Book thoughts 05: The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem
P. Korda
STANISLAW LEM
THE CYBERIAD
(Trans. Michael Kandel)
It is often said that science fiction is a literature of ideas. Often,
this is taken to be ideas about possible technologies, or how a
technology will affect society, or what a society based on some
technology will look like. _The Cyberiad_ is not that sort of science
fiction, although it is chock full of ideas. Many purists would
probably not call it science fiction at all, for all that it's set in
an intergalactic civilization composed almost entirely of robots, and
I don't know that I'd disagree. It's really a work of "fictional
folklore" in the vein of _The Silmarillion_ or Dunsany's _The Gods of
Pegana_ and _Time and the Gods_.
And what fun fictional folklore it is. The book is a series of stories
concerning the adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, two great "constructors"
who build fantastic machines to solve the problems of their fellow robots,
to amuse themselves, and to make a quick buck. In the grand tradition of
folk heroes everywhere, Trurl and Klapaucius can be wise, foolish,
altruistic, greedy, ingenius, or capricius, depending on the needs of the
story at hand. The joy one gets from these stories does not arise from
logical consisteny, or plausibility of premise, but in the wildly
imaginative ideas they illustrate and the sparkling language used to tell
them.
As an example of the latter, I'll quote a bit:
When the Universe was not so out of whack as it is today, and all
the stars were lined up in their proper places, so you could easily
count them from left to right, or top to bottom, and the larger and
bluer ones were set apart, and the smaller, yellowing types pushed
off to the corners as bodies of a lower grade, when there was not a
speck of dust to be found in outer space, nor any nebular debris--
in those good old days it was the custom for constructors, once
they had received their Diploma of Perpetual Omnipotence with
distinction, to sally forth ofttimes and bring to distant lands the
benefit of their expertise. And so it happened that, in keeping
with this ancient custom, Trurl and Klapaucius, who could kindle or
extinguish suns as easily as shelling peas, did venture out on
such a voyage. (from "The First Sally, or the Trap of Gargantius")
As an example of the former, I'll just say: quantum dragons.
One thing that kind of bugged me about _The Cyberiad_ is that it changed
tone a little more than halfway through. "How the World was Saved,"
"Trurl's Machine," "A Good Shellacking," and "The Seven Sallies of Trurl
and Klapaucius" are light-toned, folk-tale-esque stories which are pure
fun. However, "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius" and
"Altruizine" are much darker and drearier, full of harsh social criticism
and the futility of human endeavor. They're well-done social criticism
(for example, Lem brilliantly skewers both Communism and Capitalism in
rapid succession, during "Three Storytelling Machines"), but the change in
tone is jarring. The final story moves back towards the folktale/fairytale
tone of the first half of the book, (it feels kind of Arabian Nights-y),
but it displays a level of misanthropy which is absent in the others. It
makes me wonder, were the stories of _The Cyberiad_ written at different
times, and collected later, or were they all written together?
To conclude, this book was really fun. I have no idea if Lem's
original Polish prose is this good, but Kandel's translation is
awesome. If you like wild flights of imagination and adept use of
language, buy this book and read it. You'll be glad you did.
--
Pam Korda
kor2 @ midway.uchicago.edu
Kate Nepveu
> STANISLAW LEM
> THE CYBERIAD
> (Trans. Michael Kandel)
[...]
> And what fun fictional folklore it is. The book is a series of stories
> concerning the adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, two great "constructors"
> who build fantastic machines to solve the problems of their fellow robots,
> to amuse themselves, and to make a quick buck. In the grand tradition of
> folk heroes everywhere, Trurl and Klapaucius can be wise, foolish,
> altruistic, greedy, ingenius, or capricius, depending on the needs of the
> story at hand. The joy one gets from these stories does not arise from
> logical consisteny, or plausibility of premise, but in the wildly
> imaginative ideas they illustrate and the sparkling language used to tell
> them.
Alas, this is mostly a "Me Too!" post, as I fully agree with all of that.
(As might be inferred from the domain name of my web page.)
[...]
> One thing that kind of bugged me about _The Cyberiad_ is that it changed
> tone a little more than halfway through.
[...] It
> makes me wonder, were the stories of _The Cyberiad_ written at different
> times, and collected later, or were they all written together?
I'd also wondered about this, or if there was any information on who put
the stories in that order, and if they'd commented on their reasons.
> To conclude, this book was really fun. I have no idea if Lem's
> original Polish prose is this good, but Kandel's translation is
> awesome. If you like wild flights of imagination and adept use of
> language, buy this book and read it. You'll be glad you did.
Anything that has a robot writing poetry that includes an epic starting
with:
Arms, and machines I sing, that, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Homo's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Terran shore...
I just have to love...
Kate
--
http://www.steelypips.org/elsewhere.html -- kate....@yale.edu
Paired Reading Page; Book Reviews; Outside of a Dog: A Book Log
"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Clifford
>
> One thing that kind of bugged me about _The Cyberiad_ is that it changed
> tone a little more than halfway through. "How the World was Saved,"
> "Trurl's Machine," "A Good Shellacking," and "The Seven Sallies of Trurl
> and Klapaucius" are light-toned, folk-tale-esque stories which are pure
> fun. However, "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius" and
> "Altruizine" are much darker and drearier, full of harsh social criticism
> and the futility of human endeavor. They're well-done social criticism
> (for example, Lem brilliantly skewers both Communism and Capitalism in
> rapid succession, during "Three Storytelling Machines"), but the change in
> tone is jarring. The final story moves back towards the folktale/fairytale
> tone of the first half of the book, (it feels kind of Arabian Nights-y),
> but it displays a level of misanthropy which is absent in the others. It
> makes me wonder, were the stories of _The Cyberiad_ written at different
> times, and collected later, or were they all written together?
I think they were written at various times. There's a companion
collection with more stories in it called _Mortal Engines_ which I
haven't read yet. I believe the stories in _Mortal Engines_ are more in
the vein of the final story of _The Cyberiad_.
I have a meandering summary of my impressions of _The Cyberiad_ at my
website (see sig). Matt McIrvin has a much more coherent review of it
and many others at his. His Lem webpages are at:
http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/vitrifax.html
and they have cost me tens of dollars at the bookstore.
--
| William Clifford | wo...@yahoo.com | http://wobh.home.mindspring.com |
|"The trouble with personalities, they're too wrapped up in style |
| It's too personal, they're in love with their own guile" |
| --John Cale, _The Trouble with Classicists_ |
Simon Slavin
ko...@midway.uchicago.edu (P. Korda) wrote:
> It
> makes me wonder, were the stories of _The Cyberiad_ written at different
> times, and collected later, or were they all written together?
I have been assuming that five or six of them were written
separately, for publication as individual short stories. Once
Lem had enough we wrote linking material to turn it into a
fix-up novel.
Simon.
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The French Was There.