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"It's nonsense to look for a solution if it already exists. We are talking about how to deal with a problem that has no solution."

"There is no such thing as dissociated nonsense."

I had no idea when I picked up this book it would quickly become one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I'm sad I'm about to finish it because each page is full of so many ideas that get the mind thinking.

The machine that explores the 'described future' is an interesting idea because the authors are basically saying that they way we see the future is more of a reflection of how we see ourselves now. Of course, they also have fun with the idea because since writers only write about the important details, everyone in the described future walks around with no pants on but they do all wear funny hats.

I'm not sure if the author's are advancing a negative opinion on communism or not - in fact just because this is Soviet era fiction does not mean it must adhere to a black or white ideology - but since the institute's mission is perfecting human happiness and anyone working their who begins to get egotistical their ear hairs grow as magical warning to live for the group and stop being selfish.

Also Barry Goldwater

Now that we're actually at the institute, Sasha meets all the old wizards who, like real scientists, are so specialized in their field as to be practically useless. Everyone seems to be studying various methods for measuring or improving human happiness but everyone has totally failed to discover even the slightest insight beyond the fact a person will die if you don't feed him, give him water or a doctor.

Unlike Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where Dent is as clueless a guide for the reader to navigate the strangeness, here the narrator takes it all in stride as if living in the ussr was already so surreal that magic sofas and unspendable coins are perfectly normal and nothing to worry about

A talking, wish fulfilling pike with rheumatism, a mermaid in a tree, a cat that knows only the beginning of stories, a book titled 'Creativity of the Mentally Ill and its influence on the Development of Science, Art, and Technology'. Even this odd translation is hard to put down, like PK Dick without the paranoia.