Lem's Books
As a young person, I loved science-fiction. My favourite writer was a famous Polish author Stanisław Lem. He is not as well known in English-speaking countries. However, many of his books were translated into multiple languages, including English. One of his novels, “Solaris,” was made into a movie, first in the USSR by Tarkovsky (1972), and later in the USA by Sodebergh (2002).
Lem was not entirely a science-fiction writer. He actually gave up writing in standard science-fiction genre quite early. American SF of the day was according to him, pulp-quality, and only interesting as a genre rather than for the quality of individual works – with a few notable exceptions. He did appreciate the works of Philip K. Dick for example. However, he did not have many kind words for cookie-cutter stories about invasions, monsters from flying saucers, or space opera series.
Lem aimed to write more interesting stories than that. Many were indeed set in far away worlds or in space, but only incidentally. It was simply a means to present issues that humanity faced, in stark relief of unfamiliar surroundings. His most interesting series of stories, “The Cyberiad” was set within a civilization of robots, whose culture was recognizably medieval. It included kings, knights, dragons, and the main protagonists were a pair of engineers or “constructors” working for hire. These are stories of robot love, political intrigue, pirate adventures, and stories within stories. The excellent English language translations by Michael Kandel were written in a style based on the language of Chaucer. They convey an impression of “ancient times,” but with ubiquitous, all-pervasive technology. It evokes vague associations with steampunk, but that’s a superficial similarity. These stories are fun, humorous, full of occasions for deep thought. You really should read them as Lem’s reflecting — and despairing — about the human condition.
Lem’s works were grounded in his philosophical thinking, and explore wide vistas offered by the new science of cybernetics at the time of writing. They were also grounded in politics of the day. Lem later said “People thought I was writing comedy, but really, I did it because steam was coming out of my ears!” Example: a story about an orchestra, where all instruments were fake. Once the musicians complained, the instruments were replaced with real ones, but the jubilation did not last. A monster, in the shape of a giant gorilla, came out of a cage and started eating the musicians. They communicated their displeasure privately by ventriloquist whispers, but openly praised their king and had no complaints. I wonder what someone from a democratic country would think about this setup? Living under the Communist regime, we all understood the allusion to the repressive politics, including arbitrary arrests, detention, disappearance of individuals, and risk involved in criticizing the authorities.
Now if you think that Lem limited himself to allegories and black humour, you need to learn about the entire range of his writings. I have 33 volumes of his combined works. Besides straight SF, there are books containing reviews of works that never existed, except in Lem’s imagination. Other ones contain prefaces to imaginary works. There is a treatease about technologies of the future. It correctly predicts Virtual Reality, the Internet, and ubiquitous access to information – 20 years before these things came to pass! Another, a book written as a dialogue of two philosophers, is a straight-up critique of the political system, written at the time when criticizing it was really dangerous, and landed people in labour camps. I guess the censors did not catch on, because the book was published without any trouble. There are movie scripts and theatre plays. Essays about the impact of new scientific concepts on literature and literary criticism. A memoir from the city where Lem was born (Lvov, now in Ukraine.) A story of horrors in a psychiatric hospital in Poland under Hitler’s occupation. Finally, poetry from Lem’s youth.
Early on, I became familiar with most of Lem’s books. I read and re-read them to the detriment of my school work. My favourite way of procrastinating was to hide a book on my lap, and read it while I was pretending to do my homework. As a result, I went to sleep way too late, because well, the homework had to be done. I made up for it on Sunday mornings, sleeping until 1pm.
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