Sepulka

Sepulkas[a] (also sepulcas or scrupts in English translation)[1] are fictional objects found in works The Star Diaries and Observation on the Spot by Stanisław Lem. The nature of the objects, their physical properties, and applications were kept by the author from the protagonist and the readers, creating a mystery. In-universe they were described as "objects used for sepuling".

In-universe sepulkas

Sepulkas were first mentioned by Lem's interstellar traveller Ijon Tichy during his fourteenth voyage. Lem never explains what they are and what their use is.

The Encyclopaedia Cosmica gives the following definitions:[2]

  • Sepulka – pl.: sepulkas, a prominent element of the civilization of Ardrites from the planet of Enteropia; see "Sepulkaria"
  • Sepulkaria – sing: sepulkarium, establishments used for sepuling; see "Sepuling"
  • Sepuling – an activity of Ardrites from the planet of Enteropia; see "Sepulka"

Although omnipresent in art and commercials of the alien civilisation Tichy visits, discussions of sepulkas is taboo and Tichy's attempts to learn about them are seen by the locals as a faux pas. Eventually Tichy decides to purchase a sepulka, but when asked by a clerk where his wife is he admits he's a bachelor. The clerk and other customers are shocked and appalled by his attempt and Tichy is forced to leave.[3]

In Observation on the Spot it is revealed that the planet Enteropia does not exist and was a camouflage for the planet Entia. Speculations about sepulkas and their "pornosphericity" must be dismissed. It was revealed there that Encyclopaedia Cosmica was a hoax.[3]

Lem's last work, a 2005 essay "Głosy z sieci" ("Voices from the Net"), contained answers to questions from Russian internet users to Lem. Two users wrote that since their childhood they had been bothered what sepulkas were and their "pornosphericity". Lem's answer was, "Well, I have no idea myself."[4]

The conclusion of a comparison of two recent Russian biographies of Lem (written in 2014 and 2015) notes that neither lemologist clarified things.[5]

The Fourteenth Voyage of Tichy was rendered as an animation film in the Soviet Union in 1985. Produced by Azerbaijanfilm in Russian language, this 10-minute film was titled From the Diaries of Ijon Tichy. A Voyage to Enteropia (Russian: Из дневников Ийона Тихого. Путешествие на Интеропию).[6] In the film, Tichy acquires a sepulka (an egg-shaped object), but when he tries to board his spaceship (piloted by his friend, professor Tarantoga), he is hit by a meteorite, the plague of Enteropia, and at that moment it is revealed that the purchased egg-shaped object kept his double, the standard remedy against the meteorite kills on Enteropia.[7]

In a 2009 interview to Gazeta Wyborcza Lem's son Tomasz Lem said that Lem carefully watched that in the translations of his works the word "sepulka" had no associations with anything in the other language. Tomasz Lem also said that he at least knows one thing that does not look like it. After Stanisław Lem received a letter from his fan, with a painting claiming to look like a sepulka, he stated that it did not resemble it at all.[8]

The FAQ at lem.pl claims that sepulka resemble murkwia and pćma łagodna, none of which are meant to emulate names of non-existent animals or plants in Polish.[9]

Legacy

In 1983–1986, the Polish Union of Fans of Science Fiction (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Fantastyki) issued the Golden Sepulka Award [pl] for works of science fiction.[10] It was superseded by the Janusz A. Zajdel Award.

Sepulcidae is a family of extinct hymenopteran insects found in 1968 in Transbaikalia. It was identified by Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn and named by his colleague and science-fiction author Kirill Eskov.[11]

In 1972 Russian paleontologist Nina Shevyryova (Нина Семёновна Шевырёва (1931–1996) described an extinct rodent Sepulkomys eboretus ("eboretus" is another bow to Lem: "eboret" is a type of public transport on the planet Enteropia visited by Tichy in his "Fourteenth Voyage").[12]

In 2007 Wojciech Orliński published a book Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie ("What are Sepulkas? Everything about Lem").[3]

Notes

  1. ^ Polish: sepulki, sing.: sepulka

References

  1. ^ "Scrupts" at the FAQ page of Lem's official website
  2. ^ The Star Diaries, The Fourteenth Voyage
  3. ^ a b c Wojciech Orliński, Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie [What are Sepulki? Everything about Lem], 2007, ISBN 8324007989, pp. 191-193.
  4. ^ Orliński, p. 245
  5. ^ Sergey Shikarev "Лемологи и сепульки" , Novy Mir, no. 9, 2016
  6. ^ From the Diaries of Ijon Tichy. A Voyage to Enteropia at IMDb
  7. ^ From the Diaries of Ijon Tichy. A Voyage to Enteropia (Russian: Из дневников Ийона Тихого. Путешествие на Интеропию), animated film
  8. ^ Awantury na tle powszechnego ciążenia / Naczelny aprowizator, an interview, Gazeta Wyborcza 20.09.2009
  9. ^ FAQ at lem.pl
  10. ^ "Nagroda Złotej Sepulki"
  11. ^ (in Russian) Каракоз Роман. Где живут сепульки: [О двух видах палеонтологических перепончатокрылых — Sepulka mirabilis и Sepulenia syricta] // Новая интересная газета (Киев). — 2004. — № 1. — С. 5. — (Блок Z: Просто фантастика). Annotation[permanent dead link‍] (also here)
    Quote: Оказывается, сепулек, которые оказались вовсе не моллюсками, а перепончатокрылыми насекомыми, открыл Александр Павлович Расницын (кстати, работающий в одной лаборатории с известным писателем Кириллом Еськовым). Он-то и посылал в свое время Лему свою книжку, где, кроме прочего, были описаны Сепулька удивительная (Sepulca mirabilis) и Сепуление со свистом (дословно – свистящее: Sepulenia syricta).
  12. ^ Шевырева H.С. Палеонтологическая "Тихиана", in the preface to the Russian anniversary edition of Lem's Star Diaries, "Звездные дневники: Рекламно-информационный выпуск: Специальное издание к семидесятилетию Станислава Лема", 1991, p. 10.
    Quote: В память о светлой и безмятежной радости, почти восторге, которые с тех пор уже почти не приходили ко мне, в знак моей глубокой благодарности к писателю за испытанные чувства я описала и назвала в 1972 году некоторых из самых древних грызунов, которые жили почти 40 миллионов лет назад в Монголии и в Зайсанской впадине, – Сепулькомис эборетус (Sepulkomys eboretus) и Ардиномис гламбус (Ardynomys glambus)