Trurl and Klapaucius are the main

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 ...

s of the humorous

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 ...

short stories of the '' Cyberiad'' series written by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. They are two robots who are constructors, who travel the galaxy, designing and building fantastic machines, either on order, or of their own fancy. Wojciech Orliński, ''Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie'' 'What are Sepulki? Everything about Lem'' 2007, , entires "Klapaucjusz" and "Trurl".Christopher Finn
Found in Translation: ‘The Cyberiad, Fables for the Cybernetic Age’ by Stanisław Lem
''The Oxford Culture Review'', February 10, 2017 Their first appearance was in 1964, in a different, albeit similar series, '' Fables for Robots''. That they are robots is not stated anywhere directly, but is revealed through hints. For example, in the story "Altruizine" Trurl utters: "I, however, made bold to remind him of the solidarity of all thinking beings and the necessity of aiding our organic brothers". The illustrations of Daniel Mroz, however, leave no room for doubt. In the tandem, Trurl is a more enthusiastic, daring, and industrious one, spearheading most of the endeavors of the team, which, unfortunately nearly always end in disasters on a lesser or larger scale. Janusz R. Kowalczyk
"The Cyberiad – Stanisław Lem"
'' culture.pl'', July 9, 2021 Klapaucius is as a genius as Trurl is, but he is Trurl's opposite: a cautious pessimist, who tries to discourage Trurl, without much success, and helps the latter to fix (if possible) the disasters created by implementations of Trurl's ideas. Both of them are bearers of the ''Diploma of Perpetual Omnipotence''. From the story "The Dragons of Probability" it is known that "Trurl and Klapaucius were former pupils of the great Cerebron of Umptor, who for forty-seven years in the School of Higher Neantical Nillity expounded the General Theory of Dragons."

References

{{Stanisław Lem Fictional humanoid robots Stanisław Lem characters

See also

References