More Information About Pirx
Stanisław Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie), published in Poland in 1968, and translated to Englisg in two parts (Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot) in 1979 and 1982, are a series of short stories about a spaceship pilot named Pirx. They are some of the best known works of Lem, being one of the optional readings for the schoolchildren in Poland. Pirx stories can be classified as a moderate hard science fiction with some comic elements, and are probably the closest things that Lem has written to popular image of science fiction genre in the English-speaking world.
The identity of the protagonist of Lem's later novel Fiasko is never firmly established, but Pirx is one of the two possibilities. However, the bulk of the novel is set much further in the future, and it is vastly different from a thematic standpoint.
Plot
The stories are set somewhere in the XXI-XXII centuries, in a futuristic Occidental world (as opposed to a Communist Utopia where some of Lem's other novels take place) in which Mankind is starting to colonize the Solar System, has some settlements on the Moon and Mars, and is even beginning the exploration of the other solar systems.
Pirx is a cadet, a pilot, and finally a captain of a merchant spaceship, and the stories relate his life and various things that happen to him during his travels between the Earth, Moon and Mars.
Hungarian sci-fi series
In Hungary, the Hungarian producer András Rajnai made a series in 1972.
Characters
Pirx is a fictional character from works of science fiction by Stanisław Lem: the story collections Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, and the novel Fiasco. The story of Pirx is that of a spaceship cadet, pilot and captain. In a way, Pirx is an anti-hero: unlike traditional space pilots, there is little if anything heroic about him. Whereas sometimes he finds himself in extremal situations, he overcomes mostly due to an ordinary common sense and only moderate luck. In particular, in the story The Inquest a human weakness (in this case, indecisiveness) actually helps Pirx to defeat a robot who intended to prove that he is superior to humans.
Themes
Most of the stories focus on man-machine relationships. In confrontation with machines Pirx usually follows his intuition and his human imperfections and sensibility prove his greatest advantages. Still, he is prone to personifying machines, and does not deny that humans have to rely on them in the unfriendly environment of outer space. Space flights in the stories gradually lose their splendour and romanticism, with emphasis on the realities of life in space, complete with human failures, shoddy technology and red tape.
List of the stories
Tales of Pirx the Pilot was translated by Louis Iribarne. More Tales of Pirx the Pilot was also translated by Iribarne, with the assistance of Magdalena Majcherczyk. Exception is "The Hunt" which was translated by Michael Kandel.
From Tales of Pirx the Pilot
- "The Test" - Pirx is a cadet and goes on his first real flight... at least he thinks so.
- "The Conditional Reflex" - Pirx goes on the Far Side of the Moon for some practice - but too much trust in the machines can be dangerous.
- "On Patrol" - Pirx is now a Patrol Pilot and learns that taking machines at their word can be dangerous.
- "The Albatross" - Pirx is a helpless witness to a space disaster.
- "Terminus" - Pirx takes command of an old spaceship whose other crewmember, a reactor-maintenance robot has a strange habit - and a long memory. Again a cautionary tales about robots.
From More Tales of Pirx the Pilot
- "The Hunt" - A robot goes deranged on the Moon. Only problem: it is armed...
- "Pirx's Tale" - Pirx encounters an unidentified object while hauling scrap - likely the first evidence of extraterrestrial life found so far. But it's on a hyperbolic trajectory out of our solar system, and the recording systems of Pirx's ship are malfunctioning...
- "The Accident" - This one is actually set in a possibly alternate universe, where interstellar flight is a reality. Pirx takes part in a survey of another Earth-like world, and finds evidence of remarkably humanlike behavior on the part of the team's robot, faced with a challenging rock climb.
- "The Inquest" - A complex plot about the role of robots in our life. This tale is told from multiple points of view, concerning Pirx's involvement (and possible culpability) in a test project for a new type of android astronaut.
- "Ananke" - Pirx is on Mars and witnesses a terrible accident of a brand new ship, which seems to be the result of a malfunction in the ship's autopilot.
References
External links
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