Customer Reviews

THE "LOMOKOME" PAPERS

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The 'Lomokome' Papers," by Herman Wouk, is a compellingly constructed science fiction novel. The book has a copyright date of 1956, and was issued in a Pocket Books paperback edition in 1968, with a new preface by Wouk. In his preface, Wouk notes that the novel was actually written in 1949. The novel tells the story of a United States astronaut who travels to the moon and discovers a race of human-like beings living beneath the lunar surface.

Wouk uses a "text within a text within a text" format to structure his tale. The first "layer" of the story consists of "official" documents by a Navy official and a professor; this frame material assures the reader that the astronaut's narrative is a fiction written as a result of hallucination. The second layer of the text is the astronaut's salvaged first-person account of his encounter with the lunar nation of Lomokome. The third layer is the astronaut's alleged English translation of the Book of Ctuzelawis, the sacred text which dominates the lives of the moon people. The central topic of the Book of Ctuzelawis is the Law of Reasonable War.

I read "The 'Lomokome' Papers" as an intriguing satire of social attitudes towards war, death, and violence. Wouk's use of the sacred text motif is alo noteworthy; this aspect of the novel puts it in the company of such literary works as Gore Vidal's "Messiah" and Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower." Wouk's vision strikes me as being as relevant today as it was when he first wrote the book. This is definitely a curious text which deserves continued attention.