The Futurological Congress

From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy

De: Stanislaw Lem

Narrado por: David Marantz

Duración: 4 h y 52 m

Resumen del Editor

Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a future cure.

©1974 The Continuum Publishing Corporation (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

provoking and so real

The Futurological Congress is a science fiction novel written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem and first published in 1971. It is a satirical work that explores the potential consequences of futuristic technologies and the ways in which they might be used or misused by society.

The novel is set in the year 2039 and follows the character of Ijon Tichy, a scientist who is invited to attend a futurological congress in Costa Rica. As Tichy navigates the futuristic world of the congress, he encounters a number of strange and unsettling technologies, including virtual reality devices and mind-altering drugs.

One of the most notable aspects of The Futurological Congress is its use of satire to explore the potential dangers of emerging technologies. Throughout the novel, Lem uses humor and absurdity to critique the way in which these technologies might be used to manipulate or deceive people.

Overall, The Futurological Congress is a thought-provoking and entertaining read that offers a unique perspective on the potential consequences of futuristic technologies. It is a must-read for fans of science fiction and those interested in the intersection of technology and society.

absolutely fantastic

Lem is one of the best sci-fi authors ever and this is lem at his best

unique and super smart

what an amazing story. great concept and vision.. i was left with my jaw dropped! highly recommend.

Incredibly good narration

I am a big fan of Lem's writing and this performance truly does it justice.

Some sci-fi just doesn’t hold up after 50 years

Dated.
I like Lem (Stainless Steel Rat, etc.)
But the contrivance that lets the author confabulate a remote future of 2030 — doesn’t work — on multiple levels.

This is basically my favorite novel of all time.

I did read it and listen this novel in two languages. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

A foundational masterpiece

The reader will trace many of our recent sci-fi ideas to this excellent novel.

Good story, but maybe better ingested visually.

First off, this was a good book, but I think one that I would have appreciated a lot more if I'd read it rather than listened to it. A lot of the latter part of the book contains words that Lem created and being able to see the words spelled out on the page and thus analyse them for the implied (and probably sarcastic) etymology would have added to the fun.

It did take me a little while to get into the mood for this book, the sarcasm is not so much tongue-in-cheek as tongue-through-cheek, it's not subtle. That said, once the introductions were complete and the main plot kicked in I enjoyed the story and the humour.

The story is told first-person, transitioning to a chunked diary-style format for the last third of the book and there were moments where I felt presages of the book Fiasco in the tone and style of the story-telling.

I want to stress that I had no issues with this particular recording, I thought it was well narrated by Mr Marantz and was free of distractions (music, chapter breaks, etc), I just think that the content would be better appreciated with a bit more time to linger on the words and a better idea of how things were spelled.

(Not Your Average) Really Humorous SciFi Adventure

I initially read this on my Kindle and enjoyed it immensely. It's a fun, feel-good type of book despite the dire futurological predictions. So, I recently decided I needed to listen to the audio version. The narration was just fine, thank goodness! So, here is my previous review.

"I must say I warily downloaded this book and put off reading it for some time. I thought it could be as bleak as the recent Russian sci-fi translation I read. I guess I didn't read the reviews carefully enough. This was one of the funniest books I ever read. Lem is brilliant, with such a sense of humor. There were parts where I had to close my Kindle, while I tried to get the guffaws under control. Luckily I was reading in bed and only my hubbie could see me.

While Lem is wonderfully creative and you could tell he had a great time penning this story, I was also blown away by the translator. This novel is so much about word play, and you could not tell it was written in a foreign language. It was impeccably translated and didn't suffer a bit. I can't wait to try more of Lem's books. While very funny and short, there was also a scary message here.

Even if you are not a sci-fi fan, you are in for a treat with this book. It would take anyone out of a reading slump or maybe even a deep depression. Get it and enjoy, now!"

Chock-a-block full of ideas

This is a very enjoyable quick book. There is so much packed into it that my interest never flagged. In fact, there are numerous ideas that could have generated at least short stories of their own, but they are only a part of this world.

I found myself thinking of many different novels that at least share an idea with this, enough so that I began to wonder how many authors and filmmakers perhaps read this and were influenced. There are moments like Stand on Zanzibar but crossed with Vonnegut. I thought of Inception, the Manual of Detection, Philip K. Dick, Matrix, with some Nabokovian wordplay tossed in.

Funny in places, thought provoking in others. For a novel written in 1971 (and translated In 1974) I thought there was a lot of great satire about the direction society was/is heading and it is surprisingly relevant to current society in many ways, and I think there are many serious cautionary items blended into the fabric of the world of the novel.

Here's one sample: Lubricrat: one who gives bribes. Derived from "greasing" of palms.

Tell me that's not applicable to our entire system of government, summed up in one word.

I'm not going to spoil anything, so have fun with it, I did.

Also, there's a movie coming soon, The Congress, which looks interesting, but from the movie blurb, it does not appear it will follow the novel. It may be they seized upon some element and developed something, we'll see. As I said, there are so many ideas which could easily be developed into some tangential story.