Eden (novel)

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Eden is a science fiction novel published in 1959 by Stanisław Lem with the subtitle "Novel of an extraterrestrial civilization".

action

An earthly spaceship crashes on the unexplored planet of Eden. The six-person crew - each consisting of a coordinator , engineer , physicist , chemist , cyberneticist and doctor - tries to repair their spaceship and undertakes exploratory trips into a strange world described in detail by Lem. So they visit z. B. a fully automated factory in which the production cycle of the workpieces has short-circuited.

Astronauts call the intelligent inhabitants of the planet "double" because of their shape. A graceful upper body rides a strong lower body, into which it can withdraw (like a kangaroo pouch). The Doppels have a highly developed technical civilization: disk-shaped land vehicles, electrical writing and an enigmatic “mechanochemistry”. The astronauts are discovered and enclosed by a crystal wall, which they cut through with their atomic cannons in order to obtain material for the repair of spacecraft.

Towards the end of their stay there is a first "contact" with a double scientist, which is tragic in several respects: On the one hand, the double is doomed to die through the passage of a radioactively contaminated gap in the wall, on the other hand the astronauts learn fragmentary about a perfidious dictatorship, who has denied its own existence and has genetically manipulated the population. Interference is futile and the risk of further attacks is considerable - and so they fly off again after the missile has been successfully repaired.

interpretation

The crew gradually constructs a picture of the conditions on Eden from their observations in full awareness of their hopelessly anthropocentric point of view, which inevitably prevents a real understanding. Lem is concerned here with the representation of the emotional and intellectual reaction to the "unknown" as a central theme of the genre science fiction. This is also evident in the ongoing discussions between the scientists, who each represent an approach that corresponds to their function.

The second topic is also a central concern of the genre: the critical representation of earthly conditions in the mask of "extraterrestrial" worlds. Lem succeeds in creating the oppressive vision of an advanced totalitarian system in which technical production processes have become independent and even extend to the biological level. In addition to a hidden criticism of the communist dictatorship, the novel is amazingly topical and is still one of the most important works of European science fiction.

The title refers to biblical ideas of paradise , but the description of the extraterrestrial civilization bears unmistakably dystopian features.

expenditure

  • Stanisław Lem: Eden . Iskry, Warszawa 1959
  • Stanisław Lem: Eden . (German translation of Transgalaxis, d. I. Paul Kempner) Gebr. Zimmermann-Verlag, Balve iW 1960
  • The same translation was published by: Arthur Moewig Verlag, Terra Utopische Romane, Hefte 478/479, Munich 1966
  • Stanisław Lem: Eden . (German translation by Caesar Rymarowicz ) Verlag Volk und Welt , (East) Berlin 1971
  • The same translation appeared as: Eden. Novel of an alien civilization . Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1972

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