Stanisław Lem

Rough draft of fifth paper due (bring two copies)

Stanisław Lem (1921–2006), Poland.

Stanisław Lem was born in Lwów, Poland (which after WWII became Lviv, Ukraine), but after the Second World War settled in Kraków. He studied medicine and developed a strong interest in mathematics and other sciences. Although his early novels were rather traditional science fiction, his individual style and philosophy came to bloom by the 1960’s. His work often stresses the disharmony between technological possibility and human intentions and shows a tremendous stylistic and thematic variety. He attracted some bad press because of (carelessly? or justifiably?) critical remarks about the quality of North American science fiction, which one might discuss in the context of the different roles of the genre in East and West over the past many years. Lem was both well-respected and a popular and widely-read writer —- note the large nummber of his books in translation, and their relatively reasonable prices! (And as many Google hits as Milan Kundera.)

Note that the “ł” in Stanisław (but not the “L” in Lem) has a cross-bar that makes it pronounced something like the English “w,” and that Polish names are always stressed on the penultimate syllable: Stan-EE-swav.

Solaris (1961) is probably Lem's best-known work, having been made into movies by Andrei Tarkovsky and Steven Soderbergh. There are several editions floating around for sale, but most of them now have a still from the film on the cover. Note that our translation (by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox) was made from the French in 1970, though later Lem was popular enough to merit translations directly from Pollsh -- and by some marvelous translators, including the brilliant and very funny Michael Kandel (who did The Cyberiad).

Questions for reading:

• Note the "speaking" names of characters and spaceships -- Kelvin, Prometheus, Rheya. What might be the implications of these names? What does it suggest about humans and the universe that they -- and Lem among them -- name new characters and places for old ones, so we are constantly reminded of what we have known before?
• Another note on names: what is the effect of all the double-barreled names of scientists' discoveries or hypotheses? What kind of scientific activity and community does this book imagine?
• How do the first few pages prepare us for the very strange things to come? Besides reading the blurb on the back of the book, how and when does the reader figure out what's going on?
• What is it like to read a work of science fiction in the context of this class? How does the setting, and the presentation of human culture, compare to the other books??
• How much do you know about Poland? Would you say there's anything "Polish" about this book?
• Page 20: how did you react to the terms in the biological description of the ocean of Solaris?
• For those of you who know the work of French Surrealist André Breton (1896-1966), what associations does he lend to the testimony of the helicopter pilot André Berton?
• What kind of crew is on the station? What are the national, age, professional, and gender relations?
• How are scientists presented, and how to they handle the developments in the story? Does that fit your image of scientists
• What is the effect of the departures into long quasi-scientific discourses? (Like the historico-philosophical bits of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace?) Does Lem make it plausible that so much information of this kind is introduced in the narrative?
• This book is not especially devoted to dissident narratives, but do note Sartorius the thought-censor on pages 160-161: "These are the themes that might properly occupy your awareness."
• What kind of protagonist is Kelvin? What do we learn about him from his relationship(s) with Rheya?
• Is this story a romance, or an anti-romance?
• As you come to the end of the book: What mysteries remain in the story, what curiosity unsatisfied? Chekhov once famously said that there shouldn't be a pistol on stage unless it will be shot later in the play; what is the effect of the bits of information or hints (the straw hat) that turn out not to lead anywhere?
• To what extend are the Phi-creatures human? What do we know about them, and what can we infer from that?

Books by Lem, many of them available in Tripod:

• Szpital Przemienienia, 1948. Hospital of the Transfiguration, translated by William Brand, 1988
• Dzienniki gwiazdowe (1957, expanded until 1971). The Star Diaries, translated by Michael Kandel, 1976
• Eden, 1959, translated by Marc E. Heine, 1989
• Śledztwo, 1959. The Investigation, translated by Adele Milch, 1974
• Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie, 1961. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, translated by Michael Kandel and Christine Rose, 1973
• Powrót z gwiazd, 1961. Return from the Stars, translated by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson, 1980
• Niezwyciężony, 1964. The Invincible, translated by Wendayne Ackerman (from German), 1973
• Cyberiada, 1967. The Cyberiad, translated by Michael Kandel, 1974
• Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie, 1968. Tales of Pirx the Pilot, translated by Louis Iribarne, 1979
• Fantastyka i futurologia, 1970. Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy, translated and ed. Franz Rottensteiner, 1984
• Doskonała próżnia, 1971. A Perfect Vacuum, translated by Michael Kandel, 1981
• Katar, 1975. The Chain of Chance, translated by Louis Iribarne, 1978
• Fiasko, 1986. Fiasco, translated by Michael Kandel, 1987
• One Human Minute, translated from other editions by Catherine S. Leach, 1986
• Pokój na Ziemi, 1987. Peace on Earth, translated by Elinor Ford with Michael Kandel, 1994

Web links about Lem:

http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/vitrifax.html

A detailed site

http://www.lem.pl/

“The Official Site” in English as well as Polish

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/slem.htm

…and I can’t forget sci.fi!