Monday Begins on Saturday
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Monday Begins on Saturday (Russian: Понедельник начинается в субботу) is a 1964 science fiction (science fantasy) novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. It is set in a fictional town in northern Russia, where highly classified research in magic occurs. The novel is a satire of Soviet scientific research institutes, complete with an inept administration, a dishonest, show-horse professor, and numerous equipment failures. It also offers an idealistic view of the scientific work ethic, as reflected in the title, which suggests that the scientists' weekends are nonexistent.
The "Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry" is portrayed as a place where everyone must work hard willingly, or else their loss of honesty is symbolized by hair growing from their ears. These hairy-eared people are viewed with disdain, but, in a turn symbolic of Soviet times, many of them stay in the institute because it provides them with a comfortable living no matter what.
Tale of the Troika, which describes Soviet bureaucracy at its worst, is a sequel, featuring many of the same characters.
[edit] Characters and Events
The novel is written from the point of view of a young programmer from Leningrad, Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov (usually called Sasha), who picks up two hitchhikers during a road trip. After the two find out that he is a programmer, they convince him to stay in Solovets and work together with them in the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry.
The book contains a large number of references to well-known Russian fairy tales and children's stories (Baba Yaga, a sclerotic version of Puss in Boots, Zmey Gorinich), as well as mythology (genies, Cain) and portrays these persons and concepts (such as magic) either as objects of scientific enquiry or members of the Institute. Merlin, for example, is described as an incompetent boaster and is in charge of Institute's Department of Predictions. The Technical Helpdesk is headed by one Savaof Baalovich Odin, also described as the most powerful wizard in the universe, while the front desk is staffed by Alfred, a vampire.
The novel is remarkable for its colorful characters. Cristóbal Josevich Junta, for example, is a former High Inquisitor and currently the head of the Department of the Meaning of Life. He is also a talented taxidermist. It is rumored that his collection includes a SS Standardtenführer, who was a friend of Junta's and also a taxidermist. Cristóbal Josevich, so goes the rumor, was equally skilled, only faster. Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin, the head of the Department of Linear Happiness, is a stuttering big guy, an eternal optimist, an apprentice programmer, a fan of Erle Stanley Gardner and a mentor of sorts to Privalov. Modest Matveevich Kamnoedov (whose surname translates to "stone-eater") is an archetypal administrator bureaucrat who does not understand the "Monday begins on Saturday" work ethic. On New Year's Eve, he directs Privalov to turn off the lights and lock all doors, but Privalov soon finds out that everyone is still at the Institute and research continues. For example, the archetypically rude Viktor Korneev (usually called Vitka) claims to have left a "double" working in his lab, which Privalov recognizes to be Korneev himself, because doubles never sing or show any emotion.
Much of the action centers on the laboratory of Amvrosiy Ambroisovich Vybegallo (roughly "one who runs out"), a professor whose spectacular experiments please the public but accomplish little in the way of science. On New Year's Day, he "hatches" a "model consumer" who desires everything and can take whatever he wants. The model (called a "cadaver" in the institute's jargon) attempts to consume the whole universe, but Roman Oyra-Oyra manages to stop him by throwing him a genie in a bottle.
The final part of the book concerns the mystery of Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev, the director of the institute, who is known to be one man in two personas, called A-Janus and U-Janus. This is a fact that is generally not questioned, until, due to a number of peculiar events, the main characters find out that U-Janus is a future version of A-Janus who has turned himself back in time so that at the midnight of each day he goes to the previous day instead of the next one.
[edit] Genre classification
While the events of the novel are fantastic and are unlike most science fiction in that they are not explained, this work is traditionally considered one of science fiction, rather than fantasy for a number of reasons: the genre of fantasy did not exist in Soviet Union and rare exceptions were formally classified as sci-fi by publishers; the authors have written many books that are undoubtedly science fiction; the underlying philosophy is that of science.
[edit] English translation
In August 2005, Seagull Publishing in London published the English version of the book, under the title Monday starts on Saturday, translated by Andrew Bromfield (ISBN-13 978-0954336820). The publisher described it as "the Russian equivalent of Harry Potter, written 40 years earlier". The book uses the illustrations by Evgeny Migunov, one of the best illustrators of the works of brothers Strugatsky.
