num_pages: 153
description: The adventures and encounters of Ijon Tichy, tourist of the universe and protagonist of the previously published Star Diaries, are Stanislaw Lem’s satirical response to conventional science fiction. Tichy, the space traveler of future centuries, reveals that “out there” really isn’t so very different from “down here,” since people are, after all, people everywhere. Thus, he is not amazed when he meets up with a galactic society presided over by the Plenum Moronicum, which appoints as ruler a ruthless Machine; the inhabitants, docilely cooperating in their own destruction, go by the name of Phools.When he is not voyaging in space, Tichy is a magnet for eccentric unrecognized inventors of splenetic genius, whose spooky experiments are revealed to him with megalomaniacal pride. One has invented no less an object than the soul; another, on the island of Crete, has gone the full length of cybernetic evolution, with particularly gruesome results. In one episode, washing machines go through astounding transformations and absorb the functions of an army of human beings, laying the foundations for a new civilization, one that is totally electrified.Lem’s riotous imagination, with its impressive technical, sociological, and philosophical underpinnings, finds a singularly appropriate mouthpiece in Ijon Tichy, explorer and would-be Saviour of the Universe.
language: Polish
title: Memoirs of a Space Traveler
titlecomplete: Memoirs of a Space Traveler (English and Polish Edition)
characters: Ijon Tichy
genres: 20th Century, Science Fiction, Polish Literature, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Humor, Poland, Speculative Fiction
ratings_count: 1331
series: Ijon Tichy
publisher:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich