New YorkerestThe best of every New Yorker issue, since 1925

October 12, 1981

The New Yorker cover for October 12, 1981

Featured Pick

fiction

Phools

Stanislaw Lem,

On day 1,006 of his journey, Ijon Tichy, Space Traveller, landed on a planet in the middle of an open desert covered with shining discs arranged in …