The Playful Lem

Bol

Speculative fiction blends witty satire with futuristic realms where robots rule and humans linger on the margins. Parables featuring knightly quests for a mechanical princess, a wondrous computer, and a covert astronaut deliver sharp critiques of human vanity, jealousy, and cruelty. Classic speculative fiction with a comedic approachConjuring worlds in which robots are kings and Earthlings exist on the fringes of the universe, Stanisław Lem's anachronistic fairy tales and science fiction parables envision knights who fight for the favor of a mechanical princess, a computer that can create anything (so long as it begins with the letter n), and a human astronaut who goes undercover on a planet ruled by robots. In celebrated translations by Michael Kandel and with a new introduction by Bożena Shallcross, the stories in this volume highlight age-old human weaknesses—vanity, jealousy, cowardice, and cruelty—while tickling the reader with layered humor ranging from satire to wordplay to slapstick.Lem's oblique approach to indicting aggression and totalitarianism helped him avoid censorship while living under a restrictive government during the Cold War. Originally published in Polish in the 1950s and '60s, the stories collected here both evoke the concerns of the era and foresee today's technological capabilities as well as society's response.

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Pages: 212, Paperback, Modern Language Association of America