It's honestly one of the funniest books ever written. In terms of witty Sci-Fi comedy, it gives The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy a run for its money. The idea that mass hallucination is presented as a solution to societal control is very forward thinking satire. Stanislaw Lem must have had some sort of prescient ability, as he literally made a joke about society's addiction to smartphones before they were even conceived, referring to them as "pocket computers" in a scene where a brown guy is horrifically murdered in front on a crowd, and their response is to basically tweet about it. It truly blows my mind that this was written in the 70's, as it presents a horrifyingly accurate satire of the very time we find ourselves in now.
Futurological Congress is one of my favorites by Lem. Very mind-bending and laugh-out-loud funny. It’s said that there are 3 or 4 different writers in Lem’s work and this book was written by the absurdist.
Lem is the greatest science fiction writer of all, bar none. In fact, he's one of the great writers of the 20th century. Do not pass up on "The Investigation". An extraordinary masterpiece. Everything by Lem should be read. Now or in your near future. Lem is there waiting for you. He's ahead of all of us.
I've only read one of his books, and it is one of my all time favorites: Solaris. Terrifying, disturbing, haunting, and beautiful. I should check these books out. Great stuff.
Shamefully all I knew of him was Solaris and I stupidly allowed myself to be completely put off by the crushingly awful movie. Looking forward to diving into his works properly.
So much appreciation for your dedication to the strange and weird books and their writers! This channel is a gem among the massive community of booktubes and toks, and blogs and reviewers......thanks for what you do!
That was awesome. I've only read Lem's Solaris (my favourite sci-fi novel of all time, so far), but now I want to read more of his other works, like this novel you reviewed. :)
I would agree. Solaris is incredible. Beautiful, terrifying, disturbing, and thought provoking, to say the least. It hits all the stuff of drama: love, mortality, and our place in the universe with respect to what intelligence may look like.
I like how you put all your DAW paperbacks together and above them the 1970's Ace doubles. I think I read this Lem 25 to 30 years ago, but had forgotten the story line. Thanks for posting this.
YES!!! Stanislaw Lem is an absolute genius and this is one of my favourites. Oh yes, this is a gem. I'm so glad you've made a video about it. Also, the movie they made back in the 2000s is worth watching. It's like PKD for people who have run out of PKD. And lots of it is better!
Also, Ijon Tichy is a briliant creation. If I recall correctly, he is also in "Peace on Earth" which was the first book I read of Lem's, during which the corpus callosum of his brain is severed by lasers.
@@LiminalSpaces03 really love your videos. Absolutely spot on, proper Sci fi appreciation and critique. Couldn't ask for more. Forgot to say: will obviously be watching your brother's take on the movie. I thought it was beautiful. A prescient take on the evee increasingly hallucinatory nature of entertainment
Solid intro! 😂 I read Futurological Congress years ago in the original Polish, and like much of Lem’s work, the avalanche of ideas blew my mind. Hope you continue your journey with Lem.
@@LiminalSpaces03 I read Invincible in English recently and thought that the translation was very good. Solaris has 2 translations, the original is from French to English, so…
The Illuminatus Trilogy is so funny to me because Shea and Wilson originally wrote it to prove new wave pulp publishers would publish literally anything. And they did 😆
Read it a long time ago, I remember it as stream of consciousness thing - nowadays I”m a little more familiar with the movie which is so sooo underrated
Very cool video :D I‘ve read the book in German and it was one of my favourite Stanislaw Lem books ever. Hope you look at some more eastern Sci-Fi in the Future.
Wonderful recommendation, haven't read it, but look forward to reading it! I apologize, I have a question about a separate book, and I was hoping you would know it since I can't seem to find anything on it from what little I can remember, and no one else seems to have read it. It is about a teacher of poetry at a university in a version of the world where science rules and the arts are unimportant, he tries to throw himself from the bell/clocktower and lightning strikes it and he falls into a sword and sorcery world, where people have words of power ("Quintah" is one such example) that cast spells, and poetry is very important there as it's the language of the dragons ( I think? it's been a while). I remember thinking it was a fun, short, and fairly well written story that did a lot of things common in other books but uniquely enough it felt like it's own thing, and it had a slight sci-fi twist with the dimensional travel and alternate earth aspects. Anyways, if you ever come across it I would love to know what the title is so I could find it again. Thank you if you took the time to read this!
I'll check it out and let you know if that was it! Thanks for a suggestion!! It wasn't the best book in the world or anything, but it was a pretty good quick read and the fact that I can't find anything on it is driving me mad lol@@safekeeping2923
Alas, I don't think that was it, but I see why you recommended them, lots of similar themes, and I will probably try a few of their books anyway, as I haven't read them!@@safekeeping2923
I forgot I'd looked at the Wikipedia summary (which is very good) after you mentioned this book and was getting some deja vu vibes which seem rather fitting. I'm not sure if the two things are connected but ketamine was first synthesised in 1962, which allows a decade for it to get into Lem's orbit.
My to be read list has grown exponentially since discovering your channel discussing deus irae. Which was fantastic. I can’t wait to read this one. Thank you.
@@LiminalSpaces03 you won’t regret reading A Scanner Darkly. The rotoscoped animated adaption was pretty good too (Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Junior & Winona Ryder amongst others)!
The CH sound in Polish is apparently a hard H. But the name sounds like it might be related to Tykhe the Greek goddess of fortune, prosperity and destiny. The way you describe the prose reminds me of Joyce. Ullyses is a ride not a riddle. in giving up trying to understand it you understand it!
If you think this book was weird you should read his(Lem) "Star Diaries" series. It follows the adventures of the intergalactic and interdimensional explorer Ijon Tichy and describes a whole field of study named after him called Tichiology, which only purpose is to understand and classify the adventures of Ijon across time and space, the futurological congress is but one of the many adventures of Tichy.
@@LiminalSpaces03 Great to hear! be aware that the oldest versions of that book may not contain all the travels of the series. My dad has one of those. I have a 2003 edition that is at least twice as long. Try to read that one if you can. Love your videos. You review all the books that i grew up reading and nobody talks about anymore, keep up the good work.
I think the movie is just as trippy and while it’s not a 100% faithful adaptation, it’s still a master in how it utilized the AI/image scanning aspects burgeoning in Hollywood a decade after its release
ok i finished it - started out a bit tedious with all the silly drug business, albeit humorous and inciteful, but then wow it took a turn to out and out twilight zone shocking horror. oh boy what a ride. agree the end was well worth riding out the beginning . 🎉
It almost feels like a fix up novel in that the two stories (first half and second half) could easily survive with out the other, and the second part is absolutely the best part!
Can I make a suggestion about a book to talk about? Kaleidoscope Century by John Barnes. I think its become as topical as ever now what with AI and social media. Its in Barnes' four book series about a future "War of the Memes" that is literally a war fought by different kinds of software that has taken over human brains.
@@LiminalSpaces03 Haha yep! My just stick with it section has got some of my most favorite books in it! Ooh really looking forward to your Ballard session. Also my copy of Deus Irae just arrived thanks to your recommendation, looks so interesting!
I thought you plot summary was great. It hooked me. This book seems very apropos to our time with all the misinformation circulating the world. Its surreal that the people most adamant about what is real are the least informed, and those who are most confused are the truest most sincere seekers of truth. Just my humble take. Please debate me. I'm sure I just offended many.
Huh. I didn't like it. The humour seemed horribly outdated to me, in particular the way he seemed to essentially treat sex as just a funny subject. And I don't think the soma comparison reflects well on this book. In this dystopia, everyone is fooled by the drugs. The genius of Huxley's dystopia is that he shows everyone consciously choosing to numb themselves and downgrade their own humanity. Soma is a much more hard-hitting idea, because it forces us to think about the seductiveness of the dystopia, and how we could all be complicit in making it. In this Lem book, it's externally imposed by a bogeyman. The humour issue has got to be the biggest problem, though. I just didn't laugh or smile even once. There's a body swap half way through, and he doesn't even manage to wring a grin out of that. Still, interesting recommendation, thank you.
