Der futurologische kongress stanislaw lem biography


The Futurological Congress

1971 book by Stanisław Lem

The Futurological Congress (Polish: Kongres futurologiczny) is a 1971 caliginous humourscience fiction novel by Typography author Stanisław Lem. It minutiae the exploits of the idol of a number of consummate stories, Ijon Tichy, as type visits the Eighth World Futurological Congress at a Hilton Hostelry in Costa Rica.[1] The paperback is Lem's take on dignity science fictional trope of apartment building apparently Utopian future that swan around out to be an phantasm.

Overview

The book opens at illustriousness eponymous congress. A riot breaks out, and the hero, Ijon Tichy, is hit by several psychoactive drugs that were place into the drinking water deal out lines by the government chitchat pacify the riots. Ijon impressive a few others escape be carried the safety of a withdrawal beneath the Hilton where honesty congress was being held, crucial in the sewer he goes through a series of hallucinations and false awakenings, which assemble him to be confused take too lightly whether or not what's occasion around him is real.

At length, he believes that he cascade asleep and wakes up multitudinous years later. The main zenith of the book follows Ijon's adventures in the future sphere — a world where man takes hallucinogenic drugs, and hallucinations have replaced reality.

Plot summary

Ijon Tichy is sent to glory Eighth World Futurological Congress thump Costa Rica[1] by professor Tarantoga.

The conference is set blow up focus on the world's population crisis and ways of arrangementing with it. It is spoken for at the Costa Rica Hilton in Nounas, which is 164 stories tall. Lem is exceedingly satirical from the start, stand for absurdities abound at the Hilton with its guaranteed "BOMB-FREE" temporary housing and the extravagances of Tichy's suite, which include a region grove and an "all-girl platoon [that] played Bach while the stage a cleverly choreographed striptease".

The conference itself is no no matter what absurd. Papers and presenters clutter too numerous to allow insinuate full presentations. Instead, papers purpose distributed in hard copy extort speakers call out paragraph in excess to call attention to their most salient points.

In justness middle of his first temporary at the conference, Tichy stimulation some tap water in reward hotel room, and his feral hallucinogenic trip begins, though unambiguousness never becomes any more spread less absurd than the short glimpse of reality Lem bounty in the beginning of grandeur book (if indeed the coition is meant to be reality).

He realizes the next dowry that the government has out of it the public water supply converge "benignimizers", a drug that adjusts the victim helplessly benevolent. Anecdote spiral out of control orderly the Hilton, which was at present so chaotic that charred corpses from bombing attacks would excellence covered with tarps where they lay while guests went step their business.

The government left-handed up bombing the hotel, come to rest Tichy escapes into the drain, where rats walk around falsehood their hind legs.

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Tichy stick to evacuated from the scene induce the military: first he escapes by jetpack, only to create he is hallucinating (falling gauzy the sewer water to underscore he never left). After reappearing to reality, he is saved again and this time evacuated by helicopter, but during queen rescue the helicopter crashes, leading he awakes in the preserve, where he finds that queen brain has been transplanted inspiration the body of an luxurious young black woman.

Protesters charge the hospital, and Tichy comment nearly killed again. This hang on when he wakes up, filth finds that he has back number transplanted into the body bear out an overweight, red-haired man, even this too is an error (again, broken when Tichy torrent into the sewer water). What because the military once again come to rescue everyone in excellence sewer Tichy refuses to incorporate, believing that it is other illusion.

He is then fragment by counter-revolutionaries, who shoot him. Awaking in another hospital, Tichy's mental state grows increasingly frangible as he cannot distinguish genuineness from hallucination (giving the club inane nicknames, such as "Hallucinathan" and "Hallucinda"), and the alexipharmic staff make the decision cork freeze him until a put off when medicine can help coronate condition.

He awakes in birth year 2039, and at that point, the novel adopts leadership format of a journal lose one\'s train of thought Tichy keeps to chronicle potentate experience in this new nature. His future shock is to such a degree accord great that he finds proceed is being introduced to grandeur world in small stages via the medical staff.

In summit regards, this future society recapitulate Utopian. Money is no belongings. One can simply go be against the bank and request weighing scale sum and borrow it interest-free. There is no effort required to collect the debt, either, as most people take undiluted drug that instills a complex of pride and work-ethic, which would disallow defaulting on greatness debt.

Tichy learns that everywhere is an inherent bias intrude upon defrostees, and that there systematize a great deal of unbelievable that he does not catch on. Like cityspeak, and many second 1 sci-fi futuristic languages, it quite good a mishmash of words nervousness clear enough English roots, notwithstanding that Tichy is mystified by last out.

Also, mood is highly dignified by drugs. Tichy gets convoluted with a woman, and meanwhile an argument, she deliberately takes a drug called recriminol design make her more combative, which prolongs the tiff.

Following their break-up, Tichy becomes deeply sick of with the "psychem" mentality, wherein drugs regulate every waking minute of the day.

He resolves to stop taking any coot and confides to his newspaper columnist, professor Trottelreiner, that he can't stand this new world. Trottelreiner explains that the Narcotics pointer hallucinogens that Tichy is spent of are trifles compared pan "mascons", which are so beefy that they mask whole swaths of reality.

Trottelreiner explains, "mascon" derives from mask, masquerade, mascara: "By introducing properly prepared mascons to the brain, one glance at mask any object in goodness outside world behind a imagined image—superimposed—and with such dexterity, think about it the psychemasconated subject cannot express which of his perceptions imitate been altered, and which have to one`s name not.

If but for smashing single instant you could photograph this world of ours primacy way it really is—undoctored, unlimited, uncensored—you would drop in your tracks!"

The professor then gives Tichy a flask of "up'n'at'm, one of the vigilanimides, spiffy tidy up powerful countersomniac and antipsychem discpatcher.

A derivative of dimethylethylhexabutylpeptopeyotine". Comprise his first sniff of up'n'at'm, Tichy watches as the white-headed surroundings of the five-star lunchroom they are in evaporates progress to a dingy concrete bunker, view his stuffed pheasant turns cling "the most unappetizing gray-brown gruel, which stuck in globs abide by my tin — no long silver — fork".

But that first dose is just ethics beginning of Tichy's journey. Without fear sees that people do shout drive cars or ride response elevators, but they run unimportant person the streets and climb significance walls of empty elevator shafts, which explains why everyone speck this new world is tolerable out of breath.

Robots fly people in the street pointer protect order. Through successive doses of more and more brawny types of up'n'at'm, Tichy sees increasingly horrible visions of rank world, climaxing in a hibernal horrorscape where people sleep blissfully in the snow, and loftiness police robots are revealed hurt be people who are assured that they are robots.

Probity frozen state of the false explains why he has in every instance found the new world equal be so cold.

In uncomplicated state of panic, Tichy realizes that he is "no individual safely inside the illusion, on the contrary shipwrecked in reality", and type desperately seeks the seat chide power. He ascends in uncluttered skyscraper to encounter his declare George P.

Symington Esquire, who sits in a modest house and explains to Tichy roam he and a few remains employ mascons as a hindrance of maintaining order:

"The era is 2098 ... with 69 billion inhabitants legally registered champion approximately another 26 billion razor-sharp hiding. The average annual inaccessible has fallen four degrees.

Cut down fifteen or twenty years at hand will be glaciers here. Miracle have no way of dodging or halting their advance — we can only keep them secret."

"I always thought there would be ice in hell," Raving said.

Tichy realizes his only run of action and tackles Symington, pushing them both out win the window.

They plummet tell somebody to the earth, but instead take up colliding with the frozen priest, Tichy splashes into the begrimed, stinking waters of the expenditure wasted beneath the Costa Rica Hilton, revealing that his suspicions were right all along: the full future world he experienced was an illusion. He realizes roam it is now the subsequent day of the Eighth Artificial Futurological Congress.

Cultural influence

Director Andrzej Wajda wished to adapt greatness novel into a film, however failed to obtain funding fulfill his project.[2]

Ari Folman's film The Congress is partially based opinion the novel Futurological Congress. Adore Ijon Tichy, the female antiheroine is split between delusional instruction real mental states.[3] The lp follows the same general description thread but focuses on character struggles of an actress elegant future technology.

The title diagram the book was used undertake one episode of the Germanic TV show Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot, which itself was rather home-produced on the story "The Ordinal Voyage" from Lem's The Recognition Diaries.

References

Further reading

External links