Until the Victim Becomes our Own
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| Author | Dimitris Lyacos |
|---|---|
| Original title | Μέχρι το θύμα να γίνει δικό μας |
| Translator | Andrew Barrett |
| Language | Greek |
| Series | Poena Damni |
| Genre | World Literature, Postmodernism |
| Publisher | Il Saggiatore (Italian translation) |
Publication date | 2 May 2025 |
| Publication place | various |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 9788842834267 |
| Followed by | Z213: Exit |
Until the Victim Becomes our Own is a composite novel by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos.[1] Conceived as the book "zeroth" of the Poena Damni trilogy the book explores violence in its various manifestations, as a constitutive element in the formation of human societies and the eventual position of the individual in a world "permeated by institutionalized power".[2] Described as prequel to Lyacos' trilogy, Until the Victim Becomes our Own outlines a portrait of Western civilization, examined and reassessed from its Judeo-Christian foundations, through industrialization and the development of advanced forms of coercion, to a harmony imposed by cybernetic control. Employing alternating narrators, the book's standalone chapters complement each other in a sequence akin to various techniques of cinematic montage.[3][4]
Until the Victim Becomes Our Own explores the evolution of violence in a sequence of chapters each headed by a letter of the classical Latin alphabet.[1] The prologue evokes the attack and barbaric murder committed by a mother chimpanzee (called M2) and her son against the cub of another mother (called M1),[5] similar to the story of Passion and Pom recounted by primatologist Jane Goodall. The first chapter is an episode reminiscent of Cain's murder of Abel from the book of Genesis.[6] Further episodes depict violence in its socially more advanced, institutionalized forms, presenting in two consecutive sections the practice of incarceration from two different vantage points: L focuses on an inmate as part of the prison's general population, and M is a take on SHU, the segregation housing unit—solitary confinement.[7][8] Chapter N discusses, in essay-like form, Law as a technology that excises and cures animal instincts.[9] The book's take on physical violence culminates in chapter S which presents in detail the industrial slaughter and handling of an animal in a contemporary slaughterhouse.[10] Closing chapters focus on violence's self-effacement, in the form of cybernetic order (X) and psychiatric rehabilitation (Y). The book ends with an unnamed voice calling upon the protagonist of the last chapter (Z) to flee to an unchartered new world.[11]
Lyacos has given a series of interviews in Italian and American magazines discussing the various themes of the book, in particular violence and coercion in contemporary societies. In his interview in Doppiozero, the author uses the term "cybernetic messianism" to refer to a combination of cybernetic control and human-machine communication as a solution to the problem of violence.[12]