This was a recommendation from a friend, and it was about 2 chapters in that I realised I must have read it as school(?).
The Star Diaries is the accumulated tales of cosmonaut Ijon Tichy, and his travels across the galaxy. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish them before they started to get a tad annoying.
Not to say that they’re bad stories! It’s more that they’re kind of ‘whimsical’, but are probably badly translated from the original Polish. Plus, they’re mostly satire of communism, which I have no experience of, and only recognised because of the study of politics. Not all communist satire mind you, just mostly.
I did get a few giggles out of it, but otherwise? Might go back to reading about Buddhist detectives! I’ve also hear tell of a story about a mafiosa with tourettes.
10 October, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I’ve always found Lem hard going, and it is because of the translations. A Polish friend reckons he’s great in Polish.
10 October, 2007 at 3:43 pm
i had that distinct feeling. i was discussing the “whimsical” air of the book with tom from Well Urban and he agreed that trying to convey that sense across the language barrier would be difficult at best!
12 October, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Yeah, there’s one guy who does/did all the Lem translations. And you have to remember that Lem pretty much had to speak in code, given the political climate he was writing in.
Having said that, I loved his short stories. And __A Perfect Vacuum__, which is a collection of reviews of imaginary book.
19 October, 2007 at 10:57 am
I really enjoyed Tales of Prix the Pilot.