Donald Barthelme calls Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 Return From the Stars “stunning,” according to the little front cover blurb on the edition I’ve got. That seems about right, though not quite in the way that Barthelme meant it.
The book’s about Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from distant stars having aged only 10 years while more than 100 years have passed on earth (thanks relativity!) The world has changed a lot, and he’s having trouble adjusting. As he says on the first page:
The bright colors of the women’s clothes I had by now learned to accept, but the men I still suspected, irrationally, of affectation….
That’s pretty much the whole novel there. The problem with the future is that it is terribly, frighteningly effeminate. The world has developed a process, betrization, which is performed on infants and effectively surgically castrates them — they cease being able to even formulate aggressive thoughts. It also apparently reduces their size (the feminine clothing is maybe an unrelated development.) Thus, Hal is cast into a decadent world where he’s the lone virile uber-masculine giant in a world of meek and tiny girly men — and meek and tiny girly women. And if anyone doubts that this is a total adolescent power fantasy, Hal’s uber-masculinity quickly seduces the world’s most beautiful movie star, who he discards in favor of another woman, Eri, who he kind of sort of rapes, but it’s all right because it turns out she likes it.
Lem’s a much-praised author, and this is one of his most-praised books, so you’re probably thinking there must be more to it than that. But nope; that’s all that’s on offer. Hal agonizes at this soft world without risk, performs manly exercise routines and drives dangerously to work off his stress, and wows the womanfolk, or stalks them — Lem doesn’t seem able to tell the difference. Risk and exploration are incessantly, obsessively figured as male (there were no women on Hal’s expedition, of course); home and hearth are just as obsessively figured as feminine, so that Hal’s decision to not go back into space is linked inevitably to his marriage to Eri, a character about whom we know nothing except that she finds the violent, whiny Hal unaccountably attractive (the book delicately suggests that this is because he’s such a good lay; betrization may prevent good sex too, maybe.)
Again, as Barthelme indicates, there is something “stunning” about the blatant idiocy of the gender politics. Sci-fi is almost as notorious as superhero comics for its bone-headed wish fulfillment, but even by the standards of Flash-Gordon-space-opera nonsense, Return from the Stars is eager to shove its virility under your nose. The main difference, and what makes this arty, I guess, is that most space opera revels in its protagonist’s power, whereas Lem coats his power-worship in philosophical hand-wringing (is a non-violent world worth abandoning the human spirit of adventure?!) and hypocritical self-pity (oh nos! I’m bigger and stronger than everyone on earth, and must fuck all the women! What ever will I do?) This is, in short, a dreadful, dishonest, sexist piece of crap, which manages to combine the worst aspects of male mid-life-crisis literary fiction with the worst aspects of stunted male adventure garbage. I’ve read some Lem books before that I’ve enjoyed, but this sure makes me not want to ever read another.
Wow, this sounds pretty awful. I’ve only read a little Lem, but I do want to read more. This sounds like one to skip though.
I especially dug his short story collection The Cyberiad, which was hilarious, at least in the translation that I have. It was so weird and kind of goofy, not at all what I expected. I’ll have to check it out again sometime, along with the other ones I have that I haven’t read yet (Tales of Pirx the Pilot and The Futurological Congress, I believe).
Yeah, I enjoyed the Cyberiad too. Sort of a sillier Italo Calvino. I read another thing recently that was also good, though can’t remember the name. And I’ve heard Solaris is supposed to be decent.
But this one is dreadful.
Having admittedly only seen the Tarkovsky (sp?) version, I don’t think Solaris is exactly progressive in its gender politics.
I don’t necessarily need progressive. I’ll settle for not mind-clenchingly stupid.
The Tarkovsky Solaris is not especially progressive…but it’s lyrical and weird, and struggles (I think quite honorably) with its own inability to imagine a woman as anything but a figment of male imagination. There’s just no comparison with Return to the Stars.
Isn’t Wells’ time machine essentially the same….the time traveller is the only rugged/virile man in the future–because technology has made competition largely irrelevant (?)—(Or so it seems…until the rugged, working class, slavering Morlocks make their appearance)…
So…upper class effeminate layabouts (actually it’s hard to tell the male Eloi apart from the female I believe) are positioned against working class macho “animals”— lining up gender, class, and race in pretty predictable ways… and one of the Eloi women throws herself at the traveller as a result.
All of it is supposed to function as a critique of class division…but it also reveals alot of anxiety about the working class, race, etc… and a gender politics that doesn’t seem too dissimilar from what you describe.
I’ve never read Lem.
Maybe Barthelme did mean exactly what you did, though. It’s tough to trust the one word blurbs.
That’s a good point, and I think on target. Wells’ vision is a lot grimmer, though…I think the time traveler fails to save the girl who throws herself at him, for example, and both the effeminate eloi and the brutal Morlocks are presented as problematic figures; it’s much less a fantasy of being the strongest man ever and much more an anxious nightmare about decadence and desolation overtaking all classes/gender archetypes.
Eric, I think you’re confusing the novel and the films. In the novel, the Morlocks are shown as weak and dwarfish.
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Noah Berlatsky says:
[In] Wells’ vision…both the effeminate eloi and the brutal Morlocks are presented as problematic figures; it’s much less a fantasy of being the strongest man ever and much more an anxious nightmare about decadence and desolation overtaking all classes/gender archetypes.
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Yes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine ; among other details…
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…The story reflects Wells’s own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations. It is also influenced by Ray Lankester’s theories about social degeneration. Other science fiction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward and the later Metropolis, dealt with similar themes.
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Re Lankester:
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…Lankester held that degeneration was one of three general avenues that evolution might take (the others being balance and elaboration). Degeneration was a suppression of form, “Any new set of conditions which render [a species’] food and safety very easily obtained, seem to lead to degeneration”.
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A recent article detailing the changes in chicken-raising detailed how chickens advertised as “free-range,” in order to assuage the humane-minded, are simply given the opportunity to go out and search for food, if they wish.
But rather than wandering about in the fresh air and sunshine, seeing what they can peck up, the chickens prefer to take the easy way. And just stand by the feeder and gluttonously gobble down their chow.
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…Lankester noted that this process could take the subsequent evolution of the race into a totally different and otherwise improbable direction.This idea, which Lankester called super-larvation, is now called neoteny.
Lankester extended the idea of degeneration to human societies, which carries little significance today, but it is a good example of a biological concept invading the social world. Lankester and H.G. Wells used the idea as a basis for propaganda in favour of social and educational reform.
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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Lankester .
Emphasis added; note that he and Wells used this to push progressive causes, Wells warning of the results “If this goes on…” in “The Time Machine.” Rather than catering to adolescent power-fantasies of being the only “manly man” in a world full of wimps.
(Consider Twain’s satiric 1889 “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%27s_Court , antedating Well’s 1895 tale.)
Re “neoteny”:
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Neoteny…also called juvenilization…is the retention by adults of traits previously seen only in juveniles, and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology. In neoteny, the physiological (or somatic) development of an organism (typically an animal) is slowed or delayed..Ultimately this process results in the retention, in the adults of a species, of juvenile physical characteristics well into maturity…
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny
Harrumph! Certainly reminds of modern-day “man-boys,” unable to look after themselves except in the most perfunctory fashion, content to lay around, eat junk food (no cooking needed!) and play video games all day…
Alex is right…thought that somewhat undermines my point maybe. Both Morlocks and Eloi are decadent compared to the narrators virility…but the Morlocks’ decadence isn’t really feminine, so at least somwhat more complex than Lem’s effort….
I never saw the films…so this seems unlikely.
One wonders is James Tiptree Jr’s (and you should really look up that author if you don’t know the biographical ‘twist’) ‘Houston, Houston, Do You Read’ was intended as a riposte.
*if
I’m familiar with Tiptree, though I haven’t read the story. I’d bet it could be that they’re working off of the same tropes though, rather than necessarily a direct response.
It’s not that H.G. Wells’ Time Traveler is simply virile, but that he’s a balance; not gone wholly one way (passive, decadent, wholly dependent on the “servants”) or the other, brutally industrialized, savage; hardly weaklings, for all their sensitivity to sunlight due to subterranean life.
Speaking of supposedly servile “servants,” actually manipulative and covertly domineering, couldn’t help thinking of this Brit (naturally) film:
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The Servant…is a tightly-constructed psychological dramatic film about the relationships among the four central characters examining issues relating to class, servitude, and the ennui of the upper classes…
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Servant_%281963_film%29
More along the noxious “he-man among the wimps of the future” line:
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Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film…starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes…
The film tells the story of two men – one, an evil crime lord; the other, a risk-taking police officer — who are cryogenically frozen in the year 1996 and reawakened in 2032…all crime has seemingly been eliminated from mainstream society…
In 2032, Phoenix [Snipes] is thawed for a parole hearing, and uses knowledge he gained while frozen to escape from CryoPrison and start a crime spree. By this time…all of humanity’s vices have been outlawed, and the police have become incapable of dealing with criminals such as Phoenix. However, Lt. Lenina Huxley [Sandra Bullock, who at the end goes off with Stallone, natch] suggests that Spartan [Stallone] – the police officer who originally caught Phoenix – be revived and reinstated to the force to stop him again.
Spartan has trouble adapting to life in this peaceful setting, while most of Huxley’s fellow officers…find him brutish and uncivilized…
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_Man_%28film%29
Hi Noah, it’s funny that i’d just started reading this book when you posted this.
I agree with most of what you said. Certainly he should have treated the relationship of Bregg with women in another way. Half of the book is about him getting or trying to get laid which is weird, and the parts with the actress and the shy, submissive Eri are really bad.
About the considerations about betrization, I don’t think Lem gives a definite answer about the evilness of it. The protagonist has doubts about it but it’s only natural given that he comes from a time with different values. It feels more ambiguous than just a power fantasy but you’re right that there’s that too.
“But nope; that’s all that’s on offer.”
Oh come on, there’s more to it than that. It’s not a good book but I really liked how he realistically shows the alienation of our protagonist in the beginning and his bad experiences in space exploration.
Also, the part in the junkyard with the discarded robots was good.
It certainly is a book that consciously tries to avoid a sugar-coated view on the future and space exploration.
Also, to be fair Lem said himself that this wasn’t one of his best books, so I wouldn’t thinks this is a good book to decide to stop his work.
I hated the robot junkyard. It could have worked in another context, maybe…it’s actually the bit that’s most like Lem’s Cyberiad…but in this book, it just made no sense; the tone was completely off. I didn’t believe that the robots would actually be worried about their extinction for a moment; it ended up just seeming like cheap metaphysical drama.
That’s interesting that Lem wasn’t that into it; that’s comforting.
Well, you’re right in the sense that this scene comes out of nowhere and the subject of “robot slavery” is very much underdeveloped.
I liked the scene simply for what it was though.
On the subject of hate, did you know that Lem was like SF number one hater? He liked to write extensive articles calling most sci-fi writers dumb and hypocritical whores, and he got himself expelled from the Science Fiction Writers Association because of that.
Check the article “Science Fiction: A hopeless case – with exceptions ” from this pdf. It’s a joy to read.
http://pt.scribd.com/doc/101615220/Microworlds
The article I mentioned just now is no longer available but you can read some of his essays in SFS:
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/lem.htm
Heh. That does sound very entertaining. Thanks for the link!