Define Books Concering The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1)
| Original Title: | Dzienniki gwiazdowe |
| ISBN: | 0156849054 (ISBN13: 9780156849050) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://english.lem.pl/ |
| Series: | Ijon Tichy #1 |
| Characters: | Ijon Tichy |
Stanisław Lem
Paperback | Pages: 286 pages Rating: 4.27 | 6369 Users | 274 Reviews
Narrative Toward Books The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1)
Although Solaris is Stanislaw Lem’s most esteemed work, I believe The Star Diaries—the contemporaneous memoirs of star-pilot Ijon Tichy—to be a better representative of his genius, for it is ambitious in scope, inventive, and often profound. The Star Diaries, a series of interplanetary adventures ranging in size from mere vignette to long novella, was written over a period of twenty years, and therefore--no surprise!—these pieces vary considerably in seriousness and depth, moving from the playful to the satiric and eventually the philosophical. Yet even the earliest, like “The Twenty-Second Voyage”—the numbering bears no relation to the date of composition—are often surprising and memorable (part of its plot resurfaced, more than a decade later, in Borges’ “The Gospel According to Mark”). Although these stories are remarkably original, they also show a clear progression of influences. Ijon Tichy, who begins as the Baron Munchausen of space travel, soon resembles Swift’s Gulliver more closely as he begins to comment on the hypocrisies of society, but eventually Lem’s tone darkens and deepens as Tichy becomes less a star-pilot and more like the disembodied narrative voice of Stapledon’s Starmaker. The Star Diaries contains excellent examples of each type of story. “The Twenty-Second Voyage,” for example, is a very Munchausen-like tale, organized around Tichy’s search through the planets for his missing pipe. “The Eleventh Voyage,” a satire of the totalitarian state in which people dressed as robots inform on other people dressed as robots, is Lem in his classic Swiftian mode. Even better, though, are the later Swiftian tales where Tichy, still a hero, begins to explore more philosophical topics: “The Seventh Voyage” (a hilarious send-up of time travel tales in general, where Tichy attempts to travel back in time to help himself fix his damaged spacecraft), and “The Eighth Voyage” (in which Tichy, delegate to The United Planets, represents earth, a candidate for admission). Also worthy of attention are the later tales, of which a quintessential example is “The Twenty-First Voyage,” the last in order of composition and also the longest. I’ll admit I found it rough-going in places, but the startling difference between the two peoples presented here—nonreligious human consumed with a fad for body-engineering contrasted with robot monks who reverence the classic human form—was haunting and thought-provoking. It presented elements of the “pro-choice” and “right to life” philosophical positions in an extremely different context, and gave me much to think about. If you love science fiction, you must read this book. It is a classic of the genre, crowded with invention and full of ideas.
Identify About Books The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1)
| Title | : | The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1) |
| Author | : | Stanisław Lem |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 286 pages |
| Published | : | June 26th 1985 by Mariner Books (first published 1971) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Short Stories. Humor |
Rating About Books The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1)
Ratings: 4.27 From 6369 Users | 274 ReviewsCommentary About Books The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #1)
I wouldn't consider myself a sci fi fan, but this author, like Capek's War With the Newts, has very good points in religion, philosophy, politics, human nature to illustrate. There are dizzying time travel loops, odd creatures and machines, fascinating customs like squamp hunting, like in many sci fi novels no doubt. This one didn't really endear itself to me until the 21st voyage, I have to say, where there is a discussion about God and Satan as dizzying as the recursive time travel loops are4.5 stars.A brilliant and hilarious (I find) parody, emblematic of the "Speculative Fiction" Genre, but where the word "Speculative" actually denotes what it's meant to. This is one of the best philosophical Sci-Fi works I have ever read (or rather re-read), and certainly the most original.When I was reading it decades ago I completely missed all the allusions and references to philosophy and history, which were so clear to me - thus hugely entertaining - now.Ijon Tichy, the protagonist, is
The Star Diaries by Stanislav Lem is a group of short stories that the author wrote over a time period from 1950s and expanded and reissued in 1971. The stories are travel logs of space traveler, Ijon Tichy and translated by Michael Kandel from the polish in 1976. The Introduction and Introduction to the Expanded Edition are really a part of the book as well and not truly Introductions as can be gatthered from "The press tells us that Tichy used a ghost-writer, or that he never even existed, his
Equally satirical and philosophical, hilarious and serious, playful and threatening, Stanisław Lem's The Star Diaries is a brilliantly imaginative short story collection about astronaut Ijon Tichy and his bizarre adventures across the cosmos. Lem's stories come across as a mix of the juvenile, satirical humour of Jaroslav Hašek and the menacing absurdism of Franz Kafka. Some of the stories are hilariously funny yet there is always a menacing undercurrent, a pessimism perhaps easier found in his
The Star Diaries really defy comparison with anything I have read before. Although the dry humor I expect from Eastern European fiction is there, the story lines and philosophical wanderings are idiosyncratic in the extreme.Lem's diarist Ijon Tichy is a starship pilot, galactic explorer and self-styled diplomat whose adventures around the universe lead him into frequent philosophical and religious discussions and even more frequent menace to his strange-by-comparison-to-aliens earthling body,
Before Arthur Dent, there was Ijon Tichy.Before our civilisation disappeared into its own navel, there were the Dichoticans. And before we started to prattle about 'Singularities' the robot monks of Dichotica had already looked unflinchingly into that abyss.Before we ceased to create science fiction, there was this book showing us the sort of thing we could be creating instead.
Really struggling to get more than a few chapters into this one.Finding the narrative quite disconnected, (more so than illuminatus! trilogy) to the point where I can't build a model of the characters, universe or concepts, and therefore can't engage with the book.The prose doesn't particularly enthrall me either
 Original Title: Dzienniki gwiazdowe ...){kind=link}
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