Book contents
- Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
- Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Translation
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Promised Lands
- Part II New York and the Eastern States
- Part III To the Pacific Ocean
- 13 The Road
- 14 Frozen Meat, Salty Butter, and Other American Delicacies
- 15 The Nationalities Question
- 16 A Laboratory of Anthropology
- 17 New Mexico Moderns
- 18 Can You Kid a Kidder?
- 19 The Man in the Red Shirt
- 20 Natural Wonders and Technical Marvels
- 21 The American Dneprostroi
- Part IV The Golden State
- Part V Journey’s End
- Select Bibliography
- Index
20 - Natural Wonders and Technical Marvels
from Part III - To the Pacific Ocean
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
- Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
- Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Translation
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Promised Lands
- Part II New York and the Eastern States
- Part III To the Pacific Ocean
- 13 The Road
- 14 Frozen Meat, Salty Butter, and Other American Delicacies
- 15 The Nationalities Question
- 16 A Laboratory of Anthropology
- 17 New Mexico Moderns
- 18 Can You Kid a Kidder?
- 19 The Man in the Red Shirt
- 20 Natural Wonders and Technical Marvels
- 21 The American Dneprostroi
- Part IV The Golden State
- Part V Journey’s End
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 20 analyzes “The Desert” installment of Ilf and Petrov’s photo essay. It argues that their rushed tour of natural wonders produced a fundamental insight: In contrast to Soviet technical marvels, always represented as heroic prospects or the fruits of epic battles with nature, the American scenic road was a mundane marvel that conquered space and time with nothing more spectacular than regular road maintenance, cheap motels, plentiful gas stations, and accurate signage. Like the scenic road itself, the photo essay is full of contrasts and contradictions: the sublime beauty of the desert, smooth highways, and unsightly “oases.” To draw out these contrasts, Ilf and Petrov relied on the ironic back and forth between texts and images. Like a good sidekick, Ilf’s photos fed the writers’ deadpan observations that occasioned all manner of ironic, critical, and whimsical rejoinders.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Soviet Adventures in the Land of the CapitalistsIlf and Petrov's American Road Trip, pp. 209 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024