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The Case for Stanislaw Lem

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Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem

#51
post #30

I 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 '…

Reading Lem in early age spoiled Matrix movie for me. I hated movie, it seemed unoriginal and weak, compared to Ijon Tichy story, where one professor created artificial universes in lockers or chests. Later I have learned appreciate Matrix series, but my first impression was negative. Lem has several really cool stories, "Return from the Stars" is one my favorite.

Spoiler alert:

In "The Futurological Congress", the protagonist is offered two potions to choose from, red or blue. The Matrix is like a 10x dumbed down version of it.

Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem

#52

I 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 '…

All Tarkovsky ever did with subjectmatter, both Solaris and Stalker was to take characters and setting. Everything else was Tarkovsky alone.

Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem

#53

I 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).

The translation of Kurt Kelm (e.g. ISBN 3-7464-0149-6) is much better then the one from Irmtraud Zimmermann-Göllheim.

Re: The Case for Stanislaw Lem

#54
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solaris is different from most scifi in which aliens are presented in largely anthropomorphic terms. They're either humanoids, monsters from our nightmares, or they take on the form of humans or human communication. What they lack is the quality of being truly alien. The Solaris ocean is utterly alien to the point that the humans are unable to understand and communicate with it, despite it clearly possessing some for…

> The Solaris ocean is utterly alien to the point that the humans are unable to understand and communicate with it This is the theme of all Lem's novels involving aliens: Planet Eden, Fiasco, Solaris, The Invincible and His Master's Voice. It's the opposite of our Western optimistic idea that we can face any challenge and solve any riddle, either thanks to a universality of scientific reasoning (such as in Greg Egan'…

There are even people who think we can solve the "problem" of entropy and find a way to keep civilization going beyond the heat death of the universe, and this is a challenge we should start working on. It sounds absurdly optimistic.

Then again, I have no idea what life might do trillions of years in the future, if there is any life around then. But if there is, I highly doubt it will be remotely human, so what difference would it make to us now?

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