Pericalypsis, pangnosis and the ontology of Babel: the oddball bibliography of Stanislaw Lem

This article features a number of reviews from A Perfect Vacuum by Stanlslaw Lem. These reviews, of non‐existent books, concern various aspects of reading, knowledge‐seeking and related epistemological issues. Through this bizarre literary device, Lem is able to raise a number of extreme, absurd and otherwise mind‐boggling ideas, somewhat in the surrealist style of Jorge Luís Borges. The reader is challenged to look afresh at traditional presuppositions and conventional wisdom. Such inspirational writing is a rare tonic.