His Master's Voice (novel)

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His Master's Voice

English edition cover.
Author Stanisław Lem
Original title Głos pana
Translator Michael Kandel
Country Poland
Language Polish
Genre(s) social science fiction, satire
Publisher Czytelnik
Publication date 1968
ISBN ISBN 0-15-640300-5

His Master's Voice (original Polish title: Głos pana) is a science fiction novel written by Stanisław Lem, first published in 1968. It was translated into English by Michael Kandel in 1983. It is a densely philosophical novel about an effort by scientists to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial transmission. The novel critically approaches humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer space. It is considered to be one of three most known books by Lem, the other two being Solaris and The Cyberiad.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The novel is written as a first-person narrative, the memoir of a mathematician named Peter Hogarth, who becomes involved in a Pentagon-directed project in the Nevada desert, where scientists are working to decode what seems to be a message from outer space (specifically, a neutrino signal from the Canis Minor constellation). Throughout the book Hogarth — or rather, Lem himself — exposes the reader to many debates merging cosmology and philosophy: from discussions of epistemology, systems theory, information theory and probability, through the idea of evolutionary biology and the possible form and motives of extraterrestrial intelligence, with digressions about ethics in military-sponsored research, to the limitations of human science constrained by the human nature subconsciously projecting itself into the analysis of any unknown subject. At some point the involved scientists, desperate for new ideas, even begin to read and discuss popular science-fiction stories, and Lem uses this opportunity to criticize the science fiction genre, as Hogarth soon becomes bored and disillusioned by monotonous plots and the unimaginative stories of pulp magazines.

The theories the scientists come up with all seem to make some progress toward deciphering the signal; however, as we are informed in the very few first pages of Hogarth's memoirs, for all their effort, the scientists are left with few new, real discoveries. By the time the project is ended, they are no more sure than they were in the beginning about whether the signal was a message from intelligent beings that humanity failed to decipher, or a random, cosmic background noise that resembled, for a while, the "thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters creating a meaningful message" puzzle.

[edit] Interpretations and influence

Brazilian edition cover.
Brazilian edition cover.

The book can be viewed on many levels: as part of the social science fiction genre criticizing Cold War military and political decision-making as corrupting the ethical conduct of scientists; as a psychological and philosophical essay on the limitations of the human mind facing the unknown; or as a satire of "men of science" and their thinking. The critique of the idea of 'pure science' is also a critique of the positivist approach: Lem argues that no scientist can be detached from the pressures of the outside world. The book is deeply philosophical, and there is relatively little action; most of the book consists of philosophical essays, monologues and dialogues.

Lem's similar books exploring the issues of first contact are Fiasco, Eden and perhaps most famously, Solaris, although His Master's Voice is certainly one of Lem's more philosophical books.

Głos Pana was translated from Polish into Czech, English, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Spanish.

While Lem's take on the idea of 'understanding a message from space' is certainly unique in the depth of his philosophical approach to it, the idea was also used both earlier and after he wrote his book. In 1962 Fred Hoyle wrote the novel A for Andromeda where a cosmic message teaches humanity how to build a succession of more complex organic creatures. And 17 years after Lem wrote His Master's Voice, and three years after it was translated into English, Carl Sagan wrote his acclaimed book, Contact, which uses many ideas similar to His Master's Voice; both depend on the extensive speculation on possible contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence, which was novel when Lem wrote, and is also reflected, for example, in Frederik Pohl's novella The Gold at the Starbow's End (1971). Sagan is more hopeful about the possibility of mutual comprehension than Lem, and has relatively more action.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

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