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Return From the Stars
An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a society that he barely recognizes.
Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years--although because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been eradicated. Children are "betrizated" to remove all aggression and violence--a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as "resuscitated Neanderthals," and pressure them to undergo betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores.
While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice: leave Earth again and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years, or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and dystopia.
Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years--although because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been eradicated. Children are "betrizated" to remove all aggression and violence--a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as "resuscitated Neanderthals," and pressure them to undergo betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores.
While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice: leave Earth again and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years, or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and dystopia.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
255 people are currently reading
5099 people want to read
About the author
Stanisław Lem
504 books4,501 followersStanisław Lem (staˈɲiswaf lɛm) was a Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer of Jewish descent. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of Solaris, which has twice been made into a feature film. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.
His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult and multiple translated versions of his works exist.
Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues), one of his two most famous philosophical texts along with Summa Technologiae (1964). The Summa is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today—like, for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.
He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris (1961), His Master's Voice (Głos pana, 1968), and the late Fiasco (Fiasko, 1987), expressing most strongly his major theme of the futility of mankind's attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.
He was the cousin of poet Marian Hemar.
His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult and multiple translated versions of his works exist.
Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues), one of his two most famous philosophical texts along with Summa Technologiae (1964). The Summa is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today—like, for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.
He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris (1961), His Master's Voice (Głos pana, 1968), and the late Fiasco (Fiasko, 1987), expressing most strongly his major theme of the futility of mankind's attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.
He was the cousin of poet Marian Hemar.
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October 14, 2021
The middle of the last century was the time of dystopias – every thoughtful science fiction author wished to present one’s own version of the bleak future. Return from the Stars is a mutiny against the total conformity and insipid living in the completely inert and uniform society.
Even in the kingdom of the intentionally blind there should be the one courageous enough to open one’s eyes.
Beneath a dome supported by cracked, crumbling columns stood a woman, as though she had been waiting for me. I saw her face now, the flow of sparks in the diamond disks that hid her ears, the white – in the shadow, silvery – dress. This was not possible. A dream? I was still a few dozen paces from her when she began to sing. Among the unseen trees her voice was weak, childlike almost, I could not make out the words, perhaps there were no words.
Even in the kingdom of the intentionally blind there should be the one courageous enough to open one’s eyes.
October 7, 2021
Cosmic PTSD
It was called Soldier’s Heart in the American Civil War. Shell shock was a condition of the First World War. Battle fatigue of the Second. But the condition we know as PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, was unknown in previous conflicts and emerged from the American War in Vietnam. Each is a distinct syndrome befitting the circumstances of the time, including the prevailing technology. And I think there’s a good case to be made that the literature of each period created the ability to differentiate each development. Specifically I think Lem invented PTSD; and Return From the Stars is his diagnostic guide to the condition.*
PTSD is of course stress-related and occurs primarily through the experience of extended periods of life-threatening activities, particularly but not exclusively warfare. PTSD has several distinctive symptoms which differentiate the condition from other sorts of combat-induced stress. It need not involve physical injury or acute deprivation, for example. Individuals may be materially well cared for yet suffer intensely through the loss of comrades and the profound psychic dislocation or acting in an alien environment. It is also not typically a condition of the battlefield itself but one which manifests primarily after the time of peril has passed and upon reflection on experience.
But perhaps most significantly, PTSD depends crucially on the cultural context in which the survivor of danger finds him or herself. Having lived through an alien and alienating experience - the Americans in Vietnam, the British in Iraq, Russians in Afghanistan, Portuguese in Angola, the French in Algeria - individuals who return to an environment which is both different from their memories and hostile to their experience appear far more likely to show relevant symptoms. Because there are fewer individuals affected than in ‘world’ conflicts, and the personal risk of expressing the impact of their experiences in a culture which does not respect much less value those experiences, the psychic strain is of a unique variety.
Lem’s protagonist, Bregg, doesn’t return to Earth from war. Nevertheless he has spent 10 years under enormous physical and psychological pressure as a pilot on a mission to a distant star system. He has lost two of his four colleagues during the mission, and has returned to Earth a psychic burn-out, questioning both his youthful motivations and his continued career.
The Earth to which he has returned is unrecognizable as the one he left. His ten years away are equivalent to more than twelve times that for those who have not been traveling near light-speed. Nothing is how he had left it - technology, architecture, economics, food, the rituals and mores of everyday life, including sex, are entirely foreign. Moreover his mission, his sacrifice, has become déclassé in contemporary society. Even his musculature and stature represent a now repugnant historical epoch of high testosterone violence and machismo. He is, in short, a freak.
It is as if Lem has been able to anticipate (in 1961) the forthcoming mental effects of European and American military campaigns in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Bregg shows all the major symptoms of PTSD: depression, confusion, disorientation, alienation from both himself and his surroundings, an inability to express either the trauma of his experiences or the equal trauma of his return to ‘normal’ life. Yet the condition was not officially recognized by the medical establishment until the 1980’s.
It is possible and quite reasonable to read Return From the Stars as a prescient prediction of future technology - from Kindle to sophisticated robotics and driverless cars. But I think a solely technological emphasis shortchanges Lem’s literary as well as observational talent. His recognition of the kind of stress induced by technological development is extremely nuanced. Technology - of war, of travel, of perception - increases the ‘penetration’ of humanity into hostile and inhuman environments. Because these environments are increasingly ‘alien’, they are more acutely stressful and also more stressful to return from.
In using the device of ‘rational’ time-travel, Lem has created a narrative decades in advance of medical or sociological science for the sort of psychological effect of technology on human life. Much more than a techno-nerd therefore.
*Lem’s book was published in 1961. Arthur C. Clarke had published his Childhood’s End in 1952. Containing many of the same sci-fi tropes as the later book, particularly the return of a space-traveler to his now lost civilisation because of the effects of relativity, Lem’s emphasis is far more than Clarke’s on the psychic consequences of the technology.
It was called Soldier’s Heart in the American Civil War. Shell shock was a condition of the First World War. Battle fatigue of the Second. But the condition we know as PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, was unknown in previous conflicts and emerged from the American War in Vietnam. Each is a distinct syndrome befitting the circumstances of the time, including the prevailing technology. And I think there’s a good case to be made that the literature of each period created the ability to differentiate each development. Specifically I think Lem invented PTSD; and Return From the Stars is his diagnostic guide to the condition.*
PTSD is of course stress-related and occurs primarily through the experience of extended periods of life-threatening activities, particularly but not exclusively warfare. PTSD has several distinctive symptoms which differentiate the condition from other sorts of combat-induced stress. It need not involve physical injury or acute deprivation, for example. Individuals may be materially well cared for yet suffer intensely through the loss of comrades and the profound psychic dislocation or acting in an alien environment. It is also not typically a condition of the battlefield itself but one which manifests primarily after the time of peril has passed and upon reflection on experience.
But perhaps most significantly, PTSD depends crucially on the cultural context in which the survivor of danger finds him or herself. Having lived through an alien and alienating experience - the Americans in Vietnam, the British in Iraq, Russians in Afghanistan, Portuguese in Angola, the French in Algeria - individuals who return to an environment which is both different from their memories and hostile to their experience appear far more likely to show relevant symptoms. Because there are fewer individuals affected than in ‘world’ conflicts, and the personal risk of expressing the impact of their experiences in a culture which does not respect much less value those experiences, the psychic strain is of a unique variety.
Lem’s protagonist, Bregg, doesn’t return to Earth from war. Nevertheless he has spent 10 years under enormous physical and psychological pressure as a pilot on a mission to a distant star system. He has lost two of his four colleagues during the mission, and has returned to Earth a psychic burn-out, questioning both his youthful motivations and his continued career.
The Earth to which he has returned is unrecognizable as the one he left. His ten years away are equivalent to more than twelve times that for those who have not been traveling near light-speed. Nothing is how he had left it - technology, architecture, economics, food, the rituals and mores of everyday life, including sex, are entirely foreign. Moreover his mission, his sacrifice, has become déclassé in contemporary society. Even his musculature and stature represent a now repugnant historical epoch of high testosterone violence and machismo. He is, in short, a freak.
It is as if Lem has been able to anticipate (in 1961) the forthcoming mental effects of European and American military campaigns in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Bregg shows all the major symptoms of PTSD: depression, confusion, disorientation, alienation from both himself and his surroundings, an inability to express either the trauma of his experiences or the equal trauma of his return to ‘normal’ life. Yet the condition was not officially recognized by the medical establishment until the 1980’s.
It is possible and quite reasonable to read Return From the Stars as a prescient prediction of future technology - from Kindle to sophisticated robotics and driverless cars. But I think a solely technological emphasis shortchanges Lem’s literary as well as observational talent. His recognition of the kind of stress induced by technological development is extremely nuanced. Technology - of war, of travel, of perception - increases the ‘penetration’ of humanity into hostile and inhuman environments. Because these environments are increasingly ‘alien’, they are more acutely stressful and also more stressful to return from.
In using the device of ‘rational’ time-travel, Lem has created a narrative decades in advance of medical or sociological science for the sort of psychological effect of technology on human life. Much more than a techno-nerd therefore.
*Lem’s book was published in 1961. Arthur C. Clarke had published his Childhood’s End in 1952. Containing many of the same sci-fi tropes as the later book, particularly the return of a space-traveler to his now lost civilisation because of the effects of relativity, Lem’s emphasis is far more than Clarke’s on the psychic consequences of the technology.
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September 7, 2020
Holy cyberspace, robotics and zero-gravity! Stanislaw Lem took me completely by surprise with his 1961 novel of American astronaut Hal Bregg’s returning to Earth 127 years into the future. I was expecting the acclaimed Polish author's time traveler to be another introverted nerd like Ijon Tichy. He’s anything but - exceptionally tall, rugged, muscular, athletic, Hal is an American adventurer along the lines of Indiana Jones. Likewise, I was anticipating the focus of the novel to revolve exclusively around futuristic science, technology and culture. Return From the Stars is all that but something more - a tale of passion, intrigue and, most unexpectedly, a love story.
We follow Hal as he recounts dozens of his intriguing encounters and discoveries – to list several: airplane seats expanding into egg-shaped cocoons as a way of providing the ultimate in privacy (to my mind, a splendid invention), a woman wearing a dress with large peacock eyes that blink, an airport terminal smelling like a thousand scented soaps, a white cake that instantly foams, turns brown and hardens and has the taste of a freshly baked roll, conversations with a physician and a mathematician recounting the advances made in their respective fields in the last one hundred years. So much to report I'm forced to pick and chose. Below are highlights from Explorer Bregg's astonishing odyssey I judge among the most provocative:
BETRIZATION
No doubt about it, the procedure known as betrization is the most important change in this future world, a procedure all children are obliged to undergo. Betrization permanently alters human nature, neutralizing all traces of aggression, nastiness, mean-spiritedness and the need to dominate along with engendering an aversion to risk taking. Predictably, with such a profound transformation, the men and women, society and culture Hal encounters bear little resemblance to life back in the 20th century. Thus when all those denizens Hal meets realize he has not been betrizied, they recoil, viewing him as wild, barbaric, barely a notch above Neanderthal. Betrization is the major philosophic issue for Hal and, indirectly, for Stanislaw Lem.
BLACK BOXES
Stunning scientific breakthrough: gravity is neutralized to eliminate risk and danger. Hal sees black boxes all over the place, in elevators and in sleek, black automobiles (gleeders) that look like pencils sharpened at both ends. So when there is high speed collision, the black boxes completely absorb the impact and passengers walk away without a scratch. Bye bye to all those highway fatalities. Now that’s an improvement!
WORK
Men and women no longer perform drudge work; all is done by robots that are beautifully styled, semitransparent and have long, delicate arms. Hal tells us: “I had noticed that I had no difficulty conversing with robots, because absolutely nothing surprised them. They were incapable of surprise. A very sensible quality.” Furthermore, a physician informs our time traveling adventurer that material factors have ceased to exist - people are freed up to live harmonious, tranquil lives of leisure. The doctor admits society has softened in the last one hundred years. Reading this passage I was reminded of 19th century German philosopher G. F. W. Hegel projecting how at some future point in history the continual thesis-antithesis tug-of-war will evaporate and level out into a final synthesis.
ARCHITECTURE
Many city buildings are a single immensity, a mountain of glassy rock. The more Hal sees, the more he comprehends future architects frequently use nature – mountains, rivers, valleys – as the model for their own creations. “They must have understood that in going beyond certain limits they had to abandon symmetry and regularity of form, and learn from what was largest – intelligent students of the planet.”
ART
“In the center rose a column, high, transparent as glass; something danced in it, purple, brown and violet shapes, unlike anything I knew, like abstract sculptures come to life, but very amusing. First one color then another swelled, became concentrated, took shape in a highly comical way; this melee of forms, although devoid of faces, heads, arms, legs was very human in character. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Everywhere in the city, Hal is surrounded by a dazzling array of lights, colors and shapes. Very appealing to the eye – it appears these future city dwellers have a refined and highly developed aesthetic sense. Beauty is everywhere. "The entire city took on the appearance of a gigantic art exhibit.”
FILM AND THEATER
Movies are three dimensional, vivid holographs, and even more impressive, entirely interactive. “The viewer himself, by his own choice, determined whether he would see a close-up or the whole picture.” Also, Stanislaw Lem anticipates wide screen television. Hal is astonished at all the giant images and faces on flat TV screens the size of walls. Also, theme parks, a close cousin to theater, are holographic extravaganzas – for example, there’s white water rafting where the raft and the water are all swirls of light, created in a way where rafters can experience the thrill without the danger.
BOOKS
Hal is stunned there are no paper books in the bookstore. Stanislaw Lem anticipates the Kindle and audio books. Over the next days as he becomes familiar with the future world’s literature, Hal is upset with the lack of social criticism and the complete absence of anything resembling satire, which prompts the tall astronaut to muse: “There is never good without evil.” Hal can also see the entire cultural heritage has undergone a radical re-evaluation - sexuality, social mores, attitudes toward war – have little in common with the way people viewed such things in the 20th century.
FASHION
“Suits, socks, sweaters, underwear, everything were sprayed on.” In one respect, this future US world is a vast enhancement - men and women are trim, well-built and attractive. And youthful, thanks to a number of health cures for aging, things like a cream instantly removing wrinkles. Contact sports (hockey and football), bloody sports (boxing and rodeo) have disappeared; swimming, diving and hiking are the prevailing sports and modes of exercise.
LOVE
Hal meets lovely Eri and falls deeply in love. Meanwhile, the space mission offers Hal the opportunity for more time travel and adventure. Hal has a critical decision to make: stay with Eri in this betrization world or move on. What will Hal choose? Keep in mind Hal is now a strapping man of forty and has been on a space mission for ten years without women. Also, have a good long look at Eri and take a guess which way Hal with go.
BETRIZATION REDUX
Again, the major philosophic conundrum in this future world is betrization. Conjoined with this radical biological procedure, the prime subjects of education for all toddlers, school-age children and adolescence are the principles of tolerance, peaceful coexistence and respect for others of all races. Ancient history, epochs prior to betrization, including the 20th century, are portrayed as “times of animality and barbaric, uncontrolled procreation, of catastrophe both economic and military.”
Judging from the number of Goodreads reviews (less than 200), I think it is fair to say Return From the Stars is an overlooked classic. In my humble judgement this future world is one of great beauty and magnificence. However, I can detect many readers would take exactly the opposite view. I encourage you to read for yourself and formulate your own opinions.
One of the greatest writers of science fiction, Polish author Stanislaw Lem, 1921-2006
"We traveled a long time in silence. The buildings of the city center gave way to bizarre forms of suburban architecture - under small artificial suns, immersed in vegetation, lay structures with flowing lines, or inflated into odd pillows, or winged, so that the division between the interior of a home and its surroundings was lost; these where products of a phantasmagoria of tireless attempts to create without repeating old forms." -- Stanislaw Lem, Return From the Stars
October 6, 2018
A pretty haunting portrayal of a utopia which is really a dystopia, putting it in the same sphere as “Brave New World”, written 30 years before. Hal Bregg is a space navigator who has just returned from a trip to a nearby star system. He has been through hell on his long, heroic mission to look for alien life and new knowledge of the universe, the dangers of which took the lives of several of his comrades. Because of relativity, his 10-year journey corresponds to some 127 years of Earth time. It feels ironic that his quest to find intelligent aliens succeeds in a strange way: the aliens he struggles to comprehend are the new humans occupying his home world.
At first Hal can’t help but admire how there is no war or violent crime in global society he is now a citizen of. Medical advances have garnered long, disease-free lives for humans . A plethora of robots take care of much of the drudgery of work. A conquering of gravity and inertia makes routine travel about the globe by very fast automated vehicles both free and safe. Hal seems to make friends among the intelligent, gregarious people he meets. But soon Hal begins to feel worthless and depressed over his inability to adapt to this society. First of all they have no interest in his journey, so the sacrifices of his crew go unrecognized. The people have been modified during development by a treatment called betrization, which abolishes aggressive behavior, but in the process many other aspects of human character have changed.
The latter discoveries come out from Hal’s attempt to forge a love relationship. The woman’s married status is not a barrier to their pairing in this society of labile relationships. However, Hal’s untreated potential for violence makes him a source of fear among any who learn of his status. He fears he appears to the new humans like a Neanderthal. The woman who submits to his lusts out of curiosity seems incapable of loving him with the same kind of feelings he nurtures. A ancient doctor with extra insight explains his situation all too well:
“You fail to appreciate how many factors, once decisive in the erotic sphere, have vanished. …Consider, for example, something you have become accustomed to, so accustomed that you no longer see the exceptional nature of the phenomenon: risk. It does not exist any more, Bregg. A man cannot impress a woman with heroics, reckless deeds, and yet literature, art, our whole culture for centuries was nourished by this current: love in the face of adversity. Orpheus went to Hades for Euridice. Othello killed for love. …We eliminated the hell of passion, and then it turned out that in the same sweep, heaven, too, had ceased to be. Everything now is lukewarm, Bregg.”
Thus, in many ways this story serves as a thought experiment and precautionary tale on the dangers of the power of future science to improve upon human nature. Many sci-fi fans will not be impressed with the low levels of dramatic action associated this rather philosophical narrative (the same is true of his most popular novel “Solaris”). In my case, I kept asking myself, as a former brain scientist, how much of our capacity to love and create art and science advances would be changed if the developing neural circuits for aggression were somehow suppressed. As a story written in 1961, the communications network and role-playing dramas these humans spend so much of their time with is somewhat predictive of the Internet and its impact on society today. Lem in his non-fiction writing assumed the ambitions of a futurologist, but his limited ability to foresee where we are now is hardly a fault considering how that journey has been so novel and dramatic. The contrast of this tale’s seriousness contrasts with his satirical play in novels of other starfarers, “Tales of Pirx the Pilot” and “The Futurological Conference” (featuring Ijon Tichy).
It is worth noting that the need to curb man’s warlike nature was reaching a peak at the time when this was written, when the Cold War was making its first steps toward the weaponization of space and the Cuban Missile Crisis the same year almost made it a hot war. How Lem’s writing this under Communist censorship in Poland might have influenced his presentation is not clear to me.
Two other books published in the following year, 1962, examined related ways for science to blunder in trying to conquer aggression in human nature. In Anthony Burgess’ “Clockwork Orange”, the wilding youth in the leading role is subjected to shock conditioning linked to violent images, but Beethoven playing during the sessions messes up the outcome. In Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the violent and sarcastic resistance McMurtry shows on Nurse Rachett’s ward at a psych hospital and his inspiration toward revolt among the other patients is treated with ECT and, in the end, made a mental vegetable by lobotomy. In that sense, this book belongs on the same shelf with those stories as much as the one holding “Brave New World”.
At first Hal can’t help but admire how there is no war or violent crime in global society he is now a citizen of. Medical advances have garnered long, disease-free lives for humans . A plethora of robots take care of much of the drudgery of work. A conquering of gravity and inertia makes routine travel about the globe by very fast automated vehicles both free and safe. Hal seems to make friends among the intelligent, gregarious people he meets. But soon Hal begins to feel worthless and depressed over his inability to adapt to this society. First of all they have no interest in his journey, so the sacrifices of his crew go unrecognized. The people have been modified during development by a treatment called betrization, which abolishes aggressive behavior, but in the process many other aspects of human character have changed.
The latter discoveries come out from Hal’s attempt to forge a love relationship. The woman’s married status is not a barrier to their pairing in this society of labile relationships. However, Hal’s untreated potential for violence makes him a source of fear among any who learn of his status. He fears he appears to the new humans like a Neanderthal. The woman who submits to his lusts out of curiosity seems incapable of loving him with the same kind of feelings he nurtures. A ancient doctor with extra insight explains his situation all too well:
“You fail to appreciate how many factors, once decisive in the erotic sphere, have vanished. …Consider, for example, something you have become accustomed to, so accustomed that you no longer see the exceptional nature of the phenomenon: risk. It does not exist any more, Bregg. A man cannot impress a woman with heroics, reckless deeds, and yet literature, art, our whole culture for centuries was nourished by this current: love in the face of adversity. Orpheus went to Hades for Euridice. Othello killed for love. …We eliminated the hell of passion, and then it turned out that in the same sweep, heaven, too, had ceased to be. Everything now is lukewarm, Bregg.”
Thus, in many ways this story serves as a thought experiment and precautionary tale on the dangers of the power of future science to improve upon human nature. Many sci-fi fans will not be impressed with the low levels of dramatic action associated this rather philosophical narrative (the same is true of his most popular novel “Solaris”). In my case, I kept asking myself, as a former brain scientist, how much of our capacity to love and create art and science advances would be changed if the developing neural circuits for aggression were somehow suppressed. As a story written in 1961, the communications network and role-playing dramas these humans spend so much of their time with is somewhat predictive of the Internet and its impact on society today. Lem in his non-fiction writing assumed the ambitions of a futurologist, but his limited ability to foresee where we are now is hardly a fault considering how that journey has been so novel and dramatic. The contrast of this tale’s seriousness contrasts with his satirical play in novels of other starfarers, “Tales of Pirx the Pilot” and “The Futurological Conference” (featuring Ijon Tichy).
It is worth noting that the need to curb man’s warlike nature was reaching a peak at the time when this was written, when the Cold War was making its first steps toward the weaponization of space and the Cuban Missile Crisis the same year almost made it a hot war. How Lem’s writing this under Communist censorship in Poland might have influenced his presentation is not clear to me.
Two other books published in the following year, 1962, examined related ways for science to blunder in trying to conquer aggression in human nature. In Anthony Burgess’ “Clockwork Orange”, the wilding youth in the leading role is subjected to shock conditioning linked to violent images, but Beethoven playing during the sessions messes up the outcome. In Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the violent and sarcastic resistance McMurtry shows on Nurse Rachett’s ward at a psych hospital and his inspiration toward revolt among the other patients is treated with ECT and, in the end, made a mental vegetable by lobotomy. In that sense, this book belongs on the same shelf with those stories as much as the one holding “Brave New World”.
January 28, 2025
Понякога е по-добре да не се завърнеш...
Не бях чел тази книга на Станислав Лем и май това си е чист късмет, защото тя е доста сериозна и изисква пространни размисли, нещо което едва ли би ми се отдало с лекота преди трийсетина години.
Началото е по-скоро описателно и подробно до дребнавост на детайла. Лем залага на една визуалност неприсъща за този вид изскуство - все пак когато четем, ние сами градим картините, героите и световете разпилени между страниците.
Средата ми дотегна, не съм сигурен защо бяха нужни тези криви емоции и този "романс", може би всичко това е въображаема котва за Хел, начин да се справи с непосилното?
А краят е чудесен, много човешки и истински, дори в отчаянието, в донкихотовщината си и с един извод за мен - стерилното не ни трябва, иначе просто бихме престанали да сме хора. Непрефектни, ужасни, непредвидими и все пак умни, смели и чудесни!
Моята оценка - 4,5*.
Цитати:
"Ние унищожихме ада на страстите, но заедно с това престана да съществува и раят."
"Човек винаги се връща с празни ръце..."
Не бях чел тази книга на Станислав Лем и май това си е чист късмет, защото тя е доста сериозна и изисква пространни размисли, нещо което едва ли би ми се отдало с лекота преди трийсетина години.
Началото е по-скоро описателно и подробно до дребнавост на детайла. Лем залага на една визуалност неприсъща за този вид изскуство - все пак когато четем, ние сами градим картините, героите и световете разпилени между страниците.
Средата ми дотегна, не съм сигурен защо бяха нужни тези криви емоции и този "романс", може би всичко това е въображаема котва за Хел, начин да се справи с непосилното?
А краят е чудесен, много човешки и истински, дори в отчаянието, в донкихотовщината си и с един извод за мен - стерилното не ни трябва, иначе просто бихме престанали да сме хора. Непрефектни, ужасни, непредвидими и все пак умни, смели и чудесни!
Моята оценка - 4,5*.
Цитати:
"Ние унищожихме ада на страстите, но заедно с това престана да съществува и раят."
"Човек винаги се връща с празни ръце..."
March 2, 2021
I'm surprised this novel is not better known or more praised. Return From the Stars in an amazing book. What particularly impressed me is how it felt like several novels within one novel. The protagonist of this novel is an astronaut who has returned to Earth from the Starts (meaning the space) after a period of more than a hundred years. Hal, a former astronaut, finds the Earth greatly changed. So, changed that Hal experiences severe cultural shock. Tennessee Williams said it best- Time is the greatest distance.
There are other members of the crew that have returned, but initially Hal is alone and only meets one of his former crew members after a period of time. He is facing the world alone at start. Described as two meters tall, Hal towers over the people he meets, but their differences do not stop there. Hal shocks everyone and his initial efforts of communication with other Earthlings are clumsy. To him they seem terribly passive. Something has changed, the human kind is not the same.
He attends the party where he meets a girl who seems drunk but soon he realizes that she is not. She invites him home and he accepts, albeit surprised. At her home, Hal realizes why it is not uncommon for a girl to invite a man she just met over- there is this procedure that everyone undertakes, every human living on the planet, making them incapable of any act of aggression. Once the girl learns that Hal has not undergone this procedure, she is terrified of him and he soon leaves because he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Hal ventures on his own to research this new Earth. With time he learns more about the way things function. The girl provided him with some basic information but when he checks into hotel he soon learns more. He can stay in the hotel as long as he likes. The future world is almost an utopia. There is a sum awarded to him even if he chooses not to work. Hal eagerly explores this new world.
However, Hal understandably finds it hard to adapt to this utopia. The Earth has become a place with no risks but also a place that is restricted. For Hal, Earth is no longer the home planet he has left more than a hundred years ago. The most significant change is that of human society. The human kind itself has changed, choosing to undergone a procedure called betrization, that makes them incapable of harming anyone, be it an animal or another person. Robots do all the dangerous or difficult jobs. The consequences of betrization, a procedure designed to neutralize all aggressive impulses are far-reaching. This is not a cosmetic procedure but rather one that completely changes humans as such. It makes people avoid all risks and as such it numbs their desire to explore and do research. Nobody wants to venture into space anymore. The space travel could be of interest only to historians.
Hal soon meets some interesting characters from his past. Moreover, the story is not linear. Hal often remembers his space travel adventures- and some of these memories weight hard on him. There seems to me there were moments when Hal experiences something like PTSP thinking about his space days. On the other hand, he still has the desire to explore the space within him. In other words, Hal is torn. When he meets a member of his crew, they get into heated debates over whether the new life on Earth is completely wrong or not.
I thought that would be it, you know, the study of Hal's life in this new Earth, in other words a dystopian or if you will- an utopian novel. However, the book kept throwing surprised on me and I loved it. It kept bringing moments from Hal's past and shedding more light on the protagonist. It's not a strictly linear novel nor does it focus only on the dystopian society. There is a personal element to it as well. Just when I thought that was about it, the protagonist falls madly in love with Eri and then there is this whole romantic story. It's quite dynamic and Hal does crazy things. Without too much spoilers, we could say that love changes Hal's view on many things.
Here is what the author said about this book:
...I have some reservations about this book because of sentimentalism and the brawn of its characters. Besides I recognize some traces of Remarque. An author cannot help his characters - only because he likes them. The romance could have ended just like in the novel but under one condition - the heroine should have been a more expressive character. I still consider the idea of "betrization" to be an interesting concept, however I slightly oversimplified its realization. My ambiguous feelings toward this book can be seen in the fact that I gave permission for translation and foreign editions.
It is impressive how many things Lem predicted in terms of technology, for example reading books on tablets. There are wonderful poetic descriptions of space travel in this novel, but space exploration as such is not idolized. The author makes it known that space travel as such is dangerous. It goes into detail describing some of the past Hal's 'space travel' experiences, one of them being paranormal (this made me think of Solaris). There is also an obvious philosophical aspect to the novel. Lem (through the eyes of Hal) questions this future society. Hal cannot feel at home at this new Earth, but he is not completely closed minded about it. His love for Eri makes Hal want to understand this (to him alien) Earth. Indeed, there is a romantic story within this novel as well. I don't remember seeing a female character playing as important role in Lem's novels before. Eri definitely plays an important part in this novel (and in Hal's life) so that was interesting. Lem said that the female character could have been better developed, but to me she seemed real enough. All in all, this was a rich story and I enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommended to lovers of science fiction and dystopian literature.
There are other members of the crew that have returned, but initially Hal is alone and only meets one of his former crew members after a period of time. He is facing the world alone at start. Described as two meters tall, Hal towers over the people he meets, but their differences do not stop there. Hal shocks everyone and his initial efforts of communication with other Earthlings are clumsy. To him they seem terribly passive. Something has changed, the human kind is not the same.
He attends the party where he meets a girl who seems drunk but soon he realizes that she is not. She invites him home and he accepts, albeit surprised. At her home, Hal realizes why it is not uncommon for a girl to invite a man she just met over- there is this procedure that everyone undertakes, every human living on the planet, making them incapable of any act of aggression. Once the girl learns that Hal has not undergone this procedure, she is terrified of him and he soon leaves because he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Hal ventures on his own to research this new Earth. With time he learns more about the way things function. The girl provided him with some basic information but when he checks into hotel he soon learns more. He can stay in the hotel as long as he likes. The future world is almost an utopia. There is a sum awarded to him even if he chooses not to work. Hal eagerly explores this new world.
However, Hal understandably finds it hard to adapt to this utopia. The Earth has become a place with no risks but also a place that is restricted. For Hal, Earth is no longer the home planet he has left more than a hundred years ago. The most significant change is that of human society. The human kind itself has changed, choosing to undergone a procedure called betrization, that makes them incapable of harming anyone, be it an animal or another person. Robots do all the dangerous or difficult jobs. The consequences of betrization, a procedure designed to neutralize all aggressive impulses are far-reaching. This is not a cosmetic procedure but rather one that completely changes humans as such. It makes people avoid all risks and as such it numbs their desire to explore and do research. Nobody wants to venture into space anymore. The space travel could be of interest only to historians.
Hal soon meets some interesting characters from his past. Moreover, the story is not linear. Hal often remembers his space travel adventures- and some of these memories weight hard on him. There seems to me there were moments when Hal experiences something like PTSP thinking about his space days. On the other hand, he still has the desire to explore the space within him. In other words, Hal is torn. When he meets a member of his crew, they get into heated debates over whether the new life on Earth is completely wrong or not.
I thought that would be it, you know, the study of Hal's life in this new Earth, in other words a dystopian or if you will- an utopian novel. However, the book kept throwing surprised on me and I loved it. It kept bringing moments from Hal's past and shedding more light on the protagonist. It's not a strictly linear novel nor does it focus only on the dystopian society. There is a personal element to it as well. Just when I thought that was about it, the protagonist falls madly in love with Eri and then there is this whole romantic story. It's quite dynamic and Hal does crazy things. Without too much spoilers, we could say that love changes Hal's view on many things.
Here is what the author said about this book:
...I have some reservations about this book because of sentimentalism and the brawn of its characters. Besides I recognize some traces of Remarque. An author cannot help his characters - only because he likes them. The romance could have ended just like in the novel but under one condition - the heroine should have been a more expressive character. I still consider the idea of "betrization" to be an interesting concept, however I slightly oversimplified its realization. My ambiguous feelings toward this book can be seen in the fact that I gave permission for translation and foreign editions.
It is impressive how many things Lem predicted in terms of technology, for example reading books on tablets. There are wonderful poetic descriptions of space travel in this novel, but space exploration as such is not idolized. The author makes it known that space travel as such is dangerous. It goes into detail describing some of the past Hal's 'space travel' experiences, one of them being paranormal (this made me think of Solaris). There is also an obvious philosophical aspect to the novel. Lem (through the eyes of Hal) questions this future society. Hal cannot feel at home at this new Earth, but he is not completely closed minded about it. His love for Eri makes Hal want to understand this (to him alien) Earth. Indeed, there is a romantic story within this novel as well. I don't remember seeing a female character playing as important role in Lem's novels before. Eri definitely plays an important part in this novel (and in Hal's life) so that was interesting. Lem said that the female character could have been better developed, but to me she seemed real enough. All in all, this was a rich story and I enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommended to lovers of science fiction and dystopian literature.
November 25, 2016
I generally adore Stanislaw Lem, but what the shitting shit hell is this? A man returns from a cosmic voyage, over a century has passed on Earth and so of course the culture is entirely different. And the sticking point with him is that people have voluntarily decreased their aggression, so that there is no murder, rape, assault, or war. True, he can see the benefit of it - but what about boxing? There's no real sport left! And really the main problem is now you can't just acquire a woman. So his reaction is to forcibly kiss one lady, then go batshit insane another poor soul, decide that he's in "love" with her or something, and basically abduct her and coerce her into staying with him. Yes, he somehow realizes days later that maybe, just MAYBE she was going along with him because she was afraid. WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS HAPPENING? God it was just unbearable. Anything else potentially commendable about the book is just completely destroyed by all this garbage.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2011
Definitely one of my favourite books written by one of my favourite authors. However sci-fi, it actually tells a story of a lonely man. A man that cannot find himself in the new world... Didn't it happen to all of us at least once in a lifetime? Absolutely a masterpiece!
May 19, 2023
Hal Bregg, an astronaut from a deep space exploration mission returns to Earth over 120 years after setting out (though only 10 years have passed subjectively) to find a kind of utopian society where the aggressive tendencies of mankind have been eliminated through a chemical process known as betrization. With all the benefits, including the elimination of war and violence, comes a total aversion to risk and hence the death of the spirit of exploration and an indifference to endeavors such as space travel that are seen as not only risky but ultimately useless. Hal quickly discovers that life with guard rails is no life at all, and that this seeming utopia is more dystopia. Through increasingly frequent episodes of manic behavior he wrestles with the deaths and time lost during his mission and the idea that it was all in vain. Not Lem's best story, yet it still goes to the heart of one of his primary hallmarks, touching on the human and personal costs of facing the unknown and the risks of losing ourselves.
Read
September 30, 2018I cannot rate this book as I absolutely loathed it. I didn't like the main character Hal Bregg who has returned to earth after 127 years, even though only ten biological years have passed for him.
The book seemed to be all over the place. The procedure known as betrization completely threw me until I eventualy found out what it meant. No books in bookshops - insane; robots and then finally Hal falls in love with Eri and well that was the end of the book for me. I had a quick skim through and just sighed and put the book down.
This book was not at all good for my psyche and left me feeling most annoyed! Still the one positive fact is this book gives other people pleasure and that's the main thing. As I've often stated, we cannot all love the same books.
The book seemed to be all over the place. The procedure known as betrization completely threw me until I eventualy found out what it meant. No books in bookshops - insane; robots and then finally Hal falls in love with Eri and well that was the end of the book for me. I had a quick skim through and just sighed and put the book down.
This book was not at all good for my psyche and left me feeling most annoyed! Still the one positive fact is this book gives other people pleasure and that's the main thing. As I've often stated, we cannot all love the same books.
February 23, 2022
Yes, all right, this is a dystopia in the style of Brave New World, where the elimination of any risk and danger and aggressive instinct has led to a, so to speak, watering down of the qualities that make a human human. But. Especially these days, it is so damnably difficult to read this hypothetical future where every single human being has been surgically modified never to hurt another human being in the terms of the dystopian model. I've been growing ever more convinced that, on the contrary, that is the best future our wretched species can hope for. And Lem does a fantastic job of problematizing the conflict between the protagonist, who finds this society alien, and the society itself, in a way that is substantially extraneous to the straightforwardness of Brave New World--which, do not misunderstand me, is a masterpiece in its own right, just for different reasons; it would be interesting to read the two books side by side, anyway.
So, I would like to invite everyone to read Return from the Stars outside of the frame of dystopian fiction. I think that the vision that Lem offers in his novel is also aimed at critiquing anthropocentric modes of thought precisely by pushing us, as readers, to be on the fence as to the dystopian content of this story.
So, I would like to invite everyone to read Return from the Stars outside of the frame of dystopian fiction. I think that the vision that Lem offers in his novel is also aimed at critiquing anthropocentric modes of thought precisely by pushing us, as readers, to be on the fence as to the dystopian content of this story.
January 11, 2022
Classic themes revolving around what it means to be human, to live, to love and to be at home make this book an exceptional science fiction novel. Character development lacks by modern standards but was on par for the time period. This is a book that makes you think, to reflect and to put yourself in unfamiliar shoes. I recommend this to those wanting more than action or romance from their reads (both are there but not a focus). Recommended to those wanting the wind and trees of philosophy in their sci-fi.
September 19, 2012
I'm not sure what to think of "Return From The Stars." At times I liked it and at other times I felt indifferent to it. Nothing jumps out as bad, exactly. The novel follows the main character, Hal, through the hardships of returning to Earth from a deep space exploration after nearly 130 years--only ten to him. And, of course, the world has changed and he goes through this huge cultural shock and people see that he's different straight away and he can't adjust so he goes on vacation after like two days back on Earth. Mind you, none of this is his fault or anyone else's fault and nobody's mistreating him because maltreatment no longer exists because people are chemically altered at birth to be non-aggressive. And the whole story until the end stems from this. So there's no antagonist, as such. Just a bunch of conversations where he can't get across what he's thinking and he can't really grasp what anyone else is saying, although they're all nodding at one another like "Yeah, I think I get your meaning."
Slowly he adjusts to or does better at hiding from society, which is, again, not clear. He also wrestles with all these demons from his past that haunt him but aren't really tied in well to the rest of the story, which he does discuss with some of his fellow explores about and they all say "Shut up. You're making mountains from ant hills." So, it all become these repetitive pointless discussions. And then it ends with this whole cyclical journey hooey that does not read a prophetic as I think the author intended. And I don't think it's a matter of meaning being lost in translation.
Still, the book has its moments. The characters are all likable, it's well thought out, and, aside from the dialog, it's well written. The discussions of the space exploration Hal just returned from are interesting, but they make up such a small portion of the novel I was left feeling a little short-changed.
So, read it if you got it, but don't break your neck rushing out the
door to get it. It has a higher review average on GR than I've given it, which could mean I'm dense. However, Lem stated himself that he didn't think it was very good and relied on too many SciFi cliches.
Slowly he adjusts to or does better at hiding from society, which is, again, not clear. He also wrestles with all these demons from his past that haunt him but aren't really tied in well to the rest of the story, which he does discuss with some of his fellow explores about and they all say "Shut up. You're making mountains from ant hills." So, it all become these repetitive pointless discussions. And then it ends with this whole cyclical journey hooey that does not read a prophetic as I think the author intended. And I don't think it's a matter of meaning being lost in translation.
Still, the book has its moments. The characters are all likable, it's well thought out, and, aside from the dialog, it's well written. The discussions of the space exploration Hal just returned from are interesting, but they make up such a small portion of the novel I was left feeling a little short-changed.
So, read it if you got it, but don't break your neck rushing out the
door to get it. It has a higher review average on GR than I've given it, which could mean I'm dense. However, Lem stated himself that he didn't think it was very good and relied on too many SciFi cliches.
August 2, 2015
Отпуската ми тече добре, чета на ден по три книги и съм много доволен.
"Завръщане от звездите" е реално първата книга от Библиотека Галактика. Първите книжки Синият тайфун и Двойната звезда тогава бяха неоткриваеми, тази се появи през 1979 г по книжарниците. Бях на 13 и книгата ме впечатли силно. Тогава бяха една славни години на космическата експанзия.
И в разгара на масовата истерия Лем задава въпроса - и за какво е всичко това?
Книгата реално е писана преди полета на първия космонавт. Във времена когато всички са вперили поглед към Спутник и чакайки полета на Гагарин.
Всъщност темата за безмислието на дългите космически полети Лем развива и в "Магелановият облак".
Развитието на съвременната космонавтика до голяма степен показва, че е бил прав - хората нямат работа в космоса!
Всичко това може (а и се върщи) по-добре от роботите.
Но ние имаме нужда от Космоса! Ако не се опитваме постоянно да надскочим границите си, спираме да се развиваме.
Нито полюса ни е трябвал, нито Еверест - трябва ни предизвикателството - какво още можем да направим.
Накратко за тия, които не са чели книгата - една експедиция се връща след 127 години във съвсем различен свят на Земята, сред хора, които не могат да разберат защо са направили това.
Хората на Земята са вече други, едни укротени... "бетизирани". Няма я агресията, но ги няма и мечтите. "Всъщност ние не се грижим за роботите, а те се грижат за нас".
Като четях книгата си дадох сметка, че нещата са се променили много от тогава и в някаква сметка и ние сме "бетизирани". Мечтите са си заминали, а е останало само търсенето на материално благополучие. Което е изродило всичко в най-лошата му форма.
С падането на социализЪма не остана и мечта, която да следваме. А едно общество умира без мечти.
В книгата Лем (Великият Лем) предрича доста неща от развитието на технологиите, независимо че стъпва на ужасно остаряла техническа база. Описани са електронните книги и четци и то почти във варианта, в който съществуват днес (е не е предвидил Интернет затова се разпространяват не файлове, а кристали). Но останалата структура е същата.
Романът завършва с една любовна история. И с една любов - нагоре към Звездите!
"Завръщане от звездите" е реално първата книга от Библиотека Галактика. Първите книжки Синият тайфун и Двойната звезда тогава бяха неоткриваеми, тази се появи през 1979 г по книжарниците. Бях на 13 и книгата ме впечатли силно. Тогава бяха една славни години на космическата експанзия.
И в разгара на масовата истерия Лем задава въпроса - и за какво е всичко това?
Книгата реално е писана преди полета на първия космонавт. Във времена когато всички са вперили поглед към Спутник и чакайки полета на Гагарин.
Всъщност темата за безмислието на дългите космически полети Лем развива и в "Магелановият облак".
Развитието на съвременната космонавтика до голяма степен показва, че е бил прав - хората нямат работа в космоса!
Всичко това може (а и се върщи) по-добре от роботите.
Но ние имаме нужда от Космоса! Ако не се опитваме постоянно да надскочим границите си, спираме да се развиваме.
Нито полюса ни е трябвал, нито Еверест - трябва ни предизвикателството - какво още можем да направим.
Накратко за тия, които не са чели книгата - една експедиция се връща след 127 години във съвсем различен свят на Земята, сред хора, които не могат да разберат защо са направили това.
Хората на Земята са вече други, едни укротени... "бетизирани". Няма я агресията, но ги няма и мечтите. "Всъщност ние не се грижим за роботите, а те се грижат за нас".
Като четях книгата си дадох сметка, че нещата са се променили много от тогава и в някаква сметка и ние сме "бетизирани". Мечтите са си заминали, а е останало само търсенето на материално благополучие. Което е изродило всичко в най-лошата му форма.
С падането на социализЪма не остана и мечта, която да следваме. А едно общество умира без мечти.
В книгата Лем (Великият Лем) предрича доста неща от развитието на технологиите, независимо че стъпва на ужасно остаряла техническа база. Описани са електронните книги и четци и то почти във варианта, в който съществуват днес (е не е предвидил Интернет затова се разпространяват не файлове, а кристали). Но останалата структура е същата.
Романът завършва с една любовна история. И с една любов - нагоре към Звездите!
June 9, 2017
This book could have been edited for clarity. Yes, I'm aware that it's a translation, but I'm talking about the overuse of one particular device:
"Too many lines of dialogue ending in..."
"Leaving the reader to fill in the..."
"Which is fine if you've already given enough..."
"Information...?"
"Yeah..."
Half the conversations in this book had 3-dot dialogue like this. There's such a thing as leaving TOO MANY things unspoken. At some point, the reader is left adrift, wondering what the author meant, without enough context clues to figure it out for himself. A good story, but a confusing read.
"Too many lines of dialogue ending in..."
"Leaving the reader to fill in the..."
"Which is fine if you've already given enough..."
"Information...?"
"Yeah..."
Half the conversations in this book had 3-dot dialogue like this. There's such a thing as leaving TOO MANY things unspoken. At some point, the reader is left adrift, wondering what the author meant, without enough context clues to figure it out for himself. A good story, but a confusing read.
April 3, 2013
A couple years back, I read the first James bond book (Casino Royale) and was appalled by Fleming's allusions to "the sweet tang of rape." Even more horrifying was my conversation with a male friend afterwards, who claimed that every man wants to be just like James Bond, and continued with this claim even after I read passages to him (including the rape passage) and explained how much of a misogynistic asshole Bond is in the books. For the sake of our friendship, I'm forced to assume he wasn't paying attention and was thinking of the movies.
Hal may not be quite to the James Bond level - he doesn't seem comfortable with rape as a concept - but he's definitely not shy about forcing himself on women who are incapable of fighting him off! He keeps assuming that if people don't say "no" then it must mean "yes". Unfortunately, in this alternate future, with people incapable of aggression or conflict, the women are saying "no," but not in a way that Hal can recognize.
There's a lot of interesting ideas here, but I this is one case where a biased narrator leads to a biased opinion of the book. It's disturbingly ambiguous at times, but I don't think Lem himself believed that all men are rapists at heart, just like I don't think that he believed that space exploration was pointless.
(Additionally, the formatting/editing on the Kindle edition is dreadful. There's OCR errors everywhere, and even a couple of pages that are in the wrong order!)
Hal may not be quite to the James Bond level - he doesn't seem comfortable with rape as a concept - but he's definitely not shy about forcing himself on women who are incapable of fighting him off! He keeps assuming that if people don't say "no" then it must mean "yes". Unfortunately, in this alternate future, with people incapable of aggression or conflict, the women are saying "no," but not in a way that Hal can recognize.
There's a lot of interesting ideas here, but I this is one case where a biased narrator leads to a biased opinion of the book. It's disturbingly ambiguous at times, but I don't think Lem himself believed that all men are rapists at heart, just like I don't think that he believed that space exploration was pointless.
(Additionally, the formatting/editing on the Kindle edition is dreadful. There's OCR errors everywhere, and even a couple of pages that are in the wrong order!)
May 15, 2021
Roman POVRATAK SA ZVIJEZDA Stanislava Lema pojavio se u prevodu na hrvatski veoma brzo nakon izlaska originala (1961) u biblioteci Merkur zagrebačke izdavačke kuće Zora, davne 1964. godine. Koliko sam mogao da nađem na internetu, bio je to prvi prevod ovog ostvarenja na neki drugi jezik. Na srpskom, prethodio mu je prevod zbirke Invazija sa Aledebarana, koji je objavljen 1963. godine u Beogradu u okviru Zanimljive biblioteke izdavačkog preduzeća Nolit, a bio praćen već sledeće godine prevodom još poznatijih Zvezdanih dnevnika Ijona Tihog, u okviru iste biblioteke.
Rano objavljivanje ovog romana uslovilo je da u domaćoj recepciji naučne fantastike bude znatno manje primećen u odnosu na romane kao što su Solaris, Nepobedivi, Glas gospodara ili Fijasko koji su objavljeni u specijalizovanim edicijama za naučnu fantastiku i pobudili znatno veću pažnju domaćih čitalaca.
Ova relativno malo prisutna knjiga u ponudi onlajn knjižara predstavlja u suštini spada među prva Lemova ostvarenja u kojima se javlja crv sumnje da će progres nauke doneti dobrobiti čovečanstvu. Glavni junak romana Hal Briggs, američki kosmonaut, član jedne od prvih misija na daleke planete, vraća se na Zemlju i tu ga zatičemo krajnje zbunjenog svetom u kome se zatiče. Od njegovog odlaska prošlo je 10 subjektivnih godina, ali za to vreme je na Zemlji proteklo 127. godina. Lem nam u prvom delu romana vešto dočarava zbunjenost glavnog junaka suočenog ne samo sa velikim tehnoloških promenama, već i sa promenama koje je je čovečanstvo pretrpelo.
On polako otkriva da se oseća u svetu u kome se našao poput neandertalca koji bi se našao u našem svetu. Čovečanstvo je odlučilo da se dobrovoljno odrekne dela onog dela ljudskosti koji se ovaploćuje u agresivnosti i kompeticija. Ali posledica toga, osim opšteg blagostanja i neke vrste socijalne utopije gde su svakome dostupne bazične, i ne samo bazične ljudske potrebe, neminovno je gubljenje strasti u svakom pogledu - od ljubavi do želje da se ode dalje, izvan...
Posebno je zanimljivo je čitati ovaj roman u svetlu novog pristupa odnosu između muškaraca i žena, jer glavni junak predstavlja neku vrstu bondovskog mačo mena koji, iako svesno zna da to nije dobro, ženama prilazi kao objektima žudnje i ne može da se suzdrži. A žene novog sveta podležu, iz razno-raznih razloga tom animalnom u njemu.
Roman ne bez mana, ali i vrlo zanimljivog pristupa, kome distanca od 60 godina dodaje dodatnu čar u otkrivanju sličnosti i razlika u stvarnom napretku tehnologije i društva (selebriti tom u novom svetu su zvezde neke vrste hologramskih rijalitija, na primer, i sl.).
Nađite ga ako možete, isplati se...
Rano objavljivanje ovog romana uslovilo je da u domaćoj recepciji naučne fantastike bude znatno manje primećen u odnosu na romane kao što su Solaris, Nepobedivi, Glas gospodara ili Fijasko koji su objavljeni u specijalizovanim edicijama za naučnu fantastiku i pobudili znatno veću pažnju domaćih čitalaca.
Ova relativno malo prisutna knjiga u ponudi onlajn knjižara predstavlja u suštini spada među prva Lemova ostvarenja u kojima se javlja crv sumnje da će progres nauke doneti dobrobiti čovečanstvu. Glavni junak romana Hal Briggs, američki kosmonaut, član jedne od prvih misija na daleke planete, vraća se na Zemlju i tu ga zatičemo krajnje zbunjenog svetom u kome se zatiče. Od njegovog odlaska prošlo je 10 subjektivnih godina, ali za to vreme je na Zemlji proteklo 127. godina. Lem nam u prvom delu romana vešto dočarava zbunjenost glavnog junaka suočenog ne samo sa velikim tehnoloških promenama, već i sa promenama koje je je čovečanstvo pretrpelo.
On polako otkriva da se oseća u svetu u kome se našao poput neandertalca koji bi se našao u našem svetu. Čovečanstvo je odlučilo da se dobrovoljno odrekne dela onog dela ljudskosti koji se ovaploćuje u agresivnosti i kompeticija. Ali posledica toga, osim opšteg blagostanja i neke vrste socijalne utopije gde su svakome dostupne bazične, i ne samo bazične ljudske potrebe, neminovno je gubljenje strasti u svakom pogledu - od ljubavi do želje da se ode dalje, izvan...
Posebno je zanimljivo je čitati ovaj roman u svetlu novog pristupa odnosu između muškaraca i žena, jer glavni junak predstavlja neku vrstu bondovskog mačo mena koji, iako svesno zna da to nije dobro, ženama prilazi kao objektima žudnje i ne može da se suzdrži. A žene novog sveta podležu, iz razno-raznih razloga tom animalnom u njemu.
Roman ne bez mana, ali i vrlo zanimljivog pristupa, kome distanca od 60 godina dodaje dodatnu čar u otkrivanju sličnosti i razlika u stvarnom napretku tehnologije i društva (selebriti tom u novom svetu su zvezde neke vrste hologramskih rijalitija, na primer, i sl.).
Nađite ga ako možete, isplati se...
June 8, 2025
ENGLISH: After a round trip to the stars, relativistic contraction makes the ten-year journey correspond to over one century on Earth. The protagonist, a pilot in the expedition, has troubles in adapting to the changes on Earth, where interest in space exploration has been lost. This point of view reminds me of the beginning of my favorite Poul Anderson novel, Orbit Unlimited, although what happens next is completely different.
I gave 3 stars to Solaris and Eden, by the same author. I have liked this novel less, therefore I'm giving it 2 stars. I can't understand why he has to insult the Spaniards by calling Spain a country with a long tradition of bloody strife. His own country (Poland) could also be treated in the same way. But this is just a way to encourage black legends.
ESPAÑOL: Tras un viaje de ida y vuelta a las estrellas, la contracción relativista hace que los diez años de la duración del viaje se trasladen a más de un siglo transcurrido en la Tierra. El protagonista, piloto de la expedición, experimenta muchas dificultades para adaptarse a los cambios ocurridos en la Tierra, donde se ha perdido el interés por la exploración espacial. Este punto de vista me recuerda el principio de mi novela favorita de Poul Anderson, Orbit Unlimited, aunque lo que ocurre a continuación es completamente diferente.
A Solaris y Eden, del mismo autor, les di 3 estrellas. Esta novela me ha gustado menos que aquellas, por eso le doy 2 estrellas. No puedo entender por qué tiene que insultar a los españoles llamando a España un país con una larga tradición de luchas sangrientas. Su propio país (Polonia) podría ser tratado de la misma manera. Pero esto es una manera de fomentar leyendas negras.
I gave 3 stars to Solaris and Eden, by the same author. I have liked this novel less, therefore I'm giving it 2 stars. I can't understand why he has to insult the Spaniards by calling Spain a country with a long tradition of bloody strife. His own country (Poland) could also be treated in the same way. But this is just a way to encourage black legends.
ESPAÑOL: Tras un viaje de ida y vuelta a las estrellas, la contracción relativista hace que los diez años de la duración del viaje se trasladen a más de un siglo transcurrido en la Tierra. El protagonista, piloto de la expedición, experimenta muchas dificultades para adaptarse a los cambios ocurridos en la Tierra, donde se ha perdido el interés por la exploración espacial. Este punto de vista me recuerda el principio de mi novela favorita de Poul Anderson, Orbit Unlimited, aunque lo que ocurre a continuación es completamente diferente.
A Solaris y Eden, del mismo autor, les di 3 estrellas. Esta novela me ha gustado menos que aquellas, por eso le doy 2 estrellas. No puedo entender por qué tiene que insultar a los españoles llamando a España un país con una larga tradición de luchas sangrientas. Su propio país (Polonia) podría ser tratado de la misma manera. Pero esto es una manera de fomentar leyendas negras.
September 9, 2017
chciałabym przeprosić siebie z przeszłości za te straszne uprzedzenia do Lema spowodowane lekturą "Bajek robotów" w podstawówce. przeczytałam w jeden dzień (a raczej dzień i noc), bo trudno się oderwać od tej książki. jest doskonale napisana, przybijająca atmosferą wyobcowania i samotności, prowokująca do myślenia o człowieczeństwie i sensie wychylania się poza strefę bezpieczeństwa i wygody. i jeśli to podobno całkiem przeciętna powieść Lema, jedna z wielu, to już nie mogę doczekać się całej reszty.
November 7, 2017
Interesting ideas presented with complexity and depth. The description of Hal's arrival on earth and the disorientation he feels was definitely impressive. The story examines social conditioning and consent, the impacts of being an outsider when the world has changed around you, and the importance of connection not only to society but also to your self and your personal story/identity. Also, it introduced cool technology that may not have appeared in earlier works (electronic books, "holodeck" style entertainment) - it was published in 1961 in Poland, not sure whether these ideas had been presented before that?
But there was a layer missing in this world. Production is supposedly accomplished by robots (and the scene in the robot scrapyard was pretty awesome!), but the relationship to resources and nature wasn't explored at all. Treatment of food was very cursory, and maintenance and repair wasn't dealt with other than to indicate that a self-managed world of robot producers took care of all that (hmmm, a novel about that robot world would be pretty interesting...). There are people who work, but it is not clear why (most things are free) - some of it was probably because people wanted to or enjoyed the work, but I didn't get a motivation for the travel agent or the bookstore staff. We encounter non-white people only as holograms when Hal enters an entertainment complex where he experiences a boat trip down an African River where Black boatmen do all of the work (and it is hard work as they travel down rapids). Also, women are a separate category of people here and Hal's "romantic" coersions are definitely problematic (although I think Lem did attempt to add some complexity and agency to Eri's part in the relationship and the social norms in this future allowed for things like polyamory and shorter-term commitments to a partner rather than the lifetime vows of marriage).
In general, there wasn't a sense of how the world beyond Hal's immediate surrounding are faring, with the exception of a description of how betrization was implemented/accepted around the world. I couldn't help feeling like there was a hidden underclass (besides the robots) somewhere. I think it would be interesting to explore the ways in which betrization would exacerbate and/or diminish social divisions. Would people be less likely to rebel against existing social orders? Or would people find less meaning in hierarchies?
But there was a layer missing in this world. Production is supposedly accomplished by robots (and the scene in the robot scrapyard was pretty awesome!), but the relationship to resources and nature wasn't explored at all. Treatment of food was very cursory, and maintenance and repair wasn't dealt with other than to indicate that a self-managed world of robot producers took care of all that (hmmm, a novel about that robot world would be pretty interesting...). There are people who work, but it is not clear why (most things are free) - some of it was probably because people wanted to or enjoyed the work, but I didn't get a motivation for the travel agent or the bookstore staff. We encounter non-white people only as holograms when Hal enters an entertainment complex where he experiences a boat trip down an African River where Black boatmen do all of the work (and it is hard work as they travel down rapids). Also, women are a separate category of people here and Hal's "romantic" coersions are definitely problematic (although I think Lem did attempt to add some complexity and agency to Eri's part in the relationship and the social norms in this future allowed for things like polyamory and shorter-term commitments to a partner rather than the lifetime vows of marriage).
In general, there wasn't a sense of how the world beyond Hal's immediate surrounding are faring, with the exception of a description of how betrization was implemented/accepted around the world. I couldn't help feeling like there was a hidden underclass (besides the robots) somewhere. I think it would be interesting to explore the ways in which betrization would exacerbate and/or diminish social divisions. Would people be less likely to rebel against existing social orders? Or would people find less meaning in hierarchies?
May 25, 2019
"Галактика" номер три, и ето че нивото започва да се вдига лека-полека.
Това определено не е най-добрата книга на Лем. Доста постна откъм сюжет, най-ценното в нея е опитът на автора да опише един непонятен за нас свят през очите на космонавт, захвърлен в бъдещето. Задача, с която той се справя съвсем добре, макар че от време на време цялата тази описателност малко дотяга.
Освен това в книгата се задават някои трудни въпроси, свързани най-вече с бетризацията - процес, който премахва агресивността у човека, но също и стремежа му към нови хоризонти. Интересно, дали оттук Джон Броснан е взел идеята за елоите в своите "Небесни господари"?
Не ми хареса любовната линия. Струва ми се нелепо един зрял мъж, космонавт, да се държи по хлапашки импулсивно и да се мята в различни емоционални крайности. Може би това е отражение на неловките отношения на самия автор с жените, знам ли?
Това беше вторият ми прочит на книгата и този път ми хареса малко повече, може би защото знаех какво да очаквам. Все пак не мога да й дам повече от три звезди и половина. Закръглено - 4.
Това определено не е най-добрата книга на Лем. Доста постна откъм сюжет, най-ценното в нея е опитът на автора да опише един непонятен за нас свят през очите на космонавт, захвърлен в бъдещето. Задача, с която той се справя съвсем добре, макар че от време на време цялата тази описателност малко дотяга.
Освен това в книгата се задават някои трудни въпроси, свързани най-вече с бетризацията - процес, който премахва агресивността у човека, но също и стремежа му към нови хоризонти. Интересно, дали оттук Джон Броснан е взел идеята за елоите в своите "Небесни господари"?
Не ми хареса любовната линия. Струва ми се нелепо един зрял мъж, космонавт, да се държи по хлапашки импулсивно и да се мята в различни емоционални крайности. Може би това е отражение на неловките отношения на самия автор с жените, знам ли?
Това беше вторият ми прочит на книгата и този път ми хареса малко повече, може би защото знаех какво да очаквам. Все пак не мога да й дам повече от три звезди и половина. Закръглено - 4.
April 14, 2023
Uno de los libros más interesantes que he leído este año, de uno de mis escritores de CF favoritos (
Solaris
es mi novela favorita).
En esta novela, Stanisław LEM aprovecha el fenómeno de la dilatación del tiempo para poner a una persona de más o menos nuestra época en el futuro: un astronauta, Hal Bregg, regresa a la Tierra después de una misión a Fomalhaut que para él y sus compañeros de tripulación dura 10 años, pero en la Tierra pasaron 127 años. A su regreso se enfrenta a un violento choque cultural, ya que encuentra la sociedad transformada en una utopía, libre de guerras o violencia, o incluso accidentes.
Éste es un tema recurrente en la literatura de LEM, aunque su visión aquí no es tan pesimista. El principal efecto del progreso tecnológico es la evolución sociocultural: una sociedad literalmente pacificada por medio de un procedimiento llamado betrización que provoca que las personas sean incapaces de correr riesgos, tomar la iniciativa y comprometerse con cualquier cosa. Adiós a la capacidad de autoafirmación y de sentir emociones fuertes.
La reflexión entonces se reduce a preguntarse si los avances tecnológicos y socioculturales valen el precio que debemos pagar por perder nuestra naturaleza.
Lectura muy recomendable.
En esta novela, Stanisław LEM aprovecha el fenómeno de la dilatación del tiempo para poner a una persona de más o menos nuestra época en el futuro: un astronauta, Hal Bregg, regresa a la Tierra después de una misión a Fomalhaut que para él y sus compañeros de tripulación dura 10 años, pero en la Tierra pasaron 127 años. A su regreso se enfrenta a un violento choque cultural, ya que encuentra la sociedad transformada en una utopía, libre de guerras o violencia, o incluso accidentes.
Éste es un tema recurrente en la literatura de LEM, aunque su visión aquí no es tan pesimista. El principal efecto del progreso tecnológico es la evolución sociocultural: una sociedad literalmente pacificada por medio de un procedimiento llamado betrización que provoca que las personas sean incapaces de correr riesgos, tomar la iniciativa y comprometerse con cualquier cosa. Adiós a la capacidad de autoafirmación y de sentir emociones fuertes.
La reflexión entonces se reduce a preguntarse si los avances tecnológicos y socioculturales valen el precio que debemos pagar por perder nuestra naturaleza.
Lectura muy recomendable.
December 10, 2024
W istocie fantastyczna opowieść łącząca elementy przygodowe i romansu, zadająca pytania o istotę człowieczeństwa i rolę relacji międzyludzkich - napisana fenomenalnym językiem pokazówka niesamowitej wyobraźni autora, wielopoziomowa i egzystencjalna. Zdecydowanie polecam.
March 15, 2025
Niesamowita wizja przyszłości, która w jakimś stopniu się już spełnia. Wizja, która pobudza do dyskusji, czy zmiany cywilizacyjne idą w dobrą stronę. Lem nie daje jasnej odpowiedzi, a zadaje pytania, pokazując, że odpowiedź nie będzie jednoznaczna.
December 27, 2021
This quickly became one of my favourite science-fiction novels ever.
It isn't perfect, but it's really, really good.
It's about an astronaut who returns to Earth after being gone for, thanks to time dilation, 127 years, and society has changed dramatically. The biggest change is that humanity has wiped out its violent tendencies using various chemical substances injected at birth. With the violent tendencies gone, so too are gone a tolerance for risk as well as, apparently, many forms of ambition and adventurousness.
This book does what classic science fiction is great at: making the reader think. Some sci-fi books do this with absolute terrible prose -- but this book was different in that respect. It's so well-written, and a real joy to read. The book is about what makes us humans, what we are required to give up for the sake of other people and social harmony (there's no doubt that the "betrization" process in the book has resulted in some great things for society -- but at what cost?), and about the place of risk and danger in our lives. It does such a remarkable job exploring these themes.
My only complaint is that there's not much of a plot here -- at all. The decision to make the main character's "return from the stars" be about his (attempted) re-integration into society is great -- but the problem is that this re-integration mostly plays out as an attempt to have a romantic relationship with a woman. She's clearly a stand-in for the rest of society. I didn't mind it but it was disappointing that there wasn't much else going on plot-wise. Seeing more of the society would have been nice.
It isn't perfect, but it's really, really good.
It's about an astronaut who returns to Earth after being gone for, thanks to time dilation, 127 years, and society has changed dramatically. The biggest change is that humanity has wiped out its violent tendencies using various chemical substances injected at birth. With the violent tendencies gone, so too are gone a tolerance for risk as well as, apparently, many forms of ambition and adventurousness.
This book does what classic science fiction is great at: making the reader think. Some sci-fi books do this with absolute terrible prose -- but this book was different in that respect. It's so well-written, and a real joy to read. The book is about what makes us humans, what we are required to give up for the sake of other people and social harmony (there's no doubt that the "betrization" process in the book has resulted in some great things for society -- but at what cost?), and about the place of risk and danger in our lives. It does such a remarkable job exploring these themes.
My only complaint is that there's not much of a plot here -- at all. The decision to make the main character's "return from the stars" be about his (attempted) re-integration into society is great -- but the problem is that this re-integration mostly plays out as an attempt to have a romantic relationship with a woman. She's clearly a stand-in for the rest of society. I didn't mind it but it was disappointing that there wasn't much else going on plot-wise. Seeing more of the society would have been nice.
December 31, 2019
Футуристичният роман на Станислав Лем ни описва развитието на живота на Земята, пречупено през идеята за роботите и тяхната помощ. Всичко, което е хрумнало на автора като развитие ми беше интересно. Когато те насити с идеи и описания за този Нов свят, този много различен свят, авторът се захваща с основната тема на романа - смисълът на човешкия живот. Погледнат през погледа на главния герой, който пристига на Земята след дългогодишно космическо пътешествие, всичко което се е променило може да се разгледа като добро, но и като лошо постижение.
"Това беше цивилизация, лишена от страх. Всичко, което съществуваше, служеше на хората. Нищо не беше така важно, както техните удобства и задоволяването на техните най-насъщни и най-изтънчени нужди. Човекът беше заместен от бездушните устройства и автомати навсякъде, където неговото присъствие и несигурността на неговите реакции биха могли да създадат дори най-малкия риск."
"Това беше цивилизация, лишена от страх. Всичко, което съществуваше, служеше на хората. Нищо не беше така важно, както техните удобства и задоволяването на техните най-насъщни и най-изтънчени нужди. Човекът беше заместен от бездушните устройства и автомати навсякъде, където неговото присъствие и несигурността на неговите реакции биха могли да създадат дори най-малкия риск."
March 31, 2021
futurystyczny opis przyszlosci ogarnietej przez technologie jest jak najbardziej fascynujacy w tej powiesci, szczegolnie biorac pod uwage rok wydania. poczucie zagubienia glownego bohatera w niekonczacych sie korytarzach, nieznanym slownictwie daje do myslenia. jednak na tym koncza sie dobre aspekty powiesci, gdy betryzacja i tematyka toksycznej meskosci wkracza i nie chce wyjsc. opis wyzbycia ludzkosci agresji jako pozbawienia mezczyzn prawdziwej natury jest absurdalny, a dodajac do tego aparycje (olbrzyma), porwanie kobiety, ktora na wskutek syndromu sztokholmskiego postanawia pozostac z Halem wydaje sie byc satyra na temat absurdow postrzegania meskosci, tylko ze w ksiazce jest traktowany absolutnie powaznie. po lekturze solaris to wielki zawod
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2021
Menudo sinsentido de libro, mal narrado y con peores diálogos. Entiendo que al estar narrado en primera persona, al principio puedas ir igual de perdida que el protagonista, porque vas conociendo las cosas a la vez que él. Pero es que en este libro es peor que eso: no te aclaran (casi) nada durante toda la novela, y los diálogos sólo hacen que confundir más (además, ¿pueden dejar de hablar con monosílabos y adelantándose a lo que dirá la otra persona?). La construcción de los personajes tampoco es que arregle el asunto, la verdad.
Y no hablemos del trato pésimo hacia las mujeres y todo el machismo que destila por cada poro de su ser. Me da igual la época en la que estuviera escrito, no me justifica el capítulo 5.
Y no hablemos del trato pésimo hacia las mujeres y todo el machismo que destila por cada poro de su ser. Me da igual la época en la que estuviera escrito, no me justifica el capítulo 5.
November 16, 2024
This would have been a great story but the whole "romance" part ruined it! Like... what the fuck? I felt like I was reading cheap melodrama garbage. It was that poorly written that my eyes almost bleed. (Not mention that the only words, which female character is saying, are "Yes", "No", "I don't know" and "I don't want to").
I laughed hard when the afterword said that the "romance" between characters was supposed to show love as power, which breaks social orders. Oh God, I almost died from cringe.
No wonder why Lem himself didn't like this book. Wasted potential
I laughed hard when the afterword said that the "romance" between characters was supposed to show love as power, which breaks social orders. Oh God, I almost died from cringe.
No wonder why Lem himself didn't like this book. Wasted potential
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