Professor Tarantoga
Fictional character / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Professor Tarantoga (full name: Astral Sternu Tarantoga), an eccentric xenozoologist, traveller, and inventor, is a fictional character from science fiction works, mostly humorous, by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem.[1][2]
Originally he appeared in The Star Diaries as a friend of the space traveler Ijon Tichy and later appeared in some other works of Lem.[1] Russian literary critic Roman Arbitman [ru] describes Tarantoga as "a hybrid of mini-Sabaoth and mini-Frankenstein with good-heardedness of Doctor Aybolit and absent-mindedness of Paganel", who exploited Ijon Tichy to test his crazy ideas: what will happen if the time will be slowed down or will be made into a closed loop, etc.[3]
In addition to secondary appearances, Tarantoga is the main character of four plays (published and broadcast by radio; some adapted for TV).[1]