Kazohinia

Kazohinia

Cover of Corvina Press's English edition (Budapest, 1975)
Author	Sándor Szathmári
Original title	hu:Gulliver utazása Kazohiniában, eo:Vojaĝo al Kazohinio
Translator	Inez Kemenes
Cover artist	Mária Hódosi
Country	Hungary
Language	Hungarian & Esperanto
Genre	Dystopian novel, utopian fiction, science fiction
Publisher	Corvina Press (Budapest, 1975), New Europe Books (North Adams, Massachusetts, 2012)
Publication date	hu:1941, eo:1958
Published in English	1975, 2012
Pages	372 pp (Corvina Press, 1975); 368 pp (New Europe Books, 2012) (Corvina Press, 1975); 978-0-982571-2-4 (New Europe Books, 2012)

372 pp (Corvina Press, 1975); 368 pp (New Europe Books, 2012)

Kazohinia is a novel written in Hungarian and in Esperanto by Sándor Szathmári (1897 – 1974). It appeared first in Hungarian (1941) and was published in Esperanto by SAT (Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda) in 1958, and was republished in that language without change in 1998. Several Hungarian editions appeared over the decades (1946, 1957, 1972, 1980, 2009), and an English translation in Budapest in 1975 (Corvina Press). In 2012, this translation first received wide distribution outside of Hungary with its publication by New Europe Books under the title Voyage to Kazohinia—in keeping with the more descriptive titles of the novel's early Hungarian editions, including Gulliver utazása Kazohiniában (Gulliver's Travels in Kazohinia; 1941) and Utazás Kazohiniában (Travels in Kazohinia; 1946), and with the title of the Esperanto edition: Vojaĝo al Kazohinio.

Kazohinia is a utopia/dystopia modelled partly on Gulliver's Travels by the Irishman Jonathan Swift, and therefore pertains to both utopian and travel genres.

As in the Gulliverian prototype, the premise is a shipwreck with a solitary survivor, who finds himself in an unknown land, namely that of the Hins, which contains a minority group, the Behins. Accordingly, this work by a Hungarian writer relates not so much to Swift's work, but more precisely to Brave New World by the British writer Aldous Huxley. As in that work, there coexist two dissimilar, segregated societies, one developed and the other backward.

The Hins are a people who have solved all economic problems: Production and usage of goods is based on need instead of money, and the standard of living is impeccable. The Hins live without any kind of government or administrative body, as their belief is that such would only hinder production. They lead their lives according to the "pure reality of existence," which they call kazo. They experience no emotions, love, beauty or spiritual life.

There are two primary interpretations of the author's intentions:

The protagonist, bored with the inhuman life of the Hins, chooses to live among the insane Behins, who reportedly conform better to his outlook on life. He hopes that, living in a walled-off area among the Behins, he will meet others with human feelings.