Robot fairy tale

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The robot fairy tales (Polish original title: Bajki robotów ) are a collection of stories by the Polish author Stanisław Lem from 1964. They deal with classic fairy tale themes, with the difference that all characters are robots. The ambiguous title robot fairy tales includes both fairy tales with robots and for robots.

People are mentioned in the stories only marginally and in a very nebulous way, with the exception of the last story, Zahlotikon , in which a so-called “ pale bear ” appears, which is described as very repulsive from the point of view of the robots.

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The robot tales contain 13 narratives that all take place on planets populated by robots:

The three electric knights Messinger, Eiserner and Quarzer try one after the other to rob the people of the cryonids from precious stones from frozen gases, which is not easy.

In Uranium ears is about a totalitarian ruler who wants to prevent against the conspiracies.

The story Erg Selbsterreg overcomes the pallid tells of King Schlagenot, who was betrayed by a person (pallid) and now promises his kingdom and his daughter as a reward to those who find the deceiver.

King Biskalar's treasures are hoarded by the king in his four-story treasury. A designer challenges Biskalar. King Biskalar gives him three tests.

Before the two monsters wreak havoc, only one monster threatens the Argenser people. The ruler of the planet has no advice. He sends warriors to kill the monster.

The White Death is about the people on the planet Aragena who live beneath the surface for fear of attack. This story is based on Edgar Allen Poe's story The Mask of the Red Death , in which some nobles hide in a castle to avoid the plague. One day a spaceship wrecked on the planet and the disaster took its course.

How Winzlieb and Gigelanz triggered the escape of fog tells the story of two all-constructors who create two different universes.

The fairy tale of the calculating machine that fought against the dragon tells of the warlike king Poleander Partobon, who, in the absence of an opponent, allows his constructors to build enemies against whom his armies can fight.

The councils of King Hydrops help their king construct a successor. A struggle breaks out between the designers who have come together in a kind of conclave . What qualities should the future ruler have?

Automatthias's friend is a mini-robot that, when the wearer puts it in his ear, is supposed to stand by him as an advisor and friend.

In the story of King Globaren and the Wise Men , the king calls together his wisest advisers to have entertaining stories told by them, the consequences for the storytellers are fatal. Only the oldest sage brings the king to his senses with his mythical tale.

The fairy tale of King Murdas is about the over-anxious Murdas, for whom his fear becomes fatal.

Digitoticon is the fairy tale of the beautiful princess Kristalla and prince Ferrenz. The princess only desires pale babies and has set herself in her robot brain to marry only one. Prince Ferrenz tries a ruse to win the princess over anyway.

Background and reception

In the robot fairy tales , Stanisław Lem combines elements of the two literary genres fairy tales and science fiction and in this way places his robot protagonists in a fairy tale world shaped by technology. According to the Kindlers Neues Literatur-Lexikon , a relationship between the two genres is that both are located in an “extra-real reality” and thus a “world inaccessible to direct experience”. In both cases, there are certain rules and regulations that show themselves in fairy tales through miracles and in science fiction through “quasi-scientific inventions” and the laws of nature, but both bring with them “a fantastic world in the broadest sense”.

In his robot fairy tales, Lem himself uses the “stylistic and word-forming surprise inventions” typical of him, but combines them with the narrative pattern of traditional fairy tales; For example, in his story Erg Selbsterreg overcomes the bleaching the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty as a matrix, when he lets the mercury proteus Erg Selbsterreg find the right key to awaken the sleeping (robot) princess. The connection between fairy tale characters and robotics can also be found in the names of the people, who are known as "Electric Knights" or "Cyberzengel", as well as in other new words such as "Galaxenreiterei" and "Armored riot".

expenditure

The first edition of the robot fairy tale appeared in 1964 under the Polish original title Bajki robotów in Krakow and was translated into German by Caesar Rymarowicz in 1969 in the German Democratic Republic and from 1972 by Insel Verlag in a translation by Caesar Rymarowicz and Irmtraud Zimmermann-Göllheim in the Federal Republic of Germany .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c “Bajki robotów” In: Walter Jens (Ed.): Kindler's New Literature Lexicon Study Edition, Volume 10; P. 797. ISBN 3-463-43200-5