''Voyage to Faremido'' (Hungarian: ''Utazás Faremidóba'', 1916) is a utopian-satirical novel by Frigyes Karinthy. Written as a further adventure of

Lemuel Gulliver Lemuel Gulliver () is the fictional protagonist and narrator of ''Gulliver's Travels'', a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726. In ''Gulliver's Travels'' According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. ...

of '' Gulliver's Travels'', it recounts the story of a World War I pilot who crashes on a planet of inorganic beings. Their ideal society is contrasted with that of the contemporary world.

Plot summary

The novel describes the adventures of a pilot who loses his way and comes to a world inhabited by intelligent beings that consist of

inorganic In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemist ...

materials (thus having a superficial similarity to

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). They help the protagonist to see the beauty of their world and also help him to return home. The closing chapters elaborate that these beings not only understand the secrets of nature, but they are the secret of nature themselves — they are nature personified.

Language and title

The term "Faremido" has a clear explanation: the inhabitants of Faremido use a language consisting purely of musical sounds (thus, their language is harmonic in the most literal sense). Every word is transcribed in the novel using syllables of solfege: sequences of the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Si. For example: "solasi", "Midore", "Faremido" etc. (Such a language had indeed been devised earlier: See Solresol.) In fact, all terms should be intoned instead of pronounced. Thus, in this world a

musical language Musical languages are constructed languages based on musical sounds, which tend to incorporate articulation. Unlike tonal languages, focused on stress, and whistled languages, focused on pitch bends, musical languages distinguish pitches or rhyt ...

is used. The protagonist remarks that their speech is both wise (in the meaning) and beautiful (as music), thus thought and feeling are blurred to be the same for these beings.

Related works

'' Kazohinia'' (written by

Sándor Szathmári Szathmári Sándor (; 19 June 1897 – 16 July 1974) was a Hungarian writer, mechanical engineer, Esperantist, and one of the leading figures in Esperanto literature. Biography Family background Szathmári was born in Gyula. Szathmári's gr ...

) is another example of utopian-satirical literature, contrasting the contemporary world (in this case society before WW2) with a fictional paradise. Its main topic is similar: nature, mankind's relatedness to it; rationality versus emotion; intelligent beings as part of a cosmic order. In 2010, Hungarian conductor-composer

Gregory Vajda Gregory Vajda (born Gergely Vajda; August 13, 1973) is a Hungarian clarinetist, composer and conductor. Early life and education He was born in Budapest in 1973 to bassoonist József Vajda (1947-2016) and operatic soprano Veronika Kincses. Vaj ...

composed an instrumental work, ''Gulliver in Faremido'', based on ''Voyage to Faremido''. The work is for five instruments and narrator. ''Voyage to Faremido'' has a sequel, '' Capillaria'': both are written by the same author, and they are presented as Gulliver's subsequent travels.

Footnotes

Publishing history

External links

Karinthy Frigyes, Utazás Faremidóba.
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archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

) 1916 novels

Voyage Voyage(s) or The Voyage may refer to: Literature *''Voyage : A Novel of 1896'', Sterling Hayden * ''Voyage'' (novel), a 1996 science fiction novel by Stephen Baxter *''The Voyage'', Murray Bail * "The Voyage" (short story), a 1921 story by ...

1916 science fiction novels Hungarian science fiction novels Sequel novels Utopian novels