltered, non-filtered and non-distorted information for all and any of its subjects – in which case such a state is said to have no right to exist and the interference by the Great Ring is demanded to free its people and ensure their Right to Know and Right to Think:


Eras of human history

Spanning approximately three thousand years from the 20th century to the present time of the novel, these are: * The Era of Disjoint World * The Era of World Reunion   (people of the world uniting together, creating the new society) * The Era of Common Labor   (the period of cleaning, improving and beautifying the Earth) * The Era of the Great Ring   (started with the discovery of the Great Ring) * The Era of Meeting Hands   (started with the discovery of faster-than-light communications and travel) It is hinted that a devastating world war has occurred between the eras of Disjoint World and World Reunion, nearly wiping out the Humanity. And prior to it there was a period of great ecological degradation and pollution resulting in widespread diseases, genetic and otherwise, increase in cancer rates and planet-wide epidemics (that's when the progenitors of Tormancian human population had left the "doomed" Earth on a starship flotilla that subsequently "fell through a space-time anomaly", and found itself near the inhabitable planet of Tormance, by pure chance).


Main characters


Starship ''Dark Flame'' crew

*Fay Rodis, expedition commander, historian *Grif Rift, annihilation drive engineer, starship commander *Vir Norin, astronavigator-I *Menta Cor, astronavigator-II *Div Simbel, pilot-engineer *Gan Atal, armour belt defence engineer *Nei Holly, biological defence engineer *Sol Sain, computational devices engineer *Olla Dez, communication and photography officer *Evisa Tanet, medical officer, StarFleet Doctor *Tivisa Henako, biologist *Chedi Daan, sociologist, linguist *Tor Lik, astrophysicist, planetologist


Planet Tormance characters

*Choyo Chagas, Chairman of the Big Four, the ruler of the Planet *Gen Shi, Zet Ug, Ka Loof, his deputies, other members of the Big Four *Yantreh Yahhahh, his wife *Er Vo-Bia, his girlfriend *Honte'ello Tollo Fraelle (or Taele), his communications officer *Yan Gao-Yuar (Yangar), commander of "the lilac" *Su An-Te (Su-Te), Tormance girl *Kzer Boo-Yam, "leader of the KJI" ("the short-living")


Publications and translations

The novel was first published in 1968 in the Soviet popular science magazine ''
Tekhnika Molodezhi ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' (, "Technology for the Youth") is a Soviet, and eventually Russian popular science magazine which has been published monthly since 1933. History and profile ''Tekhnika Molodezhi'' was established in 1933. During the Soviet ...
'' (Technology for the Youth). The second publication was in 1969, in magazine '' Molodaya Gvardiya'' (Young Guard). Book editions: *1970, publisher "Molodaya Gvardiya", 200000 copies *1988, publisher "MPI", 135000 copies After breakup of the USSR, there were more publications of the book. The novel was translated to Hungarian (1972), Czech (1973), French (1979), Bulgarian (1984), Ukrainian (1990, 1991), and Polish (2015) languages.


See also

* ''Eden'', a novel by
Stanislaw Lem Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...
. * '' The Lucifer Principle'', a book by Howard Bloom.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulls Hour, The 1968 science fiction novels 1968 in the Soviet Union Dystopian novels Novels by Ivan Yefremov Molodaya Gvardiya (publisher) books