///Therefore as a Westerner... i am surprised there was no alteration or limiting of this novel when first published ///
I agree that Western stereotypes are serious argument ;) I think that in compliance with Western ideas about life in USSR of 1960-1980s, about 60% of book and film productions could not exist, although they existed.
In particularly, LenFilm's bourgeois Holmes and Florisel series could not be screened.
Of course, officially, such phenomen as "black market" was not in USSR of 1960-1980s. But many Soviet films shot in that time told about post-war life and, in particularly, about "black market" as the post-war problem. Shortly, nobody deny that black market existed in ending 1940s.
As for authorities (or censorship or elsething), I'm sure that they even noticed the problem of "black market" in "Roadside picnic". If they worried about some things in the novel, the "black market" could be a last one.
As for Tarkovsky, firstly, he was not fit in well in common aesthetic noemes/canons too obviosly. And all incomprehensible always seems dangerous...
Unlike the Tarkovsky' movies, Strugatsky brothers, as a rule, wrote the genre stories. The genre fiction story gave more expance for manoeuvre.
Western view and black market
I agree that Western stereotypes are serious argument ;)
I think that in compliance with Western ideas about life in USSR of 1960-1980s, about 60% of book and film productions could not exist, although they existed.
In particularly,
LenFilm's bourgeois Holmes and Florisel series could not be screened.
Of course, officially, such phenomen as "black market" was not in USSR of 1960-1980s. But many Soviet films shot in that time told about post-war life and, in particularly, about "black market" as the post-war problem. Shortly, nobody deny that black market existed in ending 1940s.
As for authorities (or censorship or elsething), I'm sure that they even noticed the problem of "black market" in "Roadside picnic". If they worried about some things in the novel, the "black market" could be a last one.
As for Tarkovsky,
firstly, he was not fit in well in common aesthetic noemes/canons too obviosly. And all incomprehensible always seems dangerous...
Unlike the Tarkovsky' movies, Strugatsky brothers, as a rule, wrote the genre stories. The genre fiction story gave more expance for manoeuvre.