Draugos ar zinātni: zinātniskie aspekti Jāņa Veseļa daiļradē

Abstract

Writer Jānis Veselis is a classic of the Latvian literature, one of the most peculiar prose writers from the 1920s to 1940s. Initially, the artistic style of Veselis was heavily influenced by World War I poetics of collision and expressionism, later by the ideas about neopagan movements. The writer has an active imagination. His writing style is characterised by fabulous neo-mythical tendencies. Despite that, Veselis was friends with science. Many of his texts are filled with delight about the achievements of modern science. He is taken away by the explosive growth of the exact sciences, especially astronomy. In the centre of many of Veselis’s works (“Sun’s Cemetery” (Saules kapsēta, 1921); “People of Fields” (Tīrumu ļaudis, 1927); literary cycle “Soul of Steel” (Tērauda dvēsele, 1934–1946)), there is a representative of engineer’s profession. Scientific aspects in the most concise way are integrated into the literary cycle of novels called “Soul of Steel” (“Human Uprising” (Cilvēku sacelšanās, 1934); “Soul of Steel” (Tērauda dvēsele, 1938); “Big March” (Lielais gājiens, 1946)). The novels are interspersed with science-fiction motifs. The first two novels of the cycle revolve around an engineer-constructor named Rudājs. He postulates ideas about man’s ability to control natural processes, and he also dreams about expanding into the universe. The novels “Human Uprising” and “Soul of Steel” are saturated with reflections about different modern science problems. For example, about obtaining energy from splitting atoms, endless lengths of space, and the universe’s eventual border. Scientific concepts and terminology from physics, chemistry, and astronomy are all common in the novels. At the end of the cycle’s second novel, the main character goes into the vast universe in his self-constructed rocket. The trilogy shows the writer’s power of insight and his rich imagination. In the context of the time, that is considered a rather innovative occurrence in Latvian novel. The dissonant mixture of scientific and mythological elements is regarded as a misleading element.