Wizja Lokalna (Observation on the Spot) is a novel by Stanisław Lem, starring Ijon Tichy who revisits one of the planets he's been to in The Star Diaries.
Having returned from another journey, Tichy decides to go on vacation. Since he considers Switzerland the most peaceful place on Earth, he picks it as the destination, but due to manipulations of a Corrupt Corporate Executive, he ends up involved in a complicated, messy lawsuit. To pass the time inbetween court sessions, Tichy visits an institute that models future diplomatical relations with extraterrestrial civilisations, using computers to extrapolate future diplomatic notes.
There, he learns that his account of Entia/Enteropia from The Star Diaries will, in the future, be met with an outrage there, as he completely misunderstood and misrepresented pretty much everything. Incensed, Tichy decides to go to Entia again, and do it justice this time.
But first he hits the library.
Now, you probably won't understand these tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: It seems nobody in Switzerland can pronounce Tichy's name properly (i.e. according to Polish phonetic rules).
- Alien Abduction: Technically, as Tichy is kidnapped by a bunch of locals right after arriving in Luzania, and it is because he's an alien (thus, the ethicosphere doesn't quite know yet he needs protection. Yet).
- Bizarre Alien Biology: To start it all, the life on Entia apparently began as aeroplancton (photosynthetic and airborne) before it evolved into non-flying, but often rather large modern forms. The local sentients are Bird People who still reproduce by pollination.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Examined in detail, along with its effects on culture. The Entians don't have sex, but release pollen into the air. They do have pollination races, where males chase females, the idea being that only the fastest pollen will meet the stigma - this is a form of eugenics. They, in turn, can't get their heads around Earth culture and its obsession with sex and love.
- Busman's Holiday: Tichy, an accomplished space traveller, spends a good portion of the novel up to his nose in books in a Swiss library, but in the end, he does go to Entia.
- Crazy Cultural Comparison: Tichy already has problems in Switzerland, with the hotels and the lawsuit. In Entia, he has nothing but problems.
- Doing Research: Tichy does a lot of research, reading the extrapolated future documents. They're, to say the least, confusing.
- Fantastic Naming Convention: There's a lot of "x"'s in the entian names.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Getting swallowed whole by a kurdel is pretty much harmless, but really uncomfortable.
- Hermit Guru: A very reclusive immortalised philosopher in Luzania requests to see Tichy, to whom he explains a lot about his planet, but asks no questions. He only wanted to see a man.
- Kaiju: The kurdel, a huge animal native to Kurdlandia and essential to the local way of living. It's probably not reptilian, but some comparisons to dragons are drawn.
- Nanomachines: The Luzanian ethicosphere, which keeps everyone from harm, consists of those. Kliwians were probably also on their way to this.
- No Ending: The Swiss lawsuit resolution is never seen. The book ends with Tichy, inside a kurdel, wondering whether it's been All Just a Dream and deciding it hasn't.
- Restraining Bolt: Ethicosphere in Luzania is a Restraining Bolt for the entire population, holding people in place to stop them from hurting others.
- Running Gag: The silver spoon recurrs. In strangest places.
- Shout-Out: To The Cyberiad - one of the Swiss lawyers is named Trürli.
- Space Cold War: Luzania and Kurdlandia, the two major countries on Entia, are not bombarding each other, but the tensions are high. Kliwia, the third country, had probably been destroyed by Luzanians. There are little records about that, but Kliwian lands are covered with a glacier. And it probably had been caused by Nanomachines getting out of control.
- Swallowed Whole: Kurdels do actually do that to Entians and in Kurdlandia they're actually used as mobile houses (like they were in The Star Diaries). Propaganda does its best to downplay how uncomfortable it is to live like that.
- They Just Dont Get It: The Entians just don't get Tichy's explanations about human culture - they insist on reinterpreting them in their own cultural terms.
- Translator Microbes: Tichy uses an Earth-made translating machine which works, more or less, although some misunderstandings need more to clear them.
- Translation Train Wreck: The extrapolating computers in the institute not only extrapolate letters that won't be written for centuries, they extrapolate how badly the letters will be translated into earthly language (very).
- Unwilling Roboticisation: The immortalising treatment Luzanians claim to have invented began as this and it's probably how Kliwians died out, since it consists of replacing a living person's tissue with nanomachines, brain included. After a while, the person is, essentially dead, but they keep walking and talking, looking like they did in life.
- Virtual Ghost: Humans use virtual copies of dead (based on their writings) or alive people as entertainment on long space voyages. Tichy has a very philosophical and rather disheartening conversation with Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend, William Shakespeare (who only speaks in rhyme, since all Shakespeare's writing is in verse) and his Swiss lawyer (a Holocaust survivor).
- Yodel Land: Tichy's idea of Switzerland before he goes there.
