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myrdschaemFollow up after reading Voices of Chernobyl, I binged the series from HBO. It's been said before, but the Chernobyl is an excellent exercise in cosmic horror story telling. The series has a companion podcast hosted by Peter Sagal of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and the main writer discussing each episode without spoilers, but going a bit more into detail what is and isn't artistic license or streamlined. It's however not exhaustive, I believe. One big caveat I would mention for this series is that even with that annotations, it's still a dramatisation and the writer also got things wrong. Basically it should be treated as a better Titanic and only an introduction to the events, a compelling hook. I'm sure I am somewhat preaching to the choir here, but I have also watched a few people reacting to the series and some take it as a basis to judge the Soviet system.
There is also bias in the account - it's clear the series creator thinks Dyatlov at least has significant culpability - I am not saying he doesn't, but I do want to look into it further before making up my mind and the series has already a clear spin towards painting Dyatlov as unpleasant. Ultimately, the series does get the big beats however and it really shines with transmitting the everyday tragedies of common people affected on all levels, both living there and involved with the clean-up.
Overall, while it is masterful television, episode 3 and 4 are some of the hardest television to watch, ever. It's done so well and I would say everyone should plan in some downtime after these to process, even if it's not something usually needed. It is that harsh and they even turned it down.
I am really glad I read Voices of Chernobyl because many of the most excellent moments are clearly drawing from the stories shared in the book. The whole animal liquidation squad is based on it, only they literally took out some of the worst in the ending. To put that in context for people who didn't watch, they clearly kill puppies of screen with guns in the series. Khumyok, the scientist amalgamate gets several scenes inspired by accounts shared in the book. I also didn't know about the roof service in detail when I read it, but there are of course interviews by men from there in it as well. And finally, the most principal of all these is Lyudmila's account of the death of her fire fighter husband.
I really encourage reading Voices of Chernobyl overall, as it goes more into detail of the on the ground accounts and it can in some way convey more of it because it is text. Watching reactions to Lyudmila's part was sometimes frustrating as many viewers reacted to her actions with calling her dumb or claiming that she didn't understand. This does in some way reflect what I thought while reading her account, but over the text I slowly changed my mind. She is stricken with love, in the mythological sense, where love is not a good, always victorious thing but an affliction that just as often cuts the lovers deep into flesh. She gets warned and in her mind does understand that radiation is dangerous to her and the child. She emotionally couldn't leave him, she was unable to do anything like that. All her actions centered around him. The scenes in episode 3 with him are shocking, but ultimately softened from the actual account. She spoke of Death and Love being tangled up and inseparable for her.
This broke her. Even years after the disaster she couldn't move on. Now it's been 25 years since that interview, maybe she has found a way to leave it behind. These were very complicated feelings she had wrapped up in this. If this was a fictional account, I would call the behaviour kitschy and unbelievable. This was a level of devotion that seems unreal, because so few people, even in love, ever reach it. Other wifes visited the men but none as obsessively as her, staying even through the worst of the worst. It's no mistake that her powerful story of love and death opened the book. I don't know how the show could have transmitted this better, because a lot of it is internal and text can speak of these things more easily. Again, can't urge anyone enough to read Voices of Chernobyl.
I need to mention as well that when Khumyok states "they say the baby absorbed all the radiation" on the show, something that has often been called out as false, it comes from Lyudmila's own account. That is something that she believed to make sense of it. It's not necessarily scientific truth, but her own.
I want to talk about the film making craft a bit. I admit I am not good at movie or visual media analysis, but even to someone relatively novice it's clear that Chenobyl is amazing. Some of the stand out moments for me are the 90 second roof sequence and the cliff hanger in the second episode. The way they built tension as the divers venture deeper, getting less light and Geiger counters screaming. It produces real dread for viewers, just straight horror of something invisible, intangible that will kill humans. Very much the biggest monster in the dark moment... And in reality there was no light to help them in the end and they knew that.
All the few glimpses into the reactor core are absolutely chilling. Even knowing it's effects, they are terrifying. Praise goes to the amazing soundtrack as well. It's almost atmospheric and full of noises recorded in the zone, I believe. It's understated, just like the camera work is dispassionate, leaving viewers to fill in the emotions for the most part. Sometimes there is some effects, like a shaking when Legasov moves forward to testify as he is nervous. I like the muted colours as well.
Some parts in the series lost me a bit because scenes were "translated" culturally for an american audience. Boris threatening to throw out Legasov, for example, not because a threat is unrealistic but because it would be more something like threatening to take away the party book or barring him from exercising his job. Another example is the volunteering scene, from what I understand the workers decided between themselves without input. They still volunteered, but there were no big speeches. There was a lot of quiet heroism which were amplified for the series, but it also takes away a bit from the humbleness of these people. The minister of coal was changed to a fob instead of someone who had been a miner since 15. Overall these are small, but they can add up to the mood. The creator mentioned that US Americans/westerners wouldn't get the sense of duty and responsibility to others that drives some of these sacrifices... I don't really know if I can believe that, because it seems obvious motivations to me. But I don't know if I am biased from my own background...
I am mostly through the Khmer legends - "Sagen und Legenden der Khmer" - in that I finished the stories and have annotations left. Still substantial. I didn't really click with the style of them, I feel, but it's still a well made collection with sources cited too. A few tropes I have seen in the stories:
- several of them feature a mother and a son that are separated, don't recognize each other for reasons and start fucking. There were at least two. The usual conclusion to this is that they find out, are shocked and the son apologizes to the mother. He usually gets told to build something like a stupa or for the people to make amends for the motherfucking.
- a lot of very specific place names from the stories for the tiniest thing. "Where the boat almost turned over" and so on.
- several friendly crocodiles! They are neat, but are easily distracted by the promise of fighting another crocodile. Sadly, when a human is riding them, their protective instinct is to swallow them. The humans don't survive, of course, oops.
There is also bias in the account - it's clear the series creator thinks Dyatlov at least has significant culpability - I am not saying he doesn't, but I do want to look into it further before making up my mind and the series has already a clear spin towards painting Dyatlov as unpleasant. Ultimately, the series does get the big beats however and it really shines with transmitting the everyday tragedies of common people affected on all levels, both living there and involved with the clean-up.
Overall, while it is masterful television, episode 3 and 4 are some of the hardest television to watch, ever. It's done so well and I would say everyone should plan in some downtime after these to process, even if it's not something usually needed. It is that harsh and they even turned it down.
I am really glad I read Voices of Chernobyl because many of the most excellent moments are clearly drawing from the stories shared in the book. The whole animal liquidation squad is based on it, only they literally took out some of the worst in the ending. To put that in context for people who didn't watch, they clearly kill puppies of screen with guns in the series. Khumyok, the scientist amalgamate gets several scenes inspired by accounts shared in the book. I also didn't know about the roof service in detail when I read it, but there are of course interviews by men from there in it as well. And finally, the most principal of all these is Lyudmila's account of the death of her fire fighter husband.
I really encourage reading Voices of Chernobyl overall, as it goes more into detail of the on the ground accounts and it can in some way convey more of it because it is text. Watching reactions to Lyudmila's part was sometimes frustrating as many viewers reacted to her actions with calling her dumb or claiming that she didn't understand. This does in some way reflect what I thought while reading her account, but over the text I slowly changed my mind. She is stricken with love, in the mythological sense, where love is not a good, always victorious thing but an affliction that just as often cuts the lovers deep into flesh. She gets warned and in her mind does understand that radiation is dangerous to her and the child. She emotionally couldn't leave him, she was unable to do anything like that. All her actions centered around him. The scenes in episode 3 with him are shocking, but ultimately softened from the actual account. She spoke of Death and Love being tangled up and inseparable for her.
This broke her. Even years after the disaster she couldn't move on. Now it's been 25 years since that interview, maybe she has found a way to leave it behind. These were very complicated feelings she had wrapped up in this. If this was a fictional account, I would call the behaviour kitschy and unbelievable. This was a level of devotion that seems unreal, because so few people, even in love, ever reach it. Other wifes visited the men but none as obsessively as her, staying even through the worst of the worst. It's no mistake that her powerful story of love and death opened the book. I don't know how the show could have transmitted this better, because a lot of it is internal and text can speak of these things more easily. Again, can't urge anyone enough to read Voices of Chernobyl.
I need to mention as well that when Khumyok states "they say the baby absorbed all the radiation" on the show, something that has often been called out as false, it comes from Lyudmila's own account. That is something that she believed to make sense of it. It's not necessarily scientific truth, but her own.
I want to talk about the film making craft a bit. I admit I am not good at movie or visual media analysis, but even to someone relatively novice it's clear that Chenobyl is amazing. Some of the stand out moments for me are the 90 second roof sequence and the cliff hanger in the second episode. The way they built tension as the divers venture deeper, getting less light and Geiger counters screaming. It produces real dread for viewers, just straight horror of something invisible, intangible that will kill humans. Very much the biggest monster in the dark moment... And in reality there was no light to help them in the end and they knew that.
All the few glimpses into the reactor core are absolutely chilling. Even knowing it's effects, they are terrifying. Praise goes to the amazing soundtrack as well. It's almost atmospheric and full of noises recorded in the zone, I believe. It's understated, just like the camera work is dispassionate, leaving viewers to fill in the emotions for the most part. Sometimes there is some effects, like a shaking when Legasov moves forward to testify as he is nervous. I like the muted colours as well.
Some parts in the series lost me a bit because scenes were "translated" culturally for an american audience. Boris threatening to throw out Legasov, for example, not because a threat is unrealistic but because it would be more something like threatening to take away the party book or barring him from exercising his job. Another example is the volunteering scene, from what I understand the workers decided between themselves without input. They still volunteered, but there were no big speeches. There was a lot of quiet heroism which were amplified for the series, but it also takes away a bit from the humbleness of these people. The minister of coal was changed to a fob instead of someone who had been a miner since 15. Overall these are small, but they can add up to the mood. The creator mentioned that US Americans/westerners wouldn't get the sense of duty and responsibility to others that drives some of these sacrifices... I don't really know if I can believe that, because it seems obvious motivations to me. But I don't know if I am biased from my own background...
I am mostly through the Khmer legends - "Sagen und Legenden der Khmer" - in that I finished the stories and have annotations left. Still substantial. I didn't really click with the style of them, I feel, but it's still a well made collection with sources cited too. A few tropes I have seen in the stories:
- several of them feature a mother and a son that are separated, don't recognize each other for reasons and start fucking. There were at least two. The usual conclusion to this is that they find out, are shocked and the son apologizes to the mother. He usually gets told to build something like a stupa or for the people to make amends for the motherfucking.
- a lot of very specific place names from the stories for the tiniest thing. "Where the boat almost turned over" and so on.
- several friendly crocodiles! They are neat, but are easily distracted by the promise of fighting another crocodile. Sadly, when a human is riding them, their protective instinct is to swallow them. The humans don't survive, of course, oops.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-15 08:32 am (UTC)I found it absolutely shattering. I couldn’t watch some of it. But excellently made.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-15 01:09 pm (UTC)