Waanzinnige wereld

Mehr zum Buch

Ijon Tichy attends the 8th World Futurological Congress, organized by Prof Tarantoga, focusing on overpopulation at the extravagant Costa Rica Hilton. The conference is chaotic, with absurdities like guaranteed bomb-free rooms and an all-girl orchestra performing Bach while stripteasing. Presentations are limited as speakers call out paragraph numbers from distributed papers. Tichy drinks tap water, triggering a hallucinogenic experience, which is compounded when he discovers the government has drugged the water with a substance that induces benevolence. The situation deteriorates as the hotel is bombed, and Tichy escapes into the sewers, only to be evacuated by a military helicopter that crashes. He wakes in a hospital to find his brain transplanted into a young black woman, then later into a fat, red-haired man, blurring the lines between reality and hallucination. Frozen until medical advancements can help, he awakens in 2039, where he documents his experiences. The future presents a utopia where money is irrelevant, and drugs regulate emotions. Tichy becomes involved with a woman who uses a drug to enhance her argumentative skills. Disillusioned by this reliance on drugs, he confides in Dr. Trottelreiner, who reveals that common substances are just a glimpse of more powerful drugs that can obscure reality entirely.