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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.8537
EAN num: 9780156340403
ISBN number: 0156340402
Label: Harvest Books
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 156
Printing Date: October 28, 1985
Publishing house: Harvest Books
Sale Popularity Level: 134777
Studio: Harvest Books
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Product Description:
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. Translated by Michael Kandel.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Futurological Congress is among the greatest works of Science Fiction ever written, and it is considered by many (myself included) to be S. Lem's finest work.
Set in the not too distant future, Congress is narrated by Ijon Tichy, who recounts the events of his visit to the Futurological Congress. The irony is that the titular event never really occurs thanks to a popular uprising in the host country. Poor Tichy dies only to be resurrected in a future where society is regulated by an endless array of psychotropic drugs.
In today's world of Ritalin, Ambien, Cialis, Prozac, and so on, Lem's drug fueled vision of the future seems eerily prophetic. The translation (from the original Polish) does an excellent job with the laundry list of psuedo-drugs Lem invents for the citizens of the future, and preserves his trademark cynicism and eye for human foibles. Written under the heavy-hand of Soviet rule, Congress is full of digs at government, bureaucracy and the man's timid resistance to manipulation.
An amazing and bizarre story, full of wit and remarkable insight, Congress resonates to this day and rightfully earns its place at the pinnacle of intelligent Sci-Fi.
Rated by buyers 
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I need to start out by saying that I am not as well read in Science Fiction as I am in other genres.
Stanislaw Lem writes with a style that is inaccessible for me, but I could see as being accessible for other people. This book, published in 1971, was too psychedelic for me and consisted of too many sexual themes. Upon coming to the conclusion of the book, I was disappointed not with the ending but that the ultimate message of the book was such a great message that I wish it had been told in a different way because the ultimate message would have stood out more with better focus and direction and I believe could have been told without the strong sexual references. Also note: I do not believe that my evaluation of the book and the way it was structured had anything to do with the translation, too.
Bottom line: If you're interested in experimental Science fiction, a quick read, and are prepared to read some sexual and psychedelic themes, then as a reader you should not have a problem with the book.
Rated by buyers -
The past and future ooze into the moment of now within this timeless masterwork. So many layers of reality paint an amorphous reflection of our modern world. This sort of transcendent insight will revise society's concept of our common ground. Perhaps, Lem's byproducts (e.g. Ubik roll-on) will bring us back to where the happening is. Such is art.
Rated by buyers -
Lem takes the world as a rotting onion and slowly peels back the layers asking "Now this layer is slighty truer than the last, but wasn't the last so much more delicious?" The author's relieving and dark humour backs Tichy's fearful adventures through a world of doubt. His drug obsessed and drug supported future brings to face the question of how important and what it means to be real. This is a quick and compelling read. You will be at the end before you realize that you really have no idea where you are. You may never look at your Advil the same once you realize the potential it represents.
Rated by buyers -
The 1980s Ella Fitzgerald TV commercial that asks: "Is it real or is it Memorex" comes to mind when reading Stanslislaw Lem's 1974 satirical and thought-provoking futuristic novel. Lem's dystopic narrative foretells of life aspects that have surfaced in today's society. The extreme use of pharmacopeias to control the masses should make us all sit up and take note each time we seek the services of an allopathic physician. Cosmonaut Ijon Tichy virtually stumbles from a violent anarchistic demonstration in Costa Rica while attending the Eighth Futurological Congress, where "benignimizers" or love/feel good drugs are added to the public water supply. Tichy then tumbles into a seemingly utopic world where everyone's needs are luxuriantly provided and where he continually questions: "is this reality or am I hallucinating?" When Tichy finally has acess to the reality antidote, a horrifying scene is revealed with humans bunkered in deplorable conditions analogous to today's agribusiness livestock warehousing. Ecstasy anyone?
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