Stanisław Lem

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Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem and toy cosmonaut in 1966
Born 12 September 1921
Lwów, Poland (now Ukraine)
Died 27 March 2006 (aged 84)
Kraków, Poland
Nationality Polish
Period 1946–2005
Genres Science fiction, philosophy, satire
lem.pl

Stanisław Lem (Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf ˈlɛm] ( listen); 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle.[1] His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies.[2] He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon said that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world.[3]

His works explore philosophical themes; 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, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns. Multiple translated versions of his works exist.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Youth and education

Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, Poland (now Ukraine). He was the son wished because of his "bourgeois origin" and only due to his father's connections was accepted to study medicine at Lwów University in 1940.[4] During World War II and the Nazi occupation (1941–1944), Lem survived with false papers, earning a living as a car mechanic and welder, and becoming active in the resistance. (Lem's family had Jewish ancestors,[5] and thus was in greater danger than they would have already been as Polish citizens and intellectuals.) In 1945, Polish eastern Kresy were annexed into the Soviet Ukraine[6] and the family, like many other Poles, was resettled to Kraków where Lem, at his father's insistence, took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. He refused to tailor his answers to the prevailing Lysenkoism and failed his final examinations on purpose so as not to be obliged to become a military doctor.[4] Earlier he had started working as a research assistant in a scientific institution and writing stories in his spare time.

Lem signing in Kraków, 30 October 2005

[edit] Writing career

Lem 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 science fiction novel Człowiek z Marsa (The Man from Mars) was serialized in the 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, during the era of Stalinism, all published works had to be directly approved by the communist regime. Lem finished a partly autobiographical novella Hospital of the Transfiguration (Szpital Przemienienia) in 1948, but it was suppressed by the authorities until 1955 when he added a sequel more acceptable to the doctrine of socialist realism. In 1951 he published his first book, Astronauci (The Astronauts); it was commissioned as juvenile SF and Lem was forced to include many references to the 'glorious future of communism' in it. He later criticized this novel (as well as several of his other early pieces, bowing to the ideological pressure) as simplistic; nonetheless its publication persuaded him to become a full-time writer.[6]

Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period in the Soviet Union led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues). Dialogi and Summa Technologiae (1964) are 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—for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.

[edit] Fame

He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe inhabited by robots (who had occasional contacts with biological "slimies" and human "palefaces"), first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris (1961), His Master's Voice (Głos pana, 1968), and the late Fiasco (Fiasko, 1987), expressing most strongly his major theme of 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;[6] in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.

In 1982, with martial law in Poland declared, Lem moved to West Berlin where he became a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). After that, he settled in Vienna. He returned to Poland in 1988.

In the early 1990s Lem met with a literary scholar and critic, Peter Swirski, for a series of extensive interviews, published together with other critical materials and translations as A Stanislaw Lem Reader (1997). In the book Lem speaks about a range of issues rarely before touched on in any interview. Moreover, the book includes Swirski's translation of Lem's retrospective essay, 'Thirty Year Later', devoted to Lem's legendary nonfictional treatise, Summa Technologiae. During later interviews in 2005, Lem expressed his disappointment with the genre of science fiction and his general pessimism regarding technical progress. He viewed the human body as unsuitable for space travel, held that information technology drowns people in a glut of low-quality information, and considered truly intelligent robots as both undesirable and impossible to construct.[7]

Lem died in Kraków on 27 March 2006 at the age of 84 due to heart disease.

[edit] Honors and accolades

[edit] SFWA controversy

Lem was awarded an honorary membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973 despite being technically ineligible. SFWA Honorary membership is given to people who do not meet the criteria for joining the regular membership but who would be welcomed as members. Lem, however, never had a high opinion of American science-fiction—particularly the works of Harlan Ellison—describing it as ill thought-out, poorly written, and interested more in making money than in ideas or new literary forms.[13] After his American publication, when he was eligible for regular membership, his honorary membership was rescinded. Some of the SFWA members apparently intended this as a rebuke,[14] and it seems that Lem interpreted it thus, but the organization's official line is that honorary membership is only extended to people who are not eligible for regular membership. After his American publication, Lem was invited to stay on with the organization with a regular membership, but declined.[15]

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 orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect.[16] After many members (including Ursula K. Le Guin) protested Lem's treatment by the SFWA, a member offered to pay his dues. Lem never accepted the offer.[13][15]

[edit] Themes

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Lem's work displays several recurring themes. The first major grouping of his fiction falls into a more traditional understanding of science fiction, with elements including speculation on technological advances, space travel and alien worlds. This group includes such works as Eden (1959), Return from the Stars (1961), Solaris (1961), The Invincible (1964), His Master's Voice (1968), and Tales of Pirx the Pilot (1968).[6] Fables of a dark nature make up the other grouping. These include The Star Diaries (1957), Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961), and The Cyberiad (1965).

One of Lem's primary themes was the impossibility of communication between humans and profoundly alien civilizations. His aliens are often incomprehensible to the human mind, be they swarms of mechanical insects (in The Invincible), a living ocean (in Solaris) or strangely ordered societies of more human-like beings in Fiasco and Eden, describing 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 Master's Voice Lem describes the failure of humanity's intelligence 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. His criticism of most science fiction surfaced in novels (His Master's Voice), literary and philosophical essays (Fantastyka i futurologia) and interviews.[17] In the 1990s Lem forswore science fiction and returned to futurological prognostications, most notably those expressed in Okamgnienie (Blink of an Eye). He became increasingly critical of modern technology in his later life, criticizing inventions such as the Internet.[18]

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 narrator 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 often 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.

Three of his novels are likely his most famous.[6] The philosophical Solaris, filmed three times, is set on an isolated research station above the planet Solaris, which is home to a unique alien lifeform. Głos Pana (His Master's Voice) is a very philosophical - much more so than Solaris - story of a scientific effort to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial transmission, critically approaching humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from space. Finally, The Cyberiad, pointedly subtitled "Fables for the Cybernetic Age", provides a commentary on humanity in the form of a series of comic short stories relating the adventures of two robot 'constructors' who handle engineering issues around the galaxy.

[edit] Influence

Franz Rottensteiner, Lem's former agent, was instrumental in introducing him to the Western audience, but they later separated on bitter terms. Rottensteiner summarized his importance:

With [number of translations and copies sold], Lem is the most successful author in modern Polish fiction; nevertheless his commercial success in the world is limited, and the bulk of his large editions was due to the special publishing conditions in the Communist countries: Poland, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic). Only in West Germany was Lem really a critical and a commercial success [... and everywhere... ] in recent years interest in him has waned. But he is the only writer of European SF of whom most books have been translated into English, and [...] kept in print in the USA. Lem's critical success in English is due mostly to the excellent translations of Michael Kandel...

— Franz Rottensteiner , View from Another Shore: European Science Fiction , second updated edition, Liverpool University Press 1999, ISBN 0-85323942-8, Note on the Authors: Stanislaw Lem, p. 252

Stanisław Lem, whose works were influenced by such masters of Polish literature as Cyprian Norwid and Stanisław 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[citation needed]. 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.[19]

Lem's works influenced not only the realm of literature, but that of science as well. For example, Return from the Stars includes the "opton", which is often cited as the first published appearance of the idea of electronic paper.

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".[19]

[edit] Other

  • Will Wright's popular city planning game, SimCity, was partly inspired by Lem's short story, "The Seventh Sally."[20]
  • Lem's works have been used as teaching texts for philosophy students.[21]

[edit] Works

[edit] Fiction

  • Man From Mars translated by Peter Swirski (see also pl:Człowiek z Marsa), 1946. Short novel, originally published in magazine serial form, reissued in the 1990s after a German translation rekindled interest in this very first novel. In 2009 for the first time a long excerpt from Chapter 1 translated into English by Peter Swirski and published with permission of Lem's family in an online literary magazine Words Without Borders
  • Hospital of the Transfiguration (pl:Szpital Przemienienia, written 1948) – partly autobiographical novella about a doctor working in a Polish asylum during the nazi euthanasia program Action T4, published in expanded form in 1955 as Czas nieutracony: Szpital przemienienia. Translated into English by William Brand in 1988. Made in Poland into a film in 1979.[22]
  • The Astronauts (Astronauci, 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. Made into a film in 1960.[23]
  • The Magellanic Cloud (Obłok Magellana, 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).
  • The Invasion from Aldebaran (pl:Inwazja z Aldebarana, 1959) – Collection of science fiction stories.
  • The Investigation (Śledztwo, 1959; trans. 1974 by Adele Milch) – philosophical mystery novel. The book was made into a short film of the same name by Marek Piestrak in 1973.[24]
  • 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).
  • Mortal Engines (pl:Bajki robotów,1961) – Also contains The Hunt from Tales of Pirx the Pilot.
  • Return from the Stars (Powrót z gwiazd, 1961; trans. 1980 by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson) – 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 in 1970. Made into a Russian film in 1972, and 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, 1965; trans. 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.[25]
  • His Master's Voice (Głos pana,1968) – SF novel about the effort to translate an extraterrestrial transmission. Translated by Michael Kandel as His Master's Voice.
  • Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego; The Futurological Congress (Kongres futurologiczny, 1971) – An Ijon Tichy novella, published in the collection Bezsenność.
  • Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego; Professor A. Dońda (1971)
  • A Perfect Vacuum (Doskonała próżnia, 1971) – Collection of reviews of fictional books. Translated into English by Michael Kandel.
  • 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)
  • Imaginary Magnitude (pl:Wielkość urojona, 1973) – Collection of introductions to nonexistent books. 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. Spanish edition: Magnitud imaginaria by Editorial Impedimenta Madrid, 2010.
  • Katar (The Cold, 1975) – borderline SF novel. A former US astronaut is sent to Italy to investigate a series of mysterious deaths. Translated as The Chain of Chance.
  • Golem XIV (1981) – Expansion of an essay/story from Wielkość urojona.
  • Observation on the Spot (pl: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.
  • Library of 21st Century (Biblioteka XXI wieku, 1986) – 3 more fictional reviews; translated as One Human Minute
  • Peace on Earth (Pokój na Ziemi, 1987; transl. 1994) – Ijon Tichy novel. A callotomised Tichy returns to Earth, trying to reconstruct the events of his recent visit to the Moon.
  • The Riddle (Zagadka, 1996) – Short stories collection. Not translated into English.
  • The Fantastical Lem (Fantastyczny Lem, 2001) – Short stories collection. Not translated into English.

[edit] Nonfiction

unless noted, not translated into English

[edit] Dramatic adaptations

Lem was well known for criticizing the films based on his work, including the famous characterization of Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky as "Crime and Punishment in space".

[edit] Opera adaptation

  • The Cyberiad (1970; 2nd version 1985), by Krzysztof Meyer; broadcast by Polish Television (1st act, 1971), staged in Wuppertal (Germany) (1986)
  • Solaris (2010-2012) (2012), by Detlev Glanert, libretto by Reinhard Palm, staged in Bregenz (Germany) (2012)[28]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Orzeł Biały dla Lema (White Eagle for Lem), article in "Gazeta Wyborcza" nr 217, 17 September 1996, page 2
  2. ^ Stanislaw Lem 1921 - 2006. Obituary at Lem's official site
  3. ^ Theodore Sturgeon: Introduction to Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc, New York 1976
  4. ^ a b Stanislaw Lem about himself
  5. ^ Stanislaw Lem: Chance and Order, autobiographical essay, The New Yorker 59 (30 January 1984) 88-98]
  6. ^ a b c d e Lem, Stanislaw. (2006) In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 June 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service
  7. ^ Auch Hosenträger sind intelligent, Zeit Wissen, 1/2005; Im Ramschladen der Phantasie, Zeit Wissen, 3/2005. (German)
  8. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 325. ISBN 3540002383. http://books.google.com/books?q=3836+Lem+1979+SR9. 
  9. ^ UCHWAŁA NR VIII/122/07 Rady Miasta Krakowa z dnia 14 marca 2007 r. w sprawie nazw ulic. Par.1, pkt.1 (Polish)
  10. ^ Uchwała nr XXXII/479/2009 Rady Miejskiej w Wieliczce z dnia 30 września 2009 r. w sprawie nadania nazwy ulicy (Polish)
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ Google creates doodle in Stanislaw Lem's book, The Guardian Retrieved on 23 November 2011
  13. ^ a b Stanislaw Lem - Frequently Asked Questions
  14. ^ The Lem Affair (Continued)
  15. ^ a b "Lem and SFWA". Archived from the original on 2008-01-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20080111142618/http://www.sfwa.org/faq/lem.htm.  in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America FAQ, "paraphrasing Jerry Pournelle" who was SFWA President 1973-4
  16. ^ P.K.Dick, Letter to FBI quoted on Lem's homepage
  17. ^ Stanislaw Lem - Interview February 2003
  18. ^ "Shargh" daily newspaper interview
  19. ^ a b "Stanislaw Lem". The Times. 2006-03-28. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1082652.ece. 
  20. ^ Lew, Julie (June 15, 1989). "Making City Planning a Game". nytimes.com. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4D71F3AF936A25755C0A96F948260. Retrieved May 28, 2010. 
  21. ^ For instance, in the subject Natural and Artificial Thinking, Faculty of Math. & Phys., Charles University in Prague, or Philosophy in sci-fi at Masaryk University in Brno
  22. ^ Hospital of the Transfiguration at the Internet Movie Database
  23. ^ The Astronauts at the Internet Movie Database
  24. ^ Polish Studies Center
  25. ^ Vitrifax: On Stanislaw Lem - The Cyberiad
  26. ^ Ikarie XB 1 (1963)
  27. ^ About show Thirty-Minute Theatre on TV.com
  28. ^ Detlev Glanert - Solaris - Opera

[edit] Further reading

  • Peter Swirski, Stanislaw Lem Reader, Northwestern University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-81011495-X description
  • Peter Swirski, "Stanislaw Lem." In Science Fiction Writers; Revised Edition. Ed. Richard Bleiler. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 453-466.
  • Peter Swirski, Between Literature and Science: Poe, Lem, and Explorations in Aesthetics, Cognitive Science, and Literary Knowledge, McGill-Queen's UP, 2000, ISBN 0773520783
  • Peter Swirski, From Lowbrow to Nobrow, CHAPTER 6, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, ISBN 0773530193
  • Peter Swirski (ed), The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008, ISBN 0773530479
  • Peter Swirski, Of Literature and Knowledge: Explorations in Narrative Thought Experiments, Evolution, and Game Theory", CHAPTER 5, Routledge, 2007, ISBN 0415420601
  • Peter Swirski, "A Taste of Lem—Early Works by the Polish Writer and Polymath Who Has Given His Name to an Asteroid.” Times Literary Supplement April 17 (2009): 14-15.
  • Acta Lemiana Monashiensis ed. Lech Keller, „Acta Polonica Monashiensis" 2002, vol. 2, nr 2 Monash University 2003, 207 p., ISSN 1326-8562 review in Polish
  • Lech Keller, Visions of the Future in the Writings of Stanislaw Lem (Volume 1, "Visions of the Future") Saarbrücken, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010, 392 p., ISBN 978-3-8383-5900-7
  • Lech Keller, Visions of the Future in the Writings of Stanislaw Lem (Volume 2, "Annotated and Cross-Referenced Primary and Secondary Bibliography of Stanislaw Lem") Saarbrücken, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010, 696 p., ISBN 978-3-8383-6942-6
  • Jameson, Fredric. "The Unknowability Thesis." In Archaeologies of the Future: This Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London and New York: Verso, 2005.
  • Suvin, Darko. "Three World Paradigms for SF: Asimov, Yefremov, Lem." Pacific Quarterly (Moana): An International Review of Arts and Ideas 4.(1979): 271-283.

[edit] External links

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