Define Books During The Cyberiad
Original Title: | Cyberiada |
ISBN: | 0156027593 (ISBN13: 9780156027595) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Trurl, Klapaucjusz |
Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist for Translation (1975) |
Stanisław Lem
Paperback | Pages: 295 pages Rating: 4.18 | 9882 Users | 617 Reviews
Describe Appertaining To Books The Cyberiad
Title | : | The Cyberiad |
Author | : | Stanisław Lem |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 295 pages |
Published | : | December 16th 2002 by Harcourt (first published 1965) |
Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Short Stories. Humor |
Representaion Toward Books The Cyberiad
One of the most brilliant pieces of translation I've ever come across. You can hardly believe that all these wonderful jokes and word-games weren't originally composed in English. I wish I knew some Polish, so that I could compare with the original. The most impressive sequences, which have been widely quoted, come from the story where one of the inventors builds a machine that can write a poem to any specification, no matter how bizarre. "A poem about love, treachery, indomitable courage, on the subject of a haircut, and every word to start with the letter S!" says his friend. And within a few seconds, the machine has produced: Seduced, shaggy Samson snored. She scissored short. Sorely shorn, Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed, Silently scheming, Sightlessly seeking Some savage, spectacular suicide. The love poem where all the metaphors come from the language of mathematics is nearly as good.Rating Appertaining To Books The Cyberiad
Ratings: 4.18 From 9882 Users | 617 ReviewsComment On Appertaining To Books The Cyberiad
Overall, very funny. Though, as some stories did lag a bit, I was inclined to give this book a 3.5, maybe even a 3.7 . BUT, and this is a very big but, the translation is AMAZING and earns the book a whole star on its own. Lem is a great author but Michael Kandel is a genius. Math and philosophy jokes... restrictive poetry... restrictive poetic math joke - translated fluidly into English. I call shenanigans the only explanation is shenanigans. But on to the text. Cyberiad the hilarious tales ofI first came across Stanislaw Lem by way of an absolutely fantastic book called The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul in which three of his short stories were featured. His stories touched on issues in philosophy, topics having to do with artificial intelligence, consciousness, physics, mathematics programming, and more. Upon reading these my thoughts were something along the lines of, "this is one of the most fabulous authors I've ever come across, how have I never heard of
One of the most brilliant pieces of translation I've ever come across. You can hardly believe that all these wonderful jokes and word-games weren't originally composed in English. I wish I knew some Polish, so that I could compare with the original.The most impressive sequences, which have been widely quoted, come from the story where one of the inventors builds a machine that can write a poem to any specification, no matter how bizarre. "A poem about love, treachery, indomitable courage, on the
Other reviews have acknowledged two critical points Id like to reinforce. 1. This translation is fantastic. Lem makes his money off word play if The Cyberiad is any indicator, and how in the hell someone was able to work that in a polish to English translation is amazing.2. These stories might be best consumed separately, rather than on the run.This is at times a funny book. The story about the machine that makes poetry has a nice satirical spice. The femfatalatron and King Balereon were both
There's a blurb on the back of the book comparing Lem to Borges, which is about right: there is a long section towards the end which is stories nested in stories nested in stories, one of which is a story about someone trapped in a labyrinth of dreams nested in dreams nested in dreams, and there's a story that is sort of a sillier, sci-fi version of Borges' story "The Immortals". What a comparison like that misses is just how silly and playful these stories are.
I have to give this book an award for Best Chapter Title:"The Fourth Sally, or How Trurl Built a Femfatalatron to Save Prince Pantagoon from the Pangs of Love, and How Later He Resorted to a Cannonade of Babies."While the chapter on dragons is by far my favorite sally, mostly for the beginning theoretical explanations of how dragons cannot exist, except by bizarre partial probability equations. Ingenious.As for Sally 1A, isn't it a bit bizarre that a robot builds the ultimate poetry machine, and
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