Ebook272 pages5 hours
A Perfect Vacuum
By Stanislaw Lem and Michael Kandel
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this ebook
Ingenious essays from “a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age, who plays in earnest with every concept . . . from free will to probability theory” (The New York Times Book Review).
In A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem steps outside of his fictional comfort zone to try his hand at reviewing the literature of others. The only catch is this: None of these books have actually been published—or even written—he just made them up.
These sixteen satirical and brilliantly insidious commentaries on non-existent books cover the gamut of unconventional writing techniques: from a Joycean review that doggedly dissects every word to a critique that is written entirely in negatives to an analysis presented in fragments for the reader to assemble as he or she likes. Along the way, Lem presents his trademark examinations on topics ranging from modern art to computer technology to philosophy.
At once a disarming delight and a clever mental exercise, A Perfect Vacuum lends credence to the assertion that Lem is “Harpo Marx and Franz Kafka and Isaac Asimov rolled up into one and down the white rabbit’s hole” (Detroit News).
In A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem steps outside of his fictional comfort zone to try his hand at reviewing the literature of others. The only catch is this: None of these books have actually been published—or even written—he just made them up.
These sixteen satirical and brilliantly insidious commentaries on non-existent books cover the gamut of unconventional writing techniques: from a Joycean review that doggedly dissects every word to a critique that is written entirely in negatives to an analysis presented in fragments for the reader to assemble as he or she likes. Along the way, Lem presents his trademark examinations on topics ranging from modern art to computer technology to philosophy.
At once a disarming delight and a clever mental exercise, A Perfect Vacuum lends credence to the assertion that Lem is “Harpo Marx and Franz Kafka and Isaac Asimov rolled up into one and down the white rabbit’s hole” (Detroit News).
Author
Stanislaw Lem
Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he was a contributor to many magazines, including the New Yorker, and the author of numerous works, including Solaris.
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Reviews for A Perfect Vacuum
Rating: 4.0544551683168315 out of 5 stars
4/5
101 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A collection of reviews of imaginary books, many of which make Ulysses seem devoid of ambition.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reviews of nonexistent books. One is a book entitled “U Write It”, which is a literary erector set. Another is “Sexplosion”, in which three giant corporations sort of have sex and meet ruin. In “The New Cosmogony”, a purported Nobel winner provides an address which is nonsense, but sounds like erudition. And of course, there is “Rien du tout, ou la consequence”. Stanislaw Lem shines a mirror upon the dark world of hypocrisy. He brings a kind of understanding to human idiocy.
Book preview
A Perfect Vacuum - Stanislaw Lem
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