Book Review: The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy by Stanisław Lem

The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy by Stanisław Lem

Paperback, 149 pages

Published 1985 by Mariner Books (first published 1971)

One of my missions is to promote the trans-real Science Fiction to the younger generation but I realize that I am still discovering the treasure trove still out there to read. This is my third book by Stanislaw Lem who is a Polish Sci-Fi writer who is most remembered for is excellent alien contact novel Solaris that has twice been made into a film. In this novel he out Dicks Philip K Dick with a textured political mind-fuck that will have any reader who takes seriously questioning what is real.

It is very important when considering Lem's work that he was writing from behind the Iron Curtain. This novel is translated from Polish and it makes one wonder when you read how much of the literary devices are direct translations. The first thirty-five pages, for example, are one very long paragraph that gives the book a surreal feeling from the outset. The book that follows is a surreal experience that is probably not for everyone.

I didn't know until I finished the book that it was the third in a series about space Traveler Ijon Tichy who is likely a Russian Cosmonaut although I don't think it was directly said. Anyways the story is set-off by Tichy returning to earth for a meeting of the 8th Futurological conference being held in Costa Rica.

“He also said - pointedly - that space travel nowadays was an escape from the problems of Earth. That is, one took off for the stars in the hope that the worst would happen and be done within one's absence. And indeed I couldn't deny that more than once I had peered anxiously out the porthole - especially when returning from a long voyage - to see whether or not our planet resembled a burnt potato.”

So yeah, Earth is a fucked up mess and while this gathering of future thinking leaders and writers are gathered in this massive hotel the revolution is growing underneath them. This massive hotel is used to highlight the massive class divisions. I think there is a statement here not just about the ruling class but also intellectuals who are largely insulated from the effects of the global crisis. Throughout the book, the Futurologists who are a device standing in for the genre community suggest many funny possible futures. Like the Japanese delegation who suggests tall buildings that would have all the needs of life contained in one location, not that different from the concept of walkable neighborhoods.

It seems that those on the ground are optimistic about the future. Bombs and attacks on the conference happen over and over but the meeting goes on. While Cli-fi is common today it is cool to see a work tackle the subject from behind the Iron curtain. Lem was not alone as Brunner had just tackled the subject in Stand on Zanzibar and won the Hugo for it. This book, however, is a satire and despite tackling same subject is hilarious at times. This book has more in common with Kurt Vonnegut.

“Books are no longer read but eaten, not made of paper but of some informational substance, fully digestible, sugar-coated.”

That is one funny example, but once the meeting is on we learn that the opposing forces are employing Hulluccigenics to effect the meeting, this leads the academics to join the battle and I think here Lem was making a statement about Science Fiction writers of the new wave who were part of the social justice movements but maybe I am overthinking it.

I don't think you can spoil this novel but he point becomes clear when the main character Tichy is shot and has to be flash-frozen until a future when he can have his life saved. This ends up being the year 2038. Tichy wakes up in a world that is not the utopia his colleagues wanted but it is also not exactly the dystopia they feared. This future dominated by Psychems is a very weird drug-induced future where people at least believe they are happy. Virtual reality induced by drugs about thirty years before The Matrix.

Comedy, Tragedy, and plenty of thought experiments all mixed in with hilarious wordplay and prose experiments that jump off the page and twist the reader's brain as much as any drug. Lem is a genius working on a Vonnegut level here. I think this is a great example of proto-bizarro absurdist science fiction. Must read if that sounds like your jam.

“Anyhow, the criterion of common sense was never applicable to the history of the human race. Averroës, 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 weekends exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?”