Stanislaw Lem’s Science Fiction
This week I reread some of Stanislaw Lem’s short stories (Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and novels which I enjoyed a lot when I was a teenager. I first read them 16-18 years ago (when I was 12-14 years old), and now I realized that I forgot most of it, having retained just vague memories of plot and random fragments here and there.
I read them in Russian translation because I didn’t have any other choice, that’s what I got. I don’t have Polish originals, and I’m not that fluent in Polish as to be able to read it quickly without missing subtle things and without having to look up unfamiliar words. As for Belarusian language, there’s very little translated. There’s a Belarusian version of Solaris which I’ve read twice and some short stories, that’s all that was translated to the best of my knowledge.
Rereading his stories was such an enjoyable experience. In my opinion he’s way more sophisticated and deep than anyone in the field, being in many ways better than Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, or Arthur C. Clarke.
As for criticism, I guess the worst thing about Lem’s writing are anachronisms that keep creeping in almost everywhere. There are researchers on a Moon space station that have to calculate data manually on a sheet of paper using logarithmic rulers as a helper. And this is just one of many glaring examples. I guess Lem was just not that interested in the details, concentrating on the plot and ideas.
The main theme in most stories is that human intelligence is the ultimate power. Intelligence and human logic can and should be able to outsmart “bad” machines or find a way out from the most bizarre difficult situations. Technology can be good or bad, but it’s the human intelligence that should harness the power of technology. And Lem also raises very interesting philosophical and moral questions about technology.
The question that is bugging me is why was he not that popular in the English-speaking world? I don’t know. I can think of three possible reasons: (1) first of all, it’s those anachronisms (I guess readers could think that since Lem is so sloppy about the small details, he’s not a good sci-fi writer), (2) Second, I guess he could be perceived as an outsider in the field dominated by Americans, being a writer that comes from a former socialist “Soviet bloc” country (3) And, finally, I guess it could be the bad quality of the existing English translations. When I was studying in the American university I read the English versions of Fiasco and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub which I took from our university library, and I thought that the quality of translation was inferior to the Russian translations, not even speaking about the Polish originals.
In any case, I personally think he’s the greatest in the field. At least that’s what I think good science fiction is all about.
October 17th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
I first read Stanislaw Lem - Tales of pirx the pilot - precisely in Belarusian. The stories sounded just right in that translation - unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the person who translated it. Quite a few words puzzled me, though, and the language as a whole was very different from the other examples of Belarusian language as it was used in other state-published books. The year of publication is smth like 1994-1995.
November 6th, 2005 at 1:16 am
lactam: “I know he’s written for a polishh newspaper or magazine.. a regular column. Anyone else remember this?”
b_a_t:
http://www.lem.pl/english/main.htm
Should be noted, that for the last 10-15 years he seems to get disappointed by SF and switched to publicist activity…
lactam:
Indeed. While I cannot remember exactly where he was writing his columns, I do remember that they were quite bitter.
Not quite the ravings of a mad lunatic, but just a grumpy old man.
November 6th, 2005 at 1:18 am
goulo: I got into Lem as a teenager when I randomly bought The Cyberiad in an airport on a trip and really liked it. I later remember enjoying The Investigation and Memoirs found in a Bathtub, and probably several others whose titles escape me now… I don’t remember being put off by those English translations, but then I had nothing to compare them to. I have since read one short work of his translated into Esperanto…
jurek: I love his writings! I read everything he ever wrote in both Polish and English. Admittedly my most favorite works were his earliest (The Cyberiad for example), and his latest were most disapointing. But Americans made movies from some of his books, so he is not all that unknown.
spkr4thedead51: Haha! I’m in the middle of reading The Cyberiad Stories (in English). While I agree with you that one of the main themes of the stories is the power of human intelligence, I don’t think that the fact that his “technology” is dated (i.e. computers with vacuum tubes and switches and such) is a bad thing.
His stories are essentially all Aesopian morality fables without the obvious moral summary at the end.
As for his seeming lack of popularity, aside from 10-15 authors (primarily the giants who have essentially defined the genre and it’s subsets), the vast majority of all science fiction authors are only well-known by people who really invest themselves into the genre. This means that a lot of very very good authors who many other authors have been influenced by (like Lem) or who have won genre awards aren’t very well known. One of English professors at my college, John Kessel, won a Nebula award for short fiction in the early 80s and is a very prolific short fiction author, but very few people know of him outside of the science fiction writing community. And part of that is because he primarily writes short fiction, much like Lem. Short fiction doesn’t get as widely read as novels and so isn’t as familiar to the mainstream, and I think this is probably why Lem isn’t all that well known.
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:19 pm
An interview with Lem. Mostly about Poland, but there are some “global” bits as well.
In Polish:
…w niezmiernej gwiazdowej pustce nagle zjawia się maleńki, wręcz mikroskopijny przebłysk świadomości – mojej albo pańskiej, albo mrówki czy jakiegoś ptaszka – a potem, gdy kończy się życie, on gaśnie i dalej trwa ta niezmierzona nicość. Wydaje mi się, że warto, aby ta świadomość zabłysła…
Stanisław Lem: Matka Boska się nie zjawi
In Russian:
…в бесконечной звездной пустоте внезапно происходит малюсенький, просто микроскопический проблеск сознания - моего или вашего, муравья или какой-нибудь птички - а потом, когда кончается жизнь, он гаснет, и продолжается это бесконечное ничто. Мне кажется, этому сознанию стоит блеснуть….
Станислав Лем: Матерь Божия не явится
March 27th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
[…] I wrote about his books in this blog several months ago. I don’t have anything to add to that. […]