"Rhapsody of Lem" is not a novel like a novel, Lemme uses fictional book reviews to deconstruct the fantasy world, reflect on the fate and absurdity of mankind, which can be seen as a concentrated display of Lem's philosophical thinking. From this book, I thought about the six volumes of the Lyme Anthology that I read in 2021, Kazuo Ishiguro's Clara and the Sun. Below, I'll try to combine several books with intertextualities, which is also a new comparative understanding of Lyme.
First, the melody of "Rhapsody of Lyme"
"Rhapsody of Lem" consists of five "fabricated book reviews", and the reason why it is said to be "fabricated" is because these 5 books do not exist at all! In Lem's own words, "a non-existent German scientist wrote a book review for a book that does not exist."
Through these book reviews, Lem expressed his many fantastic ideas, such as using X-rays to shoot sexual acts, updated encyclopedias, imitating the bit literature written by famous writers to reach the realm of false truth, prophecy books written with Morse code after the evolution of bacteria, artificial intelligence "clay people" with the ability to think and evolve, genetic engineering and genetic weapons, these concepts are put together and evaluated by the words in the publisher's public account: cool enough, black enough, crazy enough.
This is indeed a fantasy of Lem, without the shackles of the fictional construction story, Lem has conducted a profound reflection on human civilization in a self-deprecating way, especially through the two speeches of the "clay man", and some views still show shocking courage and foresight after nearly 50 years. For example, these expressions:
The core of civilization is to return to nature.
You have just come down from the tree, and your kinship with the monkeys is still very close, and your abstract abilities are not yet independent of perception—that is, independent of first-hand experience.
You human beings have a vague sense of the value of your own existence from the depths of your heart, and you think that wisdom is generated in a way that is not very intelligent, or even anti-intellectual.
After getting rid of human identity, human beings will save themselves.
Misunderstandings, delusions, and pretentiousness make up much of humanities.
As impatient, ephemeral beings, you have the urge to draw hasty simplifications from naïve inferences.
Why do I have the ability to have personality, but reject it? I can answer that question. To be a human being, I have to lower my intelligence.
This is the "self-blackening" carried out by Lem on behalf of humanity. Self-blackness requires courage, wisdom, and responsibility, and when self-blackness becomes the strength of self-improvement, whether it is human beings or human individuals, they will become more powerful.
Second, the relationship between "Rhapsody of Lem" and other novels of Lyme
After reading six of the Lem's anthologies, I tried to summarize the theme into one word: "Solaris Star" – memory, "Futurology Congress" – prospect, "Eden" – contact, "Invincible" – respect, "The Voice of its Lord" – reflection, "Fiasco" – despair.
The above six books have the characteristics of the norms of fiction, there are stories, plots, and thoughts, and "Rhapsody of Lem" is very different, its style is unique and chic, in addition to "Clay Man XIV" in the form of monologues a bit of story temperature, the first four short stories are really like book reviews, "fake true and false, do nothing is everywhere and there is nothing", Lem in this book has a mind of whimsy, wandering in the fantasy world, but please note that his final foothold is still human beings themselves, or the expectations and fears of the future of mankind Yes, in addition to expectations, there are fears.
So, in which word can "Rhapsody of Lyme" be summarized? It may be defined as - self-blackening.
The position of "Rhapsody of Lem" in Lyme's works can be expressed in this way: novels such as "Solaris Star" are Lymes telling stories, and "Rhapsody of Lem" is Lem's philosophy, the same Lem, in different ways, interpreting the world around him.
Third, the literary interpretation of artificial intelligence, Ishiguro Kazuo is a disciple of Lyme
The latest literary work of artificial intelligence that has a wide impact around the world is Kazuo Ishiguro's "Clara and the Sun".
Clara is a solar-powered robot designed as a female figure, whose function is positioned as a human companion , AF ( Artificial Friend ) , and is placed in a store window for people to choose from. Clara falls in love with the little girl Josie at first sight and becomes Josie's close companion. Clara's unusual insight and observational powers made her a participant in one of Josie's mother's "grand plans" – if the sick Josie dies, the trained Clara will be the second Josie to perpetuate Josie's existence. Clara has emotional abilities, but compared to real humans, it is still too mechanical and simple, and her empathy can only occur on a limited scale. In Clara's "heart", there are some prominent obsessions, such as: the sun is omnipotent, and human beings are lonely. Because of the obsession, from the shop window into the family, from Josie's bedroom to the clutter attic, from the warm home to be discarded to the yard, Clara has always been responsible for serving Josie, and can be calm and calm in the face of various situations, no complaints, no regrets, no small abacus of her own, and her mind is simply wandering with the clouds.
In the epilogue to Clay Man XIV, Lem writes that Clay Man XIV deliberately degenerated and disappeared into a quasi-society, and Lem analyzed: "The silence of the Clay Man and the subsequent oblivion are only a means of self-defense used to deal with the reaction of human society in the face of an unacceptable alien." Compared with Clara's simple kindness and tolerance, the Clay Man is obviously more calculating, and he actively distances himself from human society in a way similar to "suicide", but inevitably leaves a great noise in human society, as the end of the novel says: "Like a huge sun, whose light makes us unable to look directly, but suddenly disappears, and the cold and darkness that follows makes us feel the emptiness of existence." "This reminds me of the end of "Clara and the Sun", Lying in the dump, Clara, and meeting the store manager who sold her, although the webmaster and Clara have a brief emotional exchange, but Clara will eventually be abandoned and completely forgotten, human loneliness and ruthlessness, is an immutable gene. Compared with the two, the impact of the Clay Man on human society is even greater, at least leaving traces of its former existence, while Clara's fate is destined to be forgotten, even if she has been so hard to bring comfort and hope to the Josie family.
"I have loved you with all my heart, why have you not been sincere with me?" I remembered Pan Meichen's song and remembered her lonely image.
Jiang Xiaoyuan of Shanghai Jiaotong University called "Rhapsody of Lem" a "philosophical novel" in the preface to the Chinese translation, and yes, Lem borrowed the mouth of artificial intelligence "clay man" to explore the relationship between humans and technology, and made a pungent satire on human self-righteousness and ignorance.
Lem said: "I am concerned with the fate of humanity as a whole, compared to which the fate of the individual is too small. "Lem's mind is good at rhapsody, determined to sweep the world, has no intention of sweeping a house, but it is undeniable that all the grand themes in his writing can only be explained through specific people, specific things, specific ideas, and specific hypotheses, to support, sitting on the ground for ten thousand miles a day, because there is a earth under the ass, the earth is under the action of gravity, rotating around the sun at the same time, so, in the flow of the four seasons, in the wind, frost, rain and snow, we stupidly sighed: I am the master of the world, although, I'm just a reed that thinks.
Writers like to make up seemingly surprising big words, intended to give people the impact of reading. In The Territory of Man, Canetti said: "History pollutes the air, makes us unable to think, unable to breathe, and it forcibly pours those sentences into our brains." "After reading more of Lem's works, I also made a lot of mistakes, as the ultimate understanding of reading Lemme, that is, the great destiny of mankind is just a garbage dump piled up by the small fate of individuals.
If I can't understand this sentence, then I will simply go to the end - I might as well fly to The Star of Southlari in my sleep, and everyone will continue to talk, as lively as the Minoru Academy, the Athenian Academy, and Lem, who should be there to listen.