Stanislaw Lem

[Stalker]

Stanislaw Lem, Writer

• Born: 12 September 1921
• Birthplace: Lwów, Poland (now Lvov, Ukraine)
• Best Known As: The author of Solaris

Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is a world famous science fiction author whose books include Eden (1959) and Solaris (1961). Born and raised in Lwów, Poland (now Lvov, Ukraine), Lem turned to writing after studying and working in medicine. He first wrote realistic stories and poems, but in the 1950s he turned to writing science fiction. Lem's books frequently use sarcastic humor and philosophical themes to explore the relationship between humans and machines. In the 1980s several of his books were published in English and he wrote essays for American magazines, and his reputation grew as one of the greats in the genre of science fiction. His other books include Cyberiada (1965), Tales of Pirx the Pilot (1968) and Okamgnienie (2000). His book, Solaris, has been made into a movie twice, first in 1972 by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, then again in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh.

Books by Stanislaw Lem:

The Fables.

The Cyberiad (Cyberiada),
Tales of Trurl and Klaupaucius, constructor robots in an age where flesh-and-blood are the stuff of legends.

How the World Was Saved Trurl's Machine A Good Shellacking The Seven Sallies of Trurl and Klaupaucius (Cyberiada)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. English translation copyright 1977 by The Seabury Press. Translated with an introduction by Michael Kandel.

Fables from the cybernetic age. The first eleven stories are from the third edition (1972) of Cyberiada in a section called Bajki robotów (Fables for Robots). ``The Sanitorium of Dr. Vliperdius'' is from the fourth (1971) edition of Dzienniki gwiazowe. ``The Hunt'' was previously published in the second (1973) edition of Opowiesci o Pilocie Pirxie. ``The Mask'' was previously published in Maska by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1976.

Ijon Tichy.

The Star Diaries (Dzienniki gwiazdowe), Czytelnik, Warsaw, 1971. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. English translation copyright 1976 The Continuum Publishing Corporation. Translated by Michael Kandel. Line drawings by Lem.

The best English work of Tichology to date. Includes the Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-eighth voyages of Ijon Tichy (Ijona Tichego), but not the apocryphal twenty-ninth.

Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy, Originally published in Dzienniki gwiazdowe.

Further adventures of Ijon Tichy. Includes the Eighteenth and Twenty-fourth voyages, ``Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy,'' ``The Washing Machine Tragedy,'' ``Doctor Diagoras,'' and ``Let Us Save the Universe.''

The Futurological Congress: from the memoirs of Ijon Tichy
(Ze wspomnien Ijona Tichego; Kongres futurologiczny), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. English translation copyright 1974. Translated by Michael Kandel.

Cosmonaut Ijon Tichy attends the Eight Futurological Conference, held in a third world resort hotel. While delegates discuss the future, a revolution rages outside the hotel. Ijon is injured and wakes up in the year 2039 and a future nobody predicted. The only science fiction story I am aware of which includes a Linotronics typesetting machine as a character.

The Scene of the Crime (Wisja Lokalna), 1982. An Ijon Tichy novel. As far as I know, this has not been published outside of Europe.

Peace on Earth (Pokoj na Ziemi), 1987. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1994. English translation copyright 1994 by Harcourt Brace & Company. Translated by Elinor Ford with Michael Kandel.

Ijon Tichy is asked to save the Earth by spying on the robots that now inhabit the Moon. In the process, a robot performs a remote callotomy on Ijon. That is, it bisects his brain front to back along the corpus-callosum. This leaves Ijon in a state of conflict with himself as his vocal left hemisphere attempts to understand and communicate with his silent, but persistent, right hemisphere. Meanwhile, Ijon is pursued by agents and double agents who want to know what Ijon (or half of him anyway) knows. Local Inspection (Wizja lokalna), 1982.

Ijon Tichy who travels to a planet where evolution took a different turn. Inteligent life forms evolved from birds.

Space Opera and Early SF.

Man from Mars (Czlowiek z Marsa), 1946. According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction this was published as ``episodes in a weekly.'' I have a report, however, that it was published in book form in Poland.

The Astronauts (Astronauci), 1951. Translated into German by Rudolf Pabel.

An alien artifact is found in Siberia, which proves to be a ship from Venus that crashed in 1908. A ship is dispatched to Venus to make contact.

The Magellan Nebula (Oblok Magellana), 1955.
Early science fiction story.

Sesame (Sezam), 1955. Collection of Lem's early time-travel stories. An Earth institution sends time machines with trained crews back to repair the past by correcting the earth's horrors, and allowing it to enter intergalactic society. The time machines are, for the most part, unreliable and our past deteriorates further. According to Lem, this was the archetype for the Ijon Tichy stories. Never translated into English.

Invasion from Aldebaran (Inwazja z Aldebarana), 1959.
Collection of SF-short stories.

Do you exist, Mr. Johnes? Friend. Test. Albatross. The Invasion from Aldebaran. Darkness and Mildes. Hammer. Invasion. Exodus.

Eden, 1959.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. English translation copyright 1989 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Translated by Marc E. Heine.

The ship crash lands on Eden and Captain, Engineer, Physicist, Chemist, Cyberneticist and Doctor must make repairs. While exploring they encounter a collective society that is either uninterested or afraid of making contact. What we learn of the society of Eden is filtered through the beliefs and expectations of the ship's crew, and tells us more about them and their own society then about Eden. Solaris, 1961.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987. English translation copyright 1970 by Faber and Faber Ltd. and Walker and Company. Translated from the French by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox.

Solaris is a planet whose ocean is a vast amoeba-like brain. It creates structures and images that may indicate an intelligence, but all attempts to communicate with it have failed. When Kris Kelvin travels to Solaris he is confronted by a visitor from his past; a visitor that should not exist. Was this Solaris trying to communicate? Or, was it defending itself? Can we communicate with a species so different?

This is one of several Lem books that deal with attempts to communicate with a different intelligence. In 1971 Solaris was made into a movie by Soviet film producer Andrei Tarkovsky. In Tarkovsky's Solaris, our attempts to understand Solaris are blocked by our psychological resistance to understanding ourselves.

The Invincible (Niezwyciezony),
English translation copyright 1973 by Charter Communications, Inc. Published by The Seabury Press. Translated into from the German by Wendayne Ackerman. German edition: Der Unbesiegbare, Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin (East), 1967. Translated by Roswitha Dietrich.

The crew of the Invincible investigates the loss of the Condor on Regis III. This is an early Lem novel, but many elements of his later fiction are present: robots and cyberneticist, machine evolution, and mechanical insects. The story is told mostly from the view of Rohan, the first mate and navigator. Rohan is a Lem character prescient of Pilot Pirx---outwardly simple and down to earth, but with the necessary wits to get the job done.

Return From the Stars (Powrot s gwiazd), 1961.
Avon Books, 1982. English translation copyright 1980 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson.

Hal Bregg returns from an interstellar expedition to the world he left 127 years before. Violence has been eliminated along with the desire to take risks and explore. Includes a brief scene from the furnaces where robots go to die that is reminiscent of The Cyberiad.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Opowiesci o pilocie Pirxie),
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. English translation copyright 1979 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Louis Iribarne.
Five stories about Pilot Pirx.
The Test. The Conditioned Reflex. On Patrol. The Albatross. Terminus.

More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. English translation copyright 1982 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Louis Iribarne with the assistance of Magdalena Majcherczyk and by Michael Kandel.

Fiasco (Fiasko), 1986. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. English translation copyright 1987 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Translated by Michael Kandel.

The Hermes lands on the planet Quinta seeking knowledge. Quinta, however, is locked in an arms race and not in a very trusting mood.

Darkness and Mildew (Ciemnosc i plesn), 1988. This is the title of a short story from Invasion from Aldebaron, so this is likely a collection of early Lem stories.


Statistical Tales.

The Investigation (Sledztwo), 1959, 1969. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. English translation copyright 1974 by The Continuum Publishing Corporation. Translated by Adele Milch.

A statistical science fiction mystery. Bodies are disappearing, and a Scotland Yard investigator unravels the mystery with the aid of scientific, philosophical and theological consultants.

The Investigation was made into a movie in 1979 by director Étienne Périer.

His Master's Voice (Glos pana), 1968. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. English translation copyright 1983 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Michael Kandel. Told as the memoirs of Professor Peter E. Hogarth, ``His Master's Voice'' is a Los Alamos-like project to decipher an extraterrestrial transmission. The transmission, however, may be much more then a simple message.

The Chain of Chance (Katar), 1975.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. English translation copyright 1978 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Louis Iribane [sic.].

A former astronaut helps Interpol solve a series of mysterious deaths. Multivariate statistics play an important rôle in this story, and come closer to the truth then it might at first seem.

Paranoia.

Memoirs Found In a Bathtub (Pamietnik znaleziony w wannie), 1971. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. English translation copyright 1973 by The Continuum Publishing Corporation. Translated by Michael Kandel and Christine Rose.
A paranoid story from the year 3149 in a world without paper. The protagonist is given a mission so secret that nobody has a clearance to tell it to him. Spies, counter-spies and counter-courter-spies stand in his way as he attempts to solve the mystery of his mission.

Of Books Not Written.

Imaginary Magnitude (Wielkosc urojona), 1973. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. English translation copyright 1984 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Translated by Marc E. Heine.

Introductions to authentic fictitious books. ``Lecture XLIII---About Itself'' and ``Afterword'' first appeared in Golem XIV (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1981). There is also a title called Biblioteka XXI wieku (Library of the XXI Century) which may be a part of this collection.

Introduction Cerary Strzybisz, Necrobes Introduction Reginald Gulliver, Eruntics Introduction Juan Rambellais et al., A History of Bitic Literature, Volume I Introduction Introduction to the Second Edition Vestrand's Extelopedia in 44 Magnetomes Proffertinc Sample Pages Golem XIV Foreword Introduction Instructions Golem's Inaugural Lecture---About Man Threefold Lecture XLIII---About Itself Afterword

A Perfect Vacuum (Doskonala Próznia), 1971. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. English translation copyright 1978, 1979 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Michael Kandel.

Reviews of authentic fictional books.

A Perfect Vacuum, by S. Lem Les Robinsonades, by Marcel Coscat Gigamesh, by Patrick Hannahan Sexplosion, by Simon Merrill Gruppenführer Louis XVI, by Alfred Zellermann Rien du tout, ou la conséquence, by Solange Marriot Pericalypsis, by Joachim Fersengeld Idiota, by Gian Carlo Spallanzani U-Write-It Odysseus of Ithaca, by Kuno Mlatje Toi, by Raymond Seurat Being Inc., by Alastair Waynewright Die Kultur als Fehler, by Wilhelm Klopper De Impossibilitate Vitae, by Cezar Kouska Non Serviam The New Cosmogony

One Human Minute, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. English translation copyright 1986 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Translated by Catherine S. Leach.

Other Fiction.

Hospital of the Transfiguration (Szpital przemienienia), 1948, 1955. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991 English translation copyright 1988 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by William Brand.

Lem's first novel. Stefan Trzyniecki is a young doctor who position in a Polish asylum to avoid the Nazis. He finds a world not much different from that outside.

Szpital przemienienia was made into a movie in 1979 by director Edward Zebrowski.

Time Saved (Czas nieutracony), 1955. Early novel. ``An intellectual finding his way from solitude to sociopolitical meaning'' (The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.)

Lem is also known as the author of fundamental works for science (speculative) fiction, such as:
Summa Technologiae, 1964. "a breathtakingly brilliant and risky survey of possible social, informational, cybernetic, cosmologic and biological engineering in Man's game with Nature'' (The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.) This has not been fully translated into English, but a translation by Frank Prengel is in progress.

Fantasy and Futurology I and II (Fantastyka i futurologia), 1970. Critiques of science fiction. Several were translated and published in Science Fiction Studies and Science Fiction Commentary, and in Microworlds.

 

[finvarre]

This is just a splendid info, Stalker!

!
I haven't read many of Lem's novels which is a shame, as he is without doubt the most important/best known Polish SF writer. I'm meaning to read more in the future, especially as most of these books are readily available at home, waiting on the shelf (how nice to share your hobby with one of your parents ). Tales of Pirx the Pilot were on the obligatory reading list of the sixth grade back at school... a way too soon, if you ask me. I was the only kid in my class who enjoyed the stories, the majority was bored and preferred Lucy Maud Montgomery , especially the girls, that is .

Apart from these tales, I've also read The Star Diaries, some time ago. The ideas in there are splendid - I particularly liked the tale in which Ion was trapped in a timeloop (?is this the correct term?) and in order to get out and repair his ship several copies of himself had to cooperate... gives you a headache. Maybe Lem's style was too dry for me, I'm not seriously into hard SF genre yet. But it surely is very interesting and full of ideas.. explores the classic SF themes.

What's your personal favourite among these books? I'm curious.

 

[Leto]

Forgot he was the one who wrote Memoirs found in a Bath tub. Quite rare here (except for Solaris), he's a writer for connoisseurs who hunt his books in second-hand sales. Had read most and really appreciated most of his Ijon Tichy books and his Cyberiad one.

 

[Stalker]

I've read almost all Lem, even his non-fiction essays and books - such as Summa Technologiae(allussion to Aquinas is only in title) and I want badly to read his Fantasy and Futurology.
Solaris influenced my SF vision greatly. Even his early Astranauts were something grimly fascinating.
When I read Cyberiad, Star Diaries by Ijon Tichy, The Futurological Cingress, I had the problems with putting my lower jaw back in place twisted with the ild loughter!
To anyone who hasn't yet discovered Lem, I strongly advise that you read his books.
Born Lvovite, Pan Stanislaw may be considered as partly a Ukrainian writer, or maybe, Poles are going to be too greedy to share with their neighbours such a great SF writer?

 

[finvarre]

I'm not very greedy myself , but to be honest, I've had no idea Lem was born in Lwów. Anyway, so many Poles were . My dad was born in Vilnius, just like Adam Mickiewicz, whom the Lithuanians would be all too happy to 'borrow' . But by all means, we can share . SF and fantasy lit has no borders...

I certainly have to read Solaris. I've already watched both movies - Tarkowsky's and Soderbergh's. I liked both. I know Lem personally hated Tarkovsky's movie and liked the one by Soderbergh, but it was probably because this Russian one was more visionary and existenstialist.

 

[Stalker]

Tarkovsky's movie was a complete failure but Soderbergh's one, imho, was even worse. It should be probably a European film-director who ill be able to understand Lem's Solaris and put it on film adequately. That's a great book!

I also like his Magellan Cloud, The Invincible and especially, Eden.

 

[ravenus]

I would like to disagree, Stalker.

I have not seen the Tarkovski film but I liked Soderbergh's adaptation a good deal. It was not a literal transcription of the book on screen, preferring a much more stark ambience and cutting down on the sci-fi elements (one thing I'm glad of is that it does not try to cram down a load of Solarist theory, which even in the book IMO comes off as a very tacked on element with the all too convenient premise of Kelvin coming across a series of books and monographs that explain all in chronologic order), but it did capture a very palpable emotional core and I love the ending.

In the end I'm glad Soderbergh did not go for a slavish sort of adaptation which I'm afraid is what a lot SF/Fant fans seem to want for their favored tomes.

 

[Stalker]

All right, I also agree that a film is a separate piece of art and it should not repeat the book. But Soderbergh's approach, IMO, was too hollywoodly, and just repeated in a way the plots of thr other good films in the genre, such as Screamers based on PKD's short story with Peter Weller. I have always had a pretty different view of Solaris.
I also think that Solaristic theory is an essential background for the story of all spectre of human relationships, love and betrayal, devotion and madness, because it lies in the core of the whole novel. Lem here, is trying to carry out a thorough research of Alien intelligence of such unique structure as the Ocean, to trace back its attempt to understand us the way we,human beings, are trying to understand the Ocean in our turn, as well as he's trying to study eternal human problems. Which of the themes is more important? I cannot say... I only know that I saw none of the above themes in Soderbergh's movie - just a typical Hollywood sci-fi detective with xenophobical understatement.

 

[ravenus]

I do not agree with your assessment of it being a detective story. Not at all. As I see it Soderbergh's film is essentially a study of Kelvin's emotional dilemma between reality and illusion and to what he will eventually turn to. What he finds is not as important as how he reacts to it. His choices and the turns of events that lead to them offer an emotional insight into this human being.

It's a different choice from what Tem chose to highlight (and a representation of the convulsions of Solaris would have been a great visual thrill no doubt, although it'd have probably doubled the film's already huge budget) but IMO it's in no way a bad choice. I do not entirely believe that Solarist theory is an indispensable part of any adaptation of the book because even in the book it stands apart from the emotional component IMO. And calling the Soderbergh film Hollywoody is wrong becuase I have rarely seen any other Hollywood product that achieves this kind of subtle feeling. I have not seen the other film you referred to, I will try to get a hold of it.

 

[Taltos]

Tales of Pirx the Pilot (Opowiesci o pilocie Pirxie),
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. English translation copyright 1979 by Stanislaw Lem. Translated by Louis Iribarne.
Five stories about Pilot Pirx.
The Test. The Conditioned Reflex. On Patrol. The Albatross. Terminus.

You forgot that the first story of this book is also made into film
"Test pilota Pirksa" (1979) link http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080010/

 

[Stalker]

You forgot that the first story of this book is also made into film
"Test pilota Pirksa" (1979).

I was simply limited with 15 000 characters allowed for the message. The film was the product of Soviet-Polish co-operation and in Russian it was called "Doznaniye pilota Pirksa"

 

[Foxbat]

I have to admit to never having read any of Lem's work but the info you have provided will make a good starting point (if/when) I get around to choosing some of his books.

Many thanks

 

[jojajihisc]

I just read The Futurological Congress the other day and really loved it. The satire is a thick as it gets and it surprises me a little that this book saw the light of day in a Soviet bloc country. Maybe Lem was just that clever in his writing that the insult or two to communism weren't picked up or maybe it's just an indication of science fiction's marginalization at that time and place.

Whatever the case it was a great book full of made up words, seemingly omnipotent drugs and some funny references to various 20th century things (a song's chorus is heard that says "we ain't got no ma or pa, 'cause we is autom-a-ta.")

 

[Vladimir]

I like Tarkovsky's "Solaris" quite a lot, athough I have to admit it is quite pretentious. But the last scene is simply astonishing. Soderbergh's remake is even more pretentious and besides it fails to transmit anything (not the ideas the book was aiming at, nor its own ideas, which seem inane in comparison both to Lem's novel or the first film).

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Pirx The Pilot is a particularly brilliant classic.

 

[CS Johnson]

Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is for me one of the greatest films around. I loved its bold approach to sensitive and sometimes oblique themes and issues, the way it leisurely addressed them with a minimum of in-line explanation. I always felt it was one of those films that respects the intelligence of the audience and deals with the story as an intimate confidence. Now, for me, all these attributes are anathema to the Hollywood machine – whatever leeway might be garnered.

A case in point is perhaps the stunning extended footage of Kris Kelvin travelling from the dacha, by car, to his departure for Solaris. It sums up, for me, how the film confidently works at a very subtle level and is hence the more powerful for it.

To my way of thinking, though, it's the trueness-to-book that gives it that real edge. Just my tuppence, for what it's worth.

Just re-read Vladimir's post and he seems to sum it up admirably.

 

[Vladimir]

Hey, thank you - it's a rush to read your name and "admirable" in the same sentence

After reading your comment, I felt like watching the film once again. I remember I was used to be irritated by that trip from dacha. And the first protracted scene of the countrysite, with all that water and vegetation for five minutes (typical of all Tarkovsky's films). You simply can't do stuff like that in a modern film anymore.

Having said that, those scenes are not there on a whim. You stiill remember them when you reach the ending, and that what makes it so powerful, even superior to the ending in the book.

What I really enjoy is the part on the station. It's all actor's skill there, and they do an admirable job. The chemistry between the main character and... his wife(?)... the alien disguised as his wife (?)... the memory of his wife(?) is great. It leaves you thinking for a long time after each viewing and is a great source for the after-movie debate (provided you see it with right people, or at least, those who manage to stay awake through it).

 

[D_Davis]

I greatly prefer Soderbergh's version of Solaris. I found the romantic angle of Tarkavsky's film to be too cold and unemotional. The two films are very different, and each is good in its own right, but my personal tastes lean more towards Soderbergh's film.

I also love the music in Soderbergh's version. One of my favorite modern scores.

 

[CS Johnson]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the early watery countryside shots being in slow pan. To my mind it laid excellent foundation for the slow building of subtle menace and tension the dacha scenes set in place, that then seemed strengthened by the car journey sequence. You start with your own viewpoint moving, searching, wondering but then, once the scene's set and the story leisurely launched, it's the panarama that then moves, almost sucks you ineluctably on. Great stuff.

You're dead right again, though, Vladimir, the orbiting station narrative is almost entirely carried by the excellent acting, in effect dissolving the setting to leave the story raw through the actors' eyes. Powerful stuff served up from such simple ingredients but ones so confidently and skilfully added to the mix.


I'm not sure D_D, you may be right, but I suspect my own inability to take the Soderbergh version properly seriously is the impact Tarkavsky's original made. Perhaps it's just too big a contest. For me, and yes, it is purely personal, it's the very feel that jars so much. Shame, maybe I'm therefore missing out.


Your comment's reminded me, though, Vladimir, that I have Tarkavsky's on DVD, so I might very well ...

 

[Vladimir]

D_D, you've reminded me of one good thing I can say of the Soderbergh's film - the soundtrack is outstanding. I've seen it only once 10 years ago and I still remember it. My reaction to the rest of it was mostly very violent - not so out of place in Gully Folly's universe

CS, have you seen any other Tarkovsky films? I was a big fan of "Stalker" at some point, it's also based on a sci-fi book (an excellent "Picnic on the Roadside" by Strugatsky brothers). Now I don't like it nearly as much as "Solaris", but it is very similar in the filming technique and has some great scenes.