Lem Dies
Monday, April 10th, 2006
Poland’s brilliant science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem died recently —
SOLARIS sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem dies
Last Updated Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:01:03 EST
CBC ArtsPolish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris and other novels, has died at the age of 84.
Lem’s assistant announced Monday that the writer had died in Krakow but did not reveal details nor the cause of death.
Born in 1921 in Lwow, Poland (which became Lviv, Ukraine, after the Second World War), Lem studied medicine, with his schooling interrupted by the war. However, after completing his studies, he avoided his final exams in order to escape mandatory conscription as an army doctor. He then worked as a researcher at a scientific institute, writing in his spare time.
Lem’s writing, which sometimes features humour in dark situations, often deals with themes such as human communication with alien societies and human relationships with changing technology.
In addition to his best known novel Solaris, which was adapted into a Russian film in 1972 and a U.S. film in 2002, Lem’s writing includes The Cyberiad, Return From the Stars, His Master’s Voice and The Futurological Congress.
Though he was one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed science fiction writers, Lem courted controversy with his criticism of U.S. science fiction writing.
His honorary membership in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association was withdrawn in the mid-1970s after he criticized his U.S. colleagues’ writing and charged that they were more interested in making money than expanding the genre. He reserved his praise only for iconic sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick.
Other writers eventually campaigned for the group to reinstate Lem as a member, but he later refused the offer.
Lem’s works have been translated from Polish into more than 40 languages and sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
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I first encountered Lem’s name many years ago when I heard about Tarkovsky’s screen adaptation of Solaris. I read the book before I ever saw the movie.
Despite the dryness of the english language version, it became a favorite novel of mine. Later, I found out that it wasn’t even a proper translation, but, rather, had been stitched together from a previously published French edition. Still, the book had immense power, and its ideas were luminous enough to shine through an interpretation two times removed from the source.
I eventually saw both movie versions of Solaris — the one by Andrei Tarkovsky and the Stephen Soderbergh one — and I didn’t really care much for either. Whatever their flaws or virtues, the films just couldn’t stand up to the original conception. The novel is abstract, extremely philosophical, and speculative. I suppose cinema isn’t always the best medium for that kind of material.
My other favorite Lem books are: The Investigation, The Chain of Chance, and the Borgesian collection of short fictions called A Perfect Vacuum.
Probably the most fluid english translations of Lem’s work are those rendered by Michael Kandel.
