Stanisław Lem - Forum
English => Forum in English => Wątek zaczęty przez: Ilmarinen w Kwietnia 11, 2005, 05:17:08 pm
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Hello,
while I was seaching for non Lem-related bibliographic information unexpectedly I found a reference to a short story called "The Extraordinary Hotel or the Thousand and First Journey of Ion the Quiet"
Accordin this an severall other webs,
http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf75)
it's a Tichy's story setted up in an intergallactic hotel of an infinte number of rooms (the so called "Hilbert's hotel" among matematicians). It was published in englis on 1968 in the book "Stories about sets" and reprinted in 2000 in the "Imaginary Numbers : An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047139341X/qid=1113228008/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-3578462-7528119?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
I've tried to locate the original polish book from wich was taken the story (and then find the spanish translation, but that's not the point :-) unsuccesfully. Amazon doesn't show enough bibliographic information,
neither the two publishers catalogs (www.academicpress.com/ and www.wiley.com).
Could someone help me?
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As many mathematicians before me I've come across that story long time ago, nevertheless I don't really believe in that "1001th Tichy's travel", because I've never seen such a travel in print... I'm not really sure if it was Lem who invented the Hilbert hotel. Wouldn't be suprised if it was Hilbert.
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Do you mean that it may have been written in Russian by somebody else who just decided to put Lem's name on it?
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Wouldn't it be very naughty to put Lem's Name under your own work? I wouldn't dare it. ::)
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"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"! heh...
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As a true tichologist I assert that in reality Mr.Lem didn`t write "101 Journey".
Polish readers can confirm my words.Maybe it wasn`t about Tichiy but some John Richards.
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I looked at the English translation in the local library, and...at least with one's suspicions already aroused, it did seem somewhat suspicious. I'll admit that my Tichological credentials are not very strong, though.