The futurological congress

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The futurological congress ( Polish Kongres futurologiczny ) is a science fiction novel by the Polish author Stanisław Lem . The novel was written in November 1970 and first appeared in 1971 in the Kraków publishing house Wydawnictwo Literackie in the volume Bezsenność.

content

Spaceman Ijon Tichy, the protagonist of the novel, takes part in the “Eighth World Futurological Congress” in Nounas, the capital of Costricana. The congress will take place in the 106-story Hilton Hotel, and the topic will be the growing overpopulation. At the same time (on another floor of the hotel) there is a nudist congress, mistakes are inevitable. At the same time, a revolutionary movement against the dictator of the banana state Costricana is rising.

When Tichy suffers a fit of kindness and all-encompassing affection, he realizes that the dictator has infused the drinking water with “benignators”, chemical “concessions” intended to quell the revolt of the discontented population. Since the psychotropic chemical weapons are inadequate, the police and military are using benignators as well as conventional weapons, and the Hilton is increasingly affected. Tichy, Professor Trottelreiner and other hotel guests equip themselves with oxygen devices and flee into the sewer system under the Hilton.

After Tichy took off the oxygen mask, he had a number of grotesque hallucinations: after almost complete destruction of his body, he was thrown into a container of liquid nitrogen and only woke up in the distant future.

He finds a world in which peace and general prosperity prevail despite the continued increase in population. The weather is voted on, dead can be resuscitated if desired. All of this is made possible by “psychemia”, the irrational part of the human psyche is now kept under control by “psychochemicals”. Taking the appropriate psychotropic drugs is a natural part of human behavior. Tichy meets Professor Trottelreiner again, who has also ended up in the future. Trottelreiner reveals to him that in the meantime the “maskons” have been developed, chemical substances that can simulate any object. When Tichy receives an antidote from Trottelreiner, the luxury that surrounds him suddenly dissolves and he sees poverty and disease instead. But it's only the top layer of delusions that has fallen before his eyes, the truth is much worse.

Finally he wakes up again in the canal under the Hilton, the second day of the congress has not yet started.

shape

The story is told by the protagonist Tichy. From about halfway through the novel, the narrative takes the form of a diary . Throughout the novel, Lem plays with different levels of experience. He leaves it unclear whether Tichy's experiences are “real”, whether he is dreaming or hallucinating. Lem constructs the plot analogously to a matryoshka doll, in which there is still another smaller doll: It is a dream in a dream in a dream. In the hallucinated “pharmacocracy” in which the “thawed” Tichy awakens, he plunges from the unmasked illusion of one level into the next.

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The principle of Calderón's verse drama La vida es sueño (Eng. Life a dream ) and Grillparzer's drama The dream of a life is multiplied.

classification

The futurological congress is one of Lem's most famous works.

The story takes place in the same universe as the star diaries .

expenditure

The futurological congress was translated into German twice: the first translation was published in 1974 by the Frankfurter Insel Verlag , the second in 1986 by the (East) Berlin publisher Volk und Welt .

  • Kongres futurologiczny (1971)
  • The futurological congress. Translated from the Polish by I. Zimmermann-Göllheim. Insel, Frankfurt a. M. 1974, ISBN 3-458-05855-9
  • The futurological congress (= fantastic library. Vol. 29). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1979, ISBN 3-518-37034-0
  • The futurological congress. Translated from the Polish by Roswitha Matwin-Buschmann. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1986

filming

The fourth installment in the science fiction series Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot (first broadcast in 2007) took on the novel title, although its plot was more based on the Eighth Voyage in Lem's Star Diaries .

The 2013 film The Congress by Ari Folman was a free interpretation of The Futurological Congress.

literature

  • Bernd Böttcher: The illusion of reality in Stanisław Lem's “The Futurological Congress”. In: Quarber Mercury . Vol. 102, 2005, ISBN 3-932621-82-4 , pp. 89-104.

Web links

Wikiquote: Stanisław Lem  - Quotes