GOSPEL REMINISCENCES IN S. SNEGOV’S SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL “PEOPLE AS GODS”

Abstract

The article analyses the novel by S. Snegov, a famous Soviet science fiction writer of the second half of the 20th century, whose work has hardly been studied, and the problem of the evangelical intertext has not been regarded at all. The current study of a fragment of the narrative about the relationship between the protagonist and the “snake girl” allows showing that it is reminiscent of the biblical story about the Fall of the first people. At the same time, Snegov completely modifies the well-known narrative: the plot about the insidious serpent (in the form of which the devil penetrated Eden), which tempted a woman pure as the driven snow, is radically transformed, acquiring a paradoxically inverted form — here a man tempts a naïve and uncorrupt snake girl with his mad infatuation and, parting with her, realizes that he is leaving her soul in a turbulent state. It is determined that in the ideological structure of the novel, the minor “Eli — snake girl” storyline plays an extremely important role: the love of the main character actually equates the star-dwellers with earthlings, completely refuting the idea that man is the highest form of intelligent life in the Universe and can perceive aliens only as inferior beings. The analysis of the epigraph shows that the biblical event described in it becomes a key to understanding the dispute that occurred between the central characters and formed the core of the artistic conflict of the first part of the novel. A clear associative connection is established between Snegov’s hero and the Apostle Paul, and by extrapolating the gospel plot reflected in the epigraph to the situation in question, one can clearly see a parallel with the spread of Christianity among pagans. The incorporation of the gospel text into the artistic structure of a science fiction novel allowed the writer to recall the enduring moral values that do not lose their significance for people of the distant future.