Stories
The Tichy stories are mostly comic or satirical, often exploring traditional science fiction themes, in a form that can be described as "Science Fiction Tall Tales". They are sometimes taken to deliberately ridiculous lengths, as in the episode of The Star Diaries where the unfortunate Tichy, caught in a time loop, is repeatedly banged on the head with a saucepan wielded by future versions of himself. In other stories Tichy meets alien civilisations whose detached perspective enables Lem to poke fun at humanity; on one of his voyages Tichy meets a priest whose colleague has been horifically martyred by a thoroughly unselfish and well-intentioned race of aliens because he had told them that a martyr's death was one of the greatest things to which a Christian could aspire. Elsewhere Tichy meets a race of aliens (called "Indioci" in the Polish original, "Phools" in the English translation) who, desiring perfect harmony in their lives, entrust themselves to a machine which converts them into shiny discs to be arranged in pleasant patterns across their planet.
Read more about this topic: Ijon Tichy
Famous quotes containing the word stories:
“the tide lays down its wet throat
and alters the land to island—even as I watch
I say there is no shore
apart from stories of it,
no smoke, no hut, no beacon ...”
—Lynn Emanuel (b. 1949)
“Castaway, your time is a flat sea that doesn’t stop,
with no new land to make for and no new stories to swap.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I am surprised at the way people seem to perceive me, and sometimes I read stories and hear things about me and I go “ugh.” I wouldn’t like her either. It’s so unlike what I think I am or what my friends think I am.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton (b. 1947)