History Literature / TheCyberiad

-->Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.\\

Some savage, spectacular suicide.

* ImpossibleTask: To test Trurl's poetry-writing machine, Klapaucius demands that it compose a poem about a haircut that's lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom, is six lines long, rhymes perfectly, and has every single word starting with the letter "s". Trurl angrily snaps that it's an idiotic request, but the machine finishes writing the poem before he's even done speaking.

* WhatTheHellHero: Trurl has a nasty habit of building sentient machines and then taking them apart when they disappoint him. [[MoralDissonance Nobody seems to see anything wrong with it]] (even though most of the characters are machines) until near the end of the book his mentor pretty much calls him a monster.

Some savage, spectacular suicide.\\

* ForScience: The reasoning behind the "creation" of dragons.
* FramingDevice[=/=]NestedStory: A few short stories bring together stories published earlier.

* HiveMind: The true nature of the [[spoiler:Gargantius Effect]].

* RedOniBlueOni: Trurl (red) and Klapaucius (blue).
* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: All of the characters who aren't human.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Trurl and Klapaucius. A lot. At one point, Klapaucius tortures what may or may not be a clone of Trurl just for fun.

** ''How the Word Was Saved'': "Do nothing" isn't "create nothingness". Make sure your LiteralGenie has "Undo" button.

''The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age'' (''Cyberiada'' in the original Polish) is a series of short stories by Creator/StanislawLem, following the adventures of the "Constructors" Trurl and Klapaucius. As Constructors, they have the skills and ability to build almost anything imaginable. This doesn't stop them from getting into trouble when they try to sell their abilities, however.

In the late '80s, one of the stories was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcaEpbMqfc adapted for public television]], with the principals changed from RidiculouslyHumanRobots to HumanAliens (but nonetheless quite well-cast.)

* FantasticAesop: The only Aesop Lem ever gives in his fables; the fact that - given that the plot usually revolves around human social, civilizational and interpersonal problems - makes those stories utterly pessimistic.

* FramingDevice: A few short stories bring together stories published earlier.
** "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius", which goes {{metafiction}}al several times.
** "Upbringing of Cyfranek", where Trurl and his son Cyfranek find a robot and an ArtificialHuman frozen in a comet, thaw them and listen to their stories.

%%* NestedStory: King Genius.

* {{Utopia}}: In one story (not translated to English), Trurl tries to create a society where everyone is constantly happy. All of his attempts fail miserably.
* VindicatedByHistory: InUniverse. Klapuacius meets an old philosopher called Chlorian Theoreticus the Proph, who was ignored in his entire life. He expects that future generations will discover his greatness - so he writes the book ''Testament for Descendants'', in which he calls them skeleton-kissers and corpse-lickers, who ignore the great thinkers of their own era.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Trurl and Klapuacius. A lot. At one point, Klapuacius tortures what may or may not be a clone of Trurl just for fun.
* WaveOfBabies: In the appropriately named "The Fourth Sally or how Trurl Built a Femfatalatron to Save Prince Pantagoon from the Pangs of Love, and how Later he Resorted to a Cannonade of Babies".

* WindUpKey: Some robots are ClockPunk enough to need those - in one of the stories, a curious princess loses hers and an everyrobot hero has to find it to revive her again. [[spoiler: He doesn't - he's just good at making things work and manages to winde her up without a key.]]

* MechanicalEvolution: Leading from slime, through humans to robots, then to conscious robots, god-mode robots, and then again to slime and humans.
** There is some disagreement on the matter amongst robot academicians: "There are legends, as you know, that speak of a race of [[HumansByAnyOtherName paleface]], who concocted robotkind out of a test tube, though anyone with a grain of sense knows this to be a foul lie..." Clearly, robotic life evolved spontaneously and naturally.
* NestedStory: King Genius again.

* FramingDevice: "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius", which goes {{metafiction}}al several times.

* RoboFamily: Family is the fundamental unit of MechanicalEvolution. In a story not included in ''The Cyberiad'' Trurl builds himself a son.

In the late '80s, one of the stories was [[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8576072297424860224#66m34s adapted for public television]] (jump to 1:06:34), with the principals changed from RidiculouslyHumanRobots to HumanAliens (but nonetheless quite well-cast.)

* TakeThatUs: The only reason why humans are there at all.

Not to be confused with the [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver}} Cyberman]] HiveMind.

* VindicatedByHistory: Appears in-story. Klapuacius meets an old philosopher called Chlorian Theoreticus the Proph, who was ignored in his entire life. He expects that future generations will discover his greatness - so he writes the book ''Testament for Descendants'', in which he calls them skeleton-kissers and corpse-lickers, who ignore the great thinkers of their own era.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyberiad.jpg

* MechanicalEvolution: Leading from slime, through humans to robots, than to conscious robots, god-mode robots, and then again to slime and humans.

* ShoutOut: A LongList of dragon-related {{technobabble}} in the Third Sally includes "high-frequency binomial [[DerRingDesNibelungen fafneration]]" and "simple [[Literature/{{Beowulf}} Grendelian]] dominance".

''The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age'' (''Cyberiada'' in the original Polish) is a series of short stories by StanislawLem, following the adventures of the "Constructors" Trurl and Klapaucius. As Constructors, they have the skills and ability to build almost anything imaginable. This doesn't stop them from getting into trouble when they try to sell their abilities, however.

* WhatTheHellHero: Trurl has a nasty habit of building sentient machines and then taking them apart when they disappoint him. [[MoralDissonance Nobody seems to see anything wrong with it]] (even though most of the characters are machines) until near the end of the book his mentor pretty much calls him a CompleteMonster.

* WaveOfBabies: In the appropriately named "The Fourth Sally or how Trurl Built a Fematalatron to Save Prince Pantagoon from the Pangs of Love, and how Later he Resorted to a Cannonade of Babies".

[[caption-width:167:Cover]]

* ShoutOut: A LongList of dragon-related {{technobabble}} in the Third Sally includes "high-frequency binomial [[DerRingDesNibelungen fafneration]]" and "simple [[{{Beowulf}} Grendelian]] dominance".