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Kemokratik Dünyaya Bakış: Stanislaw Lem'in "Gelecekbilim Kongresi"nin Distopik Bir Okuması

Year 2024, Issue: 40, 829 - 840, 25.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1502243

Abstract

Distopya veya anti-ütopya kavramı ideal bir dünya olarak hayal edilenin ötesindedir; insanlığın sürüklendiği kaosu, siyasi sorunları, çaresizliği, imkansızlığı içeren eserleri anlatmak için kullanılır. Ukrayna işgali ve Nazi işgali sonrasında değişen yaşam kalıplarından etkilenen Stanislaw Lem, Gelecekbilim Kongresi (1971) adlı eserinde distopya kavramını uyuşturucu temasıyla birlikte ele almıştır. İnsanlığın teknolojiden olan beklentisinin artmasıyla distopik eserlerin içerikleri de zenginleşmiştir. Sonuç olarak Gelecekbilim Kongresi (1971) eserinde tamamen uyuşturucuyla yaşamaya odaklı bir evren resmedilmiştir. Hırs ve dikkatsiz kaynak tüketimi dünya düzeninin bozulmasına ve nüfus patlamasına sebep olmuştur. Bu makale, Lem’in Gelecekbilim Kongresi adlı eserinin distopik eserlerin özellikleri doğrultusunda uyuşturucu merkezli yönetimin karakterler üzerindeki etkisine odaklanarak kemokratik evrenini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu araştırmada Ijon Tichy adlı karakterin yaşadığı halüsinatif yolculuklar ve karşılaştığı problemler incelenmektedir. Kullanılan gazlar nedeniyle halüsinasyon gören Tichy ve saklandığı kanalizasyonda bulunanlar kendilerini grotesk bir maceranın içinde bulur. Distopik eser özellikleri irdelenerek uyuşturucunun karakterlerin sosyal yaşamına kadar ulaşmasının etkileri incelenmektedir. Makale, romanda tasvir edilen sözde ütopik fakat gerçekte birçok uyuşturucu problemi olan distopik hayatın içinde uyum sağlama çabalarını incelemeye odaklanmaktadır.

References

  • Abrams, M. H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. USA: Thomson Learning. Print.
  • Atasoy, E. (2020). Distopik Kurgu ve Ümitvar Distopya Bağlamında Ütopyacılık Geleneği. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 19(3), 1135-1147.
  • Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2011, January 4). Procrustes. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Procrustes
  • Department of Health & Human Services. (2017, October 16). How drugs affect your body. Better Health Channel. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/How-drugs-affect-your-body#effects-of-common-drugs
  • Diamond, Jared (1992). The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York: Harper Perennial.
  • Hayles, K. N. (1990). Chaos as Dialectic: Stanislaw Lem and the Space of Writing. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science”, Ithaca and London, 115-140.
  • Hickman, J. (2009). When science fiction writers used fictional drugs: rise and fall of the twentieth-century drug dystopia. Utopian Studies, 20(1), 141-170.
  • Jarzębski, J. (2006). Models of Evolution in the Writings of Stanislaw Lem. The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, 104-116.
  • Kiss, J. Z. (2002). [Review of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World, by M. Pollan]. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 77(2), 203–203. https://doi.org/10.1086/343955
  • Krzanowski, R., & Polak, P. (2021). The Future of AI: Stanisław Lem’s Philosophical Visions for AI and Cyber-Societies in Cyberiad.
  • Lem, S. (1976). The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy [1971]. Trans. Michael Kandel. New York: Avon.
  • Lem, S., Etelka de Laczay, Csicsery-Ronay, I., & M. A. (1981). Metafantasia: The Possibilities of Science Fiction (Metafantasia: les possibilités de la science-fiction). Science Fiction Studies, 8(1), 54–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239383
  • Moylan, T. (2018). Scraps of the untainted sky: Science fiction, utopia, dystopia. New York: Routledge.
  • Orzechowski, R. (2018). Extropy or Anti-utopia?–“Posthuman” Society in Stanisław Lem's The Futurogical. 4 Looking into the Future, 50.
  • Paden, R. (2006). Ideology and Anti‐Utopia. Contemporary Justice Review, 9(2), 215-228.
  • Philmus, R. M. (1986). “Futurological Congress” as Metageneric Text (“Futurological Congress”, un écrit métagénerique). Science Fiction Studies, 13(3), 313–328. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239768
  • Şeran, F. Ö. (2009). Reflections of Political Ideologies and Changing Political Systems on Science Fiction Literature: Comparing Utopian and Dystopian Novels (Doctoral dissertation, Marmara Universitesi (Turkey)).
  • Tighe, C. (1999). Stanisław Lem: Socio-Political Sci-Fi. The Modern Language Review, 94(3), 758–774. https://doi.org/10.2307/3737000
  • Uddin, K. A. (2020). Dystopian Literature: In Conversation with Critical Discourse and Contemporary World. https://Www.thedailystar.net/Literature/News/Dystopian-Literature-Conversation-Critical-Discourse-and-Contemporary-World-1924721.
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Understanding psychosis. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/understanding-psychosis
  • Wikipedia contributors. (2023, August 18). Stentor. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:42, February 20, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stentor&oldid=1171026696
  • Wilson, R. K. (1977). Stanisław Lem’s Fiction and the Cosmic Absurd. World Literature Today, 51(4), 549–553. https://doi.org/10.2307/40131614
  • Zhurkova, M. S., & Khomutnikova, E. A. (2019, July). The Genesis of Dystopian Meaning Structure and its Relation to Utopian Literary Tradition. In 2nd International Conference on Education Science and Social Development (ESSD 2019) (pp. 186-190). Atlantis Press.

Looking at the Chemocratic World: A Dystopian Reading of “The Futurological Congress” by Stanislaw Lem

Year 2024, Issue: 40, 829 - 840, 25.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1502243

Abstract

The concept of dystopia or anti-utopia goes beyond what is imagined as an ideal world; it is used to describe works that include the chaos, political problems, despair, and impossibility that humanity is dragged into. Stanislaw Lem, who was influenced by the changing life patterns after the Ukrainian invasion and the Nazi occupation, discussed the concept of dystopia together with the drug theme in his work The Futurological Congress (1971). As humanity's expectations from technology increase, the contents of dystopian works have also become richer. As a result, a universe focused entirely on living with drugs was depicted in his work. Greed and careless consumption of resources have led to the disruption of world order and population explosion. This article aims to examine the chemocratic universe of Lem's work The Futurological Congress, by focusing on the effect of drug-centered government on the characters, in line with the characteristics of dystopian works. In this research, the hallucinatory journeys of the character named Ijon Tichy and the problems he encounters are examined. Tichy, who hallucinates due to the drugs, and those in the sewer where he hides find themselves in a grotesque adventure. By examining the characteristics of dystopian works, the effects of drugs and benignimizers reaching the social lives of the characters are examined. The article focuses on examining the efforts to adapt to the so-called utopian but dystopian life depicted in the novel, which has many drug problems.

References

  • Abrams, M. H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. USA: Thomson Learning. Print.
  • Atasoy, E. (2020). Distopik Kurgu ve Ümitvar Distopya Bağlamında Ütopyacılık Geleneği. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 19(3), 1135-1147.
  • Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2011, January 4). Procrustes. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Procrustes
  • Department of Health & Human Services. (2017, October 16). How drugs affect your body. Better Health Channel. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/How-drugs-affect-your-body#effects-of-common-drugs
  • Diamond, Jared (1992). The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York: Harper Perennial.
  • Hayles, K. N. (1990). Chaos as Dialectic: Stanislaw Lem and the Space of Writing. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science”, Ithaca and London, 115-140.
  • Hickman, J. (2009). When science fiction writers used fictional drugs: rise and fall of the twentieth-century drug dystopia. Utopian Studies, 20(1), 141-170.
  • Jarzębski, J. (2006). Models of Evolution in the Writings of Stanislaw Lem. The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, 104-116.
  • Kiss, J. Z. (2002). [Review of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World, by M. Pollan]. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 77(2), 203–203. https://doi.org/10.1086/343955
  • Krzanowski, R., & Polak, P. (2021). The Future of AI: Stanisław Lem’s Philosophical Visions for AI and Cyber-Societies in Cyberiad.
  • Lem, S. (1976). The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy [1971]. Trans. Michael Kandel. New York: Avon.
  • Lem, S., Etelka de Laczay, Csicsery-Ronay, I., & M. A. (1981). Metafantasia: The Possibilities of Science Fiction (Metafantasia: les possibilités de la science-fiction). Science Fiction Studies, 8(1), 54–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239383
  • Moylan, T. (2018). Scraps of the untainted sky: Science fiction, utopia, dystopia. New York: Routledge.
  • Orzechowski, R. (2018). Extropy or Anti-utopia?–“Posthuman” Society in Stanisław Lem's The Futurogical. 4 Looking into the Future, 50.
  • Paden, R. (2006). Ideology and Anti‐Utopia. Contemporary Justice Review, 9(2), 215-228.
  • Philmus, R. M. (1986). “Futurological Congress” as Metageneric Text (“Futurological Congress”, un écrit métagénerique). Science Fiction Studies, 13(3), 313–328. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239768
  • Şeran, F. Ö. (2009). Reflections of Political Ideologies and Changing Political Systems on Science Fiction Literature: Comparing Utopian and Dystopian Novels (Doctoral dissertation, Marmara Universitesi (Turkey)).
  • Tighe, C. (1999). Stanisław Lem: Socio-Political Sci-Fi. The Modern Language Review, 94(3), 758–774. https://doi.org/10.2307/3737000
  • Uddin, K. A. (2020). Dystopian Literature: In Conversation with Critical Discourse and Contemporary World. https://Www.thedailystar.net/Literature/News/Dystopian-Literature-Conversation-Critical-Discourse-and-Contemporary-World-1924721.
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Understanding psychosis. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/understanding-psychosis
  • Wikipedia contributors. (2023, August 18). Stentor. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:42, February 20, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stentor&oldid=1171026696
  • Wilson, R. K. (1977). Stanisław Lem’s Fiction and the Cosmic Absurd. World Literature Today, 51(4), 549–553. https://doi.org/10.2307/40131614
  • Zhurkova, M. S., & Khomutnikova, E. A. (2019, July). The Genesis of Dystopian Meaning Structure and its Relation to Utopian Literary Tradition. In 2nd International Conference on Education Science and Social Development (ESSD 2019) (pp. 186-190). Atlantis Press.
There are 23 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture
Journal Section World languages, cultures and litertures
Authors

Zehra Tezcan 0009-0004-6661-3907

Publication Date June 25, 2024
Submission Date March 18, 2024
Acceptance Date June 20, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Issue: 40

Cite

APA Tezcan, Z. (2024). Looking at the Chemocratic World: A Dystopian Reading of “The Futurological Congress” by Stanislaw Lem. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi(40), 829-840. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1502243