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 None of Lem's series took so long to write; there were thirty years between the first and last tale of „The Star Diaries” (“The Advantages of the Dragon”). Author's inventiveness in creating fantastic worlds and extraordinary plots seems endless. The famous interstellar traveler Ijon Tichy on the one hand resembles baron Münchausen, on the other – Gulliver. The tales of his incredible adventures bring as many hilarious and improbable events as serious reflections on the paradoxical nature of the world, of man and of his culture - based on contradictions.
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 I wrote Star Diaries, stories that contain stories, in the course of 48 years. At first they were quite improbable because of their purely grotesque and humorous character. With time this grotesque started to be accompanied by cognitive concepts related to theology and answers to the question: what would human beings do if there were no limits to genes' composition? This idea was assisted by an array of most bizarre skeletons. |
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 Memoirs of a Space Traveler is representative of Mr. Lem in his most fantastic vein. In one of these grotesque and witty tales an inventor has created electronic intelligences that live in iron boxes connected to a central drum of recorded stimuli representing all the experiences that a person may have in a lifetime.(...)
The theme of life as a dream is of course as old as European literature, but it is characteristic of Mr. Lem to recast traditional materials. Often reminiscent of ghost stories and folk tales, his suggestive fables range from the disturbing or horrific to the playfully satiric.
The New York Times Review of Books
[Note: Stories published in Polish as Dzienniki Gwiazdowe (The Star Diaries) were published in English in three volumes: The Star Diaries, Memoirs of a Space Traveler and A Cosmic Carnival of Stanislaw Lem] |
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A Look Inside the 22nd Voyage |
 This was a great day for the Andrygonians; in all the schools final examinations were just now being held. One of the government representatives inquired if I would care to honor the proceedings with my presence. Since I had been received with exceptional hospitality, I could hardly refuse this request. So then, straight from the airport we went by wurbil (large, legless amphibians, similar to snakes, widely used for transportation) to the city. Having presented me to the assembled youths and to the instructors as an eminent guest from the planet Earth, the government representative left the hall forthwith. |
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