Aurelius "Ariel" Galton

Forced to study at the school for gifted children “Dandarathe”, students learn many skills, be it knowledge of languages, exact and human sciences, physical development, hypnosis and occult sciences. So that such people do not become dangerous, their will is constantly suppressed, which often leads to madness or death. By the age of seventeen, Aurelius himself already begins to educate younger students. After escaping from Dandarat and subsequent adventures, Aurelius becomes a successful athlete and circus artist, touring around the world.

Hypnosis

Before gaining the ability to levitate, Ariel was trained in hypnosis . Ariel did not achieve much success, but he became the least hypnotic in Dandarat. Knowing the mercenary intentions of the leaders of the school, Ariel pretended to be easily hypnotized, this partially helped him get out of school.

Levitation

Aurelius gained the ability to levitate thanks to a special medical experiment in which a test solution is administered to a test subject, which catalyzes the Brownian movement of molecules in the body, but is transformed into a directed rather than chaotic one. In this case, the test subject willpower and muscle response can direct his movement in the right direction. There were several subjects: this is a frog, which flew away without thinking of resisting gravity; a caterpillar that reacted, and therefore did not fall to the floor, but remained suspended in the air; a dog that nearly flew away, but the scientist’s response made her return; Ariel himself and Dr. Hyde became the only people, for the latter the experiment was unsuccessful, and since only Hyde knew the secret of the ingredients, then after his death Ariel remained the only successful experience in creating a flying person.

Belyaev began writing Ariel in the spring of 1939. He dedicated the novel to his youngest daughter Svetlana. The first edition of the novel occurred only in 1941, a year before the death of the writer.

Companions and researchers of Belyaev’s work, say that Belyaev himself served as the basis for the image of Ariel, as well as for Duel and Ihtiandr, while he was weakened from tuberculosis, from 1915 to 1921, was confined to a bed. During this time, the writer survived a series of not only physical upheavals, but also tragic ones. His wife leaves him, and in 1919 his mother Nadezhda Vasilyevna dies.

The name Ariel itself is borrowed by Belyaev from Shakespeare's play Storm , in which Ariel represents the spirit of the air. In the novel, Galton's teachers named him not only in honor of the character of Shakespeare, but also because of the harmony with his own name Aurelius.

Ariel Belyaev created relying on Ichthyander , the hero of his story , Amphibian Man . Magazine World of Fiction , even called Ariel and Ichthyander Dairy Brothers ^[1] . Both characters by means of artificial mutation become superhuman, and this circumstance more hinders them in life, exacerbating the already strong social isolation.

According to the book of Nicholas Nepomniachtchi “One Hundred Great Secrets of Antiquity”, the prototype for Ariel was the Latvian Edward Lindskalnynsh , whom Belyaev apparently knew, and who, as they say, possessed the secret of levitation.

There are two adaptations of this story: “The satellite of the planet Uranus” (1990, USSR, Uzbekfilm) and “Ariel” (1992), shot by Evgeny Kotov. The role of Ariel was performed by Pavel Vinnik and Andrei Sukhov, respectively.

Andrei Tarkovsky and Friedrich Gorenstein also tried to film Ariel ^[2] . They even wrote the script, but, unfortunately, this did not go beyond this. In the film, as conceived by Tarkovsky, Aurelius was to become a Catholic monk. The film was stopped at the development stage, but the script has already been created, the working title is “Light Wind”. Since 2013, the son of Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jr. , has begun over the film adaptation ^[3] .

Both Ariel and Ichthyander are outcasts in a capitalist society. As conceived by the author, a special person is not allowed to be happy in a system where material wealth is valued above all. Being superhumans, they are nevertheless tormented by the society in which they are. More and more often the heroes of Alexander Belyaev are ranked as superheroes. More often it is noticeable in the USA, where the genre appeared and where the genre of the novels Amphibian Man and Ariel is referred to as Superhero novels . Ariel appeared three years later than Superman ^[4] . What is noteworthy, the first film adaptation of Superman appeared in the same year that Ariel Alexandra Belyaeva was released ^[5] .

Ariel’s image is contradictory: being closed, he is nonetheless a decisive person who is able to go against the system, whether it be the secret organization Dundarat, the corrupt police, the New York gangsters or the society of English snob aristocrats. The writer Eugene Krasnitsky spoke about Ichthyander and Ariel as carriers of the motive of the national liberation struggle ^[6] .

Online magazine "Russian Fantasy":

The image of Ariel is the writer’s best achievement, in which the author’s faith in the unlimited creative possibilities of a person was substantively realized. Toward the end of his life, A. Belyaev abandoned the technical and social problems imposed on him and fully surrendered to what always attracted him: a romantic description of a person overcoming “gravity”.

- Russian science fiction ^[7]

In music

According to the official version, the vocal-instrumental ensemble Ariel was named after the hero Alexander Belyaev, however Valery Yarushin denied this, saying that in fact the name “Ariel” goes back to the spirit of the air, which exists in the biblical tradition, but in order to circumvent the harsh Soviet censors, It was decided to announce that the name was given in honor of Ariel Alexander Belyaev:

At first they wanted to give the name “Era” to the new group, but during the discussion someone remembered that washing powder also had the same name. As a result, it was decided to name the group Ariel. Initially and now, the name of the Ariel group (the name was invented by a student at the PEI Valery Parshukov in 1967) implied only one thing: Ariel was the master of air elements, the sovereign of the ether. But, realizing that the name of the group with such a meaning would not be missed by Soviet censorship, we came up with the legend that the group is named after the flying boy Ariel, oppressed by the British capitalists, the hero of the same book, the novel Ariel, the outstanding Soviet science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev. True, later, Lev Gurov recalled: “In 1975, when we first went abroad, we learned that Ariel is also a washing powder.” Now you can talk about the true meaning of the word Ariel - honestly, no one in the early 70's thought that this word has such a deep mystical meaning and is even mentioned in the Bible!

- Valery Yarushin ^[8]

Ariel remained the hero of one novel, but other writers often mention him in his works.

• In the story of Andrei Velichko's “ Old Friend ”, one of the characters, proposing ideas for levitation, refers to Ariel Alexander Belyaev ^[9] .
• Story of Nikolai Basov Wings for an angel ^[10]
• Roman Alexander Karpov Bazdar ^[11]
• The Story “The Last Flight of the Phaeton”, pp. 208–285, OLMA Media Group, ISBN 5948501221 , 9785948501222

See Levitation article

In religion, mythology, and occultism.

Ancient Greek Mythology

• Olympic gods - each and every one possesses the gift of flight.

In Abrahamic religions

• Angels - being ethereal creatures, they can fly, traditionally depicted with bird wings or bat wings, depending on whether they belong to good or evil.
• Saints - it is believed that a strongly believing person is able to overpower gravity and fly. Some Christian saints resorted to such miracles. In one of the chapters of the novel, Aurelius posed as a Hindu who wants to adopt Christianity, and in order to convince the pastor of the strength of his faith, he flew into the air.
• Devil-worshipers - it is believed that a person who does not believe in God, or who believes that he can fly independently, is a henchman of the devil. Such was considered the biblical character Simon Magus , who crashed to the ground after the prayer uttered by the apostle Peter.
• Occultism and Kabbalism consider levitation possible in practice. In the Middle Ages, due to the dominance of the Inquisition, levitation in Western countries was considered the gift of the devil.

In Buddhism

• Buddhist deities and saints have the gift of flying. It is also believed that the most enlightened and sophisticated in yoga can learn to levitate. The term " siddhi " in Buddhism means supernatural powers, the ability to work miracles, including flying.

In popular culture and classical literature

• Drud from Alexander Green’s novel A shining world , according to many critics, it was he who helped Belyaev write Ariel .
• Ariel is the spirit of the air from William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
• Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton who, thanks to his unearthly organism on Earth, acquires the ability to fly, freeze his breath, run at supersonic speeds, etc. Notably, Superman and Ariel were created at about the same time: Superman was published in 1938, and Ariel in 1941, however, Belyaev had an idea of ​​a flying man before, it is known that the writer began to write a novel in the spring of 1939. Superman is considered the first comic book character to levitate, an explanation for this is given due to different Earth gravity and the effects of the Sun. However, initially, Superman could not fly, but only made giant jumps, which goes back more to the hero of Burroughs John Carter.
• The heroes of the comic books Shelma , Captain Marvel , Magneto , Black Adam and many others.
• Wingardium Leviosa - a spell that can give the caster a gift of levitation, from the Harry Potter cycle.
• Robert Sheckley’s story “Infection Carrier” tells about humanity of the future that has completely switched to psi abilities - used telekinesis instead of arms and flew instead of walking. The disadvantage was that the muscles of people gradually atrophied.
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the story Kid .

• Dar Wind

• Atonement, Gorenstein F., ABC-Atticus, 2013, ISBN 5389039025 , 9785389039025
• Not a knife, not Seryozha not Dovlatova (collection), Mikhail Weller, Litres, 2013, ISBN 5425071361 , 9785425071361
• In the Dream World: Science Fiction Review. literature, B. In Lyapunov, Book, 1970
• In the trenches of time (compilation), Litres, 2013, ISBN 5457197190 , 9785457197190
• 100 Great Secrets of the Ancient World, Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich, Veche Publishing House, 2013, ISBN 544447266X , 9785444472668
• Russian writers of the 20th century: a biographical dictionary, G. V Yakusheva, Big Russian Encyclopedia, 2000
• The article "Ariel goes flying again", Vladimir Malov , magazine Young Technician No. 1, 1986
• Russian science fiction of the XX century in names and faces: a guide; Edited by M.I. Meshcheryakova. - M .: Scientific and Practical Center Megatron, 1998
• Alexander Belyaev: a critical and biographical essay, B. V Lyapunov , Owls. writer, 1967
• Fate named Ariel, Valery Yarushin, Russian New ·, 2005
• In the Dream World: Science Fiction Review. literature , B. In Lyapunov, Book, 1970
• Extrapolations from Dystopia: A Critical Study of Soviet Science Fiction, John Glad, Kingston Press, 1981, ISBN 0940670151 , 9780940670150
• Art History: Journal of History and Theory of Art, Issue 2 , State Institute of Art Studies of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences. Department of Literature and Language, Editorial “Art Studies”, 2005
• Europäische Hochschulschriften: European university papers . Series 18: Comparative literature. Publications universitaires européennes. Serie 18; Littérature comparée. Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, H. Lang, 1970
• Die wissenschaftliche Phantastik der Sowjetunion, Bernd Rullkötter, Herbert Lang, 1974, ISBN 3261014695 , 9783261014696
• Magyar nemzeti bibliográfia: Bibliographia Hungarica, Volume 27, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest, 1972
• Berlin notes on Friedrich Gorenstein , Mina Polyanskaya, Demeter, 2011
• Seats and locks: notes on Friedrich Gorenstein , Mina Polyanskaya, Janus, 2006
• Selected Sci-Fi Works (Volume 1) , Alexander Belyaev, Young Guard, 1956
• Fiction of the century, Results of the century, Vladimir Gakov, Polyfact, 1995
• Alexander Belyaev, Collected Works in eight volumes. Volume 8, O. Orlov A.R. Belyaev (biographical sketch), pp. 497-516, Young Guard, 1964