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Stanisław Lem

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

   Stanisław Lem (1966).
   Enlarge
   Stanisław Lem (1966).

   Stanisław Lem ( September 12, 1921 – March 27, 2006) was a Polish
   science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer. His books have
   been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies.
   At one point, he was the most widely read non-English-language science
   fiction author in the world..

   His works often veer into philosophical speculation on technology, the
   nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and
   understanding, despair about human limitations and mankind's place in
   the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, to avoid both
   trappings of academic life and limitations of readership and scientific
   style, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books.
   Translations of his works are difficult; Michael Kandel's translations
   into English have generally been praised as capturing the spirit of the
   original.

Biography

   Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, Poland (now Ukraine). He was the son of
   Sabina Woller and Samuel Lem, a physician in the Austro-Hungarian army.
   Lem grew up in wealthy surroundings. Of Jewish ancestry , he was raised
   a Roman Catholic and later viewed himself as an atheist "for moral
   reasons" . He studied medicine at Lwów University (1939-1941). During
   the World War II and Nazi occupation, Lem was able to survive with
   false papers working as a car mechanic and welder, and was a member of
   the resistance fighting against the Germans. He resumed his studies in
   1944. In 1946, Lwów had been annexed by the Soviet Ukraine and Lem, as
   many other Poles, was repatriated from the Kresy to Kraków where he
   took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. After finishing
   his studies, Lem failed his last exam on purpose because refused to
   give answers according to the ideology of Lyssenkoism. This also
   prevented him from becoming a military doctor. Instead, he had to work
   as a research assistant in a scientific institution where he started to
   write stories in his spare time.
   Stanisław Lem, Kraków, Poland (30 October 2005).
   Enlarge
   Stanisław Lem, Kraków, Poland (30 October 2005).

   He made his literary debut in 1946 as a poet, and at that time he also
   published several dime novels. Beginning that year, Lem's first novel
   Człowiek z Marsa (The Man from Mars) was serialized in the Polish
   magazine Nowy Świat Przygód (New World of Adventures). Between 1947 and
   1950 Lem, while continuing his work as a scientific research assistant,
   published poems, short stories, and scientific essays. However, at that
   time - the era of Stalinism -, it was difficult to publish anything
   that was not directly suggested and approved by the communist party.
   For example, the novel Szpital Przemienienia (Hospital of the
   Transfiguration) was finished by Lem by 1948, but it was suppressed by
   censors of the People's Republic of Poland until 1955. In 1951, he
   published his first science fiction novel, Astronauci (Astronauts);
   this work, showing many traces of the style labelled socialist realism,
   was commissioned by the communist authorities and Lem was forced to
   include many references to the 'glorious future of communism' in it and
   Lem criticized this novel (as several others of his early pieces) as
   simplistic; nonetheless the publication of this book convinced him to
   become a full-time writer.

   After the death of Stalin, the period of reform known as
   destalinization, and in Poland as the Polish October of 1956 (when
   Władysław Gomułka replaced Bolesław Bierut as the head of PZPR),
   produced greater freedom of speech and thought in Poland. Lem then
   started his career as a serious international science fiction author,
   writing some 17 books in the next dozen years, and translations of his
   work began to appear abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc
   countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical
   book, Dialogi. Dialogi (Dialogs) and Summa Technologiae from 1964 are
   likely his two most famous philosophical texts. The Summa is notable
   for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and
   biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical
   implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of
   science fiction then, but are gaining importance today - like, for
   instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next decades, he
   published many books, both science-fiction and
   philosophical/futurological, although near the end of his life he
   tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.

   He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of short
   stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in
   English in 1974. His best known novels include Solaris in 1961, Głos
   pana (His Master's Voice) in 1983, and " Fiasko" (Fiasco) in 1987. A
   major theme of these last three novels is the futility of mankind's
   attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in
   1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize
   at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; later in 2002, a Hollywood remake
   was shot by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney.

   In 1982, with martial law being declared in the People's Republic of
   Poland, Lem left his home country and moved to Berlin where he became a
   fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study). After
   that, he settled in Vienna. He returned to Poland in 1988.

   Lem died in Kraków on March 27, 2006 at the age of 84 after a battle
   with heart disease.

Honours

     * 1957 - City of Kraków's Prize in Literature (Nagroda Literacka
       miasta Krakowa)
     * 1965 - Minister's of Culture and Art 2nd Level Prize (Nagroda
       Ministra Kultury i Sztuki II stopnia)
     * 1973 - Minister's of Foreign Affairs Prize for popularization of
       Polish culture abroad (nagroda Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych za
       popularyzację polskiej kultury za granicą)
     * 1972 - member of commission "Polska 2000" of Polish Academy of
       Sciences
     * 1973 - Minister's of Culture and Art Prize (nagroda literacka
       Ministra Kultury i Sztuki) and honorary member of the Science
       Fiction Writers of America
     * 1976 - State's Award 1st Level in the area of literature (Nagroda
       Państwowa I stopnia w dziedzinie literatury)
     * 1981 - Doctor honoris causa honorary degree from the Wrocław
       Polytechnic
     * 1985 - State's Award from Austria for the contribution to European
       culture (austriacka nagroda państwowa w dziedzinie kultury
       europejskiej)
     * 1991 - Franz Kafka's State's Award from Austria in the area of
       literature (austriacka nagroda państwowa im. Franza Kafki w
       dziedzinie literatury)
     * 1994 - member of the Polish Academy of Learning
     * 1996 - received Order of the White Eagle
     * 1997 - honorary citizen of Kraków
     * 1998 - Doctor honoris causa: University of Opole, Lwów University,
       Jagiellonian University
     * 2003 - Doctor honoris causa of University of Bielefeld

SFWA controversy

   Lem was awarded an honorary membership in the Science Fiction and
   Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973 despite being technically
   ineligible (honorary membership could only be given to authors who had
   not been published in the US. The fact that he had a US publication at
   that point was overlooked.) Lem, however, never had a high opinion of
   American science-fiction, describing it as ill thought-out, poorly
   written, and interested more in making money than ideas or new literary
   forms. Lem's honorary membership was rescinded in 1976, when, after
   some of his comments strongly criticizing SFWA were published, the
   mistake came to light. He was invited to stay on with the organization
   with a regular membership. (Lem singled out only one American SF writer
   for praise, Philip K. Dick - see the 1986 English-language anthology of
   his critical essays, Microworlds. Dick, however, considered Lem to be a
   composite committee operating on the order of the Party to gain control
   over the public opinion.) After many members (including Ursula K. Le
   Guin) protested Lem's treatment by the SFWA, a member offered to pay
   his dues. Lem never responded to the offer. He had also been critical
   of science fiction in general, and had recently distanced himself from
   the genre, saying that his early works may have been SF, but his later
   ones were more mainstream.

Themes

   Several specific themes recur in all his works, however Lem's fiction
   is often divided into two major groups. The first includes his more
   traditional science fiction, with its speculations of technological
   advances, space travel, and alien worlds, such as Eden (1959), Powrót z
   gwiazd (1961; Return from the Stars), Solaris (1961), Niezwyciężony
   (1964; The Invincible), Głos pana (1968; His Master's Voice), and
   Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie (1968; Tales of Pirx the Pilot). The second
   group contains dark allegorical tales, or fables, such as Dzienniki
   gwiazdowe (1957; The Star Diaries), Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie
   (1961; Memoirs Found in a Bathtub), and Cyberiada (1965; The Cyberiad).

   One of Lem's primary themes was the impossibility of communication
   between humans and profoundly alien civilizations. His alien societies
   are often incomprehensible to the human mind including swarms of
   mechanical flies (in The Invincible) and a large Plasma Ocean (in
   Solaris). Many of his books like Fiasko or Eden describe the failure of
   the first contact. Lem's book Return from the Stars follows an
   astronaut's adjustment to a radically changed human society after
   spending 100 years in space. In his book His Master's Voice Lem is
   critical of humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and
   truly comprehending an apparent message from space.

   He wrote about human technological progress and the problem of human
   existence in a world where technological development makes biological
   human impulses obsolete or dangerous (a theme famously explored by
   Aldous Huxley in his celebrated work, " Brave New World"). He was also
   critical of most of science fiction, criticizing sci-fi novels in both
   novels ( Głos Pana), literary and philosophical essays ( Fantastyka i
   futurologia) and interviews. In the 1990s Lem forswore science fiction
   writing and returned to futurological prognostications, most notably
   those expressed in Okamgnienie. He became increasingly critical of
   modern technology in his later life, criticizing inventions such as the
   Internet.

   In many novels, humans become an irrational and emotional liability to
   their machine partners, who are not perfect either. Issues of
   technological utopias appeared in Peace on Earth, in Observation on the
   Spot, and, to a lesser extent, in The Cyberiad.

   Lem often placed his characters — like the spaceman Ijon Tichy of The
   Star Diaries, Pirx the pilot (of Tales of Pirx the Pilot), or the
   astronaut Hal Bregg of Return from the Stars in strange, new settings.
   Thrust into the unknown, he used them to personify various aspects of
   the possible futures, often having them balance on the thin line
   separating his belief in the inherent goodness of humanity and his deep
   pessimism about human limitations.

   He also sometimes deploys a wicked sense of humor in his descriptions
   of even the darkest human situations--most famously in The
   Futurological Congress and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. In this regard,
   he has sometimes been compared to Kurt Vonnegut or Franz Kafka. Many of
   his lighter tales are about Ijon Tichy, a cosmic traveller in his
   one-man spaceship, whose adventures challenge commonly accepted ideas
   about things like time travel, the nature of the soul, and the origin
   of the universe, in a satiric and ironic, yet undeniably logical way.
   For example, in The Futurological Congress, Lem portrays a hilarious
   satire on government and academic conferences. In a Kafkaesque turn, at
   a hotel in Costa Rica, a conference to propose solutions to
   overpopulation in a time of violence and terrorism soon dissolves into
   anarchy as the hotel's water supply is contaminated by a hallucinogen.

   Three of his novels are likely his most famous. Solaris, twice adapted
   into a movie, is set on an isolated space station, is a deeply
   philosophical work about contact with a completely alien lifeform — a
   planet-wide sentient ocean. Głos Pana (His Master's Voice) is another
   classic of traditional science fiction themes. Also very philosophical
   - much more so then Solaris - it tells the story of the scientists
   effort to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial
   transmission, critically approaching humanity's intelligence and
   intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer
   space. Lem's third great book is The Cyberiad. Subtitled Fables for the
   Cybernetic Age, it is a collection of comic tales about two intelligent
   robots who travel about the galaxy solving engineering problems; but a
   deeper reading reveals a wealth of profound insights into the human
   condition.

Influence

   With translation into 36 languages and circulation of over twenty
   million copies, Lem is the most successful Polish author. Nonetheless
   his commercial success has been limited, as the bulk of his publication
   was made during the communist era in Poland in the COMECON countries
   (especially People's Republic of Poland, Soviet Union, and East
   Germany). Due to the communist economy his earnings were small despite
   the numbers of books sold. Only in West Germany did Lem enjoy both a
   critical and commercial success, though in the recent years the
   interest in his books has waned.

   The majority of Lem's works have been translated into English, making
   him unique amongst non-English science fiction writers. Much of his
   success in the English world can be credited to excellent translations
   by Michael Kandel.

   Stanisław Lem, whose works were influenced by such masters of Polish
   literature as Cyprian Norwid and Stanislaw Witkiewicz, chose the
   language of science fiction as in the communist People's Republic of
   Poland it was easier — and safer — to express ideas veiled in the world
   of fantasy and fiction than in the world of reality. Despite this — or
   perhaps because of this — he has become one of the most highly
   acclaimed science-fiction writers, hailed by critics as equal to the
   likes of H. G. Wells or Olaf Stapledon.

   Lem's works influenced not only the realm of literature, but that of
   science as well. In 1981 the philosophers Douglas R. Hofstadter and
   Daniel C. Dennett included three extracts from Lem’s fiction in their
   important annotated anthology The Mind's I. Hofstadter commented that
   Lem’s "literary and intuitive approach... does a better job of
   convincing readers of his views than any hard-nosed scientific
   article... might do"..

   Lem's works have even been used as text books for philosophy students.

   Texts by Lem were set to music by Esa-Pekka Salonen in his 1982 piece,
   Floof.

Works

Fiction

     * Człowiek z Marsa (1946, only in a magazine in sequels) - The Man
       from Mars. Lem's earliest novel of which he often said that 'it
       should be forgotten'; however he didn't prevent later
       republications
     * Szpital przemienienia (1948) - Novella, published in book form in
       1955 as Czas nieutracony: Szpital przemienienia. Non-SF book about
       a doctor working in a Polish asylum. Translated into English by
       William Brand as Hospital of the Transfiguration (1988). Released
       as a film in 1979.
     * Astronauci (Astronauts, 1951) - juvenile science fiction novel. In
       early 21st century, it is discovered that Tunguska meteorite was a
       crash of a reconnaissance ship from Venus, bound to invade the
       Earth. A spaceship sent to investigate finds that Venusians killed
       themselves in atomic war first. Released as a film in 1960.
     * Obłok Magellana ( The Magellanic Cloud, 1955, untranslated into
       English)
     * Sezam (1955) - Linked collection of short fiction, dealing with
       time machines used to clean up Earth's history in order to be
       accepted into intergalactic society. Not translated into English.
     * Dzienniki gwiazdowe (1957, expanded until 1971) - Collection of
       short fiction dealing with the voyages of Ijon Tichy. Translated
       into English and expanded as The Star Diaries (1976, translated by
       Michael Kandel), later published in 2 volumes as Memoirs of a Space
       Traveller (1982, second volume translated by Joel Stern).
     * Inwazja z Aldebarana (1959) - Collection of science fiction
       stories. Translated into English as The Invasion from Aldebaran.
     * The Investigation (Śledztwo, 1959; trans. 1974) - philosophical
       mystery novel. Released as a film in 1979.
     * Eden (1959) - Science fiction novel; after crashing their spaceship
       on the planet Eden, the crew discovers it is populated with an
       unusual society. Translated into English by Marc E. Heine as Eden
       (1989).
     * Ksiega robotów (1961) - Released in the US as Mortal Engines (also
       contains The Hunt from Tales of Pirx the Pilot).
     * Return from the Stars (Powrót z gwiazd, 1961; trans. 1980) - SF
       novel. An astronaut returns to Earth after a 127 year mission.
     * Solaris (1961) - SF novel. The crew of a space station is strangely
       influenced by the living ocean as they attempt communication with
       it. Translated into English from the French translation by Joanna
       Kilmartin and Steve Cox (author) as Solaris (1970). Made into a
       Russian film in 1972, and as a US film in 2002.
     * Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie, 1961;
       trans. 1973) - Novel set in the distant future about a secret
       agent, whose mission is so secret that no one can tell him what it
       is.
     * The Invincible (Niezwyciężony, 1964; translated by Wendayne
       Ackerman from the German translation 1973) - SF novel. The crew of
       a space cruiser searches for a disappeared ship on the planet Regis
       III, discovering swarms of insect-like micromachines.
     * The Cyberiad (Cyberiada, 1967; transl. by Michael Kandel 1974) -
       collection of humorous stories about the exploits of Trurl and
       Klapaucius, "constructors" among robots. The stories of Douglas
       Adams have been compared to the Cyberiad.
     * Głos pana (1968) - SF novel about the effort to translate an
       extraterrestrial radio transmission. Translated into English by
       Michael Kandel as His Master's Voice.
     * Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego; The Futurological Congress (Kongres
       futurologiczny, 1971) - An Ijon Tichy short story, published in the
       collection Bezsenność.
     * Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego; Professor A. Dońda (1971)
     * Doskonała próżnia (1971) - Collection of book reviews of
       nonexistent books. Translated into English by Michael Kandel as A
       Perfect Vacuum.
     * Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie (1973) - Collection of linked short
       fiction involving the career of Pirx. Translated into English in
       two volumes ( Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the
       Pilot)
     * Wielkość urojona (1973) - Collection of introductions to
       nonexistent books, as written by artificial intelligences.
       Translated into English as Imaginary Magnitude. Also includes Golem
       XIV, a lengthy essay/short story on the nature of intelligence
       delivered by eponymous US military computer. In the personality of
       Golem XIV, Lem with a great amount of humor describes an ideal of
       his own mind.
     * Katar (1975) - SF novel. A former US astronaut is sent to Italy to
       investigate a series of mysterious deaths. Translated into English
       as The Chain of Chance.
     * Golem XIV (1981) - Expansion of an essey/short story found in
       Wielkość urojona.
     * Wizja lokalna (1982) - Ijon Tichy novel about the planet Entia. Not
       translated into English.
     * Fiasco (Fiasko, 1986, trans. 1987) - SF novel concerning an
       expedition to communicate with an alien civilization that devolves
       into a major fiasco.
     * Biblioteka XXI wieku (1986) - Library of 21st Century includes
       Perfect Vacuum, Imaginary Magnitude and others
     * Peace on Earth (Pokój na Ziemi, 1987; transl. 1994) - Ijon Tichy
       novel. A callotomized Tichy returns to Earth, trying to reconstruct
       the events of his recent visit to the Moon.
     * Zagadka (The Riddle, 1996) - Short stories collection. Not
       translated into English.
     * Fantastyczny Lem (The fantastical Lem, 2001). Short stories
       collection. Not translated into English.

Nonfiction

     * Dialogi (1957) - Non-fiction work of philosophy. Translated into
       English by Frank Prengel as Dialogs.
     * Wejście na orbitę (1962) - Not translated into English. Title
       translates as Going into Orbit.
     * Summa Technologiae (1964) - Philosophical essay. Partially
       translated into English.
     * Filozofia Przypadku (1968) - Nonfiction. Not translated into
       English. Title translates to Philosophy of Coincidence or The
       Philosophy of Chance.
     * Fantastyka i futurologia (1970) - Critiques on science fiction.
       Some parts were translated into English in the magazine SF Studies
       in 1973-1975, selected material was translated in the single volume
       Microworlds (New York, 1986).
     * Rozprawy i szkice (1974) - Nonfiction collection of essays on
       science, science fiction, and literature in general. Not translated
       into English. Title translates to Essays and drafts.
     * Wysoki zamek (1975) - Autobiography of Lem's childhood before World
       War II. Translated into English as Highcastle: A Remembrance.
     * Rozprawy i szkice (1975) - Essays and sketches. Not translated into
       English.
     * Lube Czasy (1995) - Not translated into English. Title translates
       to Pleasant Times.
     * Dziury w całym (1995) - Not translated into English. Title
       translates to Looking for Problems.
     * Tajemnica chińskiego pokoju (1996) - Collection of essays on the
       impact of technology on everyday life. Not translated into English.
       Title translates to Mystery of the Chinese Room.
     * Sex Wars (1996) - Not translated into English.
     * Bomba megabitowa (1999) - Collection of essays about the potential
       downside of technology, including terrorism and artificial
       intelligence. Not translated into English. Title translates to The
       Megabit Bomb.
     * Świat na krawędzi (2000) - The World at the Edge. Interviews with
       Lem.
     * Okamgnienie (2000) - Collection of essays on technological progress
       since the publication of Summa Technologiae. Not translated into
       English. Title translates to A Blink of an Eye.
     * Tako rzecze Lem (2002) - Interviews with Lem. Not translated into
       English.
     * Mój pogląd na literaturę (My View of Literature, 2003) - Not
       translated into English.
     * Krótkie zwarcia (Short Circuits, 2004) - Essays. Not translated
       into English.
     * Lata czterdzieste. Dyktanda. (The 40s, 2005) - Lem's works from the
       1940s. Not translated into English.

Film and TV adaptations

   Lem was well-known for criticizing the films based on his work,
   including the famous interpretation of Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky
   (1972), which he claimed to be "Crime and Punishment in space."
     * Der Schweigende Stern (First Spaceship on Venus, 1959)
     * Przekładaniec (Layer Cake/Roly Poly, 1968, by Andrzej Wajda )
     * Ikarie XB1 (aka White Planet or Voyage to the End of the Universe,
       Czechoslovakia 1963) - based on Oblok Magellana, uncredited
     * Solaris ( 1972, by Andrei Tarkovsky)
     * Un si joli village (1973, by Étienne Périer)
     * Test pilota Pirxa or Дознание пилота Пиркса (The Investigation,
       joint Soviet-Hungary-Polish production, 1978, directed by Marek
       Piestrak)
     * Szpital przemienienia (Hospital of the Transfiguration, 1979, by
       Edward Zebrowski)
     * Victim of the Brain (1988, by Piet Hoenderdos)
     * Marianengraben (1994, directed by Achim Bornhak, written by Lem and
       Mathias Dinter)
     * Solaris ( 2002, by Steven Soderbergh)

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