An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a
society that he barely recognizes. Stanislaw 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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