
The Case for Stanislaw Lem - Schiphol
https://onezero.medium.com/the-case-for-stanislaw-lem-one-of-science-fictions-unsung-giants-94aee43db04f
======
virtualritz
I grew up with Lem's works as a kid, teenager and young adult in West Germany
in the 80's. Lem spoke German so he was involved with the translations and
there wasn't anything he wrote that didn't get translated to German. Not least
because East Germany, together with Poland, was part of the Soviet block.

I read 'Eden' when I was in 3rd grade -- my dad left it laying on the table in
our living room. It had the world 'alien' as part of the subtitle so I was
hooked.

When my dad found out, about a year later, that I read and grokked the book he
read my three years younger brother and me the 'The Invincible' as a bedtime
story over many nights. My poor little brother. :)

I think it was 'Eden' that thus set the standard for my expectations of sci-fi
(aka: hard sci-fi).

It was probably also the reason that I am forever disappointed by the pale
vision of blockbuster and series sci-fi. Or most sci-fi in general, written or
filmed.

And I often have deja-vus when I read contemporary sci-fi because of my
exposure to Lem. When I e.g. read Watt's 'Blindsight' I couldn't help
comparing it to Lem's 'Fiasko'.

I never understood the public's focus on 'Solaris' and even less how both
movies missed the core theme of the book so badly.

And lastly: there is unfortunately a substantial body of shorter works from
Lem that has still not been translated to English.

~~~
chewz
It was 'Invincible' for me.

And Pilot Pirx stories - the atmosphere that flying spaceships is just dirty,
demanding, lonely job like driving a lorry. 1978 Polish-Soviet film based on
'Pilot Pirx Test' was very good ...

[https://youtu.be/JSft0QLoVpQ](https://youtu.be/JSft0QLoVpQ)

And Futurological Congress.

EDIT: Also Perfect Void (Doskonała Próżnia) and Imaginary Value (Wielkość
Urojona) - introductions to non-existing books and Inquiry (Śledztwo) - one of
two Lem's quirky crime novels about mysterily disapearing corpses from
mortuaries...

[https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_pierwszych_wyda%C5%84_...](https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_pierwszych_wyda%C5%84_dzie%C5%82_Stanis%C5%82awa_Lema_drukiem_zwartym)

~~~
minxomat
There was a German TV show adapted from that:
[https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/)
(Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot)

It's pretty quirky. A mix of Lem and maybe old school Doctor Who. It operated
on zero budget and thus had a few charming props.

If you understand German I highly recommend it. Sadly it's almost impossible
to translate to other languages because of the made up dialect used in it,
which is the basis for much of its comedy. But looking at clips on YouTube
should give you some idea.

~~~
trwired
> There was a German TV show adapted from that:
> [https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/)
> (Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot)

I just want to point out that Ijon Tichy is a different character than Pirx
and a hero of its own series of tales. The confusion is understandable,
because at at a glance they appear to be very similar characters.

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abetusk
Stanislaw Lem is one of my favorite authors. "His Masters Voice" is one of my
favorite books.

"Cyberiad" and "Mortal Engines" are also great books but much more playful and
probably geared towards a younger audience, even if some of the subject matter
is philosophically deep.

I think Stanislaw Lem kind of suffered from the same fate as Gibson's work in
that there have been a few attempts at making them into movies but they
haven't ever really took off or translated well.

I do wish his books were in the public domain, though.

~~~
m4rtink
Tarkovskis Solaris is really good.

~~~
reedwolf
Lem hated it. He said Tarkovski turned his book into a Dostoyevsky novel.

The problem is that it focused almost exclusively on the relationship drama
and jettisoned the science fiction.

~~~
adrianN
I found the movie to be _incredibly_ boring, so I read the book to find out if
it was just a bad adaption. In my opinion the book was even more boring.

~~~
Sharlin
Well, you can’t watch a Tarkovski movie and expect gripping or drama. The same
goes for Lem’s books. They just require a different mindset.

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SarikayaKomzin
I got a 404, so I did a quick Google search. This seems to be the article in
question —> [https://onezero.medium.com/the-case-for-stanislaw-lem-one-
of...](https://onezero.medium.com/the-case-for-stanislaw-lem-one-of-science-
fictions-unsung-giants-94aee43db04f)

I am excited to read it. I just finished reading Solaris for the first time,
and it was mind-changing. I highly recommend it to any of you who haven’t read
it.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_\(novel\))

~~~
FlyMoreRockets
> I just finished reading Solaris for the first time, and it was mind-
> changing.

I have heard Solaris refered to as being mind-changing before. What was it
about Solaris that impacted you so much?

After first hearing about Solaris decades ago, I finally got around to reading
it upon learning of his passing. I must have missed something because it
didn't strike me as living up to its reputation.

~~~
goatlover
Solaris is different from most scifi in which aliens are presented in largely
anthropomorphic terms. They're either humanoids, monsters from our nightmares,
or they take on the form of humans or human communication. What they lack is
the quality of being truly alien.

The Solaris ocean is utterly alien to the point that the humans are unable to
understand and communicate with it, despite it clearly possessing some form of
intelligence. The alien isn't a mirror for the human reader. It also presents
issues for science, since Solaris can't be understood, implying that science
is limited by our being human. And that kind of mind-blowing.

~~~
Udik
> The Solaris ocean is utterly alien to the point that the humans are unable
> to understand and communicate with it

This is the theme of all Lem's novels involving aliens: Planet Eden, Fiasco,
Solaris, The Invincible and His Master's Voice. It's the opposite of our
Western optimistic idea that we can face any challenge and solve any riddle,
either thanks to a universality of scientific reasoning (such as in Greg
Egan's novels) or because the aliens are nothing other than Americans or Nazis
in rubber costumes (as in most SF blockbusters).

~~~
goatlover
There are even people who think we can solve the "problem" of entropy and find
a way to keep civilization going beyond the heat death of the universe, and
this is a challenge we should start working on. It sounds absurdly optimistic.

Then again, I have no idea what life might do trillions of years in the
future, if there is any life around then. But if there is, I highly doubt it
will be remotely human, so what difference would it make to us now?

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cageface
Lem was a brilliant writer and I’d recommend his books to anyone, not just
science fiction fans.

The author of this article seems to have an ideological axe to grind though.
Lem himself was never so humorless and hamfisted. In fact his books are often
very funny.

~~~
pharmhax
The Star Diaries are a great example of his funnier (yet still remarkably
thoughtful) writing.

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puzzlingcaptcha
I wish Janusz Zajdel had more recognition abroad. I believe only a few of his
works were ever translated to English and you can draw interesting parallels
between them and Lem's books.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel)

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lykahb
Stanislaw Lem is a brilliant writer. It is unfortunate that the article tells
about him through the lens of the Golden Age and modern progressive views,
which hardly relate to him.

As many other authors behind the Iron Curtain, he was largely isolated from
the contemporary Western cultural influence. His biography and the vibrant
Polish surrealism scene would give a much better background.

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kabdib
One of Lem's translators, Michael Kandel, wrote a few good books of his own. I
really liked _Strange Invasion_ and _Panda Ray_.

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jeffchuber
"Summa Technologiae" is also quite excellent and incredibly prophetic.

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QuesnayJr
Lem's Ijon Tichy stories are surprisingly funny. He has a reputation for
seriousness (because of "Solaris", I assume), but they're among the funniest
sci-fi stories I've ever read.

~~~
nabla9
Ijon Tichy is there with HHGTG.

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hristov
I am a huge fan of Lem and it is good to see these books are getting new
translations and editions. I also like the cool 50s sci fi covers.

But something is really annoying me -- why did they spell the name of the
author in Polish? You have to decide whether the book is in English or Polish
and if you have an English book you should have an English cover, otherwise
you are just going to confuse your customers. If you print the largest writing
on the cover in Polish a lot of people looking at the cover will quite
understandably think the entire book is in Polish.

I know the Polish has a cool looking L and all but that is not sufficient to
cause confusion.

Also the guy deserves to have his name correctly pronounced by people who read
him, as much as practical for people with a foreign language, and the Polish W
is pronounced as a V. Thus, for an English speaker it is better to just write
Stanislav.

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gboss
I love Stanislaw Lem's work. I particularly enjoyed Futurological Congress. It
was so absurd but I loved how it explored how it is never possible to be 100%
sure that what you are experience is "real". The trippiness of all of the
drugs and absurd situations was hilarious. Highly recommend.

~~~
adz_6891
Yes! I also really enjoyed the Futurological Congress. The film rendition,
while straying from the short story significantly, is still worth watching I
think. [https://imdb.com/title/tt1821641](https://imdb.com/title/tt1821641)

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HONEST_ANNIE
Good selection. 'Return from the Stars' is more relevant today than it was
when it was written. Its a story about sociocultural evolution and Lem clearly
has a deep insight.

(the book has tablet computers and e-paper too).

~~~
fpoling
Return from the stars is my favorite. In a some sense it is still about how to
deal aliens that we cannot understand, it is just the aliens is future
society.

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fpoling
Among film adaptations of Lem’s works I like “Inquest of Pilot Pirx” from 1979
the best. It is rather off from the story, but at least it portrayed Pirx
close to how I imagined him.

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arkj
Off topic:

>>he was was in peak form during the ’60s and ’70s

Is this usage correct? Or is the second “was” a typo?

I am not a native English speaker so forgive if this is something very basic.

~~~
ngvrnd
error/typo

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alex_young
Another interesting read: Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

It’s a bit dark, but a fun jump down the post apocalyptic bureaucratic
wormhole where everyone is spying on everyone and nothing is safe.

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00ajcr
For fans of crime/detective novels, I would not hesitate to recommend 'The
Chain of Chance'.

Utterly gripping, fascinating, and a gateway to Lem's sci-fi works.

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ngvrnd
Lem was a great author of real imaginative fiction. His novels shaped my world
view more than any other SF author. I hope more of his stuff gets republished.

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chiph
As long as they don't make a machine that can make anything, provided it
starts with the letter "N", I'm all for it.

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FpUser
I absolutely love Lem. He is a giant in my eyes. Very nice to know that MIT
has decided to reprint some of his work.

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quijoteuniv
Lem explains “the human problem”

