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The Seventh Sally
By Corvus | July 8, 2005
If you haven’t already read The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, you really owe it to yourself to find a copy and read it with great dispatch.
The Cyberiad is a collection of short fiction that centers around the exploits of Trurl and Klapaucius, two brilliant Constructors of no small renown. The amazing thing about these sci-fi story snippets is that they have the mythic resonance of folklore; managing to be witty and cute, yet simultaneously chilling. There a strong element of political commentary which feels just as relevant today as it must have upon the book’s publication in 1967.
I would love to see a series of short puzzle/adventure games created around this collection. There are a few criteria that would have to be met for it to work well though. Firstly, Lem himself should have a hand in their construction, which means it should probably be done soon, he’s not so young these days. Secondly, it really needs to be done by an eastern European development team. I honestly don’t think a team from another country could properly capture the essence of it. The only possible exceptions I can think of would be Team Tarseir, the Swedish designers of the upcoming The City of Metronome, or the Brothers Quay, if they were digital rather than analog, but they aren’t, so I shouldn’t have even brought it up… except I like their work and felt like mentioning that their incredible animation, Street of Crocodiles is based on a breathtaking short story by another Polish author, Bruno Shulz. Thirdly, it really shouldn’t be done at all, as it’d probably be nearly impossible to capture the essence of the stories and it would only result in upsetting me at worst, or dissapointing me at best.
Although I was thoroughly enjoying the book, it was the story The Seventh Sally Or How Trurl’s Own Perfection Led to No Good that really got me fired up. In it, Trurl builds a small “world in a box” for a deposed tyrant and the mythic resonance of the peice as it relates to game design nearly the shook the book out of my hands as I read. I’ll shut up about it now and let you draw your own conclusions…
Tony from buttonmashing.com posted a reaction to the latest legislative attention to the GTA unlockable content issue. Tony feels that no parent in their right mind would let their child play GTA in the first place. I can’t say I disagree, but in the spirit of my post on the subject, I’d like to suggest we open our response to Mr. Yee with the words, “You’re right, the arrogance of including something like this in a manner that bypasses the ESRB is incorrigible. Fortunatly, this isn’t an issue for parents who are actively engaged with their children and aware of what they’re playing. Now let’s find a method of educating parents who aren’t as engaged as they could be. We need to find a solution that doesn’t involve legislation or a potential infringement of our civil liberties.”
In continuation of yesterday’s sketch theme, here’s a concept sketch for Josh, over at Cathode Tan:
July 8th, 2005 at 8:22 am
I haven’t been much into sci-fi these days, but I have Cyberiad on order from the library. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
July 8th, 2005 at 8:39 am
Excellent! I think you’ll find it reads more like magical realism sifted through a filter of techno-absurdism.
July 8th, 2005 at 9:25 am
Prognisticator! I swear that will be me in twenty years…. Hopefully by then we get cybernetics so that at least I can look cool in a borgish way.