Thinking Outside the Perceptual Box: Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg’s Robot, by Rachel Cordasco

Book Reviews Photo by Aideal Hwa / Unsplash If reading Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg’s Robot (Penguin Classics, 2021), translated by Tomasz Mirkowicz, makes you think about Stanislaw Lem’s work, you’re not alone. Indeed, both Robot and Lem’s His Master’s Voice (published in Polish just a few years apart) take up the fascinating but insoluble problem of whether or not we’re alone in the universe. One might even call Robot surrealist science fiction and liken it to Kafka’s work, or even Lem’s Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, since the main character spends most of his time wandering around the halls of an underground shelter, unsure of his own identity and his place in the community that has formed following an apocalyptic event on the surface. His identity confusion derives from his “birth” on an assembly line under a kind of bell jar. Given instructions by a mysterious Mechanism to study the people living in the shelter, the protagonist proceeds as if he is a living machine given a modicum of free will (as explained by the Mechanism). Much of the novel focuses on the protagonist figuring out why those around him are living underground and why many of them believe that he is a physicist named Poreyra. Encountering strange “statues” that weigh several tons in one of the shelter’s rooms, he eventually moves through a mirror there into a replica of the stricken city, where time moves at a fraction of the speed experienced in the shelter.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-10 20:14:00 UTC ]
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The Quartz secret to great native ads: Think like an editor

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[ Digiday | 2014-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adam Crozier earned over £8m in 2013

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[ The Guardian | 2014-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Book Publishers Need to Think Like Amazon

Two branding experts argue that the future for publishers lies in going direct to consumer, offering examples of companies that have succeeded. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bibliomotion Partners with Think Tank

The Boston-based startup announced a partnership with charitable think tank, Insight Labs. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ALA Midwinter 2014: On E-books, Librarians Urged to Think Bigger (and Smaller)

At ALA Midwinter 2014, librarians were urged not to be satisfied by recent ebook developments, and to look more deeply at their digital future. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Boot up: responding to Bitcoin, Dropbox v Box, Nest v estate agents, and more

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[ The Guardian | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How Much Do Writers Earn? Less Than You Think

A Digital Book World survey revealed that 54% of “traditionally-published” authors (and nearly 80% of self-published authors) earn less than $1,000 a year. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How can we make sense of the world without reading stories? | Rachel Cooke

Last week, Ruth Rendell claimed that reading novels is a dying art. Sadly, she might have a pointNo one can say precisely why John Williams's novel Stoner has become a bestseller almost 50 years after its first publication. After all, plenty of books, "forgotten" or otherwise, are recommended by... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Iron Man 3 tops 2013 box office

Comic book blockbuster Iron Man 3 was the highest-earning film of 2013 around the world, ahead of Despicable Me 2 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-12-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Which science fiction classic should be the next HBO box set?

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[ The Guardian | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Titan signs Adam Christopher

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[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Fast Company | 2013-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iRobot CEO Colin Angle on the shortcomings of humanoid robots (video)

Nearly everyone who's purchased one the 10 million-plus Roombas sold around the world has inevitably asked the same question: whatever happened to Rosie? For all its charms, iRobot's hockey puck-like floor cleaner will never compare to the Jetsons' sass-talking maid. We're living in an age of... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Big Publishers Think Genre Fiction Like Sci-Fi Is the Future of E-Books

The future of book publishing is increasingly digital -- and increasingly tilted towards genre fiction. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2013-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple's E-Book Market Share Is Bigger Than You Think

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[ AllThingsD | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S Children's partners with Box of Awesome

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[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At LBF, Authors Encouraged to Think Like Entrepreneurs

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This New Library Of The Future Brings You Your Books Via Robot

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[ Fast Company | 2013-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rachel Kushner lights a fire in 'The Flamethrowers'

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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