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Forum in English / Pirx and Terminus

« dnia: Kwietnia 18, 2006, 01:47:49 am »

A question for my fellow Lem fans. In Terminus, Pirx has to go by the guidelines of STP (as it's called in the Russian translation) for lift-off. I understand that STP is a government regulatory agency for space travel, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me what STP actually stands for. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure of the english equivalent of the acronym.

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Forum in English / Pirx and his Tales

« dnia: Listopada 04, 2005, 02:29:56 am »

Some time ago I read up on exactly in which order Dr. Lem wrote the stories that are known as Tales of Pirx the Pilot. The original "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" started with the "Test" and ended with "Terminus". From what I read it looks like Terminus and Ananke were the first Pirx stories that were written. Ananke of course being a story from "More Tales...". Although I also recently found that "On Patrol" was written in 1959 which is a year or so before "Terminus" (which is not dramatically important in this discussion, but never the less I now question the integrity of my sources.) Still, these works were separated by Lem and subsequently put in ; Tales.. and More tales...
What I'm wondering is what do you (the one reading this) think Lem's reasons were for stopping at Terminus in Tales. Besides the obvious uniting chronology of the stories do you believe that the resolution in Terminus is the resolution to the whole book "Tales of Pirx the Pilot"?
I believe that the theme of Man Against Machine is also the obvious connecting theme. But if read as a whole, what do you think are other continuing themes and plots that run throughout the book (encompassing all the stories)? Is "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" and all stories in it a whole book in it self or is it a collection of different "Tales" that do not have a specific plot continuing from one story to the next? Could one combine all the stories in Tales and present it as a single entity?