Ijon Tichy
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Ijon Tichy is a fictional character appearing in several works of Stanisław Lem, for example The Futurological Congress, Peace on Earth, Observation on the Spot, The Star Diaries and Memoirs of a Space Traveller (more stories from The Star Diaries, issued in English translation as a separate volume). Tichy is a space explorer whose interplanetary experiences are chronicled in The Star Diaries. He also moves in scientific circles on Earth; he is invited to the Futurological Congress in Costa Rica and his endorsement and approval are sought by a number of researchers and inventors on the edge of their field, such as Doctor Diagoras who has developed an artificial intelligence which is independent of mankind, and Decantor who has invented an immortal soul.
The Tichy stories are mostly comic or satirical, often taking traditional science fiction themes to deliberately ridiculous lengths, as in the episode of The Star Diaries where the unfortunate Tichy, caught in a time loop, is repeatedly banged on the head with a saucepan wielded by future versions of himself. In other stories Tichy meets alien civilisations whose detached perspective enables Lem to poke fun at humanity; on one of his voyages Tichy meets a priest whose colleague has been hideously martyred by a thoroughly unselfish and well-intentioned race of aliens because he had told them that a martyr's death was one of the greatest things to which a Christian could aspire. Elsewhere Tichy meets a race of aliens (called "Phools" in the English translation) who, desiring perfect harmony in their lives, entrust themselves to a machine which converts them into shiny discs to be arranged in pleasant patterns across their planet.
Tichy himself is the narrator in all the stories where he appears. Sometimes he is the main protagonist; sometimes he merely serves to introduce some other character who has a story to tell. He is unmarried, usually well-meaning, accident-prone, and commendably honest about his failures, which include (thanks to another unfortunate experience with time) the entire Universe as we know it.
