Fiasco (novel)
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 English edition cover. |
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| Author | Stanisław Lem |
|---|---|
| Original title | Fiasko |
| Translator | Michael Kandel |
| Country | Poland |
| Language | Polish |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Eng. trans.) |
| Released | 1986 |
| Released in English | May 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-15-630630-1 |
Fiasco (Polish: Fiasko) is a science fiction novel from 1987 by Stanisław Lem that deals with clashes of cultures. The book is a further elaboration of Lem's scepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in communication with alien civilizations is cultural, rather than spatial, distance. The failure to communicate with an alien civilization is the main theme of the book. It was translated into English by Michael Kandel and published in 1988. Nominated for Arthur C. Clarke Award.
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[edit] Plot summary
The book begins with a story of a base on Saturn's moon Titan, where a young spaceship pilot, Parvis, sets out (in a Mecha-like machine) to find several missing people, among them famous pilot Pirx (see Tales of Pirx the Pilot, also by Stanisław Lem). He ventures to the dangerous geyser region, where the others were lost, but unfortunately he suffers an accident. Seeing no way to get out of the machine and return to safety, he triggers a built-in cryogenic device.
The main story concerns an expedition sent to a distant star in order to make contact with a civilization that had been detected there. It is set more than a century after the prologue, when a starship is built in Titan's orbit. During the works, the geyser region is cleared, and all the bodies are exhumed and taken aboard, to be awakened, if possible, during the voyage. However, only one of them can be revived (or more precisely, pieced together from the organs of several of them). The identity of the man is unclear - it has been narrowed to two men (whose last names begin with 'P'). It is not revealed if he is in fact Pirx, or Parvis.
Closing in on a planet (called 'Quinta') which exhibits signs of harbouring intelligent life, the explorer spaceship Eurydika (Eurydice), attempts to contact with the denizens of the planet, who, contrary to the expectations of the mission's crewmen, are strangely unwilling to communicate. The crew reaches the conclusion that there is a Cold war-like state on the planet's surface, halting the locals' industrial development. They try to force the aliens to engage contact by means of an event impossible to hide by the aliens' governments—that is, by staging the implosion of their moon.
Surprisingly, just before ignition, several of the deployed rockets are destroyed by the missiles of the Quintans, undermining the symmetry of the implosion which causes fragments of the moon to be thrown clear, some impacting the planet's surface. However, even this cataclysm does not drive the locals to open up to their alien visitors, so the crewmen deploy a device working as a giant lens or laser, capable of displaying images (but also concentrating beams to the point of being powerful weapon) and following a suggestion by Pirx/Parvis, show the Quintans a "fairy tale" by projecting a film onto Quinta's clouds. At last, there is a conversation, and the Quintans are forced to receive an 'ambassador', who is again Pirx/Parvis, and they are warned that the projecting device will be used to destroy Quinta if the man should ever fail to report back his continued safety.
After landing, Pirx/Parvis discovers that there is no trace of anyone at the landing site. After investigating a peculiar structure nearby, he scouts around and finds a strange-looking mound, which he opens with small shovel. But, to his horror, he notices that in his distracted state he has allowed the allotted time to run out without signalling his mates above. As he is engulfed by the planet's fiery destruction at hands of those who were sent to establish contact with its denizens, he sees that the landscape is covered with these strange mounds, and realizes that these are, in fact, the Quintans themselves.
[edit] Interpretation
The book is the fourth in Lem's series of pessimistic first contact scenarios--after Eden, The Invincible and Solaris. It deals with the Fermi paradox, and the concept of otherness. Lem describes an alien species that is much more 'alien' than imagined by most other sci-fi authors, and certainly more alien than the common pulp science fiction as seen in popular television shows like Star Trek. He is also critical of human nature, describing how the crew's desire to force contact by any means makes the failure of the mission inevitable.
[edit] Quotes
- Fiasco will come to be regarded as one of the great SF novels... It is a remarkable achievement, even for Lem; for us, it is a most moving experience. The Times [1]
