Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin. Short summary

5 seconds

Omon Krivomazov enrolled in a flight school and one day got into the squad of astronauts flying to the moon. After a while he realizes that everything that is happening is a fiction and no one will go to the moon.

1 minute

Omon Krivomazov has dreamed of flying since childhood, so he enrolled in a flight school. After his studies he got into a group of cosmonauts, preparing to make a flight to the moon.

The hero’s childhood was filled with space symbolism. He visits the «Cosmos» movie theater, watches movies about pilots, and goes to the «Rocket» children’s camp. There was a starship made of cardboard in the camp canteen. One day, Omon and his buddy decide to check out what’s inside and find a plasticine man there.

When they made the spaceship, they first molded it and then covered the space around it with cardboard. At the same time, the hatch is only painted on the outside of the starship, and there are no doors inside. Because of this, it is impossible to get out of the starship, and the imprisoned man is deprived of his freedom.

After a while, Omon realizes that the ship was not actually launched into space, and everything that was going on was just a sham. Astronauts had to replace the fake automatics. Some were separating the rocket stages, others were spinning the pedals of the moonwalker.