Off topic:
>>he was was in peak form during the ’60s and ’70s
Is this usage correct? Or is the second “was” a typo?
I am not a native English speaker so forgive if this is something very basic.
The Case for Stanislaw Lem
41–50 of 54 posts
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#42Off topic: >>he was was in peak form during the ’60s and ’70s Is this usage correct? Or is the second “was” a typo? I am not a native English speaker so forgive if this is something very basic.
error/typo
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#43I absolutely love Lem. He is a giant in my eyes. Very nice to know that MIT has decided to reprint some of his work.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#44Lem was a great author of real imaginative fiction. His novels shaped my world view more than any other SF author.
I hope more of his stuff gets republished.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#45As long as they don't make a machine that can make anything, provided it starts with the letter "N", I'm all for it.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#46I grew up with Lem's works as a kid, teenager and young adult in West Germany in the 80's. Lem spoke German so he was involved with the translations and there wasn't anything he wrote that didn't get translated to German. Not least because East Germany, together with Poland, was part of the Soviet block. I read 'Eden' when I was in 3rd grade -- my dad left it laying on the table in our living room. It had the world '…
A little off topic, but is there a german version of Solaris that is "readable"? The one I got reads like it was done in google translator (back when it really sucked).
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was 'Invincible' for me. And Pilot Pirx stories - the atmosphere that flying spaceships is just dirty, demanding, lonely job like driving a lorry. 1978 Polish-Soviet film based on 'Pilot Pirx Test' was very good ... https://youtu.be/JSft0QLoVpQ And Futurological Congress. EDIT: Also Perfect Void (Doskonała Próżnia) and Imaginary Value (Wielkość Urojona) - introductions to non-existing books and Inquiry (Śledztwo)…
There was a German TV show adapted from that: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ (Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot) It's pretty quirky. A mix of Lem and maybe old school Doctor Who. It operated on zero budget and thus had a few charming props. If you understand German I highly recommend it. Sadly it's almost impossible to translate to other languages because of the made up dialect used in it, which is the basis for much of i…
> There was a German TV show adapted from that: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ (Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot)
I just want to point out that Ijon Tichy is a different character than Pirx and a hero of its own series of tales. The confusion is understandable, because at at a glance they appear to be very similar characters.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#48Another interesting read: Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.
It’s a bit dark, but a fun jump down the post apocalyptic bureaucratic wormhole where everyone is spying on everyone and nothing is safe.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#49Stanislaw Lem is a brilliant writer. It is unfortunate that the article tells about him through the lens of the Golden Age and modern progressive views, which hardly relate to him.
As many other authors behind the Iron Curtain, he was largely isolated from the contemporary Western cultural influence. His biography and the vibrant Polish surrealism scene would give a much better background.
Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem
#50I am a huge fan of Lem and it is good to see these books are getting new translations and editions. I also like the cool 50s sci fi covers.
But something is really annoying me -- why did they spell the name of the author in Polish? You have to decide whether the book is in English or Polish and if you have an English book you should have an English cover, otherwise you are just going to confuse your customers. If you print the largest writing on the cover in Polish a lot of people looking at the cover will quite understandably think the entire book is in Polish.
I know the Polish has a cool looking L and all but that is not sufficient to cause confusion.
Also the guy deserves to have his name correctly pronounced by people who read him, as much as practical for people with a foreign language, and the Polish W is pronounced as a V. Thus, for an English speaker it is better to just write Stanislav.