How Auschwitz Connects to Primo Levi’s Science Fiction
Primo Levi published a surprising science fiction collection in 1966, after becoming famous for his Auschwitz memoirs, especially "If This Is a Man" and "The Truce." Readers wondered what science fiction had to do with Auschwitz when they encountered stories about memory-preserving smell capsules, a device that generates customized poetry, a 3D-printing-like machine that could copy animals and even people, a beauty meter that assigns exact numerical scores to human attractiveness, and virtual reality glasses that lure users into addictive experiences.
One story, "Angelic Butterfly," clearly evokes the Nazis through experiments on human beings in the name of creating a "superman." But the reviewer argues that the wider connection is not Auschwitz itself so much as the atomic bombing of Japan, which Levi saw as proof that unchecked scientific progress could become catastrophically dangerous. The bomb is explicitly mentioned several times in the book, including in a passage about a reckless inventor described as a "small and harmful Prometheus," a genius without responsibility who might build an atomic bomb and drop it on Milan "to see what it would do."
The collection also repeatedly features an American inventor named Simpson, who brings the narrator, Levi's alter ego, news of new inventions from his U.S. company. For the reviewer, Simpson and his corporation reflect a broader historical backdrop, the American capitalist world that demonstrated through the atomic bomb how scientific advancement could threaten humanity. The article says Levi's stories also register fears about simulation, the measurement and reduction of human experience, virtual escape, and the domination of nature.
The reviewer accepts professor Menachem Perry's 60-page afterword as brilliant and rich in knowledge, but calls it a powerful interpretation rather than an obvious reading of the stories themselves. Still, the review concludes that Levi's science fiction is strong because it is both inventive and serious, asking with care what it means to be human and what scientific power may do to civilization. The book discussed is "Natural Histories," translated by Shirli Pnizil-Lav, 288 pages, from Ha-Sifriya Ha-Hadasha.
