Stalkers - who are they? The meaning of the word "stalker" and the history of his appearance

When we talk about such concepts as a stalker, it is absolutely incorrect to try to decide on the exact date, year, month and day, when this word entered the everyday life of the people and ceased to be outlandish. The reason for this is very simple - unlike scientific terms such as thermometer, microbe, electron, etc., the term "stalker" as a kind of activity originated many centuries ago. In fact, such a person must carry out secret, secretive penetration into any object (strategic, industrial, private) with various purposes: from ordinary observations to robberies and even murders. Of course, at present the concept of "stalkers" (who is this, we will consider in the article), has acquired a more peaceful character. This is exclusively the satisfaction of their research interest. For centuries it used to be rather gloomy, such people were called murderers, saboteurs, etc. The course of time gradually demarcated a simple explorer and scout.

Appearance of the term

Attempts to determine the exact date of occurrence of the term "stalker" as a kind of activity are useless and doomed to failure is a fact. However, if we consider the time of origin of the word itself, then it is already possible to expose an approximate framework. On hearing in Soviet man this term appeared in the period from 1970 to 1980. This is due to the release of the Strugatsky brothers' picnic on the sidelines, and the subsequent release of the fantastic film Stalker.

Profession - seekers of adventure or trouble

What does it mean to be a stalker in the nature of his activities? The short answer was given above, it remains to explain everything in detail. To consider more ancient occupations of people that fit the description of the topic of this article does not make sense because of the irrelevance for contemporaries. Real-time stalking, as it was noted earlier, is based on penetration, both legal and illegal, and the study of abandoned, abandoned buildings and territories. And also on getting on quite active industrial facilities: factories, enterprises or protected areas (the notorious Zone of Alienation). Stalker is also a spy in narrow perception.

Also this "profession" consists not only in penetration of any objects with the purpose of proving "I can" and get a dose of adrenaline, but also for purely aesthetic impressions. For example, to monitor the city from its outskirts. These goals, in general, are pursued by people of creative impulses, seeking inspiration in unusual places and things. That's what the stalker of modernity means.

Types and terminology

Developing and acquiring more and more popularity in the world, various branches from habitual stalkers became natural. There are at least five such currents:

• Stalkering is what started the birth of this culture. It consists in visiting houses, whole districts and ghost towns abandoned by people for various reasons (the notorious Pripyat). On such "walks" are sent, mainly photographers, stalkers. Who is this, everyone understands: those who want to capture buildings that have not been used by man for a long time.

• Infiltration - the essence is also in penetration into any territory, only that such trips are more dangerous. Since the protected area becomes the object of research, the presence of a person on which is associated with a different risk for health and life (different plants, boilers, substations, etc.). It is a very dangerous occupation, which, however, only spurs many searchers for fresh portions of adrenaline.

• Rufing, whose goal is to climb the roofs of buildings, often in megacities - in order to contemplate the view of the city from above. Also, for example, for street art, or for taking pictures of attractive landscapes (sunrises and sunsets, which, of course, look more beautiful from high buildings, where nothing hinders).

Also, commercial types of this lesson can be distinguished: industrial tourism (official tour of the plant, more precisely), diggery (research of metro, tunnels and collectors), post-pilgrimage, urbanism, etc.

The heyday of extreme tourism

Stalkery as a youth movement, in other words as another subculture, was developed in Russia in the 1970s with the publication in 1972 of the fantastic Strugatsky brothers' picnic on the roadside. In it, this term is attributed to the following definition: a person illegally trapped in the forbidden Zone and engaged in the search and subsequent sale of "artifacts". The book focuses on the illegality of penetration into the territory, and not on the stalker's property to play the role of a kind of guide, finding the safest way to the goal.

The answer to the question "Stalkers - who is this?" Can be found in the cinema. With the release in 1979 of a fantastic film by director Andrei Tarkovsky, the term has acquired the final version used at present. In the film, this is the person who became the guide for the group between the most dangerous anomalies, which makes it indispensable in difficult trips to unknown places.

From book to life

An uncommon image with a unique ability - what else is needed to introduce this character into different works? As it was repeatedly mentioned earlier, this image was used for the first time in the novel "Picnic on the Roadside", and then it was successfully transferred to the movie screens thanks to the tape "Stalker". This name has become a household name for everyone who can go where they are stuck or do not pass another. And that's how they called an armored reconnaissance and sabotage machine in Russia, as well as a Russian SUV.

The history of the stalker as a concept did not end with movies and cars. In the period from 2007 to 2009, a series of computer games STALKER, again aroused interest in this trend, and also lured thousands of people into the ranks of its followers. The plot of the game was partly borrowed from the Strugatsky brothers' novel, as well as from the same movie, but, basically, this is a separate story offered by GSC Game World. Actions took place on the territory of the Exclusion Zone - within the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Here stalkers were any people who illegally penetrated the territory. The conductors formed a separate group of people. Although they often themselves searched the way through anomalies.

Other versions of origin

Despite the fact that the answer to the question: "Stalkers - who is this?" - was given by many well-known personalities (and writers, filmmakers, and even game developers), the human mind is still "wandering" in search of some hidden meaning of this unusual Culture. Naturally, such thinkers can be treated with reasonable understanding. Indeed, what is the true goal of a person who deliberately searches for adventure and visits to people who do not need the right places?

Quite recently an interesting opinion appeared on this matter. Following him, a person commits such actions with one and quite understandable goal - to get rid of the routine life, when day after day you have to perform monotonous actions. By this act an individual challenges the ordinary, proving to himself that life can be built in its own way, and not as it is prescribed in any set of rules. The new epoch has made its corrections to the meaning of the word "stalker". Such actions are quite typical for modern society, especially for young people, who are trying to find the meaning of life on their own.