Stanislaw Lem-The Star Diaries(The 7th Voyage)

This story was confusing as hell. But I think that was precisely the point. It depicts an insane voyage stuck within a neverending time warp that repeats itself constantly in a loop. So much so that multiple different incarnations of the story's main character develop and then begin to reproduce. By the end of the story you are having a hard time telling if the Wednesday me is actually the Saturday me and so on. I still am having a hard time making heads or tails of this voyage. I know how it ends and somehow the dang rudder gets fixed and by kids that somehow were created at one point. A point that I have no clue when it occurred or how. I don't think that point is made clear either. It could just be a figure of speech by the author. Beats me. It's not that I didn't enjoy the story I ultimately liked it. It was a quick and engaging read. It was just very hard to follow and the whole tale got mixed up multiple times by the story's end.

But like I was mentioning earlier, this chaotic nature of the story is ultimately what the Seventh Voyage is about. If you somehow got stuck in a time loop this is a very likely scenario and very close to what you would experience if you were in the protagonist's shoes. It's both funny but at the same time terrifying. Because if you get any of the yous future or past mixed up things could go wrong. Likewise the idea of remaining in the loop is a horrible and humbling one. In the end things end up ok but you just know in the back of your mind just like the lead in the story that this is a voyage that will not be forgotten any time soon.

The worst enemy in The Seventh Voyage is in the end you. All incarnations of you. The thing that is holding the hero in the tale back is himself. And that is quite evident numerous times in this story. He even warns himself and he doesn't listen. He thinks its all a dream. And you can't blame him when he first sees himself warning himself for not buying a single word he was saying to himself, but you can't say he didn't warn you of things to come. And he did, and just like what many of us would do in the same scenario we didn't listen. So if I could take one concrete message out of this confusing tale, it would be the tired and true old adage of trust in yourself and your gut instincts. If something doesn't feel right go with your inner gut reaction to the situation. If you don't, you could end up in an annoying ceaseless time loop for all your trouble.

Speaking of errors in time...Here's is a fun scene from a corny 80's movie called The Ice Pirates that comes to my mind when I think of the times when time goes screwy...