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Google.pl's crazy doodle

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Re: Google.pl's crazy doodle

#12

Post by joshu »

kitsune_ wrote: post #7

Stanislaw Lem is probably my most favorite sci-fi author. He's very popular in Europe, but not so much in the US it seems. His works are hilariously funny, philosophical and have a certain magic to them. When I saw the robot I was almost certain that it had to be about him. I don't know about the quality of the English translations of his books, but in German, they are fabulous. There are a lot of word plays that are…

Lem is awesome, but avoid the ones that have come to english via a multihop route. Books translated by Kandel are fabulous.

Trurl invents an electronic bard. Klaupacius challenges it:

  "Have it compose a poem -- a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!"
The electronic bard's response:

   Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
   She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
   Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
   Silently scheming,
   Sightlessly seeking
   Some savage, spectacular suicide.

Re: Google.pl's crazy doodle

#13

Post by tikhonj »

kitsune_ wrote: post #7

Stanislaw Lem is probably my most favorite sci-fi author. He's very popular in Europe, but not so much in the US it seems. His works are hilariously funny, philosophical and have a certain magic to them. When I saw the robot I was almost certain that it had to be about him. I don't know about the quality of the English translations of his books, but in German, they are fabulous. There are a lot of word plays that are…

Heh, the Tarkovsky film is actually the reason I read Solaris, but I rather liked it overall so would still recommend it.

Re: Google.pl's crazy doodle

#14

Post by bermanoid »

Just a warning: if you've made it almost all the way through, don't be a moron like me and bump a key on your keyboard, you'll get immediately bounced to an actual Google instant search, and you'll have to start over from the beginning...

Re: Google.pl's crazy doodle

#17

Post by praptak »

aamar wrote: post #9
bdonlan wrote: post #3

What exactly is this based on?

The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. Great book, 60 years old today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/23/google-dood...

The graphic is inspired by Daniel Mróz, the author of the Cyberiad illustrations (Click the "?" at the beginning.) The puzzles contain some motives from the Cyberiad (2+2=7, the machine that can do everything that starts with "N".)

Re: Google.pl's crazy doodle

#20

Post by switz »

bermanoid wrote: post #14

Just a warning: if you've made it almost all the way through, don't be a moron like me and bump a key on your keyboard, you'll get immediately bounced to an actual Google instant search, and you'll have to start over from the beginning...

Yeah, I hit the "N" key when the big robot had a speech bubble with N in it. Oops.
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