The Mask (Lem Short Story)
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''The Mask'' () is a
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
techno horror short story by Polish writer
Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fi ...
written in 1974 and first published in literary magazine ''
Kultura ''Kultura'' (, ''Culture'')—sometimes referred to as ''Kultura Paryska'' ("Paris-based Culture")—was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by ''Instytut Literacki'' (the Literary Institute), in ...
'' that year. It was the title story in a short story collection published in 1976 by
Wydawnictwo Literackie Wydawnictwo Literackie (abbreviated WL, lit. "Literary Press") is a Kraków-based Polish publishing house, which has been referred to as one of Poland's "most respected". Company history Since its foundation in 1953, Wydawnictwo Literackie has ...
. It is a story of an assassin
android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...
she-robot programmed both to love and to kill its human target and who gradually becomes aware of herself and her programming.Jo Alyson Parker
"Gendering the Robot: Stanislaw Lem’s ''The Mask''"
''Science Fiction Studies'', Volume 19, Part 2, issue 57, July 1992

""Maska" Stanisława Lema"
''culture.pl'', editorial, May 18, 2011
The story is set in a quasi-
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
world which is not depicted to be technologically advanced. Yet, it is reminiscent of that of the ''
Fables for Robots ''Fables for Robots'' () is a series of humorous science fiction short stories by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, first printed in 1964. The fables are written in the grotesque form of folk fairy tales, set in the universe populated by robots. In ...
'' and ''The Cyberiad'' and is written in an archaized language. The English translation may be found in the collection ''
Mortal Engines ''Mortal Engines'' is a young adult science fiction novel by Philip Reeve, published by Scholastic UK in 2001. The book focuses on a futuristic, steampunk version of London, now a giant machine striving to survive on a world that is running ...
''. Initially Lem planned it as a
story within a story A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometime ...
, in the story ''Edukacja Cyfrania'' from the Polish edition of the collection ''
The Cyberiad ''The Cyberiad'' (), sometimes subtitled ''Fables for the Cybernetic Age'', is a series of humorous science fiction short story, short stories by Polish writer Stanisław Lem published during 1964–1979. The first collected set of stories was or ...
''.


Plot

The
protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...
and
narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
is a complicated "hound machine", an insectoid robot disguised as a beautiful girl. Her target is high-ranked
dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...
wise man Arrhodes. She is programmed both to love and to kill Arrhodes. When they see each other at a ball, they both immediately fall in love. When Arrhodes decides to visit her, she transforms from a girl into a
mantis Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate a ...
-like steel monster. Arrhodes recognizes the "hound machine" and flees, and the pursuit begins. The robot gradually gains the ability of
introspection Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's s ...
, becomes aware of her predicament, and struggles to overcome it. Along her path she meets a priest and confesses. The priest asks what she would do when she sees Arrhodes, and she answers she does not know. To that the priest comments that she and he are "equal before the
Divine Providence In theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's intervention in the universe. The term ''Divine Providence'' (usually capitalized) is also used as a names of God, title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general prov ...
". In other words, the ability to have doubt is a humanizing trait.N. Katherine Hayles, ''My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts'', ''University of Chicago Press'' 2010, , Section 7, "(Un) masking the Agent: Stanislaw Lem's ''The Mask''", pp. 171-192. The priest tells her that Arrhodes was kidnapped by some villains, and she starts hunting the kidnappers in order to free Arrhodes, still not knowing what she will do to him. When she finally finds him, he is already dying, and she (and readers) will never know what she would have done.


Discussion

The story is unique in the
corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...
of Lem's fiction in that it is closer to
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
rather than to science fiction, although the elements of fantasy may be found elsewhere, e.g., in ''
Fables for Robots ''Fables for Robots'' () is a series of humorous science fiction short stories by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, first printed in 1964. The fables are written in the grotesque form of folk fairy tales, set in the universe populated by robots. In ...
'' and even in
Ijon Tichy Ijon Tichy () is a fictional character who appears in several works of the Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem: initially in '' The Star Diaries'', later in '' The Futurological Congress'', '' Peace on Earth'', '' Observation on the Spot' ...
's ''Star Diaries''. In the foreword to a 1977 Russian translation of the story Lem wrote that the story has three aspects. First, illustrates the classical philosophical problem of
free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
simulated within the framework of
cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
: can a machine which is programmed to do something recognize this programming as something enforced onto it and rebel against it? This is a practical issue of " robot rebellion". Lem writes that in scientific terms it may be stated as "the problem of autodescription of a
finite automaton A finite-state machine (FSM) or finite-state automaton (FSA, plural: ''automata''), finite automaton, or simply a state machine, is a mathematical model of computation. It is an abstract machine that can be in exactly one of a finite number o ...
".Маска / Пер. И.Левшина; Предисл. С.Лема «Несколько слов о повести» (pp. 19-22) In: Сборник научной фантастики: Вып. 18. — М.: Знание, 1977. — pp. 19-61. Second, it was an attempt to model the above science-fictional situation within a framework not typical for science fiction; hence he framed it as a classic love story in the form of a
gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean ...
. At the same time he attempted to interpret its elements: "fatal love", "
love at first sight Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been desc ...
",
jealousy Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of Emotional insecurity, insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety. Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, he ...
, etc., based on the current knowledge in cybernetics. For example, love at first sight may be interpreted as the phenomenon of imprinting, only not of biological origin, but as a result of external programming of a robot. Finally, Lem wrote he wanted to introduce a motif from the genre of
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
: that of horrible transformation of the heroine. And again, this transformation was to have a rational explanation: it was caused not by a spell, but by a program. In his comments elsewhere Lem draws a parallel with ''
Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...
'': both deal with a non-human entity (Harey, in ''Solaris'' and the hound machine in ''The Mask'') which has human impulses and behavior. In the foreword to ''
Mortal Engines ''Mortal Engines'' is a young adult science fiction novel by Philip Reeve, published by Scholastic UK in 2001. The book focuses on a futuristic, steampunk version of London, now a giant machine striving to survive on a world that is running ...
'', the translator
Michael Kandel Michael Kandel (born 24 December 1941, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American translator and author of science fiction. Biography Kandel received a doctorate in Slavistics from Indiana University. His most recent position was editor at the ...
also draws a parallel with ''Solaris'' in that the two are both
love story Love Story or A Love Story may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres * Romance (love) ** Romance film ** Romance novel Films * ''Love Story'' (1925 film), German silent film * ''Love Story'' (1942 film), Italian drama film * ''Love ...
and
horror story Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...
, with quite a few twists. The observation on the humanizing ability of having doubts (which made the machine "equal before the Divine Providence" with the priest) is similar to that found in Lem's short story '' The Inquest'', where a human defeats a robot due to his ability to have doubts and hesitate. Jo Alyson Parker analyzes another aspect of the story: the issue of
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
. She points out that Lem's science fiction world is a stereotypically masculine domain, and "The Mask" is one of the few works by Lem with significant female actors. In this respect the female character from the story is similar to Rheya from ''Solaris'' in that the female turns out to be an artificial entity. In fact, Lem confessed in an interview that he actually wrote "The Mask" under the impression of Rheya's (Harey's) traits: in particular, as Lem says, "the classical problem of the freedom and non-freedom of the programmed mind". Parker proceeds to interpret the story in terms of
phallic A phallus (: phalli or phalluses) is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ''ithyphallic''. Any object that symbo ...
aspects, gender language, the programmability of femininity, love, and erotic behavioral cliches, etc.


Adaptations

Based on Lem's short story, in 2010 an animated short film ''Maska'' (23 min.) was shot by Polish
Se-ma-for Se-ma-for was a Polish film and animation studio. Founded in Łódź, Poland in 1947, the company has created many animated cartoons and stop motion animations for young and older audiences. The name, meaning literally ''Se-ma-phore'', is an acr ...
studio directed by the
Brothers Quay Stephen and Timothy Quay ( ; born June 17, 1947) are American identical twin brothers and stop-motion animators who are better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They received the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for t ...
, music by
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...
. The production was financed in part by the
Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Adam Mickiewicz Institute () is a government-sponsored organization funded by Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and headquartered at 25 Mokotowska Street (the Sugar Palace) in Warsaw. Named after Polish national poet Ada ...
. In this rendering the robot is beautiful in its both forms: the girl and the machine, while the surrounding human world looks rotten, which fits the mood of the story. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, actress and director Hanka Brulińska created a 13-min short ''Maska'', dedicated to the Year of Lem. It is available online for a preview in two parts. Its English-language translation was planned for the worldwide distribution. The Polish Ministry of International Affairs suggested translations in several other languages. Brulińska secured the license for an adaptation several years ago. ""Maska" Lema na wielkim ekranie"
January 21, 2021


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mask Short Story Works by Stanisław Lem 1974 short stories Science fiction short stories Fictional robots Techno-horror