A Book from the 21st Century Library
Keywords:
Space, Good, Evil, man, anthropocentrism, civilization, foreign, stereotypes, prejudice, intoleranceAbstract
In his book Fiasco Stanisław Lem is asking what human nature is, what man aspires to, how he achieves it. What is Good and Evil? Who will win in the eternal fight between these two forces? Human beings conquer the outer space, but do they manage to subdue their inner space? Accustomed to thinking about themselves as the peak of the civilization progress and the quintessence of the Universe, are men capable of accepting meekly the unpleasant truth that in this Universe they were not given any exceptional and honourable role? Lem’s answers shatter the comfortable anthropocentric ideas of mankind and its place in the world. The author speaks directly of the difficulties of liberating our consciousness from the accumulated complexes, stereotypes and prejudice, from the intolerance towards everything different, foreign and incomprehensible. He states that even when they conquer time and space, men are helpless in the face of the dark forces hidden deep inside their souls, in the face of the unavoidable fall of Earth’s civilization.
References
Lem S., 1990, Fiasko, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Lem S., 2007, Świat na krawędzi, rozm. przepr. Fiałkowski T., Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Лем С., 1991, Фиаско, прев. Лина Василева, изд. Георги Баkалов: Варна.
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