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Title: Imaginary Magnitude by Stanislaw Lem ISBN: 0-15-644180-2 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 28 October, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Overly ponderous
Comment: "Imaginary Magnitude"'s value as entertaining literature is essentially nil. Only occasionally does it lapse into readability - otherwise it is an undiluted philosophical treatise. To be sure, this is Lem at his most intellectual - it just doesn't lend the writing the same measure of livelihood his more straightforward pieces do. The format is quite something conceptually - a set of introductions to not-yet-written books. "Imaginary Magnitude" showcases four - plus "GOLEM XIV", which, being a separate piece of literature altogether, is included only for the sake of its similar spirit.
The short pieces themselves aren't particularly exciting. This is Lem's chance to preach his views, and he does so extensively. "Necrobes" piqued my interest with its laconic treatment of creatively-posed x-ray nudes as art. "Eruntics" was even partially plausible - it deals with evolving a genome which is, basically, word-processing software. And then the bateria begin predicting the future. The "Extelopedia" lacked any sort of real structure - it is an encyclopedic dictionary of purely prognosticated words. The introduction includes a "Proffertinc" - a prognosticated offer, and a sample page of words that begin with "prog-". The following introduction to a treatise on bitic literature - that is, books written by non-human authors - is an excellent piece of short fiction dealing with epistemological topics. The summary traces the development of artificial thinkers through several stages - from cladogenesis, where computers generate random meaningless words, through mimesis, where a computer formulates the mathematical basis of books, allowing perfect translations, and even creating entirely new works in the author's exact style, and to transhuman apostasy - works generally incoprehensible to humans - from incredibly complicated math to elaborate works on cosmogony.
Then the reader gets to "GOLEM XIV", and the book takes a nosedive. Even despite the warning, the superhuman, impersonal intelligence within the computer seems snobbish, patronizing, and the text of its lectures - overly elaborate and peppered with metaphors. Likewise, the leading points of the two lectures - on man and on itself - coincide: the evolution is an asymptotic blunder; it has reached the maximum level of complication in its creations, and further random "progress" is impossible; man has reached his potential ceiling and is drowning in his civilization, etc. Like most of Lem, taken piece by piece this is profound theorizing, but as a work of creative, non-academic literature it is ornate and unreadable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Indispensable for Lem fans
Comment: Whereas with "A Perfect Vacuum" Lem wrote reviews of fictional books, here he writes introductions to different fictional books. You get some of his more straightforward philosophy with "Golem XIV," typical Lem cleverness with "Necrobes" and sheer, amazing, mind-blowing virtuosity with "Eruntics," probably his single most impressive piece of short fiction. This "story" alone is worth the price of admission. Ranking near the Tichy stories, with plenty of distance between "The Cyberiad" on one side and "Solaris" on the other, on the fun and ponderousnness scales. Among his best.
Rating: 4
Summary: Very nice Lem showcase
Comment: Though it wasn't the most entertaining book of Lem's, it definitely gives the best span of his talents of any that I've yet read. We get the simply goofy in the first couple bits, and the hard-core philosophical in the GOLEM lectures. This is an excellent survey of Lem's talent, but the individual parts are not his best. The humorous bits are certainly not "Cyberiad" or "Star Diaries" quality, but they are good nonetheless. The GOLEM stuff is a bit dry, but very intruiging. Overall quite good stuff, so it gets 4 stars. Mediocre Lem though.
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Title: A Perfect Vacuum by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel ISBN: 0810117339 Publisher: Northwestern University Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Memoirs Found In A Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem, Christine Rose, Adele Kandel ISBN: 0156585855 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 23 July, 1986 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Eden by Stanislaw Lem ISBN: 0156278065 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 31 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Peace on Earth by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel, Elinor Ford ISBN: 015602814X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 04 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem ISBN: 0156306301 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 15 March, 1988 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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