I Testimoni di Joenes

by Robert Sheckley, Andreina Negretti (translator)

Queste future quanto preoccupanti testimonianze sulla vita di Joenes il Viaggiatore, sono una delle opere fondamentali della ”fantascienza sociologica” degli anni ’60. Ma da allora l’attualità di questo romanzo non ha fatto che aumentare, conformemente alle previsioni di Sheckley e dello stesso protagonista. Non per niente il giovane Joenes, partito con lo scopo di conoscere il mondo, finisce per diventarne il più grande e ascoltato profeta. Ecco, per comodità del lettore, le tappe del suo mitico itinerario: 1. Partenza - 2. Incontro con Lum - 3. Commissione d’inchiesta - 4. In giudizio - 5. Joenes, Watts e il poliziotto - 6. Incontro con i tre camionisti 7. Arrivo in manicomio - 8. Entrata all’università 9. Contatto con gli utopisti - 10. Entrata al governo 11. Avventure nell’Ottagono - 12. Storia russa 13. La guerra - 14. Nell’esercito - 15. Ultimo viaggio.

Copertina di Karel Thole

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Novels

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

One of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

What will happen if an absurdist decides to write a gospel for the newest testament of the future? Then we will embark on the preposterously divine Journey Beyond Tomorrow. The tasks of great prophets are never less than to save the entire humankind… But to start doing great deeds one must at first escape from the mental asylum…

Joenes spent a restless night wondering how Lum would be able to fulfill his promises concerning Deirdre and a release from the asylum. But he had not realized the resourcefulness of his friend.
Lum took care of the impending marriage by informing Deirdre that Joenes would have to be treated for a tertiary syphilitic condition before contracting marriage. Treatment might take a long time; and if it were not successful, the disease would attack Joenes’s nervous system, reducing him to a human vegetable.
Deirdre was saddened by this news, but declared that she would marry Joenes on July 4 anyhow. She told Lum that ever since her reformation, carnal relations had become extremely repugnant to her. Because of that, Joenes’s ailment could be looked upon as an asset rather than a liability, since it would tend to enforce a purely spiritual union between them. As for finding herself married to a human vegetable, this possibility was not displeasing to the high-spirited girl; she had always wanted to be a nurse.
Lum then pointed out that no marriage license could legally be obtained for a person with Joenes’s ailment. This made Deirdre desist, since her recently acquired maturity made it impossible for her to contemplate doing anything that was forbidden by state or federal law.

The greatest prophets of the future so much resemble the greatest prophets of the past.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sources of the Tale

[By Man'i of Rarotonga]

The Journey of Joenes has been handed down to us from a multitude of traditions spanning the length and breadth of the Pacific, and its ultimate origins are shrouded in mystery. Here, on the beautiful island of Rarotonga, it has been said as long as men can recall that certain details come from the "reviewing site" of "Goodreads". What a "reviewing site" is, none can now tell, but some oral scholars identify it with the fabled Library of Alexandria, constructed by Diderot's Encyclopedists and tragically destroyed during the Civil War. Legend has it that the Chief Librarian, Otis, remained after his faithless staff had fled and perished in the flames together with all his paranormal romances. But that is another story.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Journey of Joenes was serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the October and November issues of 1962, and then published in paperback by Signet under the title of Journey Beyond Tomorrow. Dell published it under that title in 1969, but when Ace acquired the rights and issued it a decade later, they used the original title, which I remember annoyed me because I bought it, not realizing I already owned the same book with a different title. The story begins in the future world of the year 2000, so it's quite dated, but not as badly as many other sixty-some year-old novels. It's interestingly told as a historical biography of the titular Joenes, and is a good piece of satiric political and sociological humor, similar to the kind of thing that Frederik Pohl was doing at the time, only with a bit more of a madcap, zany air. (Picture a happy Barry N. Malzberg.) The framework looking back at Joenes' antics and adventures is set in the far future, and the misinterpretation of the times in usually quite humorous.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oltre mille anni fa, in un passato remoto e nebuloso, prima che finisse il Vecchio Mondo e iniziasse il Nuovo Mondo, c'è stata un'epoca meravigliosa e dimenticata, il XXI secolo: un periodo in cui la vita dell'uomo sulla Terra era profondamente diversa da oggi, un'era dominata dagli Stati Uniti d'America, una nazione basata sul capitalismo, sul benessere, sul consumismo e sullo sviluppo tecnologico, capace di tenere a bada l'eterno rivale, la Russia comunista. Questo passato non è sopravvissuto alla guerra atomica che ha coinvolto le due superpotenze, ma per fortuna i lettori di oggi possono conoscerlo grazie ad un libro, “Il viaggio di Joenes”, che raccoglie le più attendibili testimonianze orali sulle avventure del mitico, ma realmente esistito, Joenes, e sugli usi e costumi degli uomini del 2000, tramandate dai suoi seguaci, insieme ad alcuni episodi tratti dall'edizione ortodossa del “Libro di Figi”, opera maggiormente incentrata sulla figura dell'amico di Joenes, Lum.

Dopo la chiusura, da parte della Pacific Power Company, dell'impianto elettrico sito sull'isola di Manituatua, nell'Oceano Pacifico, che forniva energia alla maggior parte della Polinesia, il disoccupato Joenes decide di lasciare la terra natia e la dolce, bella ed intelligente compagna Tondelayo per andare alla scoperta del paese di origine dei suoi defunti genitori, quella favolosa America di cui tutti gli isolani parlano, ma che nessuno ha mai visto. Sbarcato a San Francisco, Joenes inizierà con ingenuità una serie di peripezie che lo vedranno non solo vagare per i quattro angoli della nazione a stelle e strisce, ma anche andare in giro per il mondo, con l'obiettivo di intraprendere quell'improbabile Viaggio che lo renderà un uomo saggio e disincantato, fino al ritorno alla sua isola. Joenes incontrerà personaggi eccezionali e bizzarri, tra cui Lum, che diventerà suo amico, nonostante le divergenze. I due condivideranno numerose esperienze, si perderanno, si rincontreranno, si separeranno di nuovo, in un turbine di avventure stralunate e picaresche.

Scritto nel 1962, “Il viaggio di Joenes” è ambientato in un futuro molto lontano che guarda al passato remoto, che per il lettore di oggi è il presente, ma che l'autore concepiva come un futuro imminente. Un futuro che però viene descritto come se fossimo nei favolosi anni Sessanta, in una società che si sente felice ma che è sull'orlo del precipizio, vista dai posteri con curiosità e stupore, ma non con nostalgia. In effetti, non possono passare inosservati i numerosi riferimenti agli anni '60 del XX secolo, dalla controcultura hippie e beatnik alla paranoica caccia alle streghe, dalle tensioni della Guerra Fredda ai primordi dell'era spaziale. Sheckley costruisce un'opera originale, smaliziata e satirica, giocando sull'ambiguità e sul capovolgimento, tratteggiando con ironia una carrellata di folli, fanatici, esaltati, ossessi, paranoici, idioti, filosofi della strada, truffatori e millantatori, e mettendo a nudo con il proprio genio dissacrante i lati più assurdi e paradossali del presente.

Nessun aspetto dell'“american way of life” viene risparmiato da Sheckley: dal luogo comune dei paradisi polinesiani, in realtà influenzati dall'ingerenza americana e resi dipendenti dal cibo in scatola e dall'alcol, all'inettitudine dei giovani beatnik di San Francisco; dalle paranoiche forze dell'ordine alle incompetenti cariche politiche e giudiziarie; dall'ignoranza storica, che confonde gli antichi greci con i padri fondatori americani, all'utilizzo improprio delle nuove scoperte scientifiche e tecnologiche; dal Messico, paradossale paese dove si muore di fame, che porta i suoi cittadini a delinquere per farsi mantenere in prigione, alla distorta concezione della Natura nella società industrializzata; dai dolori della guerra alle contraddizioni delle religioni; dall'inadeguatezza delle arti, dell'istruzione e della medicina, all'ignoranza del mondo accademico; dagli spregiudicati criminali posseduti dalla smania di controllo, che si celano dietro sedicenti utopisti creatori di neolingue e culti neopagani, alla disumanità dell'industria automatizzata; dagli incapaci cartografi addetti alla sicurezza nazionale alle problematiche spie; dalla labirintica burocrazia governativa al terribile abuso delle armi; dai goffi tentativi di eroismo da parte di pericolosi fanatici alla guerra atomica che si propaga nello spazio, distruggendo pianeti e satelliti solo per mostrare il potenziale bellico; dagli incidenti militari e diplomatici, che a partire da futili motivazioni sono responsabili di guerre catastrofiche, all'idolatria delle macchine, una vera e propria dipendenza che porterà all'apocalisse. Dietro le numerose risate che scatenano queste pagine si cela un amaro pessimismo, che si conferma nel finale. Da novello Candido, Joenes perderà progressivamente la sua ingenuità ed acquisirà lungo il Viaggio una disillusione sempre maggiore, tornerà alla sua isola, fonderà una propria dottrina e arriverà (forse) alla presa di coscienza di essere incapace di spiegarsi l'assurdità dell'essere umano.

Ho trovato molto gustosi i numerosi riferimenti letterari disseminati nel testo, dal ciclo arturiano (i dirigenti della Pacific Power Company si chiamano come i Cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda) al romanzo d'avventura (un personaggio incontrato da Joenes in America si chiama Edmond Dantes), dalla filosofia illuminista (un altro personaggio che espone la sua visione della Natura si chiama Rousseau) al mito greco (Teseo e Minotauro, due rivali all'interno di quell'immenso labirinto che è l'Ottagono, edificio che ha sostituito il Pentagono). Inoltre, si percepiscono chiaramente le influenze dei capisaldi della satira moderna, da Swift a Voltaire, fino a Mark Twain. Negli stessi anni in cui Sheckley raggiungeva l'apice della sua produzione, si stava affermando un altro scrittore, la cui opera mostra numerose affinità: Kurt Vonnegut. In particolare, ho notato molti punti di contatto tra “Il viaggio di Joenes” (1962) e “Ghiaccio-nove” (1963).

Con quest'opera divertente e scettica, Sheckley si conferma uno dei più originali scrittori di fantascienza sociologica della sua epoca. Potente satira antimilitarista, tragicomica parabola dell'uomo del XX secolo, critica corrosiva di una civiltà giunta al capolinea, pungente derisione di ogni sogno utopico: “Il viaggio di Joenes” è una lettura spassosa, ma che non manca di far riflettere sulle infinite declinazioni della nostra idiozia.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny satire of life in the deteriorating society of the near future as told 1,000 years later through the oft misinterpreted historical records, legend and lore of the wanderings of the mythical and revered Joenes, a naive visitor from the south pacific to America. Joenes gets swept up in a series of odd situations that expose society's absurd beliefs about politics, science, religion, education, war, justice and so forth. The story is a great platform for Sheckley to satirize and poke fun at just about every facet of modern life, and the hilarity ensues!

Square it to the tenth power minus the square root of minus one.
Do not forget the cosine, for men must needs have fun.
Add in X as a variable, free-floating, fancy-free.
It will come at last to zero, and more you need not me.

[Vanessa Vitiello · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventures of a guy named Joenes through the late 20th century on the eve of the apocalypse. Not really sci-fi, the story alternates at lightening speed from rollicking adventure to political satire to philosophical musings and back again, making it more a modern(ish)-day Candide than anything. Fun to read, especially for fans of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, or Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I would say.

It was written during the cold war, and as often happens the author failed to imagine a time when the old distinctions became meaningless, thus we get a picture of a fascist and bureaucratic America locked in unceasing struggle with communist Russia and China. This may be annoying for readers who are dislike or are unfamiliar with the period.

The characters are all pretty one-dimensional, the prose serviceable but nothing to write home about. The joy is in the pace (quite fast), the satire (biting and I'd say still fairly relevant), the humor (especially enjoyable for those familiar with the mythology and history of ancient Greece), and the philosophy (none too deep, but it's interesting and never gets bogged down).

[Carloesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

All'età di 12 anni scoprii, grazie a questo libro, che la fantascienza poteva coniugarsi anche con un sano e fine umorismo.
Scoperta non da poco...

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brisk satirical pumping of 1960s America through the lens of a naif tribesman. Some solid slaps and thwacks in the correct places, tapers off in the second half.

[Jack (Sci-Fi Finds) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simultaneously satirical and pretentious - a deeply tedious combination that results in an annoying disaster of a book.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a brilliant and fun little novel. It's told in a Vonnegut/bible style. The story of Joenes is told from teh view of religious writings from a long time ago before a giant war. It is ther story of Joenes journey from his small pacific island home, to America, where he is arrested as a communist sympathizer, told story by truckers, going to a madhouse, teaching at a college, foiling a utopian scheme, then working for the government and being instrument in the fall of western society. It's zany and hilarious like many of Sheckley's books, but still rings as a true view of society. Worth reading for sure.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"“Beyond a doubt, Joenes himself was an actual person; but there is no way of determining the authenticity of every story told about him. Some of the tales do not appear to be factual accounts, but rather, moral allegories. But even those that are considered allegorical are representative of the spirit and temper of the times” (vii).

Robert Sheckley’s third novel Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962)—after Immortality, Inc. (1959) and The Status Civilization (1960)—is a wildly successful episodic novel that plays to his strengths as a short story author. In a similar but less [...]"

[Raj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on this book after about 70 pages, which is disappointing as I've got a lot of time for Sheckley and generally enjoy his work (although I do find that he tends to be better at the shorter form than the long). This very much feels like it's talking about its own time, that being the early 1960s, although obviously the satire on the failures of the justice system depressingly apply as much today as they did half a century ago. But although the satire was on-point, I just wasn't particularly enjoying the book, and didn't think it would get better. I did jump forward to the last couple of chapters, and that pretty much confirmed my decision to give up on it was the right one.

[Jacob Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read about a man who restarted civilization in the not-so-distant future told through stories passed down by word of mouth in the far-distant future by followers of the man. Some parts are brilliant predictions of what life would become in the 21st century and beyond. Humorous and witty. Read this if you like edgy sci-fi, comedy, and religion.

[Hex75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

forse il problema è che di storie di candidi buoni selvaggi che incontrano la "civiltà" e ne mettono a nudo i paradossi ne ho già lette tante e quindi le avventure del buon joenes, pur essendo molto divertenti, sono una satira che forse oggi non graffia più...

[Montgomery Webster · Rating 1 out of 5]

A worthless adventure parody. Not much else to say really. The prose is sufficient, but the story has absolutely no value. Trust me.

[Rob Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the marks of good satire is how often one says, "Ouch. That was on the mark." Sheckley is a master of satire in this book. Reading this in the present time is a little disconcerting as he talks about reinterpreting the constitution, tyranny, religion, an more. This book did not make me laugh very much, despite its tone of satire. Perhaps it was hitting too close to home. He eerily predicts many of the struggles of the 21st century.

There are a few moments in the book where it is very dated, and these can be a bit off-putting. Islander references, language use, drug use, and so forth are stereotyped heavily.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting journey, lots of fun.

[Anthony Hadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I read that.

[Vel Veeter]

This is a bizarre novel about a past’s future. Namely the novel, which came out in 1963, poses a future in which there’s a large and quite dominant Polynesian/Oceanic culture, and we are getting a kind of oral history of a single member of that part of the world traveling to the United States (or what was the United States) and accidentally setting off an international incident and a war having been mistaken for being a Communist spy. This will happen in the year 2001.

So Robert Sheckley is a weird writer and a weirdly influential writer. In my mind he kind of splits the difference between Richard Matheson in his ability to imagine strange and interesting science fiction conceits, and more like a Philip K Dick in execution. There’s also plenty of Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison in there as well. His most “famous” book is not at all famous, Immortality Inc, but it did spawn the movie Freejack, an admittedly not good movie that I loved as a kid.

In addition to this, there’s a great collection of Robert Sheckley’s stories that New York Review of Books put out, and he’s so clearly influential in a lot of ways. There’s whole novels I recognize in the bare glimpses of some of those stories.

Anyway, this novel is interesting, but I am not sure that I liked it all that much. I am more invested in the idea of reading more of his work than I think I am in the specifics of this book itself.

[Jonah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very surprising... often more intriguing than the book itself was why it was titled with the most generic possible name for a sci fi novel, and why the blurbs and plot summaries on the covers of the book did not in the least represent what was inside.

What the book did turn out to be was an extreme absurdist satire, which I have to believe was a little alien to me because of book's publication date at the height of the cold war, in 1962. But I have seen Dr. Strangelove, which is a good reference point to make it seem less dated, along with the goofy bureaucratic characters represented in the movie Brazil and Douglas Adams' material. But in its cavalier attitude towards narrative and playful orientation towards a devastating apocalyptic environment, it reminded me most closely of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.

But a lot of times it was just not engaging. Read or watch any of that previous reference material before reading this... but it was such a quick read you should probably read it anyway.

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo tuve durmiendo durante años, y cuando finalmente lo leí me ha encantado. Todo ese periplo por las más altas instituciones, donde destripa a militares, políticos, educadores, médicos o policías, es una pasada. Esta lleno de escenas delirantes y momentos supremos para libro tan corto: la utopía de Chorowait, la aparición de la Bestia, el Octágono y la megaexplicación sobre el espía y los planos jaja notable.

Muy recomendable libro para aquellos que no les molesta la sátira, que saben disfrutar con literatura de ideas, lanzadas con metralleta, pareciera sin ton ni son, pero que contienen más de algún acierto...hilarantes las más de las veces.

Ya veo que mientras más absurdo, más me gusta Sheckley.

[Alienindie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only Sheckley story I've read thus far that is genuinely as good as the praise this writer gets suggests. It's an anthropological journey full of great little details and conversations. Almost nothing in it feels recycled or pointless (like his stories Mindswap and Dimension of Miracles in their entirety). From the idea of the only stable platform for civilization being small islands, to the "how to make a government building spyproof by making spies fall victims of their own spy-mindsets", to the subtle parodying of Western cultures habit of glorifying Ancient Greece for "inventing everything", everything in Journey of Joenes is thought-provoking and fresh.

[Eliaspallanzani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immagina di essere una spia. Dopo anni di fatiche e appostamenti sei riuscito a rubare la mappa del più segreto laboratorio governativo. Con la tua bella mappa cominci a girare per l'edificio ma ti accorgi che ciò che vedi non corrisponde alla cartina. Cosa fai?

http://eliaspallanzanivive.wordpress....

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

JBT was kind of a median science fiction reading experience, describing a nationwide tour of an innocent character Joenes, who observes an American society in severe decline. It's an over-the-top satire of early 1960's society and government. It's not bad, but I prefer Sheckleys' short story collect "Untouched by Human Hands" as well as his other novel "The Status Civilization."

[Themistocles · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absurdist and funny tale, as well as (probably) a platform for Sheckley's political views. Quite intriguing and an easy read, but although the book is not long by any measure, it's still a bit longer than it should. Up until Joenes' trip to the forest commune it's very interesting, but after that it kind of drags on until the last part.

[Gareth Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. I've read it three times now and it's absurd, it rambles, it's relentlessly witty and absolutely determined to be a parody with every paragraph.
- and that's it's charm.
It's dropped a rating on my 4 stars rating because of the tone being so relentless, but it's a classic that shows off Sheckley's enjoyment of lampooning society's lunacy.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joenes is a political naif whose experiences across America show how well a man can make his way in the world.

Sheckley's biting satire of 50s America is very clever, packing a lot into a very short space. But cleverness does not make a story great. The wit, the humour and the excellent characters make this novella great.

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man named Joenes, from the Pacific island Manituatua, leaves his home to see the world. On this journey he sees many things. This is Sheckley taking a satirical shot at the institutions of the day. Joenes and we are amazed and awed at the insanity around us. It was fun. A different side of Sheckley.

[Chris Duval · Rating 3 out of 5]

This conflates much of contemporaneous and classical culture--using the excuse that the narrative was compiled from oral sources a long time after a civilizational collapse. This allows absurd juxtapositions, some of them in the form of Rabelaisian lists (though much shorter).

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un insospettabile gioiello di letteratura psichedelica e antimilitarista, ad alto tasso di umorismo, impropriamente bollata come fantascienza, cosa che ne ha sicuramente impedito maggiori diffusione e apprezzamento.
Veramente piacevolissimo.