Lem’s Bestiary Illustrated by Mróz questions of such philosophical importance as the ethical considerations
the Year of Lem. Remaining an immensely popular author among his countrymen, Stanisław Lem is also one of the best-known Polish writers in the world, translated into languages and published in millions of copies. The choice
Lem has been most successful, the one he gracefully employed, ennobled and elevated to its literary heights, is condition of the human as a biological and thinking entity, inanimate beings. Stanisław Lem’s work evolved over time. It began with cosmic adventure novels, but written in accordance with the requirements of social realism. artists to produce social realistic art, Lem published further novels and collections of stories, which helped him secure a place among the classics of the genre. At this time he has written Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie (Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and Solaris – a novel about a thinking ocean, popularly regarded as Lem’s greatest work – and one which made him a world-famous writer. Later came Bajki robotów (Mortal Engines) and Cyberiada (The Cyberiad) – collections of short, grotesque parables, the most popular of which became the stories seemingly light, fairy-tale-like form, the stories raise deep philosophical questions, their archaized language working to enthrall the reader even more. The work of Stanisław Lem is now a global phenomenon, and its
generated by the achievements of contemporary medicine (is a man whose most organs have been transplanted still the same person?). In his novels, which retain their vast popularity to this day, Lem was able to incorporate a whole arsenal of issues arising from the clash of the humanities and medicine with engineering and futurology. The Kraków artist Daniel Mróz gave the perfect graphic form to the heroes of Lem’s works. For a great number of the literary fans of the writer, Mróz’s illustrations and Lem’s texts have become an inseparable whole. Daniel Mróz, while still a student, joined the Kraków cultural and social weekly magazine “Przekrój”. At that time, it was the most opinion-forming magazine in Poland. also the less serious, fashion- or lifestyle-related content, as well as smuggling news from the West. Daniel Mróz gave “Przekrój” its recognizable graphic shape. Apart from the superb technical quality, his works were characterized by ambiguity, unrestrained imagination and a great dose of grotesque and absurd humor. Despite these comments, Mróz’s illustrations are not subservient to Lem’s prose – they build a world that is compatible with Lem’s but at the same time create a world of their own. For the sake of accuracy, let us add that Mróz illustrated relatively few of Lem’s books: The Book of Robots, The Cyberiad and Mortal Engines, designed ten covers and illustrated several stories printed in magazines. And that was enough for Mróz’s work to become embedded in the delighted readers’ memory for years to come. The exhibition entitled Lem’s Bestiary According to Mróz presents the results of the collaboration of these two great artists. Its underlying thought, whose author is the professor of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts, Janusz Górski, is a reference to medieval albums showing to the astounded audience beasts the two-headed inhabitants of the Antipodes. In our bestiary we present emancipated machines, somewhat ominous, and simultaneously grotesque, carefully drawn by Master Mróz and combined with their descriptions found in the novels and short stories of Master Lem.
More important works by Stanisław Lem
Stanisław Lem
and the choice fell on the city of Kraków where Stanisław Lem continued his
his studies, he began to publish poems and short stories in magazines. The Astronauci (The Astronauts) encouraged Lem to devote himself to writing full-time. The writer began his career using conventional plots, subsequently developing them into brilliant, visionary and formally innovative works, ending his writing career with essays on the verge of philosophy and futurology. He gained worldwide fame, some of his books have been adapted onto the screen, the most prominent examples being: Przekładaniec (Layer Cake), directed by A. Solaris, directed by A. The Congress directed by A.
Daniel Mróz
worked with the “Przekrój” weekly magazine. Mróz played an important role in the success of the magazine as a full-time creator of the original, instantly recognizable graphic design, full of ornaments, vignettes, surreal illustrations, at the same time old-fashioned and vitally modern. He created illustrations and graphic designs for books of Jules Verne and Sławomir Mrożek among others. However, he is best known for his collaboration with Stanisław Lem, which brought him recognition on an international level – editions of Lem’s works featuring Mróz’s illustrations were published in many countries across the world. The artist also worked on set designs for theater performances. He
Klapaucius One day Trurl heard distant reports of two mighty constructor-benefactors, so wise and so accomplished that they had no equal; with this news he ran to Klapaucius, who explained to him that these were not mysterious rivals, but only themselves, for their fame had circumnavigated space. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 161
Face As they looked, someone stuck his face in the opening- a face so huge, that it was clearly out of the question for the rest of the body to climb in after it, and not only huge, but unspeakably hideous, studded up and down and every which way with bulging eyes, and the nose was a saw, and an iron hook served for the jaw. The face didn’t move, pressed up against the open hatch, only the eyes darted back and forth, avidly examining everything, as if appraising whether or not the take was worth the trouble. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 147–148
Trurl In those good old days it was the custom for constructors, once they had received their Diploma of Perpetual Omnipotence with distinction, to sally forth ofttimes and bring to distant lands the benefit of their expertise. And so it happened that, in keeping with this ancient custom, Trurl and Klapaucius who could kindle or extinguish suns as easily as shelling peas, did venture out on such voyage. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 30
Newborn Babies The bombardment began a week later, at midnight. The cannons, primed by veteran cannoneers, were aimed, muzzles raised, straight at the white star of the Emperor’s empire, and they fired-not death-dealing, but life-giving missiles. For Trurl had loaded the cannons with newborn babies, which rained down upon the enemy in gooing, cooing myriads and, growing quickly, crawled and drooled over everything. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 111–112
The Beast Furious, the beast writhed and wriggled its iterated integrals beneath the King’s polynomial blows, collapsed into an infinite series of indeterminate terms, then got back up by raising itself to the nth power, but the King so belaboured it with differentials and partial derivatives that its Fourier coefficients all cancelled out. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 68–69
Paleface First, they were creeping molds that slithered forth from the ocean onto land, and lied by devouring one another, and the more they devoured themselves, the more of them there were, and then they stood upright, supporting their globby substance by means of calcareous scaffolding, and finally they built machines. From these protomachines came sentient machines, which begat intelligent machines, which in turn conceived perfect machines. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 283–284
The Scarechrome The scarechrome sets off , and all you can hear inside are its programs whirring, one more frightening than the next. It approaches – how it hisses, hot it spits! It even scares itself a little. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 133
King Antrocitus The kingdom to which Trurl repaired was ruled by King Atrocitus. He was a militarist to the core, and an incredible miser besides. To relieve the royal treasury, he did away with all punishments except for the death sentence. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 32
Ninnican Each and every Ninnican sat in his palace, which was built for him by his automate (for so they called their triboluminescent slaves), each with essences anointed, each with precious gems appointed, electrically caressed, impeccably dressed, pomaded, braided, gold-brocaded, lapped and laved in ducats gleaming, wrapped and wreathed in incense streaming, showered with treasures, plied with pleasures, marble halls, fanfares, balls, but for all that, strangely discontent and even a little depressed. Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad. Fables for the cybernetic age. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1974, page 205
King Gnuff Thus there circulated throughout the city, for miles and miles, the satisfaction of King Gnuff, for he had succeeded in achieving greatness temporal and literal, and in addition was hidden everywhere, as the prophecy required, for indeed he was all-present in the kingdom. And what a pretty picture it made at dusk, when the King-titan through a soft glow winked its bulbs in thought, then slowly dimmed, sinking into a well-earned sleep. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1977, page 118
Giant Giant meanwhile devoted his time to augmentation with tremendous effort he hauled together suns and whole galaxies, melted them down, mixed, welded, cemented, and, working his fingers to the bone, created a cosmocolossal macromegalopican, of such all-ecompassing girth, that apart from it hardly anything remained only a tiny crevice. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1977, page 50–51
Great Inventor-Constructor Once there lived a certain great inventor-constructor who, never flagging, thought up unusual devices and fashioned the most amazing mechanisms. A bold hear served as his symbol, and every atom that passed through his hands bore that mark, so that afterwards scientists did marvel to find it among the atomic spectra flickering valentines. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1977, page 1
Cosmogonist Once there lived a certain engineer-cosmogonist who lit stars to dispel the dark. He arrived at the nebula in Andromeda when it was still filled with black clouds. He immediately cranked up a great vortex, and as soon as it began to move, the cosmogonist reached for his beams. He had three of these: red, violet, and invisible. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1977, page 8
Cryonids They bore this name, for only in the intense cold could they exist, and in the sunless void. Before very long they had built themselves cities and palaces of ice, and, as any heat whatever threatened them with extinction, they trapped polar lights in large transparent vessels and with these illumined their dwellings. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1977, page 1–2
Robcol For the youthful nationalism of the Robcol had taken the form of an unreasonable hatred of all things human. The Cercian press never tires of repeating that we are abominable slaveowners, who illegally exploit and prey upon innocent robots. Stanisław Lem, The Star Diaries. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1976, page 44
Zow Gorbras At last a famous stellar adventurer, the intrepid Zow Gorbras, set out for Tairia, tho hounds in spacesuits at his side, to hunt the enigmatic creatures. After five days he returned alone, haggard and drawn. Stanisław Lem, The Star Diaries. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1976, page 238
Gnelts The consensus is that these intelligent beings are among the most obliging, kind, peaceable and altruistically inclined creatures in the Universe. Stanisław Lem, The Star Diaries. Translated by Michael Kandel. The Seabury Press, Inc., New York, 1976, page 226
Terminus The robot rocked back and forth, more like a knight in armor than an automaton. His right shoulder didn’t match his left, there were welding scars on his hips and thighs, and the treated metal around the seams had taken on a grey-blue luster. Stanisław Lem, Tales of Pirx the pilot. Translated by Louis Iribarne. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, page 165
Phools These beings walked upon two legs and had hands, heads, eyes, ears, and lips. True, the lips were in the middle of the forehead, the ears under the chin (a par on each side), and the eyes—ten in all—were arranged like rosary beads across their cheeks. But to a traveller like me, who has encountered the most bizzare creatures in the course of his expeditions, they were the spit and image of humans. Stanisław Lem, Memoirs of a space traveller. Translated by Joe Stern and Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek, Harcourt Brace Joanovic Publishers, New York, 1982, page 8
The Van Gaelis Machine This machine really did exhibit spontaneity in its actions: comparable to that of a 14-month old toddler. The value of the machine was purely theoretical, but this was the closest that a glass-and-wire model had ever gotten to emulating the human brain. Stanisław Lem, Lymphater’s Formula. Translated by Stanisław Szeląg.