Stanislaw Lem: Difference between revisions

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** Subverted with [[Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Literature)|Pirx]]. Sort of. Also averted in ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]''. {{spoiler|The main protagonist's "guest" is his dead girlfriend. "Guests" of the others are implied to be their [[All Men Are Perverts|sexual fantasies]].}}

** In ''Return from the Stars'', the astronaut protagonist returns to Earth after 120 years. While trying to find a partner (and succeeding, after a fashion), he ultimately stays isolated in a society that has changed too much to re-integrate him.

* [[Cold Sleep Cold Future]]: In ''Return from the Stars'', astronauts who have completed a century-long interstellar exploration mission return to an Earth where violence and risk-taking is so foreign to the population that the returning astronauts are regarded as dangerous beasts.

* [[Cold Sleep, Cold Future]]: In ''Return from the Stars'', astronauts who have completed a century-long interstellar exploration mission return to an Earth where violence and risk-taking is so foreign to the population that the returning astronauts are regarded as dangerous beasts.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: In the first chapter of ''Fiasco'', the protagonist goes on a mission to rescue the titular character of ''[[Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Literature)|Tales of Pirx the Pilot]]''.

* [[Crapsack World]]

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** The properties of black holes in ''Fiasco''. Human ability to grasp them [[Chekhov's Skill|turns out to be a major plot device.]]

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The stories in ''The Star Diaries''. Purely satirical stories are followed by completely serious ones, about hard themes like the creation of a truly independent mechanical intelligence, or the horror of having an immortal soul without a body. Justified in that it's a collection of short stories featuring the same main character, written over a period of about twenty years.

** Also in ''Peace on Earth''. Actually plot-advancing fragments are interchanged with Ijon Tichy describing his [~~http~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~~Split-brain split-brain condition].

** Also in ''Peace on Earth''. Actually plot-advancing fragments are interchanged with Ijon Tichy describing his [[wikipedia:Split-brain|split-brain condition]].

* [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness]]: He produced works on both ends of the scale. In his serious stories, he worked hard to be accurate, in his comedic ones, anything goes.

* [[The Munchausen]]: ''The Star Diaries'' play with this trope, when it is repeatedly alluded to that certain "critics" of the book's narrator, Ijon Tichy, the great pioneer of space exploration, who knows the galaxy like the back of his hand, think that he is exactly that. And though Tichy repeatedly and indignantly rejects such insolent reproaches, it is sometimes lampshaded that he has not a bit of evidence for all his outrageously wacky adventures. (The later Ijon Tichy books however drop this aspect and everybody seems to take the factuality of his travelogues for granted.)

* [[No Paper Future]]: [[Played for Laughs]] in the introduction to ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub''. Seems to be averted in most of his other works.

* [[No-Paper Future]]: [[Played for Laughs]] in the introduction to ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub''. Seems to be averted in most of his other works.

* [[Old Shame]]: He said that ''The Astronauts'' (his first sci-fi novel) lacks any value.

** To the point [[Orwellian Editor|he sometimes prohibited re-publishing books he didn't like]].

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* [[Religious Robot]]: ''The Star Diaries'' has robot monks. They are aware that if they connected to a robot with all the facts on religion they would become atheists, so they choose not to connect to other robots out of religious principle.

* [[Riddle for The Ages]]: In ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]'', why did the planet send the replicas of people? The main theme of the novel is that we can't find out, because humans can't comprehend a truly alien intelligence.

* [[Ridiculously Human Robots]]: In ''[[The Cyberiad (Literature)|The Cyberiad]]'', intentionally.

* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]: In ''[[The Cyberiad (Literature)|The Cyberiad]]'', intentionally.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The description of the spaceport given in ''[[Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Literature)|Tales of Pirx the Pilot]]''.

* [[Sex Is Cool]]: Deconstructed and parodied. For example, in the twentieth voyage of ''[[The Star Diaries (Literature)|The Star Diaries]]'', Ijon Tichy whines how ugly and misplaced human sexual organs are. {{spoiler|It was his fault. Indirectly.}}