Stanislaw Lem Dies

One of the all time greats of Science Fiction died. An incredible man, I loved his work. Bit of a hard ass and an odd duck too!

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/main.htm

Science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem dies at 84
WARSAW (AP) ?- Stanislaw Lem, a popular science fiction writer whose novel Solaris was filmed twice, died Monday in his native Poland, his secretary said. He was 84.

Stanislaw Lem, wrote his first novel, Hospital of the Transfiguration, in the 1940s but it was cesored until 1956. Lem died in Krakow, Wojciech Zemek told The Associated Press. Zemek did not give other details or the cause of death, citing only Lem's advanced age.

Lem was one of the most popular science fiction authors of recent decades to write in a language other than English, and his works were translated from Polish into more than 40 other languages. His books have sold 27 million copies.

His best-known work, Solaris, was adapted into films by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. The latter starred George Clooney and Natascha McElhone.

His first important novel, Hospital of the Transfiguration, was censored by communist authorities for eight years before its release in 1956 amid a thaw following the death of Josef Stalin.

Lem's other works include The Invincible,The Cyberiad,His Master's Voice,The Star Diaries,The Futurological Congress and Tales of Prix the Pilot.


Why have you put this site together?
There are many sites dedicated to Stanislaw Lem, however none of them seemed to encompass the entire spectrum of his works and interests while providing accurate biographical and bibliographical information. Not to mention materials that until recently were available only for "insiders", such as Lem's drawings.

Who are you? Are you a relative of Stanislaw Lem?
Wojciech Zemek is Stanislaw Lem's secretary, whereas I (Tomasz) am Stanislaw Lem's son.

Please, please tell me what are scrupts (apart from the fact that they are used at a scruptrum)?
Scrupts are somewhat similar to Klapaucius's favorive pritons and gentle zits - however their social function is entirely different. ;-)

What was that "Famous Philip K. Dick Letter" regarding Lem?
On September 2, 1974 Philip K. Dick sent the following letter to the FBI (Please keep in mind Mr. Dick was most probably suffering from schizophrenia):

Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974
I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.

What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not - to gain monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas. Peter Fitting has in addition begun to review books for the magazines Locus and Galaxy. The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction. And in earlier material which I sent to you I indicated their evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA.

Their main successes would appear to be in the fields of academic articles, book reviews and possibly through our organization the control in the future of the awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).

It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to find much of our criticism and academic theses and publications completely controlled by a faceless group in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do not know.

Why was Stanislaw Lem expelled from the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1976? The following quote from J. Madison Davis' book on Stanislaw Lem gives an answer to your question:
Lem has always been critical of most science fiction, which he considers ill thought out, poorly written, and interested more in adventure that ideas or new literary forms. (...) Those opinions provoked an unpleasant debate in the SFWA [the "Lem affair"]. Philip José Farmer and others were incensed by Lem's comments (...) and eventually brought about the removal of the honorary membership(...). Other members, such as Ursula K. Le Guin, then protested the removal (...) and the SFWA then offered Lem a regular membership, which he, of course, refused in 1976. Asked later about the "affair," he remarked, that his opinions of the state of science fiction were already known when he was offered an honorary membership (...). He also added he harboured no ill feelings towards the SFWA or U.S. writers in particular, "...but it would be a lie to say the whole incident has enlarged my respect for SF writers".

Where can I get a list of all Lem's works?
A list of all Lem's books by Lem is available in the bibliography section.

Where does Lem describe his war experiences?
Mr. Lem's war experiences and their influence on his perception of chance and coincidence are quite well discussed in his autobiographical essay. More on this topic in the volumes A Perfect Vacuum, Imaginary Magnitude and other apocryphal works.

Does Mr. Lem ever discuss ideas for other people's books? Does he read Stephen King's works, or Dean Koontz?
Mr. Lem does not discuss ideas for books. He certainly is familiar with the works of Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

An important aspect of "Solaris" is for me that words like "cosmonauts" and "communism" are not used there though Stanislav Lem wrote the book in times of the cold war. An why is the main character named Kris Kelvin (a typical American or English name)?
Mr. Lem always preferred "astronauts" to "cosmonauts". As to communism and Kris: there was no politics in "Solaris", hence there was no necessity to use the word "communism" (or "capitalism" for that matter). And yes - the name Kris Kelvin may sound British or American.

Will Solaris ever be translated directly into English?
Solaris indeed has never been translated directly into English and Mr Lem is dissatisfied with the current translation. Whether this state of affairs will change remains an open question. The following quote from a letter from the Managing Director of the Publishing House Faber and Faber serves as an explanation: "With regard to Solaris, I am afraid that we would not currently be willing either to publish a new translation or to license one." If you want to write the Publisher about a new translation of Solaris they have a web-site at the location http://www.faber.co.uk

The "Solaris Poem" by Dylan Thomas:

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion