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15th out of 154 books
—
80 voters
Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy (Ijon Tichy #2)
Ijon Tichy is an ordinary space traveler who always follows his extraordinary curiosity, especially when it leads him to scientists working on the fringes of knowledge. Their plans are grandiose, and the bargains they make too often Faustian, for the ends they pursue concern humanity's greatest obsessions: immortality, artificial intelligence, and consumer goods.By turns p...more
Paperback, 153 pages
Published
February 11th 2000
by Northwestern University Press
(first published 1971)
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This is the first Lem that I've been able to get into, but I think I'll give his other work another try after this. I've kept on picking up his stuff since I read in one of John Gardner's books that (while they were both alive, or either alive for that matter) he considered Lem to be the greatest living writer. This is a book of reminisces from the space traveler of the title. I kept on picturing the J Peterman from Seinfield telling these stories which made this eminently enjoyable.
Libro geniale. Ho sempre pensato che Douglas Adams non facesse ridere per niente o che comunque non meritasse la fama. Il vero autore di fantascienza umoristica e filosofica è lui, Stanislaw Lem, conosciuto per il romanzo SOlaris, ma il meglio lo ha dato nei racconti, fantasiosi, narrati in stile affabulatorio, pieni di vitalità e di spunti filosofici.
Stanislaw Lem is an ingenious sci-fi writer who is never at a loss for new ideas. This book is full of important lessons for budding scientists - lessons we should probably learn before it's too late.
dish washer manufacturers enter arms race to make best washer and they invent one that looks like jane mansfield and people have sex with / marry it and then a sink gains sentience and wears owner's clothes and marries old ladies to steal their money. wow
As always Lem is extraordinarily clever and creative with his cybernetic fairy tales. I definitely have to go read "The Star Diaries" now, which has other Ijon Tichy "journeys".
Aside from the last story, which is a bit of a throwaway, "Memiors" is consistently brilliant. Sub-story II of "Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy" is particularly excellent; any faith you have in God and/or the afterlife will be thoroughly shaken.
These short stories ranged from mildly amusing to pretty awesome. My least favorites were "The Twenty-Fourth Voyage" and "The Washing Machine Tragedy". Both started out interesting, but managed to lose my attention about halfway through. "The Eighteenth Voyage" also kind of lost me towards the end with all its "clever" names (Lou Cipher is Lucifer etc. How amazingly witty...), but I liked the idea of the story. I really enjoyed the first four stories in "Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy" thou...more
Most of it was forgettable, but the Washing Machine Tragedy was brilliantly written.
Lem has never failed, in my opinion, to put out anything short of genius.
Classic Lem and much more easily digested than Solaris
read in college
This companion book to
The Star Diaries
is a collection of thought experiments thinly wrapped in funny, even goofy, stories in which the hero witnesses or participates in the work of cranks and mad scientists. You know, like time machines, human clones, handheld souls, sentient washing machines, and the creation of the universe. Lem's short stories are SF at its purest, or, if you like, philosophy of mind and metaphysics at its most fun.
I read this book in French when I discovered Marseille's public library and every short story was exciting. The stories don't just make you awe at what the future has reserved for us (at least according to the writer's imagination), they also make you think (and not about such blatant subjects as "science vs. morality" bur also "science vs. human curiousity", "reality vs. the limits of human imagination", and etc.)
Oct 22, 2007
John
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Wry and introspective wanna-be space travellers
Shelves:
sf-fantasy,
short_stories
Lem's fascination/obsession with the various forms that life can take - robotic, crystalline, brains in a jar - is explored in great detail in this collection of stories through the adventures of the charming and irascible Ijon Tichy, adventures that range in tone from the absurd and comic to the philosophical to the downright frightening (there are a couple good ghost stories here).
This book is basically a primer for modern philosophy and theology told through brilliant short stories that center around odd scientists and their emotionally devastating creations of new technology and life. Of course, since it's vaguely framed as stories told by a "space traveler" it's banished to the sci-fi section, when it is in fact a work of art.
Memorable Memoirs. Tichy, reluctantly, does it best. Supurb SciFi.
All Hail to Mr. Lem.
All Hail to Ijon Tichy.
All Hail to Ijon Tichy.
Short length Lem, witty and well written, with inventive plots and the kind of odd lyric quality that he shares with PKD. Good warm up for longer and more challenging Lem.
May 16, 2013
Justin Day
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
John
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Stanisław Lem (staˈɲiswaf lɛm) was a Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of Solaris, which has twice been made into a feature film. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.
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