Provocation (Lem)

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Provocation (original title: Prowokacja ) is a fictional review published in 1980, i.e. a book review of a non-existent book by the Polish author Stanisław Lem . The fictional book is entitled Der Genölkermord and its fictional German author is the anthropologist Horst Aspericus. It consists of parts I. The final solution as redemption and II. Foreign body death .

content

In the introduction, Lem writes that the “author” Aspericus set himself the goal of bringing about a revolution in the anthropology of evil. This is followed by the table of contents of the fictional book.

The first part begins with a consideration of killing in the animal world. It then examines the genocide in human history. If the genocide used to be done for reasons of utility, this was no longer the case in modern times. There are various common interpretations of the reasons that led to the so-called “final solution to the Jewish question”, which the author examines and contrasts with his own interpretation. In his opinion, it is a kitschy staging of the Last Judgment in which people have to appear naked before their judge. In this part, the author accuses the philosopher Martin Heidegger of having failed in his job as a philosopher because he kept silent about the crimes.

The second part deals with the role of death in modern civilization. While death was still integrated into culture in the Middle Ages and perceived as a transition to another life, today it is viewed as a foreign body. The abolition of the death penalty is cited as an example of the suppression of death from bourgeois culture, but also the refusal of doctors to omit life-support measures when a person is dying. Since death still exists, it has to be integrated somehow. The National Socialists succeeded in doing this by administering death to destroy what was evil in their eyes . Since evil can no longer be explained transcendently today, an inner-worldly explanation had to be found. The Jews were identified as the culprits. Today there is no longer any human sacrifice for religious reasons, instead killing is used as a means of carrying out justice. This happened with the mass murders of the National Socialists and happens today with the assassinations of terrorists , in whose subcultures death has been integrated in the same way.

literature

  • Stanisław Lem: Provocation . Authorized translation from Polish by Jens Reuter. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981; (= Volume 740 of the Suhrkamp library)