The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
I started and finished The Futurological Congress in two nights and a morning, reading on a hammock outside of Zion National Park. We recently watched Catch 22 (for the first time since reading the book) and I was in the mood for a dark comedy. Lem's tone from the first page and the chaotic succession of events that his main character, Ijon Tichy endured was actually a bit reminiscent in some ways of the ordeals of Heller's Yossarian. Maybe it was just the mood I was in. In the short work, Lem breaks down the illusions of a utopian futuristic society, a society that has to grapple with the very real problems we are facing today- pollution, overpopulation, and conflict. A dark comedy to say the least.
“What was civilization ever, really, but the attempt by man to talk himself into being good?”
“She was beautiful all right, beautiful in a way that was at once seductive, demonic, and raspberry.”