Author Stanislaw Lem dies

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 01:41:51 GMT

A sad addendum to my post on one of my favorite authors, Stanislaw Lem, who has died aged 84: BBC NEWS - Solaris author Stanislaw Lem dies.

Stanislaw Lem

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:52:19 GMT

I was very excited last night when Lisa brought home a pair of Stanislaw Lem books - the first a collection of short stories called "Mortal Stories", many humourously similiar in vein to those found another of his short story compilationm, "The Cyberiad", and a full length novel from 1968, "His Masters Voice".

His short stories, and indeed often his novels, are infused with a macabre humour and playful fantasy. The "Mortal Stories" appears to consist of the eleven short stories from Lem's "Fables For Robots", plus some additional ones which are in similar territory.

His translator, Michael Kandel writes;

Of all the Lems - the writer of traditional science fiction, the philosopher, the political satirist, the visionary, the moralist, and so on, - the Lem I personally liked the best, and still do, was the storytelling humourist: the zany Baron Munchausen Lem.

For those who don't know, Lem, a Polish SF writer born in Lvov, is the writer of the book "Solaris" on which the Andrei Tarkovsky film is based (although a complete rewrite of its tone and intent). In turn the novel and Tarkovsky's film formed the basis of the Stephen Soderburg film of the same name starring George Clooney.

Lem also wrote an excellent novel "The Futurological Congress", an interesting little tale which explores the nature of consciousness and reality several years before P.K.Dick started writing in that same vein. I'm very excited by the prospect of reading His Master's Voice - written from the perspective of a posthumously published diary. I've started first though with the short stories, to "warm up" as it were as it's been a few years since I've read any new (to me) Lem works.

I recommend anyone with any love of SF to read Lem's books. Recommended are Solaris, The Futurological Congress, and The Cyberiad.

I leave you with a quote from the master himself, taken from his autobiographical essay "The High Castle";

I used to be a philanthropist to old spark plugs, I would buy parts of incomprehensible gadgets, I would turn some crank or other to give it pleasure, then put it away again with solicitude. ... To this day I have a special feeling for all sorts of broken bells, alarm clocks, old coils, telephone speakers.

I rate Stanislaw Lem along with J.G.Ballard, and P.K.Dick as the leading triumviruate of so-called "literary" SF writing.

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Author Stanislaw Lem dies

Stanislaw Lem