Roadside Picnic - Artifacts Left By Visitors in The Zones

Artifacts Left By Visitors in The Zones

The artifacts left behind by the Visitors can be broken down into four categories:

  1. Objects beneficial to humans, yet whose original purpose, how precisely they work or how to manufacture them is not understood. The 'So-So' and 'Bracelets' are among the artifacts that fall into this category.
  2. Objects whose functionality, original purpose or how to use them to benefit humans can not yet be understood. The 'Black Sprays' and 'Needles' are among the artifacts that fall into this category.
  3. Objects that are unique. Their existence is passed along as legends by Stalkers; were never seen by scientists, whose functionality is so dangerous and so far beyond human comprehension that they are better off left undisturbed. The 'Golden Sphere' and the 'Jolly Ghost' are among the artifacts that fall into this category.
  4. Not object but effects on people who were present inside the Zones during the Visitation. Humans who survived the Visitation without going blind(apparently from a loud noise) or infected by the plague caused unexplained problems if they emigrated away. A barber who survived the Visitation emigrated to a far off city and within a year 90% of his customers died in mysterious circumstances as well as a number of natural disasters foreign to the area (typhoons, tornadoes) hit his city. Even people who were never present during the Visitation but frequently visit the Zone are changed somehow, for example by having mutated children or by having duplicates of their dead relatives return to their homes.

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Famous quotes containing the words left, visitors and/or zones:

    I had such a wonderful feeling last night, walking beneath the dark sky while cannon boomed on my right and guns on my left ... the feeling that I could change the world only by being there.
    Viorica Butnariu, Rumanian student at Bucharest University. letter, Dec. 23, 1989, to American friend. Observer (London, Dec. 31, 1989)

    The zoo cannot but disappoint. The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals. Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal. At the most, the animal’s gaze flickers and passes on. They look sideways. They look blindly beyond.
    John Berger (b. 1926)

    The technological landscape of the present day has enfranchised its own electorates—the inhabitants of marketing zones in the consumer goods society, television audiences and news magazine readerships... vote with money at the cash counter rather than with the ballot paper at the polling booth.
    —J.G. (James Graham)