science

Przekładaniec

Przekładaniec is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Przekładaniec rather than just read about it. In short: Przekładaniec is a 1968 short science fiction comedy film directed by Andrzej Wajda based on the screenplay by Stanisław Lem, which was a loose adaptation of Lem's 1955 short story turned into a radio play Czy pan istnieje, Mr. Johns?

Key takeaways

Przekładaniec belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Przekładaniec to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Przekładaniec from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Przekładaniec is a 1968 short science fiction comedy film directed by Andrzej Wajda based on the screenplay by Stanisław Lem, which was a loose adaptation of Lem's 1955 short story turned into a radio play Czy pan istnieje, Mr. Johns? (translated into English as Are you there, Mr. Jones?). The title of the film was variously translated into English as Layer Cake (literal meaning), Hodge Podge, or Roly Poly. The first print of Lem's short story was in Przekrój in 1955. Translated as Are you there, Mr. Jones?, it appeared in a British-Australian science fiction magazine Vision of Tomorrow in 1969. According to the introduction to the story in the magazine, it was the first work of Lem translated into English. The central idea of the film concerns the problems related to organ transplantation, namely, what is the legal identity (and the associated legal rights) of a person whose body includes many transplants and that of a person whose body was used for many transplants? The film is a rare example when Lem was pleased with an adaptation of his work. Lem wrote that Wajda's film was the only adaptation of his works which had satisfied him (Lem) completely. Lem even confessed that he had found the course of the events in the film to make more sense than in the short story.

Plots Wajda's film is the story of two brothers, Richard Fox, rally racer, and his brother Thomas, who had terrible car accidents. In Lem's original work, they were Harry Jones, a racer after series of car accidents, and his unnamed brother, who suffered a plane crash.

Radio-play version In this version, the dilemma is posed in the domain of advanced prosthetics bordering with robotics. Harry Jones has a series of grave accidents. After each accident, Cybernetics Company adds prostheses to his body until virtually all his body, including a half of his brain, becomes artificial and Jones accumulates a huge debt to the company. The company sues him for return of all prostheses, but the lower court rejected the claim because it would be equivalent of killing Jones. The company tricked him into replacing the remaining half-brain and then sued with the demand to acquire Jones as its property in lieu of debt. The court is confronted with the dilemma: if Jones is machine, he/it cannot be sued, otherwise, if he is still a person, he cannot become company's property. Harry called his brother as evidence. However, it turns out the latter is in the same predicament after the plane crash.

Film version This version is framed in the domain of transplantology. Richard Fox badly hits his brother during a race. The surgeon transplants 48.5% of Toms' body into Richard, and a tragicomedy starts. The life insurance company refuses to pay off Tom's benefits, because he is "incompletely deceased". Tom's wife demands Richard either pay for Tom or recognize himself as Tom and "rejoin the family". Richard's lawyer is not helpful. At the next rally, Richard smashes into his sister-in-law, two more women and a dog. After the third catastrophic rally, the lawyer tries to tell Fox that he did not manage to do anything yet. However, it turns out that Fox is no longer Fox, but his survived co-driver full of transplants from Fox's body parts.

Wajda's film The film premiered on 17 August 1968 on Polish Television. The film was Wajda's first comedy film, first TV production, and only science fiction work.

Cast Bogumił Kobiela as Richard Fox Marek Kobiela as Thomas Fox Anna Prucnal as Mrs. Fox Jerzy Zelnik as Dr. Burton Piotr Wysocki as Dr. Benglow, Psychoanalyst Tadeusz Pluciński as Pastor Ryszard Filipski as Lawyer Gerard Wilk as Insurance Company Spokesman Witold Dederko as Organ Seller Wojciech Rajewski as Man With A Dog Rock band Niebiesko-Czarni

Awards "Golden Screen" Award (Złoty Ekran) by Ekran magazine Polish Radion and Television Committee awards for director (Wajda) and screenwriter (Lem) Special recognition at the 1970 Sitges Film Festival, Spain

Other adaptations

Roly Poly Roly Poly is also the title of a 1969 TV play from the BBC Television Thirty-Minute Theatre adapted from Lem's screenplay. It was aired on 15 May 1969, in Series 4, cycle The Victims. The episode recording is missing from the archives. It was adapted by Derek Hoddinott and directed by Michael Hart.

Cast John Alderton – Richard Fox Thorley Walters – Marcus Sedden, lawyer Dudley Foster – Dr. Burton Hugh Latimer – Dr. Banglos, psychoanalyst Terence Brady – Mr. Travers, insurance agent Elizabeth Bennett – Miss Land

Sandwich In 1989, Soviet film director Pyotr Shtein shot a TV play Sandwich (Russian: Бутерброд) based on Lem's screenplay.

Cast Viktor Rakov - Mr. Jones Владимир Белоусов - lawyer Татьяна Рылеева - lawyer's secretary Марина Трошина - insurance agent Vera Ivleva - wife of Mr. Jones Tatyana Rudina - psychoanalyst Sergey Stepanchenko - priest

Stage play Polish puppet master and director Krzysztof Rau staged a play entitled "Czy Pan istnieje, Mr Johnes?", which premiered in the Bialystok Puppet Theatre on 5 December 2014. The grotesque story was cast into a grotesque show, enhanced by multimedia effects, weird masks and costumes of the actors, lights, and music. Actor Michał Jarmoszuk rendered the metamorphoses of the protagonist well, with multiple personalities, multigenderness, and even the multi-species body of Mr. Jones.

Publication history Lem's screenplay was first published in 1968 in film magazine Ekran and included into Lem's 1971 short story collection Bezsenność. The original radio play was published in the 2000 collection Przekładaniec of Lem's scenarios. Both the screenplay and film plot were translated several times into Russian. The first, abridged, translation of the play (titled "Существуете ли вы, мистер Джонс?") was in 1957, the first full one was in 1958. The plot was translated under several titles: "Слоеный пирог" ["Layered Cake"] (1972, 1979), "Мозаика" ["Mosaic"] (1973), "Бутерброд" ["Sandwich"] (1973)

See also Paradox of the heap, which involves gradually changing one thing until it turns into a different thing Ship of Theseus, a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Przekładaniec

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Przekładaniec claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Przekładaniec before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Przekładaniec ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Przekładaniec

In research: Przekładaniec appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Przekładaniec in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Przekładaniec is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 radio dramas, 1960s Polish-language films, 1960s science fiction comedy films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Przekładaniec outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Przekładaniec in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Przekładaniec means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Przekładaniec out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Przekładaniec in simple terms?

Why does Przekładaniec matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Przekładaniec?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Przekładaniec.