Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

1961 science fiction novel written by the Polish writer Stanisław Lem

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

First edition

Author| Stanisław Lem
Original title| Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie
Translator| Michael Kandel and Christine Rose
Cover artist| Daniel Mróz
Language| Polish
Genre| social science fiction, satire, dystopian, political fiction
Publisher| Wydawnictwo Literackie

Publication date

| 1961
Publication place| Poland

Published in English

| 1973
ISBN| 0-15-658585-5
OCLC| 12722996

Dewey Decimal

| 891.8/537 19
LC Class| PG7158.L39 P313 1986

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (a literal translation of the original Polish-language title: Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie) is a science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, first published in 1961. It was first published in English in 1973; a second edition was published in 1986.

## Plot summary

[edit]

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub starts with the finding of a diary in the distant future. The introduction dwells on the difficulties of historical research on the fictional 'Neogene Era', "the period of the heyday of the pre-Chaotic culture, which preceded the Great Decomposition". "Great Decomposition" refers to the apocalyptic event of "papyrolysis", decomposition of all paper on the planet in the pre-information-technology era, causing all records and money to turn into dust––the end of the "epoch of papycracy".

The diary, known as the 'Notes of a Man from the Neogene', was found in the lava-filled ruins of Third Pentagon within the territory of the disappeared state of Ammer-Ka. Previously, little was known about the hypothetical 'Last Pentagon'. One researcher suggested that Pentagon was a kind of military brain, the center in charge of maintaining the faith of Cap-i-Taal, dominant in Ammer-Ka in the period of U-S. This was confirmed by the finding of the diary, supposedly of an agent trapped deep within the subterranean bowels of the vast Third Pentagon, although the authenticity and authorship of the document were questioned by some researchers.

The rest of the book is the diary itself. In a Kafkaesque maelstrom of terrifying bureaucratic confusion and utter insanity, the agent attempts to follow his mission directives, conducting on-the-spot investigations: "Verify. Search. Destroy. Incite. Inform. Over and out. On the nth day nth hour sector n subsector n rendezvous with N." The narrator inhabits a paranoid dystopia where nothing is as it seems, chaos seems to rule all events, and everyone is deeply suspicious of everyone else.

## Commentary

[edit]

Theodore Sturgeon described Memoirs Found in a Bathtub as "A well-wrought nightmare indeed."[1]

Lem himself describes the book as a "combination of grim weirdness with humor". He writes that the novel goes beyond casual political satire: it puts forth the "totalization of the notion of intentionality". Explaining the concept, he writes that everything which humans perceive may be interpreted by them as a message, and that a number of "-isms" are based on interpreting the whole Universe as a message to its inhabitants. This interpretation may be exploited for political purposes and then run amok beyond their intentions.[2]

The title alludes to Jan Potocki's novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1973, p.84
2. ^ Lem's commentary to the novel (in Polish)
3. ^ Jerzy Jarzębski, Andrzej Sulikowski, "Stanisław Lem: pisarz, myśliciel, człowiek", 2003, ISBN 8308032982, p. 387

## Further reading

[edit]

* John Rothfork, "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub: Stanislaw Lem's Critique of Cybernetics" JSTOR 24777541
* Hanna Salich, "Authorial Neologisms in Translation: Is the Translator a Smuggler?", In: Między Oryginałem aPrzekładem2020, no. 1(47), pp.59-78 doi:10.12797/MOaP.26.2020.47.03 \-- on translation of neologisms in Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

* v
* t
* e

Works by Stanisław Lem

Novels|

* The Man from Mars (1946)
* Time Not Lost
* Hospital of the Transfiguration (1948)
* The Astronauts (1951)
* The Magellanic Cloud (1955)
* The Investigation (1959)
* Eden (1959)
* Return from the Stars (1961)
* Solaris (1961)
* Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961)
* The Invincible (1964)
* Highcastle (1966)
* His Master's Voice (1968)
* The Futurological Congress (1971)
* Professor A. Dońda (1973)
* The Chain of Chance (1975)
* Golem XIV (1981)
* Observation on the Spot (1982)
* Fiasco (1986)
* Peace on Earth (1987)

Short stories|

* "End of the World at Eight O'Clock" (1947)
* The Star Diaries (1957)
* "The Hunt " (1950s)
* "Terminus" (1961)
* "Lymphater's Formula" (1961)
* Fables for Robots (1964)
* The Cyberiad (1965)
* Tales of Pirx the Pilot (1966)
* "The Mask" (1974)

Major essays|

* Dialogs (1957)
* Summa Technologiae (1964)
* The Philosophy of Chance (1968)
* Science Fiction and Futurology (1970)
* Microworlds (1984)

Pseudepigraphy|

* A Perfect Vacuum (1971)
* Imaginary Magnitude (1973)
* One Human Minute (1986)

Plays|

* Korzenie (1940s)
* Do You Exist, Mr. Jones? (1955)
* Faithful Robot (1961)

Adaptations|

| Films|

* The Silent Star (1960)
* Ikarie XB-1 (1963)
* Solaris (1968)
* Roly Poly (1968)
* Solaris (1972)
* Hospital of the Transfiguration (1978)
* Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1979)
* Victim of the Brain (1988)
* Solaris (2002)
* 1 (2009)
* Maska (2010)
* The Congress (2013)
* His Master's Voice (2018)

|

TV|

* The Adventures of Pirx (1973)
* Ijon Tichy: Space Pilot (2007)
* Fear of a Bot Planet (1999)
* End of the World at Eight O'Clock (2015)

Other|

* Cyberiada (opera)
* Solaris (2019 play)
* The Invincible (video game) (2023)

Characters|

* Ijon Tichy
* Pilot Pirx
* Professor Tarantoga
* Mad scientists
* A. Dońda, A. Lymphater
* Lem's robots
* Trurl and Klapaucius, Terminus

Lemology|

| People|

* Stanisław Bereś
* Konstantin Dushenko
* Michael Kandel
* Daniel Mróz
* Wojciech Orliński
* Franz Rottensteiner
* Peter Swirski

|

Works|

* A Stanislaw Lem Reader
* Correspondence of Lem
* Rozmowy ze Stanisławem Lemem

Other|

* Honors bestowed on Lem
* Neologisms of Stanisław Lem
* Sepulka
* Lem's Law
* Works about Lem
* Year of Lem

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
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