Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

1STANISLAW LEMThe Princess Ineffabelle“There was something. . . .but I forget just what,” said the King, back in front of theCabinet That Dreamed. “But why are you, Subtillion, hopping about on one leg like thatand holding the other?”“It’s – it’s nothing, Your Highness . . .a touch of rhombotism . . . must be achange in the weather,” stammered the craft Thaumaturge, and then continued to temptthe King to sample yet another dream. Zipperupus thought awhile, read through the Tableof Contents and chose, “The Wedding Night of Princess Ineffabelle.” And he dreamt hewas sitting by the fire and reading an ancient volume, quaint and curious, in which it told,with well-turned words and crimson ink on gilded parchment, of the Princess Ineffabelle,who reigned five centuries ago in the land od Dandelia, and it told of her Icicle Forest,and her Helical Tower, and the Aviary That Neighed and the Treasury with a HundredEyes, but especially of her beauty and abounding virtues. And Zipperupus longed for thisvision of loveliness with a great longing, and a mighty desire was kindled within him andset his soul afire, tat his eyeballs blazed like beacons, and he rushed out and searchedevery corner of the dream for Ineffabelle, but she was nowhere to be found, indeed, onlythe very oldest robots had ever heard of that princess. Weary from his longperegrinations, Zipperupus came at last to the centre of the royal desert, where theExcerpt from “The Tale of the Three Story Telling Machines,” from The Cyberiad bt StanislawLem, translated bt Michael Kandel. Copyright © 1974 by The Seabury Press, Inc. Reprinted bypermission of The Continuum Publishing Corporation.