Return from the StarsAn astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a society that he barely recognizes. Stanisław Lem's Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years—although because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been eradicated. Children are “betrizated” to remove all aggression and violence—a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as “resuscitated Neanderthals,” and pressure them to undergo betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores. While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice: leave Earth again and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years, or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and dystopia. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - sarcher - LibraryThingLess successful than many of Lem's works, but perhaps I'm setting too high a bar. Hal's return to earth and struggle to adapt is exceptional, but the culture he returns to is at the same measure too similar and too different from our own for me to understand how one came from the other. Read full review
Return from the Stars
User Review - Publishers WeeklyLem’s thought-provoking, reissued 1961 classic explores the questionable utopia that has emerged on a vivid future Earth through the eyes of an astronaut recently returned from the Fomalhaut star ... Read full review
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