Political Phantasmagoria. Three short stories, 2017

Innokenty Slanevsky

About the stories InВ December 2017В the book with 80В stories came out inВ Russian. InВ this book there are three ofВ his stories: The Last Home, The Extraterrestrial and The Immortal Picture.

Political Phantasmagoria

Three short stories, 2017

Innokenty Slanevsky

© Innokenty Slanevsky, 2017

ISBNВ 978-5-4490-1718-5

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About the AUTHOR and the STORIES

Innokenty Slanevsky is aВ Russian author ofВ short stories who has developed his own unrepeatable style: the mixture ofВ political satire with fantastic elements and the revelation ofВ social problems with satirical mysticism. His first seven stories were published inВ 2016, and inВ December 2017В the book with 80В stories came out inВ Russian. He lives inВ the Novgorod region ofВ Russia, works as aВ neurologist, married. InВ this book there are three ofВ his stories: THE LAST HOME, THE IMMORTAL PICTURE and THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL.

THE LAST HOME has an anti-war theme. The allegorical presentation ofВ the situation can be easily recognized byВ aВ reader though there are no real names ofВ politicians or countries. The story can be called aВ political satire with elements ofВ fantasy and satirical hyperbole.

THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL highlights the problem ofВ what is considered normal under different political regimes. The events ofВ the plot could be called fantastic if the things criticized byВ means ofВ hyperbolic absurdity were not so real and well known toВ aВ reader.

THE IMMORTAL PICTURE is an allegorical political sketch where the Picture is an undying embodiment of struggle against a cruel and unfair political regime. The story resembles impressionists’ pictures by its plot developing in visions.

1.В THE LASTВ HOME

“I congratulate you, Captain, now we are submariners!” told me the colonel. “We were pilots, and now we are submariners. We have changed our profession, so to say. Or rather, we have been re-qualified. The only difference is that me a little earlier, than you.

“What the hell is going on, Commander?” I asked. I did not fully realize the change that had happened with me.

“To put it simply, Captain, you and me have been scammed and formatted anew, as they say now. You have probably noticed that we are on the bottom of the sea. Instead of lungs we have gills. We can breathe only when we are in the water. Now we no longer have any voice ligaments and we can no longer speak. We communicate mentally. You send me your thought, and I send you mine, that’s how we understand each other. Over time, both your body and mine will have other changes: membranes between fingers, scaly skin, a tail will grow, and so on. At first it will seem unusual and even unacceptable to you, but this is not fatal, and you will get used to it and feel comfortable.

“Who did all that with us and why do you speak about it so calmly, Commander?” I asked indignantly. “Did you really accept your new body without any protest?”

“Not at once, Captain,” the colonel said unconcernedly, “but after some time, when I realized that another option is impossible.”

“But what happened with you, Commander? And with me? Could you give me any intelligible explanation at all?”

“I’ll try, Captain,” said the colonel. “It happened in the third year of the war. I flew to bomb an enemy on the other side of the sea. It is in that sea where we live safely and happily now. My plane suddenly became uncontrollable in the sky over the sea. But I swear that the plane was in order, absolute order! I had checked it! I checked it before every flight. By that time, I had already flown for many years, I had made hundreds of combat sorties, and I could operate my plane as easily as my arms and legs. My plane was like part of me! But on that ill-fated day, in the sky over the sea, the plane suddenly refused to obey me. It began to control me instead. Despite all my great experience I failed to manage it!”

“How co