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The Star Diaries: Difference between revisions
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[[File:StarDiariesCoverArt_px300_1837.jpg|frame|link=http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328875062l/889418.jpg|Another beautiful day in space.]]
''
Besides his identity as a pioneer of space exploration and an established travel writer, Ijon Tichy is an amateur scholar who moves in scientific circles both on Earth and around the Galaxy, and, if the need arises, an ambassador of humankind on the parquet of galactic diplomacy (he has even been known to serve his home planet as a secret agent in undercover missions); he is a noble soul wishing to go where no man has gone before, to push the limits of humanity’s horizon and bring the cosmos together in peace, as a brotherhood of all sapient civilizations.
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The Ijon Tichy character went on to star in three more satirical novels: ''The Futurological Congress'' (1974), ''Observation on the Spot'' (1982, no translation), and ''Peace on Earth'' (1987).
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=== ''The Star Diaries'' and ''Memoirs of a Space Traveller'' provide examples of the following tropes: ===▼
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* [[And I Must Scream]]: Particularly in one story, where {{spoiler|an alien civilization's super computer, who they designed to be perfect and to organize their everyday lives perfectly, starts turning the aliens into shiny disks and arranging them in perfect geometrical patterns and sculptures. It's hinted they don't die in the process}}.
* [[Assimilation Plot]]: One story has Tichy visit a series of societies by "The Great Architect", whom Tichy is supposed to meet. The last society is one where everyone is engineered to look exactly the same, and there's a lottery where everyone takes a different role in life (banker, janitor, wife, child, etc.) every week. This is the Architect's "masterpiece", because it eliminates identity, and thus eliminates death. Tichy then decides the Architect is completely off his nut, and runs away as fast as possible.
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* [[Celibate Hero]]: Tichy is a bachelor and appears to have no interest in women.
* [[Dedication]]: Parodied. The book contains a foreword by a character called Professor Tarantoga. He ends it with saying that one helped him in his work, and listing those who set him back would take too much space.
* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: In one story, Tichy becames the head of an organization from the 27h that century that attempts to correct history and create a better world using time travel. However, every plan fails spectacularly due to a combination of mishap, incompetence, and malice resulting in a thoroughly fouled-up
* [[Famed in Story]]: Especially from ''Memoirs of a Space Traveller'' onward.
* [[Fun
* [[Human Aliens]]: Parodied in one of the stories, where a group of [[Starfish Aliens]] living on an extremely hot planet discuss a possibility of an intelligent species living in a lower temperature; the oldest one explains that the existence of such creatures is impossible, and any other sapient species must be exactly like them.
* [[Humans Are
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: 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.
* [[The Munchausen]]: Ijon Tichy to his readers.
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* [[Sex Is Evil]]: One of Tichy's ancestors created a substance that made sex painful, so humanity wouldn't be controlled by carnal desires anymore. When he put it into the water supply of his city, he was lynched.
* [[Starfish Aliens]]: Most of them. One particularly funny moment has Ijon Tichy mistake an alien ambassador for a soda machine.
* [[Tall Tale]]: Played
* [[Unfazed Everyman]]: Ijon Tichy, as he presents himself.
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: In one of the stories, Tichy meets with an inventor who created an immortal soul. However, for that, the body has to be destroyed, and the soul is kept in a box, without any external stimuli. Tichy realizes that this is a fate worse than death. He tells to the inventor that people don't want immortality; they just want to live.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:The Star Diaries]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Polish Literature]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Diaries, The}}
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