Always Visible (Another Prayer for the Dying Horror Genre)

***Always Visible*** (*Another Prayer for the Dying Horror Genre*) is a literary work by Russian author Vitaly Ivolginsky. Set during the late eighties - early nineties, the work heavily incorporates elements of detective and besides mixes narrative with philosophical discussions on controversial subject.

The work was published on the world wide web on September 17, 2023 (this link is a saved copy from Wayback Machine). The work has its own Discord channel. Also, the original subreddit r/avlivro was deleted for unknown reasons on December 30, 2023 by the site administration.

On January 7, 2024, a translation of the story into Russian (the author's native language), made by Vitaly Ivolginsky himself from scratch (since the original drafts were deleted earlier), was published.

## Read

The work can be read online or downloaded from Dropbox as plain text (.txt) or in Portable Document Format (.pdf). The work can also be found on other resources.

## Summary

### Original English version

"*Middle-aged police inspector at Portland is taken to investigate a strange and puzzling case related to an accident at a local hospital. To unravel the mystery, inspector Galbraith visits a offender, who supply him with a host of information about a certain little girl named Delia...*"

### Russian translation for January 2024

"*In the early nineties, the Yonce family moved from New York to Portland with a teenage daughter named Delia, who became friends with Jordan Thurlow, who lived next door. As the story progresses, Jordan ends up in prison due to strange circumstances and the plot switches to police Inspector Galbraith, who witnesses an accident in the Yonce family, which ultimately leads to Delia's death. Next, Galbraith flies to London to catch the child's killer...*"

## License status

The author removed copyright restrictions from *Always Visible* and declared it public domain, which means free modification and distribution of work's content without any permission. This applies equally to both the original English text and its translation into Russian.

## Content warning

This work is primarily intended for older audiences, because it covers many controversial and adult-orientated subjects and topics. Many sections of this work are scandalous and ambiguous moments, which are highly likely can may mislead readers. At its core, this work focuses on the negative aspects of human and society, elements of which are closely intertwined with the detective narrative.

*Always Visible* contains mature themes and topics such as:

* Addiction
* Brainwashing
* Criminal
* Policy
* Religion
* Self-harm
* Suicide
* Immigration

## Title

The work received its name from an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, more precisely, in its approximate translation into English, which was proposed in American television film Omen IV: The Awakening, which among other things served as the basis for the work itself. However, the work somewhat subverts common supernatural horror tropes.

In addition, the subtitle Another Prayer for the Dying Horror Genre is a reference to the full title of the work of the Strugatsky brothers, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel - Murder case, or "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel" (another prayer for the dying detective genre) (rus. Дело об убийстве, или отель "У Погибшего Альпиниста" (ещё одна отходная детективному жанру).

The name of the character Galbraith is of Gaelic origin and means "stranger", which can be interpreted as meaning that the character is essentially more of an observer from the outside than a real initiator of action.

The Russian translation, carried out by Vitaly Ivolginsky himself in January 2024, was titled "Her Name Was Delia (Another Requiem To The Horror Genre)", which is a reference to the 1967 Soviet film "His Name Was Robert" by Ilya Olshvanger.

## Major themes

### Theology

Despite the fact that the work is based on a satanic work, these details are completely lost in *Always Visible*, instead, the Strugatsky brothers' book Hard to Be A God runs through the entire work as a thin thread, and the characters in *Always Visible* interpret its elements as if it is an interpretation of the Bible. In addition, several central characters profess the Lutheran religion and attend church.

### Immigration

Of all the central characters, almost all are either immigrants from other countries or their descendants. The difference between life in United States of America and England is touched upon, and Portugal, Germany, Chile and Japan are also mentioned. It describes how immigrants feel about life in a foreign country and their nostalgic feelings for their homeland.

## Composition history

Vitaly Ivolginsky began writing *Always Visible* at the end of July 2023, two days after his primary watching the television film Omen IV: The Awakening. The main reason the work was started was to re-interpret this film from a different perspective, in connection with which the author dedicated work to Asia Vieira, the actress who played the main role in this film. During the writing of the work, he acknowledged Russian writer Sergei Ivanovich Pavlov as one of his main inspirations from the field of literature.

The opening fragment of the work (which eventually became the first chapter of the second act) was written on July 26, 2023. Work on the Russian-language drafts was essentially completed on August 19 of the same year, but the author decided to expand the work by adding backstory to the characters. A total of four separate stories were planned, which would follow the main three acts, but due to haste, only one was completed, which became the zero act of the work (essentially, an extended prologue). Because of this, writing of *Always Visible* was continued until September 3rd.

In the Russian translation, carried out by Vitaly Ivolginsky himself in January, 2024, the four acts were divided into 14 parts, but the division into short chapters was retained.

## Realism

Since the author has never been in United States of America, the work may cause confusion among people who are well acquainted with American life and culture. The same applies to Portugal, Germany, Japan and England, since the work mentions residents of the above countries, and in the case of the latter, the last part of *Always Visible* takes place in London.

The work in no way claims to be authentic. For the sake of the plot, some details are deliberately distorted - mainly in the description of the layout of real-life buildings and details such as the work schedule of some organizations (mainly the police and airlines). Also the medical and computer facts touched upon in the work also have no basis in reality and are based only on theoretical background, therefore, *Always Visible* is not recommended for people who work in the medical and engineering fields.

## Language

The author wrote drafts in Russian, but the work was never intended to be published in that language - translation into English was the ultimate goal. In addition, *Always Visible* contains words in other languages, in most cases in Portuguese, although there are rare inclusions of French and German words. The main reason for this was to pay respect to Asia Molly Vieira, which has Portuguese roots, Also in some chapters there are several dialogues in Japanese and a statement in Latin.

Translation labors began on September 5, 2023 and was completed on the 16th of the same month. Not fluent in English, the author used Google Translate and Reverso. During the translation, many points were rewritten in order to adapt Russian idioms into English. In cases where it was not possible to find a literal translation of a particular phraseological unit, the author resorted to direct translation, so some points of the work may not be clear to those who speak English well and cannot identify this or that point as a reference to Russian-language works.

Also, at the translation stage in some chapters were added fragments from sketches for the never-finished backstories of the characters, which were originally planned as separate parts of the work. It's funny that when Vitaly Ivolginsky decided to publish the work in Russian (his native language) in January 2024, he had to do a reverse translation, since the original drafts were deleted back in September 2023. That is, first the work was translated from Russian into English, and then from English into Russian.

## Background and historical context

The work mentions the events of the sixties and eighties several times, but this is presented exclusively as memories of the characters, while the main action spans the period from August 1989 to December 1991. The location of the event in most cases is Portland, Oregon (United States of America), and in the third act the setting becomes London, England.

Among other things, in the work notes (but never concentrates) the relevant in that time period the threat to the capitalist world from Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the very last chapters it is mentioned about its dissolution. The main reason this detail was added was to try to integrate for *Always Visible* the political details from the inspiration film Omen IV: The Awakening, and since the author is little acquainted with the political structure in America, he had to limit himself to mentioning an existing fact regarding the past of his own country.

## Allusions to other works

The biggest source of inspiration is the American television film Omen IV: The Awakening. But *Always Visible* does not borrow his main satanic idea - instead, the author takes individual details out of context and combines them with a completely opposite meaning.

The name of one main character is taken from the work Moon Rainbow by Sergei Pavlov, the main literary source of inspiration for the author of the work.

The works of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky also influenced *Always Visible*, and the final act even reinterpreted his two most famous films almost verbatim.

In addition, the work directly references Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and one minor character even writes his own interpretation of a chapter of this classic.

Besides, the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White was also creatively adapted into a new story, which the central characters read to each other in the zero act of the work.
The work references Remarque's novel Shadows in Paradise several times as inspiration for the immigrant background of the characters.

Also, medical and computer details were inspired by Koji Suzuki's novels Spiral and Loop, and in the second case it was the Japanese who were behind it.

The music band Depeche Mode also has a strong influence - the work clearly states that one minor character is their fan, one of the main characters is also partial to their work, and in addition, in one chapter the characters give each other records with their album A Broken Frame. The Depeche Mode's music itself also plays in the background in some chapters. At the same time, the group itself in *Always Visible* is never called by name, the author uses hints.

## See also

* Laconic
* Tropes
* Subtitles