Der futurologische Kongreß

Ijon Tichy #3

by Stanisław Lem

Hier bleibt Ijon Tichy, der Held so vieler lemscher Erzählungen, ausnahmsweise auf dem Boden, das heißt auf der Erde. Es bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass es ihm hier langweilig würde, ganz im Gegenteil: Er wird beschossen, eingefroren, aufgetaut, betäubt, benebelt, beglückt und bekommt schließlich noch einen Rattenschwanz verpasst. Der futurologische Kongreß ist eine der großen Dystopien des 20. Jahrhunderts - allerdings deutlich lustiger als die Konkurrenz von Orwell, Huxley oder Atwood.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Polish Literature, Dystopia, Humor, Classics, Fantasy

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Stanisław 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.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Books are no longer read but eaten, not made of paper but of some informational substance, fully digestible, sugar-coated. A few grams of dantine, for instance, and a man goes around with the deep conviction that he has written The Divine Comedy.
-Stanislaw Lem, The Futurological Congress

A short novel narrated by cosmonaut Ijon Tichy, a kind of futuristic Alexis de Tocqueville who shares his travel report and diary beginning at a convention of world futurologists held at a space age hotel in Costa Rica where he has a room one hundred floors above the street. Tichy is as clearheaded as Thomas Jefferson or Isaac Newton, a well-educated gentleman with an impeccable moral sense. Too bad Tichy isn’t living in the eighteenth century age of reason rather than the twenty-first century of the future where the entire world has gone mad on mass ingestion of every variety and kind of weird pills to alter mood and even weirder chemicals to twist, bend, rotate and transform the mind.

This was my very first Stanislaw Lem and it certainly will not be my last. Did the author coat the corners of the book’s pages with hallucinogens for me to lick? Sometimes, as I turned the pages, I thought such a practice would have been most appropriate. In a similar spirit, below are a batch of psychic hits, eight strobe light flashes, of what a reader will encounter with Lem's spectacular, speculative loop-the-loop:

Kill the Pope: At a hotel bar, one where an all-girl orchestra plays Bach while performing striptease to the rhythm of baroque music, a burly, bearded bloke sticks his double-barreled rifle under cosmonaut Tichy’s nose and asks how he likes his papalshooter. Big Beard then goes on to explain how he is flying to Rome to shoot the Pope, what he terms “Operation P” in the spirit of Abraham and Isaac in reverse (rather than father killing son, he's son who will kill father). And, turns out, this guy is a devout and loyal Catholic! The sole reference to religion in the novel. Thank the Lord! – with devotion like this, who needs fanatics?

Future Writers: The hotel is also hosting a banquet for Liberated Literature, where loudspeakers play: “Now to make it in the arts, publicize your private parts! Critics say you can’t offend ‘em with your phallus or pudendum.” And later on Tichy bumps into Harvy Simsworth, a writer who turns fairy tales and classic literature into hardcore porno - Ali Baba and the Forty Perverts, King Leer, what Snow White really did with the seven dwarfs, what Jack really did with Jill. Just in case anybody thinks our current day degenerate literature couldn’t get any more debased and debauched.

Something in the Water: Back in his hotel room Tichy's good mood begins to soar higher and higher by the minute. Even though he cracks his head on the furniture, the lights go out and he can’t get the telephone to work, Ijon Tichy considers his hotel room one of the nicest in the world. He could hug, caress and kiss his worst enemies. But when he laughs with uncontrollable hilarity with how “the butter might splutter and make the flame gutter,” Ijon senses something is amiss. Ah, of course! The glass of water he drank from the bathroom tap. Our rational cosmonaut is given his first glimpse how those in power will attempt to manipulate and control the population – mind-altering chemicals.



Japanese Proposal: The futureologists are treated to Hayakawa’s plan for the house of the future: eight hundred levels complete with schools, shops, theaters, museums, sports fields, special gymnasiums for group sex, catacombs for nonconformists, rotating apartments to alleviate boredom, recycled food such as artificial bananas, gingerbread and shrimp made from, well, I’ll spare you Hayakawa’s detail. Oh, my goodness, living in housing like this (if you call this living), no wonder people eagerly reach for mind-expanding, feel good drugs. I think I’d do the same.

Kaboom!: A number of spectators in the upper seats listening to Hayakawa’s grand scheme evidently had a similar reaction: someone hurled a Molotov cocktail into the hall. Levelheaded Tichy flees to safety and reads the local newspaper the following day: “I was amazed to find articles full of saccharine platitudes on the theme of the tender bonds of love as the surest guarantee of universal peace – right beside articles that were full of dire threats, articles promising bloody repression or else an equally bloody insurrection.” Our cosmonaut reasons that some journalists have been drinking the water and some not.



Pandemonium: The violence escalates beyond the hotel. The government acts quickly, dropping LTN bombs on the undesirables. The results are not as anticipated – LTN stands for Love Thy Neighbor and some of the bombs hit their own riot police. Ijon Tichy witnesses: “Before my eyes policemen tore the masks from their faces and, shedding copious tears of remorse, fell to their knees and begged the demonstrators for forgiveness, pushing the billy clubs into their hands with fervent pleas to be severely beaten."

Escape: All hell breaks loose and Ijon and several other futurologists seek refuge down in the city’s sewer system. Among the many things they encounter are enormous sleek rats walking in single file on their hind legs. Ijon pinches himself, wondering if he is hallucinating. Nope – all of what he is experiencing is as real as real. Well, maybe.

Utopia/Dystopia: After a sequence of rescues from the city sewer system and the rats, after surgery and having been kept in deep freeze for years, Ijon is defrosted and wakes up in 2038. Ah, he can experience for himself humankind’s future New York City. Ijon quickly discovers chemicals to induce artificial worlds (psychems) are all the rage, how the city kids and teenagers are so considerate and sweet (that’s certainly a switch!), the weather is determined by vote, and how a plethora of words and expressions are new, new, new, new: threever, pingle, hemale, placize, cobnoddling, snthy and dozens more. If you enjoy language and wordplay, you will LOVE this Stanislaw Lem novel. On second thought, I think I’ll do a reread and lick the pages now and then. I’d advise you do the same.

Thanks to Goodreads friend Manny Rayner for bring this stunning classic of science fiction to my attention.

:


Stanislaw Lem (1921 - 2006), Polish author of satirical essays and science fiction, a writer with boundless imagination, laser-sharp mind, lively sense of humor and an uncanny ability to play chess, volleyball, Russian roulette and hundreds of other games with language.

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Join Ijon Tichy´s short trip to the unconventional group meeting therapy sessions called intergalactic politics.

The only ones coming close to Lem´s subtility and dark humor are Twain, Capek, and some others I am too procrastinating to remember their names, excluding Clarke, who was epic and philosophical, but didn´t intend to reach the meta cynical level, instead more moving towards philosophical and even positive, utopian visions.

If you like this one, you will love The star Diaries, by far Lem´s best and most important work, because it owns and satirizes anything, faith, politics, ideology, science, etc. Its short stories open up so many ideas, introspections, speculations, hypotheses, and fantasy dreams by giving inspirations to expand these amazing ideas. It seems as if Lem is unable to write a page without superbly dissing someone who truly deserves it, constructing amazing settings, allegories, and deep thoughts, making him an uncomparable marvel of sci-if, it´s most underrated and unknown genius.

Of course, it´s no easy walk to climb the rhetorical mountain Lem, it´s a writing style without compromises to general storytelling conventions, that´s what is anyway enabling these visions a normal novel couldn´t handle with such stylistic ingenuity.

In contrast to The star diaries, it´s a real novel that has and will inspire many authors who are dealing with conscience, politics, satire, and sci-fi themes, because it has a density of action and plots that is amazing for such a short work. Lem goes ironic fully automatic pun fire, hopefully deactivating the filter bubble self deceit cognitive dissonance ignorance shields of as many readers as possible.

That´s especially important nowadays, as many ideals of humanitarianism, ethics, and morals go missing in strengthening conservative and extreme tendencies with backlashes and stuff. If people would get copies of master sarcasts, instead of ideology fueled faith economic politics drivel, into their hands at a young age, they could grow to become the critical, mind opened adults that are desperately needed to stop this lunacy.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanislaw Lem outdoes Philip K. Dick on the latter's home territory. If reading this doesn't make you doubt the solidity of the world for at least a moment or two, you are an enviably secure person. I'm afraid I still feel apprehensive any time I notice I'm inexplicably out of breath after taking an elevator. Luckily that doesn't happen very often.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

A frenetic, benzedrinical helter-skelter masterwork of neological loopiness and warp-nine schizomania, served in a tureen of insane, prophetic, and batshit prose that maintains a neck-snapping pace of breathless imaginative dizziness across 129 faultless pages.

[H.M. Ada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, so I don't want to give too much away here. This short book, almost a novella really, takes you on quite a ride, and I really enjoyed not knowing where it was going, so I'm not going to say too much about the plot. But basically it starts in one dystopian future, where the main character is at a convention about solving the world's many serious problems, and then it takes you to another, where all of those problems have been solved by technology - and pharmacology in particular.



This is referred to as a psycho-chemical society or "chemocracy," and the science has advanced so much that cheap and readily available drugs can be used to bring about any desired mental state. Specific dreams can be ordered and received in pill form, books are no longer read but consumed, and drugs can even be taken to make one more moral, compassionate, or understanding.



"A caveman would also resist a streetcar."

And that's all I want to say about the plot. But what follows are some really cool twists and turns and some matrix style "what is reality," "where is technology taking us" philosophy, as well as some psychology, sarcastic humor, dystopian conflict, and just a little bit of politics.

"Averroes, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner of lungs, the mass murderer and idol of millions would be a metal receptacle on wheels, and that people would actually prefer being crushed to death inside it during frantic weekend exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?"

I enjoyed this. It was a fun, easy read that dealt with some serious topics and made me think. I'm always amazed too when I read a book that's been around for a while (this was first published in 1971), and I realize how many newer ideas that I thought were so original have been contemplated by great thinkers before. Definitely going to check out more from this author.

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outrageous and satisfying adventure of star voyager Ijon Tichy, Stanislaw Lem’s galactic Gulliver, is not strictly part of The Star Diaries at all, for it shows us our hero Tichy in a terrestrial setting for a change: in Nounas, Costa Rica, to be precise, where he is an attendee of the Eighth World Futurological Congress.

This annual academic convention—which takes place in a hundred-story luxury hotel, divorced from the teeming country below that “boasts the highest rate of demographic growth in the world”—seeks solutions to the increasing problems of an overcrowded, overpopulated civilization. Lem paints a satiric picture of the academics—feckless, self-absorbed men, with nothing but fantastical and improbable solutions—and revels in the chaotic diversity of the conventioneers (futurologists of course, aging student protestors, matchbook collectors, and, most diverting of all, the professional pornographers.) It all seems like good harmless fun, until local terrorists put something in the water…

Soon Tichy (and the reader) embarks on a journey—both inward and outward—in which it is difficult to separate the hallucinatory from the sociological, the surrealist fantasy from the satirical insight. It would be unfair to give too much of the plot away, but let’s just say that Lem anticipates The Matrix by at least a generation and, when he does, he refuses to hold anything back.

This is a classic, seminal science fiction novel. And it's short too. Everybody who cares about the genre—and our world—should read it.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was absolutely bonkers!! But I seemed to have found a unicorn. A book written during the 70s that I will be recommending to many. I've only had one other run in with Lem (Eden) and it wasn't good. I was very reluctant to read this one because of it. But Futurological written approximately 20 years later was much more polished and thought provoking.

This book was actually book 3 in a 4 satirical book series apparently on the adventures of an astronaut named Ijon Tichy (I have not read any of the others so the fact of Ijon Tichy meant nothing to me). I don't know if reading the earlier books would have changed my experience here; but it appears to be able to stand up on its own. This tale has him earthbound and attending a Futurological Congress in Costa Rica. What follows is both humorous and very dark.

Summary: The book opens with Tichy checking into the Hilton in Costa Rica. As he looks around his room he finds food and water stored under his bed and a proclamation by the hotel that those supplies have increased the odds of their guests survival during their stay. It also declares his room as "BOMB FREE". As he starts touring the city he finds that people are unfettered. Guns are everywhere. Pollution is a huge problem. Crime is expected. The overpopulation of the earth is untenable. He walks into a bar and meets a man gleefully discussing his intention to murder the pope. Lem paints a bizarre world that is anarchic and violent. Chaos ensues and Tichy is forced to take refuge in the sewers with an air tank. The primary tool of government suppression is an LTN (Love Thy Neighbor) bomb which has caused entire armies to disarm and beg forgiveness of the population (among other things). As his air tank runs out of clean air, things get really interesting and dark as he succumbs to the gas. The future that he awakes in is at first utopian, then a horror.

"We live in a psychemized society. From “psycho-chemical.” Words such as “psychic” or “psychological” are no longer in usage."

"Psychem eliminated these internal struggles, which had wasted so much mental energy in the past. Psychem, on our behalf, does what must be done to the old cerebralness—subdues it, soothes it, brings it round, working from within with the utmost thoroughness."

In the future one eats books to acquire knowledge. Everyone is medicated and there are drugs to induce whatever mood you would like. Eventually, Tichy finds that the entire world is medicated, none of the problems have been solved and the only thing that has happened is the ubiquity of hallucinogenic drugs completely for the continued profits of drug corporations. A pharmacracy. In the end Tichy finds himself back in the sewers noting it was all a drug induced hallucination.

Lem's view of the future is fascinating and seems to be rooted in just enough extrapolation of the trends of that timeframe that affords it a tinge reality in the presumedly intended hyperbolics of the novel. He ponders pollution and the environmental deterioration of the planet, extreme violence of the public, proliferation of guns to nearly everyone, proliferation of drugs to control behavior of the masses, the proliferation of information overload and how people will eventually become numb to information unable to discern important from nonsense, the idea that corporations are in control of government, that between the information overload and pharmaceuticals camouflaging reality there is no difference between illusion and reality. In this future even programmed machines and robots have difficulty discerning between reality and illusion . Lem also talks about a fascinating idea that I actually think has some merit. He talks about how language can predict and form the future.

“A man can control only what he comprehends, and comprehend only what he is able to put into words. The inexpressible therefore is unknowable. By examining future stages in the evolution of language we come to learn what discoveries, changes and social revolutions the language will be capable, some day, of reflecting.”

This was a novel in which I learned several new words (sybarite, phillumenists) as well as some made up variations in which I can almost believe will someday be. For example:

Rebe, rebeing, rebeen, since if you’re not satisfied with yourself, you can start over. Or unbe, if you get completely discouraged. But then there’s prebe, postbe, disbe, misbe, overbe and quasibe.

The novel is full of interesting wordplay and in fact makes me want to classify this one as primarily about language, communication, perception and point of view.

Lem also was quite philosophical and of course his social commentary was something with which I found much common ground. So much of what he lampooned are still functioning, flourishing, in the world today that it was hard to believe this book was a translated work written over 50 years ago by a man who lived in Poland. What a world?!?

"No more churches, the place of worship now is the pharmacy."

"A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given the chance."

"What was civilization ever, really, but the attempt by man to talk himself into being good?"

"The fiendishness of it all is that part of this mass deception is open and voluntary, letting people think they can draw the line between fiction and fact."

One doesn't have to look far to see traces of such things. I say it as a person who is looking at popular culture and the news as well as observing my own environment. My lived experience has exposed me to the notions of mass deception by the ability to chose what we accept as truth enable by media corporations and social media who benefit financially by keeping people confused and uninformed. Lem was writing about it before it became Fox News Corp (for example) or Meta. And I was pleasantly surprised that he went there with regards to race as well:

"telling us about the black natives who changed their race by taking caucasium. However—I thought—is it right to solve chemically such serious, deep-rooted social problems as prejudice and discrimination?"

He may have been channeling Schuyler's Black No More. Fix racism by drug. If only…

All in all, in the length of a 130 page novella, my impression of Lem went from really poorly conceived science fiction writer whose earlier work I found only worthy by anthropological curiosity of the 1950s; to brilliant, observant philosopher and satirist. He's also darkly funny and cynical. In my view worthy of one of the higher perches in the golden age of science fiction. One last quote that ties this novella's language and philosophy together

"Remember that the word ‘utopia’ literally means nowhere, a never-never land, an unattainable ideal, and you will better understand the pessimism of many of our futurologicians!”

A bit of an homage to that the idea of a perfect society is not rooted in reality. This book was a fascinating blend of the absurd, satire, philosophy, quirky and environmentalism. And I've only scratched the surface of this very deep yet brief story. It really is brilliant!! Read it!!!

4.5 Stars

Read on kindle

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wild ride, absurdist theater and the satire is laid on very thick.

Actually this made me consider that this was like a mixture of Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S, Thompson. Lem put this out as a social satire and let his wild, psychiatric vision run wild.

A recurring character in Lem’s work, cosmonaut Ijon Tichy, is sent to a futurological conference hosted by Costa Rica. Once there we are on Lem’s drug addled, hallucinogenic illusory tour of the underground of futurology. We explore the sorry state of reality and contemplate various scenarios where things are not as they seem.

The funniest scenes were at the hotel where the water has been treated with psychoactive agents to make people more compliant.

While this is funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny, this also sometimes degenerated into a William S. Burroughs quagmire of nonsensical silliness. The frequent references to drug use and abuse became unduly burdensome and I was glad that Lem limited this visit to a novella sized carnival ride.

Probably just for fans.

[Kasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Now to make it in the arts,
publicize your private parts!
Critics say you can't offend 'em
with your phallus or pudendum!"

That's the translation, the original version:

„Tylko głupiec i kanalia
lekceważy genitalia,
bo najbardziej jest dziś modne
reklamować części rodne!”

Do you like it? I find it hilarious, in both languages, and it's roughly the same.

WTF? You ask. Well, it's a slogan Lem made up for the use of this book, and I think it shows a little something about this guy.

But don't be mistaken, there isn't much about genitals in this book, Lem's rather prudish and he used this limerick quatrain to point out how obsessed the modern day pop culture is with sexuality (What can be done, Mr.Lem? Really?!)

As for the rest of the book, it's so whacked up and schizoid that I'm starting to think Lem must have dropped some acid before he sat down to write. Most of it requires higher brain function to process. It's the damn made-up terminology. Shitloads of new vocab. It's all clever and intuitive (the way the road signs are intuitive), also amusing. But there's so much of it, it can cause you a headache. For once, I'm glad I've read it in Polish, let's face it, I'm still way more comfortable with that language. To give you a taste, I'll share some of the headache (Before you dig in, it helps to know that The Futurological Congress is a dystopian novel about so called cryptochemocracy):

12 VIII 2039. I finally got up the courage to ask some pedestrians where I might find a bookstore. They shrugged. As a pair I had accosted walked off, I heard one say to the other, "That's a grandfather stiff for you." Could it be that there is prejudice here against defrostees? Some other unfamiliar expressions I've come across: threever, pingle, he-male, to widge off, palacize, cobnoddling, synthy. The newspapers advertise such products as tishets, vanilli-ums, nurches, autofrotts (manual). The title of a column in the city edition of the Herald: "I Was a Demimother." Something about an eggman who was yoked on the way to the eggplant. The big Webster isn't too helpful: "Demimother—like demigran, demijohn. One of two women jointly bringing a child into the world. See Polyanna, Polyandrew." "Eggman—from mailman (Archaic). A euplanner who delivers licensed human gametes (female) to the home." I don't pretend to understand that. This crazy dictionary also gives synonyms that are equally incomprehensible. "Threever—trimorph." "Palacize, bepalacize, empalacize—to castellate, as on a quiz show." "Paladyne—a chivalric assuagement." "Vanillium—extract emphorium, portable." The worst are words which look the same but have acquired entirely different meanings. "Expectorant—a conception aid." "Pederast—artificial foot faddist." "Compensation—mind fusion." "Simulant—something that doesn't exist but pretends to. Not to be confused with simulator, a robot simulacrum." "Revivalist—a corpse, such as a murder victim, brought back to life. See also exhumant, disintermagent, jack-in-the-grave." Apparently it's nothing nowadays to raise the dead. And the people—just about everyone—panting. Panting in the elevator, in the street, everywhere. They appear to be in the best of health, rosy-cheeked, cheerful, sun-tanned, and yet they puff. I don't. So evidently one doesn't have to. A custom, or what? I asked Aileen. She laughed at me—nothing of the kind. Could I be imagining it?

If you think it's any less confusing in original, it's not. So yeah, this might not be best Lem book. Certainly not one you should start with if you haven't read anything of him. But do try him out one day. He's usually not this high.

Now with you're permission, I'm gonna go and lie down and try to cure my impending headache with a cocktail of Hedonidol, Euphoril, Empathan, Ecstasine and Placidol. That should help. There's no need for LTN bombs (LTN: Love Thy Neighbor), I love thee already, and Lem too.

[David Katzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Written in 1975, in Polish, The Futurological Congress is easily as relevant today as then. The story consists of two parts. One set in a near future and then one in a more distant future, hypothetically 2039.

Part one is the most absurd satire of academia, U.S. - third world relations, and those "trend predictors" of the future. Part two imagines a future that is the xtreme-sports version of "Brave New World." And told with the most experimental linguistic acrobatics.

This book is an amazing feat, really. Blending absurd comedy with tragedy. Experimentalism with humanism. It's disjointed yet perfectly whole. His take on Brave New World on steriods essentially predicted virtual reality through drugs. I was astounded and amazed by it. A short novel, you can eat it up in just a day or two. Please go buy it. It was written by a mad, profound genius. Plus, it's weird af. A must read.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il congresso di futurologia è uno sguardo parodistico sul futuro della società, dell'umanità e del mondo. Scritto nel 1971, letto ora nel 2020 a quasi 50 anni di distanza, è una così agghiacciante, quanto satirica, predizione di ciò che sta avvenendo alla Terra.
La scrittura è così umoristica ed allo stesso tempo graffiante verso la decandenza della società, verso il potere costituito, la propaganda pubblicitaria, la farmacologia galoppante ed invasiva nella quotidianità dell'individuo...

Il criterio del buon senso non è applicabile alla storia dell'uomo. Mi chiedo se Averroè, Kant, Socrate, Newton, Voltaire avrebbero mai creduto che nel Ventesimo secolo la piaga delle città, l'avvelenatore dei polmoni, l'omicida di massa, l'oggetto di culto sarebbe diventato un carrello in lamiera con le ruote e che le persone avrebbero preferito morire schiantate al suo interno durante gli esodi di massa per i fine setimana, anzichè restarsene tranquillamente a casa.

Capolavoro!

[Jesse Campagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the most mind bending, and pain inducing books I've ever read. Also the most eye openning and refreshing. The book that both made me want to die and gave me reason to live.

[amapola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cooperandol, Sacrifichina, Felicitol, Euforiasol, Aggresium Frustrandol… Omnis est pillula!

Non ho ancora letto Solaris, però ho visto lo splendido film di Tarkovskij, così da Lem mi aspettavo qualcosa di cerebrale e speculativo. Mi sbagliavo (almeno in parte), il libro mi ha spiazzata e piacevolmente sorpresa per inventiva e visionarietà.
Il romanzo è diviso in due parti: la prima (che descrive il Congresso di Futurologia) è ironica, grottesca, anche se (volutamente?) confusa e caotica; la seconda vira più sul drammatico e delinea una realtà futura in cui le emozioni, le pulsioni, i sentimenti, gli stati d’animo e anche le azioni degli uomini sono tenuti sotto controllo da sostanze chimiche (c’è una pillola per tutto), una società di cui il nostro protagonista prende coscienza a poco a poco. Ci si trova proiettati in una folle avventura, un viaggio psicochimico in un mondo surreale (che tanto surreale forse non è). L’impressione che ne ricavo è che Lem sia un autore capace di variazioni drastiche e di una fantasia smisurata. Bravissimo!

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing book.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella is a reality-bending substance, a crazy roller-coaster or helter-skelter ride of a book, concerning the further adventures of Lem's anti-hero, Ijon Tichy. It's both philosophical and deeply funny at the same time. Taking the Berkeleyan concept of the location of subjective reality within individual consciousness, Lem refracts it though a prism of narcotics and takes it on a mind-warping freak-out. At first, the humour reminded me of Woody Allen - very 1970s-surrealist - and the plot even recalled Sleeper. But much of the book turned out to be timelessly amusing.

Have you ever stripped the paint from an ancient door? Layer after layer of different coloured paint comes away from the wood, becoming more faded as you scrape deeper, eventually revealing the poor state of the wood underneath. That's what happens with the layers of reality in this book, rendering the dystopia ever more grim until the comic ending. Did Lem ever experiment with hallucinogens? From reading this, you'd have thought so... And towards the end, the trip turns bad. Here, the layers fall away from Tichy's companion, Professor Trottelreiner, previously the height of academic dandyism:

Instead of his appliqued trousers and professorial spats there were two casually crossed artificial legs... And evidently he still wore glasses, though one of the lenses was cracked. In his neck, in the opening of a tracheotomy, a vocoder had been inserted - carelessly enough - and it bobbed up and down as he talked... I didn't see a left hand; the right, clutching a pencil, was fashioned out of brass and green with verdigris...

There's a debt to Aldous Huxley here. Lem's narcotically-controlled dystopia plays variations on a theme from Brave New World and its instant happiness drug, soma. The product is a chemically lobotomised world. Towards the end, Lem covers similar ground to Huxley's Island, considering the possibilities of ameliorating the aging and dying processes through the use of narcotics. Not for nothing did The Doors name themselves after Huxley's work of proto-psychedelia, The Doors of Perception.

It's possible to read The Futurological Congress as an allegory for a number of different phenomena. The false perceptions described might be read as a metaphor for what Richard Dawkins calls "the God delusion". Or they might represent the folly of consumerist materialism. Or maybe it's all just an excuse for some good jokes and a consideration of the nature of perception and reality.

Oh, and let's not forget the Malthusian aspect (in Lem's alternative world, the human population has reached 95 billion). While the Rev Malthus might have got his exponential predictions wrong, there's no doubt that the size of the human population is having a pretty disastrous impact on the planet. So Lem is engaging with a pressing issue for humanity that is only getting worse. When this book was published in 1974, the population stood at just over four billion. Now it's closer to eight.

The writing is out of the top drawer. The inventiveness of the pharmaceutical proprietary names is a wonder to behold (much credit is also due to Michael Kandel as translator). Here, in a representative passage, Professor Trottelreiner enthuses about potential futures for mankind:

If prostheticism is voted in, I assure you, in a couple of years everyone will consider the possession of a soft, hairy, sweating body to be shameful and indecent. A body needs washing, deodorizing, caring for, and even then it breaks down, while in a prostheticized society you can snap on the loveliest creations of modern engineering. What woman doesn't wish to have silver iodide instead of eyes, telescopic breasts, angel's wings, iridescent legs, and feet that sing with every step?

This entertaining and quick read is a million miles away from Tarkovsky's gloomy adaptation of Lem's Solaris, though both works share a sense of the surreal. I haven't yet read the novel. Perhaps that should be my next appointment with Mr Lem.

[Kayıp Rıhtım]

Stanislaw Lem’den mizah dozu yüksek bir roman... Özgün bir dille kaleme alınan bu yapıt felsefe ve psikolojiyi merkezine oturtuyor ve değişen dünya düzenini irdeleyerek nüfus artışının doğurduğu sonuçları kimyasal “araç”larla sorguluyor.

Kitabın adından da anlaşılacağı üzere, geleceği tahmin etme üzerine kurulu bir roman bu. Kısa ama dopdolu. Karakteri Ijon Tichy’i geleceğe gönderen Stanislaw Lem, dehasını konuşturuyor ve bizlere distopik bir gelecek portresi sunuyor. İlk bakışta ütopik sandığımız bir dünyanın distopik çıkmasına zamanla alışıyoruz, lakin çizilen o korkunç portrenin gelecekte olabilitesini düşündüğümüzde de bir hayli ürperiyoruz.

Ijon Tichy, Profesör Tarantago’nun kendisini ikna etmesi sonucu Kosta Rika’ya, Sekizinci Dünya Gelecekbilim Kongresi’ni izlemeye gider. Kongrede konuşan kişiler açık bir dil kullanmamakta ve her şeyi numaralarla ifade etmektedirler. Karakterimiz Ijon daha önce hakkında herhangi bir bilgi sahibi olmadığı kongrede, bir köşede sessizce oturmak ve yaşananları şaşkınlıkla izlemek zorunda kalacaktır.

Gelecekbilim Kongresi’nde patlak veren olayların ardından Ijon Tichy kendisini 2039 yılında bulacaktır. Bu andan sonra tıpkı Ijon gibi bizler de neyin gerçek neyin yapay olduğunu anlayamayacak duruma geliyor ve Lem’in yarattığı imgelerle boğuşmaya başlıyoruz.

Geleceğe gözlerini açan Ijon, kısa sürede ters bir şeyler döndüğünü anlayacaktır. İnsanların algıları kapalıdır ve kemokrasi ile yönetilmektedirler. Aklınıza gelebilecek her türlü şey ilaçlara sığdırılmıştır. Kitaplar bile. Çeşitli konular hakkında bilgi edinmek isteyen Ijon, geleceğin dünyasında kitap bulamaz çünkü kitaplar minik tabletler haline getirilmiştir ve içildiğinde tüm kitap okunmuş gibi oluyor ve zihinde kalıcı belleğe kaydediliyordur.

Çeviriye ayrı ve kocaman bir parantez açmam gerekiyor. Fatma Taşkent dahiyane bir şekilde çevirmiş kitabı dilimize. Lem’in türettiği yüze yakın kelimeyi çok nitelikli bir şekilde yeniden yaratan çevirmen, gerçekten büyük bir tebriği hak ediyor.

Zamyatin’in Biz’i, Huxley’nin Cesur Yeni Dünyas’sı, Orwell’ın Bin Dokuz Yüz Seksen Dört’ü ve Bradbury’nin Fahrenheit 451’inde olduğu gibi, Lem’in Gelecekbilim Kongresi de etkili bir distopya.

- Bahri Doğukan ŞAHİN

İncelemenin tamamı için: http://kayiprihtim.com/inceleme/ijon-...

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Futurological Congress is one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. It's also one of the more interesting books I've read this year in terms of both its structure and plot. In terms of structure, the book opens with non-stop action and excitement, every single page, and this doesn't stop until about 70 pages in. Then it's a really slow burn for about 50-60 pages, and then it picks up again and drops an absolutely fantastic, mind-blowing ending. I find books tend to be consistent in pace for the most part; either the whole book is mostly slow or the whole book is mostly exciting. This one mixed the two, to almost disorienting effect, and I found that very interesting.

My only other experience with Stanislaw Lem wasn't a very positive one: Solaris. I found that book to be incredibly boring, and so in that 50-or-so-page section I mentioned around the middle of the book I was thinking, "Oh boy, here we go again". But the ending more than made up for that section, and when I look back I find that section actually added a lot to the overall story and to the picture he was trying to create of the future on Earth.

The story follows Ijon Tichy as he and his fellow scientists take part in the Eighth World Futurological Congress in Costa Rica. Things go horribly wrong, setting off a crazy series of events. The book focuses largely on a dystopian future where people take drugs for everything in what is known as a "psychem" culture. Every single thing human beings can do or feel can be controlled by drugs. You can even take a drug that will cause you to see a physical object, like a chair, and thus reality itself can be altered and controlled by drugs. This book reminded me a lot of the best works of Philip K. Dick, where reality is veiled and bent, and the reader himself begins to question, in the context of the book of course, what is real and what isn't.

The book is very satirical, and the atmosphere and plot largely feel ridiculous and silly. At times it can be laugh-out-loud hilarious and at others serious and deeply reflective, but for the majority of the time it's a very fun book. It's a lot more fun than Solaris, and honestly after reading this it's hard to believe the two books were written by the same man. If you're looking to read some light, fun sci-fi to get you out of your reading funk (as I was), or if you enjoy the works of Philip K. Dick, this book is for you. Highly recommended!

[Frau Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das war ein wilder Ritt. Dieses Buch ist gleichzeitig sehr, sehr lustig und sehr, sehr anstrengend: Das erste Drittel lässt dem Leser keine Atempause, ständig passiert etwas, das Ganze mit einer Dichte an Gags, die es mit Douglas Adams oder Terry Pratchet durchaus aufnehmen kann. Während im Hilton in einem fiktiven südamerikanischen Land neben anderen dubiosen Interessengruppen der futurologische Kongress tagt, tobt draußen der Bürgerkrieg, den man ziemlich lange mehr als kleine Lästigkeit betrachten, bis das Hotel in Grund und Boden gebombt wird und sich ein Teil der Hotelgäste in die Kanalisation zurückziehen muss. Hier tun allerdings die psychoaktiven Substanzen, mit denen das Trinkwasser versetzt ist, ihre Wirkung.
Das zweite Drittel, der Ich-Erzähler ist nach rund 70 Jahren aus dem Kryoschlaf erwacht, passiert hingegen wenig. In Form von Tagebucheinträgen schildert der Erzähler die Verhältnisse im Jahr 2039: Die "Psychemie" hat sich durchgesetzt, jegliche menschliche Empfindung, jegliche Wahrnehmung wird durch Psychopharmaka reguliert. Alle sind glücklich, alles ist schön, alles ist unter Kontrolle. Was diesen Teil so anstrengend macht, ist erstens die Fülle an zu verarbeitenden Informationen, die den Leser ebenso zu überfordern droht wie den Erzähler, und die Sprache, die vor den Verhältnissen angepassten Neologismen nur so strotzt. Das kommt einem manchmal vor wie ein Zwischending aus Dadaismus und Heidegger:
"Es handelt sich um ein Verschmelzen aus Ich-Sicht und Dichsicht, das heißt um den Verbund zweier Exemplare von Bewusstsein. (...) Unsricht. Sehr interessant. Das ist das kollektive Bewusstsein. Na, zum Beispiel bei starker Persönlichkeitsspaltung." Man ahnt ziemlich bald: Das ist ein Mindfuck allererster Güte, offenbart sich doch im letzten Drittel Ziel und Zweck des Ganzen. Den abschließenden Twist allerdings fand ich etwas enttäuschend, einerseits angesichts seiner Vorhersehbarkeit, andererseits weil er den satirischen Gehalt der geschilderten Dystopie arg abmildert. Offenbar konnte Lem dem Drang nicht widerstehen, die Situation am Ende aufzulösen, doch schon das Worldbuilding im Mittelteil wirkt in seiner knallbunten Positivität absolut gruselig.

[Ubik 2.0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Che fantasia, Stanislaw!

Dopo molto tempo mi capita di imbattermi in un romanzo di Fantascienza non contemporaneo, ma risalente agli anni in cui il genere prosperava e autori del calibro di Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Heinlein e altri, anche europei come Stanislaw Lem, pubblicavano capolavori a ritmo serrato. Ho potuto constatare come sia ancora valida e applicabile a tutti costoro la massima riferita alle opere di Philip Dick che, cito a memoria, più o meno affermava “ci sono più idee in un solo romanzo di PKD che in tutta la narrativa fantascientifica di questo decennio” (si era intorno al 2000-2010).

Anche Lem dimostra qui di possedere una quantità tale di intuizioni che letteralmente straripano dalla pagina, dilagano divorando anche l’esile trama di “Il congresso di futurologia”, si susseguono senza sosta e fugacemente, sebbene molte potrebbero agilmente fungere da soggetto narrativo portante di un intero romanzo.

Rispetto a Dick e ad altre opere dello stesso Lem (“Solaris”) si evidenzia tuttavia una rilevante differenza: il registro adottato è decisamente quello satirico parodistico con punte di grottesco surreale e di sfrenato umorismo che ci portano piuttosto verso lo stile di Douglas Adams o, per citare un esempio più nobile, del maestro ineguagliabile di questo genere, Kurt Vonnegut.

“Il congresso di futurologia” si può suddividere idealmente in due parti, la prima dominata dall’azione trascinante, in cui Tichy, il malcapitato astronauta narrante, è dapprima testimone ma ben presto protagonista, suo malgrado, di ogni sorta di folli (dis)avventure impossibili da descrivere in sintesi, dalla sommossa alla fuga nelle fognature dell’hotel che ospita il congresso, dal rapimento ad opera di un elicottero americano alla morte e successiva ibernazione, il tutto condito da allucinogeni che sovente fungono da antidoto ad altri allucinogeni, in uno slittamento percettivo della realtà che coinvolge e travolge anche il lettore.

La seconda parte in apparenza più coerente, è strutturata in forma di diario in cui Tichy apprende le “evoluzioni” della società succedutesi nel trentennio della sua ibernazione e qui Lem dà sfogo a una sfrenata elencazione di strampalate invenzioni (Gonfiomane, damechino, uomonimo, biobattilogia, estorcitori) e ad un excursus oltre gli orizzonti in apparenza infiniti della psicochimica con una quantità di sostanze per ogni uso, la cui denominazione, per inciso, deve aver rappresentato un bel tour de force per la povera traduttrice italiana (“…Aldol, Darkene, Triptizol, Noan, Anasclerol, Aggresium, Frustrandol, Flagellina, Furiasol…” per non parlare dei “nuovi farmaci che hanno l’effetto di illuderti che non ti stai illudendo”!).


Va detto che, in questa smania classificatoria, Lem si lascia prendere la mano per inanellare un profluvio di definizioni demenziali e di neo-neologismi enigmatici che sembrano quasi il frutto di un gioco di società fra amici ubriachi o fumati. Tuttavia la rivelazione finale sull’adozione della psicochimica a copertura, nella percezione della popolazione, della sottostante rovina irreversibile della civiltà umana, resta l’idea narrativamente più forte di tutto il romanzo avvicinandone il senso alle più tipiche illuminazioni dickiane.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sort of a loose story that often feels like an endless series of hysterical and absurd observations about life in the near future, where due mainly to overpopulation the world has become so bleak that "better living through chemistry" has become the foundation of society. While well written, entertaining and humorous, there just wasn't enough cohesion here to keep me engaged through most of the story.

[Totarota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eines meiner Lieblingsbücher aller Zeiten, weil es einfach so absurd witzig und gleichzeitig erschreckend intelligent ist.
Raumfahrer Ijon Tichy fährt zum futurologischen Kongress im fiktiven südamerikanischen Staat Costricana. Dort bekämpft die Regierung politische Unruhen, indem sie chemische Mittel zur Förderung der Nächstenliebe ins Trinkwasser und in die Luft bringt. Nach einigen wilden Halluzinationen erwacht Tichy - verletzt, tiefgekühlt und wieder aufgetaut - in der Zukunft. Im Jahr 2039 ist die alltägliche Beeinflussung der Menschen durch Psychopharmaka an der Tagesordnung und wird ohne weiteres Hinterfragen akzeptiert. Es lebt sich wie in einer Utopie, denn mithilfe der „Psychemie“ ist im Grunde alles möglich geworden: Das Wetter wird durch Abstimmung festgelegt, Geld spielt kaum noch eine Rolle, im Alltag stehen für alles Roboter und Computer zur Verfügung, auch mit der Aufrüstung ist es vorbei. Und soweit man die Realität nicht weiter verändern kann, so lässt sie sich zumindest verdecken.
Ein starkes und eindrückliches Gedankenexperiment zur Entwicklung der Menschheit und vor allem die höchste Dichte an Situationskomik und Wortwitz (genial übersetzt), die man in einem Buch finden kann.

[P.E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A schizophrenic plot scraping the reality bare. You are left with linguistical, logical, psychological tenets, in shambles and with barely a chance to put yourself together.
A novel paving the way to obvious comparisons between Stanisław Lem et Philip K. Dick!

Personal point of view : the loose, multilayered plot scattering and scuttering in every direction had me utterly confused. Then again, the coarse, lopsided translation may be partly responsible for this state of things in the end.

Matching Soundtrack :
Project 100 - Infected Mushroom

--------------

Un roman schizophrénique qui ébranle la réalité jusqu'à ses fondements linguistiques, logiques et physiques et établit une correspondance profonde entre Stanisław Lem et Philip K. Dick !

Avis de lecture personnel, l'intrigue effilochée m'a plus dérouté qu'autre chose. La traduction y est peut-être pour quelque chose.

Hymne national :
Project 100 - Infected Mushroom

[Rygard Battlehammer · Rating 2 out of 5]

İş çıkışı gittiğiniz bardan artık eve dönmeyi planladığınız sıralarda, telaş içinde mekana gelen bir arkadaşınız "abi Bağcılarıdan bir malzeme geldi, gerçekten çok sıkıntı..." demiş gibi kitap.

Beni zorlayan bir kitaptı Gelecekbilim Kongresi. Uzun zamandır hakkında bu kadar kararsız kaldığım, aynı anda hem orijinal fikirlerini sevip hem de eşit oranda yeteneksizliğe sinirlendiğim bir kitap ile karşılaşmamıştım.

Baştan belirtmemde fayda var; kendi başına son derece derme çatma, yapmaya tenezzül etmemezlikle bir araya getirilmiş bir kitap bu. Haliyle sorularını, eleştirilerini, fikirlerini önemsesem de hikayeciliğine saygı duymuyorum. Bu yüzden de kitabın konusu bunu işleme biçimiyle, hiciv içeriğine ayrıştırarak değerlendirmek ve hakkıyla eleştirebilmek için de "spoiler vermemeliyim" kaygısı gütmeden devam etmek istiyorum; (bkz: köprüden önce son çıkış)

Daha önce kitaplarını okuyanların bileceği üzere; orijinal karakterleriyle ünlü bir yazar değil Lem. Gelenek ne yazık ki burada da bozulmuyor. Hikaye boyunca iki boyutlu, cansız ve yavan karakterler bize eşlik ediyor. Aceleyle ve itinasız yaratıldığı için kendi kurallarını da takip edemeyen, saçma tepkiler verebilen karakterler de okumayı ekstra zorlaştırıyor.

Protagonistimiz, Lem'in diğer kitaplarından da tanıdığımız uzay yolcusu Ijon Tichy. Ancak bunun ne yazık ki zerre önemi yok. Tam bir özensizlik örneği olarak hikayenin içinden çıkarılsa veya yerine tamamen farklı özelliklerine sahip başka birini konulsa olaylarda en ufak bir değişiklik gerçekleşmiyor. Karşımıza çıkan diğer karakterler ise silik ve önemsiz; sadece aşırı karikatürize oldukları anlarda biraz olsun kalıcılaşabiliyor.

Kitap İki bölümden oluşuyor. Tichy'nin orijinal zamanında geçen ilk kısım nüfusun kontrolsüz biçimde patladığı, iklim değişimlerinin kasıp kavurduğu, siyasi otoritenin varlığını korusa dahi şiddet tekelini büyük oranda yitirdiği distopik bir günümüz (veya yazıldığı -1971- tarih itibariyle yakın gelecek) portresi çiziyor. Her şey son derece karanlık, kabaca insanlık aslında vazgeçmiş; Lem'in iç bayan karamsarlığına uygun biçimde, "hobi olarak" devam ediyor.

Tıp alanında biraz yol alınmış ve insanlar karmaşık ve zor tedavilere kolaylıkla ulaşabiliyor ama bunun anlamsızlığını da vurgularcasına toplum içinde insan hayatı son derece ucuzlamış. Teknoloji başka dünyalarda yerleşim kurabilecek seviyelere yaklaşmış ancak Lem insanlığa zerre güvenmediğinden bunun da bir etkisi olmamış. Bir taraftan nüfus artışı ve kaynakların tükenmesi, bir taraftan da yazarımızın sadece fikir bulan ama uygulamaya gelince çöküveren hikayeciliğinin sonucu, insanlık sit-com gibi takılıyor.

Dünyada işler belli ki iyi gitmiyor. Terörizm vaka-ı adiye haline gelmiş; sebepleri de sonuçları da sıradan ve alışıldık. Öyle ki sigorta şirketlerinin veya hizmet sektörünün pazarlayabileceği trajikomik unsurlar belirmiş. Örneğin hikayenin geçtiği dev otelin odalarında kalan misafirler, "bu odada bomba olmadığını garanti ederiz - Müdüriyet." gibi notlarla karşılaşabiliyor veya ana karakterimiz Tichy, her gördüğünde kocaman bir silahı burnuna dayayıp papayı nasıl öldüreceğini anlatan adam, "yine kafa açacak," diye bara gitmekten imtina edebiliyor.

Kolluk toplumsal gösterilere karşı ölümcül şiddeti çok daha kolay ve sorgulanmaksızın kullanabiliyor. Protestocu öğrencilerin müziğin ritmine uygun olarak havaya ateş açması, "en iyi otellerde bile yaşanabilecek sıradan tatsızlık" olarak değerlendiriliyor.

Sahnemiz olan Hilton binası ise 24 saat önceden sipariş verdiğiniz takdirde herhangi birinin temsili kuklasına ateş edebileceğiniz atış poligonları ve seyircinin çığrından çıkması halinde göz yaşartıcı gaz püskürten fıskiyelerle donatılmış amfiteatrlarıyla muhteşem bir konferans cenneti.

Abartılı bir distopik yakın geleceği tamamlayan otorite de aynı ölçüde sakil ve komik. Hikaye boyunca siyasi iktidar(lar)ın yapısı ve yönelimi fazla tartışılmamakla birlikte(çünkü Lem doğrudan politik eleştiri yapmayacak kadar sinik) dolaylı olarak etkilerini görebildiğimiz kadarıyla bir çeşit teknokratik diktatörlük. Dünya büyük oranda kontrolden çıkmışken, iktidarı elinde tutabilen ama şiddet tekelini de oluşturamayan bir yapı. Biraz da çaresizce Gramsci'nin tanımladığı biçimiyle Kültürel Hegemonya'yı ele geçirmek, dünyanın önemli sosyo-ekonomik sorunlarını çözmek için çareyi, bir çeşit bürokrat zirvesi olan Gelecekbilim Kongresi'ni tertip etmekte bulmuş.

Bu kendine Gelecekbilimciler diyen güya saygın bürokratlar, toplumun ileri gelen elitlerinden oluşan güruh sayesinde de kitabın satire yapısını tamamlayan son temel atılmış oluyor. Zira hikayenin geçtiği Kosta Rika Hilton'da sekizinci kongresini düzenleyen bu söz konusu topluluk, insanlığın sorunlarını çözmek için dünyanın dört bir yanından kalkıp gelmiş ve büyük bir ciddiyetle toplantıya hazırlanmış figürler tam bir dalyo yığını. Gerçek sorunlardan uzak ve kendi statülerinin parıltısına kapılmış politikacıların karikatürü Gelecekbilimciler. Mahalle yanarken sallıyorlar fırçaları.

Kongre devam ederken ve sadece ufak tefek, alışıldık terör eylemlerine sahne olurken (kimse bunun üstünde durmuyor tabi, güvenlikler çabucak saldırganları öldürüyor, üstlerine de önceden hazırlanmış örtüleri örtüyorlar. kongre hızlıca devam ediyor. Kosta Rika'da yaşananların düşünüldüğünden biraz daha ciddi olduğu, büyük bir iç savaşın patladığı anlaşılıyor.

Bu noktadan itibaren de hem Lem'in ana kurgusu teklemeye ve sağdan soldan bel vermeye başlıyor hem de eleştirileri ayarsızlaşıp herkesi ve her şeyi hedef alır hale geliyor. Çeşitli rehin alma olayları, bombalamalar ve terör saldırıları eşliğinde devam eden toplantı, şehirdeki büyük kalkışma ve otele de sıçrayan silahlı çatışmalar ile artık devam edemez hale geliyor. Bu sırada devlet güçleri her zaman kullanılan imha yolları yerine KÇS (komşunu çok sev) bombaları ile kalabalıklara müdahale etmeye başlıyor. Etkileşime girdiği insanlardaki şiddet eğilimlerini baskılayıp ani, kontrolsüz bir sevgi patlaması ve iyi niyet sağanağı yaratan sis bombalarına, hükümetin ufukta görünen devrim ihtimalini öngörerek şebeke suyuna karıştırdığı "mutlutan, sakinol ve süpercoşkutan" karışımları eklenince ortalık panayıra dönüyor. Az önce çatışan tarafların kah orgye tutuştuğu, kah mutluluktan birbirine sarılıp ağladığı bir ortamda, artık bürokratik dokunulmazlıklarını ve kalabalık sıfatlarını unutup canlarının derdine düşmüş Gelecekbilimciler de gaz maskeleri ve oksijen tüpleriyle psiko-kimyasallardan kaçınıp, ağır silahların otelde yavaş bir kararlılıkla sürdürdüğü yukarıdan aşağıya yıkımdan da kaçmaya çalışıyorlar.

Sonunda Otelin Kanalizasyonuna sığınan Gelecekbilimciler, otel sahipleri ve Özgür Edebiyatçılar'dan ibaret küçük bir grup -adeta bir oligarşi parodisi- ise artık ortamı tamamen doldurmuş psiko-aktif kimyasalların etkisinden artık kaçamıyor ve kitabın kocaman bir asit tribi olan ikinci bölümü başlıyor.

Bu andan sonra Ijon Tichy ve Prf. Trottelreiner'ın defaatle halüsinasyonlar görmesini, neyin gerçek neyin hayal olduğunu karıştırmasını ve eninde sonunda kanalizasyonun karanlık sularında düşerek tekrar tekrar ayılmasını okuyoruz. Ordu tarafından kurtarıldıklarını görüyorlar, sırtlarına jetpackler bağlayıp kaçıyorlar, gerillalarla karşılaşıyorlar, yerel polis gücü tarafından tehdit ediliyorlar, vuruluyorlar, dövülüyorlar, yeri geliyor kendi kendilerini dövüyorlar ve ne kendileri ne de biz gerçekliğin nerede başlayıp nerede bittiğini göremez hale geliyoruz. Ancak bu kulağa ne kadar gizemli ve merak uyandırıcı gelse de o kadar kabaca o kadar tembelce uygulanıyor ki insan kendini dolandırılmış hissediyor. Lem asla inandırıcılık için çaba harcamadığı gibi tüm bu hikayeyi aslında zerre umursamıyor.

Tichy bu gerçekliğinden emin olamadığı gerçekliklerde birkaç kez ölüyor ve diriltiliyor. Her seferinde kendini başka bir bedende cinsiyeti, yaşı, ırkı değişmiş olarak buluyor. Hatta bir seferinde kendi orijinal bedeninin de diriltilip içine Profesör Trottelreiner'ın beyninin konulduğuna tanık oluyor ve kendini yine kanalizasyonda buluyor. Ardından bir kez daha kurtarılıyor, bu sefer kurtarıldığına inanmayı reddediyor. Ve asıl can sıkıcı olan, kitabı bitirdiğinizde fark ediyorsunuz ki tüm bunların "ay gerçeklik çok tartışmalıymıs, hangisinin gerçek olduğu belli değilmiş tam" dışında zerre bir anlamı da bulunmuyormuş. Meğer her şey rüyaymış diye sonuçlanacak dolgu bir kurguda eleştiri yapacak diye üstat, deli deli sıralıyor, ve sanırım bizden de "at murattır, jetpack görmek de iyi haber alacaksın yakında" dememizi bekliyor.

Nihayet Lem okuyucunun yeterinde darlandığını düşünüyor ki asıl girmek istediği mevzuya, büyük rüyaya geçebiliyor. Çeşitli birbirinden önemsiz olaylar yüzünden ölmüş olan Tichy, bekletildiği hibernasyon merkezinde çözülüyor ve alternatif bir geleceğe uyanıyor.

Temiz ve ferah havası olan, tüm temel sorunların çözüldüğü, ulusların silahsızlandığı, orduların dağıtıldığı, insanların tavus kuşları gibi giyindiği, yüce gönüllüğün tavan yaptığı, "gelecek bir ay boyunca hava nasıl olsun" gibi referandumların yapıldığı bir dünyaya uyanıyor. Bu yeni dünyada var olan hemen tüm sorunlar (tabii Lem'in gözündeki tüm sorunlar, ben bir tane çok daha öncelikli bir "temel çelişki" biliyorum mesela) psiko-kimyasallarla (psikim) çözülmüş ve yönetim biçimi Kemokrasi olarak tanımlanıyor. Anlık duygu dışa vurumlarına hoş gözle bakılmıyor, insanların kullanabileceği her duruma uygun psikimler mevcut.

İnsanların son derece kolay biçimde diriltilebilmesi ve tedavi edilebilmesi suç kabul edilen şeyleri de değiştirmiş. Örneğin cinayet artık sıradan bir talihsizlik; bir kişiyi ısrarla tekrar tekrar öldürmek ancak cezalandırılması gereken bir sorun olarak görüyor. hukuk da buna adapte olmuş; artık suçlular hapse atılmıyor, spesifik psikimlerle cezalandırılıyor ve rehabilite ediliyor.

Bilgiye ulaşmanın yolu artık mideden geçiyor. Kitap gibi geleneksel bilgi edinme yolları artık kullanılmıyor, derlenmiş ve kimyasal olarak kodlanmış bilgiler küçük haplar halinde, sindirim yoluyla alınabiliyor. Çok fazla bilgiyle doldurulduğu için rahatsızlık veren zihin ise amnezol alıp rahatlıkla temizlenebiliyor. Köşedeki marketten marazin, şüpheron veya hakikaton satın almak mümkün. Kişi biraz dantelin alıp İlahi Komedya'yı yazdığını sanabiliyor veya biraz biraz aşk-ı inanç ile muhteşem bir romantizm yaşanabiliyor veya sakinol pastilleri ile diyalogların devamlılığı sağlanabiliyor. Veya insan sosyalleşmekten ve başkalarından sıkıldığı ama sohbet etmek de istediğinde, bir Düetin alıp kendi benliğinin bir kopyası ile sohbet etmesinin önünde en ufak bir engel bulunmuyor.

Artık bankalar borç tahsilatları ve geri dönmeyen krediler için endişelenmesine gerek kalmıyor, çükü psikimler sayesinde sorun çözülüveriyor; gelen mektupların üzerine insanın sorumluluk duygusunu, vicdanını ve karşılıklı kazançla iş yapma arzusunu tetikleyen kimyasallar sıkılıyor (aslında sorumluluk ve vicdan gereği bankaları yakmamız gerekmiyormuş gibi)

Bir süre sonra bu kimyasallar tarafından kontrol edilen yeni dünyada negatif duyguların da yaşamak için gerekli olduğunu öğrenen Tichy düşmanca duyguları açığa vurmak için alınan gırtlaklat şekerlerinden veya birkaç tablet freudoz ile yüzleşilen Oedipus kompleksinin toplumu nasıl değiştirdiğinden haberdar oluyor. Tüm iyi duygular gibi kötülerin de bu kimyasal dünyada özgürce yaşanabildiğini, kimyasallarla nefret edilen insanlar üzerinde sayısız işkence uygulanabileceğini, bir partideki sıradan bir tuhaflığın ve tatsızlığın kendi beyninde cereyan eden müthiş bir vicdansızlıkla pek ala karşılanabileceğini öğreniyor.

Ve karakterimiz bu toplumda derinlere indikçe büyük ütopya çatlaklardan sızmaya başlıyor ve sonunda kırılıyor. Hikayenin sonuna eriştiğimizde ise aslında elli milyara varan bir nüfusun olduğunu, insanların alt alta üst üste yaşadığını, görülen ve tecrübe edilen dünyanın ise tamamen sahte olduğu ortaya çıkıyor ve Lem'in standart karamsarlığı içinde hem gerçeklik hem de hayal yine çift yönlü bir şekilde eleştirilerek hikaye kapanıyor.

Ancak Lem bunu hiç de zarif biçimde yapmıyor. Oluşturduğu Kemokrasi içine minik soru işaretleri ve ipuçları bırakıyor. Örneğin tüm insanların zaman zaman soluk soluğa kaldığını ve terlediğini fark ediyor Tichy. Fakat sonradan anlaşılıyor ki aslında arabalar gerçek değil, sokaktaki insanlar tıpkı köyün delisi gibi ellerinde direksiyon koşturuyor. Asansörler yok, insanlar asansör boşluklarından tırmanıyorlar o yüzden soluk soluğalar. Ne hikmetse her şeyi değiştirebilen psikimler nefes darlığını gizlemiyor. Güzel restoranlar yok, her yer bok içinde ama kimyasallar yüzünden güzel görünüyor. Karakterimiz bir parça gerçesin kokluyor ve bir bakıyor ki aslında o lezzetli yemekler, tanımsız balçıktan ibaret. Konuştuğu profesör de sağlıklı bir insan değil eğreti bantlarla tutturulmuş paslı dış iskeletler içinde sallanan sıvı ve organ yığını. Ne hikmetse de konuşmanın sonrası düşüp parçalanıyor; canı götündeymiş, 1 HP'si kalmış anlaşılan.

Yani kendi başına tüm iyi fikirler o kadar eğreti, o kadar baştan savma biçimde bağlanıyor ki sinirleniyorsunuz ister istemez. Ve elbette bütün kurgu da "aslında gerçek miydi değil miydi?" konusunu işlemenin özgüveniyle geliyor halüsinasyona bağlanıyor. Başkası yapsa itin götüne sokacağımız hareket, sırf Lem yaptı diye yanına kar kalıyor. Ayrıca bu haddinden uzun bölümler, daha sonra bütünsel bir kurguya bağlanarak hikayenin ikinci bölümünde anlatılacak olana okuru hazırlama işlevi de görmüyor. Sadece gerçekliğin sorgulanabilir olmasının altı çiziliyor ve Lem'e aslında pek felsefeli sohbetlerine, fıskiye gibi her yöne dağılan eleştirilerine bir fon olsun diye yazılıyor. Böylece temel çelişkisi her zamanki gibi yine kahramanın yabancılaşması olan kitap asla bitmeyen ve bağlanmamış eleştiriler topluluğu olmaktan ileri gidemiyor.

Eleştiriler ise herkesi ve her şeyi hedef alıyor.

Gelecekbilimci karikatürüyle, klasik politik tartışma kısırlığı eleştiriliyor entelektüel camianın ve politik hiziplerin kendine hayran, gerçeklikten kopuk, tartışmanın kendi mekaniğinde yitmiş, detaylara saplanmış yapılarıyla dalga geçiliyor. Mesela kongreye katılacak bilim adamları argümanlarını açıklamak yerine bir databaseden çağırır gibi numaralandırıyor ve sadece bu referanslarla konuşuyorlar:
"Stan Hazelyton üstüne basa basa ve tekrar tekrar söylediği sayılarla salonda ani bir heyecan dalgası yarattı. 4, 6, 11 ve bu yüzden sonuç 22... 5 ve 9. yani dolayısıyla 22... 3, 7, 2, 11 bunların sonucu da sadece ama sadece 22!!! Birisi öne atılıp iti ama ya 5, 6, 18 ya da hiç olmadı 4 için ne diyeceksiniz diye sordu"

Lem'in Gelecekbilimcileri, distopik bir toplumun hoyratça bir teknokrasi ile yönetilmesi tehdidine yönelik eleştirilerine fon oluşturuyor ancak bu eleştiriler o kadar odaksız ve korkakça, ürkekçe imaların arkasına saklanmış ki. "Ne şiş yansın ne kebap" diye herkese ince ince geçirmeye çalışıyor; Basın, edebiyatçılar, 68 hareketleri, liberal sol, devrimci anarşist silahlı örgütler, hippiler, postmodernistler, marksistler, kadınlar, küçük burjuvalar, proleterler kimse yüce Lem'in çok değerli ama utangaç eleştirilerinden kaçamıyor. Karamsarlığın sınırlarını aşıp dayıyor çifte açmazı. Olmayan kurgu beceresinin ve kötü edebiyatçılığının acısını çıkartmak isteyen ayarsızlığını enternasyonale bile laf etmeye dayandırabiliyor zerre utanmazca. Açıkça liberal demokrasilere yanlamak gerektiğini de söylemiyor, asla anlaşılmıyor ne istediği. Sadece reddediyor, sayıyuor da sayıyor.

Terimler üzerinden uzun uzun yapıbozumcuları hicvediyor, 68lerin Althusserlerine, Lacanlarıne lafını esirgemiyor. Derridda'nın gösterge ve gösterenli geyiklerini dil üzerinden topa koyup karakterine bunlar nasıl saçmalıklar dedirtmesini biliyor ama dönüp dolaşıp yine aynı yavanlığı kendi yapıyor.

Uyarıcıların kontrolünde bir toplum olduk diye dert yanıyor, nüfus artışına iklim krizine dem vuruyor. Hani hakkını vereyim, Bunu ta 71'den yapıyor. Sözlük entrysi olsa veririm şukusunu. Ancak yine de bunu o kadar pasif, o kadar etkisiz, o kadar bağlamsız yapıyor ki ister istemez "eh yani?" diye sorduruyor.

Tüm o kemokrasi konsepti, dilbilim üzerine yazdıkları, içerdiği göndermeler, kimisi hayli yerinde şakaları, kendi başına kimisi haklı eleştirileri, kötü diyaloglar, kötü karakterler, kötü kurgu, kötü bir edebiyat anlayışı ile birleştiriliyor. Ve vizyon tarihinden 30 yıl önce çıkmış bir Matrix Lem'in ellerinde pahalı malzemeleri olan berbat bir yemeğe dönüşüyor.

Bu arada belirtmeden geçemeyeceğim; yer yer yazının içinde katılmış küçük mizojini parçaları da ekstra bir sos olarak kitabı süslüyor. Kadınların modanın kölesi olduğunu tekrar tekrar, her devir için ayrıca belirtme gereği duyuyor arkadaş. Yav anladık ilk seferinde, tekrar tekrar. Ne istiyorsun sen tam olarak? Muhtemelen sırf 71'de "bayanın biri Lem'e ikram etmedi" diye bunun da derdi bize düşüyor.

İyi fikirleri olan, etmeye değer sözü bulunan, kimi zaman güzel eleştiriler yapan ve olaylara özgün bir yerden bakabilen ancak konu kurguya geldiğinde tembel ve kötü bir yazar Stanislaw Lem. Gerçekten de kariyerinin sonlarına geldiğinde kurgu yazmama kararı almasının bir sebebi varmış, bu kitapla bundan emin oldum(açıkladığı gerekçesi farklı olsa da). Özensizliği ve umursamazlığı da artık emin olduğum (bkz: Soruşturma) yeteneksizliği ile birleştiği zaman insanın canını sıkacak sonuçlar ortaya çıkarıyor. Büyük olayların olabileceği backgroundlar yaratılıyor ama bir bok olmuyor. Ortaya büyük fikirler atılıyor ama bu büyük fikirler etrafında düzgün bir hikaye örülmüyor. Kurgu dışı eserlerde başarıyla derdini anlatabilen, üstelik argümanlarını ortaya koyma biçimi de etkileyici olan Lem gidiyor, yerine bölük pörçük, bitmemiş, üzerinde çalışılmamış, her köşesinden bel veren köhnemiş bir hikayeci geliyor. Evet, röportajlarında, konuşmalarında pişkince "bilim-kurgu'yu kılıf olarak kullandığını beyan ediyor ama bunu da özensizliğine bir bahane olarak kullanıyor. Aslında yazılarını sadece eleştirilerine bir fon ve gerekçe olsun diye yaptığı için de hızlıca odağını yitiriyor, küçük gerçeklik/hayal parçalarının iç tutarlılıklarına, inandırıcılığına, hatta kullandığı matematiksel argümanlara dahi zerre emek harcamıyor. Her yöne vuran, ne istediği belirsiz eleştirilerini sıralamaktan başka hiçbir şeyle ilgilenmiyor.

İşte insan da bir noktada "artık yeter" diyor. Yani o olmasın, bu olmasın, tamam o da kötü de sen ne istiyorsun ? Enternasyonali beğenmedin, kapitalizmi beğenmedin, sosyalizmi beğenmedin? mülksüzlüğe laf ettin, gazetecilere laf ettin, edebiyatçılara laf ettin, post moderncilere laf ettin? Ya sen ne istiyorsun bizden Ulem?

[Dina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one didn't excite me at all. The first part of the book is so muddled, it's hard to make heads or tails of. While I acknowledge this attempt to put in the reader in the shoes of the protagonist, I'm sure we would have got the message loud and clear without the 50ish pages of is-it-real-or-isn't-it "hallucinations". Yes, we get it, drug commentary, psychopharmacology, etc, etc. Move along. Lem's attempt to establish a dystopia struck me as one-dimensional and boring, focusing almost exclusively on the rise of pharmaceuticals and the American will to consume. A fairly short book to begin with, but it still could have been cut down to about 25 pages...tops.

[Simona B · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Absolutely extraordinary; the very definition of "a little gem" (the book counts less than a 150 pages). The first twenty pages or so are perhaps just a bit awkward (the beginning doesn't really make much clear where the narrative is going), but that might perfectly be a wrong impression that will be easily dispelled on a second reading, which I hope to have soon the opportunity to undertake.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb science fiction book. A science fiction writer with a sense of humour.

Nothing is what it seems and it's a shame there's not an appendix of all the neologisms that Lem creates in this work.

The book starts with Ijon Tichy attending a Futurological Congress in smog-bound Costa Rica and finishes at the same event, but where Ijon goes to in between I can't say for sure. He undertakes a few adventures both in the present and in the future, but the lines between reality and mythology and hallucination are all placed in a washing machine, so who knows what's real and what's not.

Nonetheless, it's a superb read as it's funny and thought-provoking in similar quantities. I want to read more of this author's work.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was ist real und was nur Schein? Mit dieser Frage beschäftigt sich Lem in seinem Buch "Der Futurologische Kongress".

Ijon Tichy, ein Futurologe, begibt sich zum 8. Futurologischen Weltkongress, bei dem besprochen wird, wie mit der stetig wachsenden Bevölkerung zukünftig umgegangen werden soll. Die sogenannten Gegenbewegler stürmen die Veranstaltung, was die Teilnehmer auf ihre Zimmer zwingt. Dort trinkt Tichy vom Leitungswasser, was in ihm eine starke körperliche Reaktion auslöst - er empfindet intensive Zuneigung gegenüber den Menschen. Um diesem Zustand zu entkommen, unterzieht er sich einer Tritt-Kur, die ihn zurück in die Realität bringt. Als die Veranstaltung trotz Invasion fortgesetzt werden soll, explodieren Bomben in dem Tagungshotel - Bomben menschlicher Nächstenliebe. Nur ein kleiner Teil des Hotelpersonals und der Tagungsmitglieder kann sich in die Kanalisation retten, wo Tichy Halluzinationen unterliegt. In diesen stirbt er, wird wiederbelebt und wechselt den Körper mit anderen. Zuletzt wird er von den Gegenbeweglern ausfindig gemacht und beinahe getötet, doch kann durch den Prozess des Einfrierens gerettet werden. 70 Jahre später im Jahre 2039 wird er aufgetaut und erwacht in einer scheinbar utopischen Welt mit zufriedenen, wohlhabenden Menschen und ohne Krieg. Seine vorhergehenden halluzinatorischen Erlebnisse lassen ihn nicht los und er zweifelt an der Echtheit seiner Umgebung, was er in Tagebucheinträgen festhält. Die Welt befindet sich im Zeitalter der Psychemie, in dem die Menschen haufenweise Tabletten zu sich nehmen, um beispielsweise Emotionen zu spüren oder um verbotene Gelüste in ihrer Vorstellung ausleben zu können. Dieses Trugbild von paradiesischen Zuständen trotz exorbitant hoher Weltbevölkerungsdichte (29,5 Mrd.) kann Tichy durchschauen. Die Wahrheit schockiert ihn dermaßen, dass er den Tod vorzieht als länger in einer Scheinwelt zu leben.

Dieses ist mein erstes und garantiert nicht letztes Buch von Stanislaw Lem. Der Anfang im Kongresshotel steht im totalen Gegensatz zu der Entwicklung im 2. Teil, der mich regelrecht gefesselt hat. Die psychemisch-bestimmte Welt, welche Lem skizziert, ist absurd aber nicht undenkbar und ist die ausgewählte Methodik, um mit der Menge an Menschen auf der Welt umzugehen. Professor Trottelreiner, ein ehemaliger Futurologenkollege und Miteingefrorener, zeigt ihm die Realität und die Machenschaften, um die Verschleierung aufrecht zu erhalten. Wie er selbst sagt:
"Diese Welt ist ein Leichnam, freilich ein blenden erhaltener, weil er immer perfekt mumifiziert wird, oder auch, weil wir es gelernt haben, ihren Tod zu maskieren."

Eine spannende Geschichte mit einer interessanten dystopischen Weltverschwörung und ein guter Einstieg in das Werk Lems, weswegen ich 4/5 ⭐️ vergebe.

[M S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mimo, że wcześniej czytałam już "Solaris" to czuję, że dopiero "Kongres futurologiczny" ukazał mi możliwości językowe i niezwykłą wyobraźnię Lema.

Niesamowicie wykreowany świat niedalekiej przyszłości, wątki dotyczące filozofii, etyki i ludzkiej moralności. Lem porusza kwestię stanu, do jakiego, my jako ludzkość, możemy doprowadzić tę planetę. Słusznie wskazuje człowieka jako winnego, którego oskarża o przeludnienie Ziemi, a także niszczenie jej doszczętnie i wyzyskiwanie jej zasobów w niekontrolowany, nadmierny sposób. A to wszystko opisane w zabawny, pełen groteski pomieszanej z absurdem sposób. Na szczególną uwagę zasługuje mistrzowskie słowotwórstwo, które idealnie wpasowuje się w klimaty antyutopijnego, futurystycznego, zdegradowanego społeczeństwa. Podsumowując: to była genialna, dająca do myślenia rozrywka.

[Cansu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a bit challenging book to read but I loved the utopic&dystopic world that Lem’s create. A hilarious and unpredictable story that I've never read before. The best part of the book is when there is so much confusion going on that we start wondering which part of it is real and which is just illusion 🤯😵‍💫🤭 3.5 🌟

[Chris Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember which science fiction author made a statement that suggested that, while "outer" space offers a great deal of potential subject matter, it does not come close to the realm of "inner" space in terms of room for exploration. Lem has certainly taken that idea to heart with this short but powerful book.

The Futurological Congress is a first person account through the eyes of a recurring Lem character by the name of Ijon Tichy. The story begins in Costa Rica where a group of academics are meeting to discuss a number of issues that threaten the future of the world, including disarmament and overpopulation (both huge issues in 1971 when the book was published). On the first day of the congress, we meet a number of interesting characters - including a Roman Catholic revolutionary who has plans of assassinating the Pope to achieve an eternal martyrdom in Hell – and we are introduced to a society divided perilously between extreme poverty and technologically-produced luxury. By the end of the day, the revolutionary spirit that is alluded to early in the story, gives way to a full scale revolt resulting in a government crackdown in which the authorities inundate the population with mind-altering substances called, “benignimizers” – a hallucinogenic that forces those under its influence to become impervious to their own violent impulses and to take on a disposition of extreme self-effacement. In the ensuing fray, Tichy is mortally wounded; but with the aid of the latest technology he is placed in a cryogenic state that allows him to survive. Upon waking in the year 2039, he finds himself in a world radically changed, though one of a future that is a logical outgrowth of Tichy’s time. The world has become a utopian fantasy in which “psychemic” (psyche-affecting chemical) substances form the central feature of civilization. Everything from education to nutrition is accomplished by way of pharmaceutical drugs, and society has become a peaceful land of plenty. But underlying this, Tichy soon discovers, is a dark secret that permeates the belly of this seemingly benign beast.

Make no mistake, this book is not an action-packed page turner. If you are looking for an adventurous and suspenseful tale with lots of action, then The Futurological Congress is probably not for you. This is not to say that the book lacks story or intrigue, but these elements are subsumed inside of an appropriately absurd satire that is heavily mired in philosophical speculations, endless lists of imaginary substances and their effects, and cerebral observations of the future society on the part of the narrator. It is also an extremely funny book, in a very dark and ironic way. Much of its humor is simply a reflection of many of our cultural and social practices taken to their extremes in such a way as to highlight some of the very insane aspects of the modern world that pass for normal.

It interesting to read this 1971 book in a modern context, to see how part of the cautionary aspect of the tale – its fear of a future “pharmocracy” – has actually come to pass in many ways. Our development of pharmaceutical substances to cure just about every ailment – real or imagined – may not have been apparent when The Futurological Congress was published. But in a world of weight loss pills and where new drugs are being developed for disorders that simply did not exist forty years ago its diagnosis, if extreme, is not totally off track. Further the sixties culture of mind-altering substances is lampooned and we see parodies of the “tune in, turn on, and drop out” ethos that guided much of the era’s subculture.

One must also recognize that Lem was a Polish author, writing under the strict censorship of the communist regime of the time. His criticisms of society are two-fold. The setting of the utopian/dystopian future is New York City, one of the cultural and economic centers of the western “imperialism” and the novel is clearly aimed at what must have seemed like a disintegrating society at the time. The mind-altering substances that permeate this book stand in well for those of western youth culture of the late 60’s and early 70’s. This obviously presented little problem for the powers that be. But it is clear that his attacks are not meant strictly for the enemy other. The presentation of utopian perfection is made with a sense of irony that is usually subtle but at times very cutting. The socialist worker’s paradise promised by the communist regimes of eastern Europe can be seen in Lem’s happy pills, often taken in the form of candy. Underneath it all, however, there are cracks as the reader will see, and as the eastern bloc regimes would learn a few decades hence.

At times the Futurological Congress was overly dense and difficult to read, particularly right before bedtime, but I will certainly revisit this book in the future. There is so much depth and texture to the prose, for which translator Michael Kandel deserves some credit. The multi-layered ideas packed into these 149 pages have kept me reflecting on the concepts and images that Lem fed this work so eloquently and cleverly. 4.5 Stars Grade: A.