The Futurological Congress

Stanislaw Lem was a 20th century Polish author whose works were a combination of science fiction, philosophy, and dark satirical humor. He has been called both "the most important science fiction author of the 20th century" and also "a cross between Kafka and Vonnegut." These phrases describe an author who, in theory, would be right up my alley. Yet until receiving this book in a Secret Santa swap (thanks, Dee!) I had never heard of the guy. So, what's my take on my first Stanislaw Lem experience, The Futurological Congress? It's mixed. Buckle up and allow me to sort through my opinions in an aimless review that promises both to wander and to stall. The book is only 150 pages long, and promised to be a quick read right from the start. That said, the first 30 pages took me several "reading sessions" to get through. The story begins in a speculative near future in which the world is quickly becoming overpopulated, and the protagonist is sitting in on a meeting in which world-renowend experts are debating what to do about the overpopulation crisis. At the same time, there's a biochemical terrorist attack on the hotel they're meeting in, and hallucinogenic gases cause the protagonist to perceive a whole lot of fictitious things. This comprises the aforementioned first 30 pages or so, and everything about these 30 pages made them difficult to get through. A combination of things - a frenetic pace, an unreliable narrator, an over-the-top satirical setting full of unbelievable characters, and perhaps even some translation-induced awkward grammar - rendered me unable to follow the plot and initially disappointed in Lem. Fortunately, the remaining 120 pages featured the bulk of the story. In a nutshell, our boy gets so conked on hallucinogens that the doctors treating him decide to cryogenically freeze him until a cure for his ailment can be found. When the story resumes several decades later in a utopian future, a calmer pace and more structure accompany it. What remains is a series of events in which our protagonist explores this well-imagined but typically dystopian future. The gist is that thanks to overpopulation, living conditions are terrible, and everyone is sick and mutated and living in squalor. Luckily, the masses have been subdued by hallucinogenic drugs that create an illusion of health, wealth, and happiness; gruel is eaten out of buckets in concrete bunkers, but the diner's tainted brain perceives a succulent meal at an expensive and fancy restaurant, for example. I'm a sucker for well-made dystopian speculative fiction to the extent that I like to see how many wildly different (yet equally bleak) outcomes different authors have in store for humanity. This one showed some similarities to both Brave New World ("soma" being a less ubiquitous but more general mind control agent than the stuff used in The Futurological Congress) and The Giver (using an "ignorance is bliss" policy to placate the masses by hiding reality) but still felt unique overall. I wound up enjoying this book a lot more than I enjoyed its first 30 pages, and I'd be willing to bet I'll revisit Lem's bibliography before all is said and done. But not yet. Not yet.