Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

culture.pl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 215 posts

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#11

Post by thrance »

tialaramex wrote: post #8
thrance wrote: post #4

2 years prior, in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky adapted Stanisław Lem's Solaris to the big screen in the Soviet Union, which may have contributed to Dick's paranoia. Anyway, the film's a masterpiece that I highly recommend, and since it was published before 1975 it is not subject to copyright. You can find it on YouTube [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE

I really like Lem, but Solaris is probably my least favourite of his stories. It does have the thing I most admire in Lem's work of being about true aliens - that is, not just us again but in a Halloween costume like a Star Trek alien - but somehow Solaris doesn't "work" for me even though say, Memoirs Found In A Bathtub or Futurological Congress do.

I haven't read the book (yet), but Tarkovsky's movie is only a loose adaptation of the source material, which you might still enjoy.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#15

Post by johngossman »

tialaramex wrote: post #8
thrance wrote: post #4

2 years prior, in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky adapted Stanisław Lem's Solaris to the big screen in the Soviet Union, which may have contributed to Dick's paranoia. Anyway, the film's a masterpiece that I highly recommend, and since it was published before 1975 it is not subject to copyright. You can find it on YouTube [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE

I really like Lem, but Solaris is probably my least favourite of his stories. It does have the thing I most admire in Lem's work of being about true aliens - that is, not just us again but in a Halloween costume like a Star Trek alien - but somehow Solaris doesn't "work" for me even though say, Memoirs Found In A Bathtub or Futurological Congress do.

Are you a PKD fan too? The two you mentioned are amongst Lem's most Dick-ian stories. Also note, there is a newer English language translation of Solaris. I liked it better than the one I read years ago.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#16

Post by skrebbel »

Wow this reads like the plot of a bad romcom! I can totally imagine Dick sitting angry in his study getting all worked up over how badly Lem hated US SF and how mean that is, not realizing Lem actually loved his work. All this lacks is the grand finale where the misunderstanding is revealed and they kiss & make out.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#17

Post by selivanovp »

thrance wrote: post #4

2 years prior, in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky adapted Stanisław Lem's Solaris to the big screen in the Soviet Union, which may have contributed to Dick's paranoia. Anyway, the film's a masterpiece that I highly recommend, and since it was published before 1975 it is not subject to copyright. You can find it on YouTube [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE

The funny story is that Lem despised this adaptation and for a good reason if you manage to read his book. He called Tarkovsky an idiot and refused to cooperate with him on the script as Tarkovsky threw pretty much all of Lem ideas from the book to shoot Crime and Punishment in space.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#18

Post by Trasmatta »

munchler wrote: post #10

> This plot [about an intelligent beam of light] wouldn’t be out of place in one of Dick’s mind-bending novels. This experience was, in fact, the basis of a novel he wrote called _Valis_.

One of my all time favorite books!

The Empire never ended.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#19

Post by rdtsc »

> Due to the economic restrictions of Poland under the communist regime, Lem was unable to give Dick his due royalties. Surely losing out on this potential source of income, regardless of reason, would incline Dick unfavourably towards Lem

If we pull aside the ideological grandstanding what we see is plain old jealousy, resentment and vindictiveness. That’s usually the case in any context. The ideological grandstanding is just a fig leaf.

Re: Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

#20

Post by Xelbair »

tialaramex wrote: post #8
thrance wrote: post #4

2 years prior, in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky adapted Stanisław Lem's Solaris to the big screen in the Soviet Union, which may have contributed to Dick's paranoia. Anyway, the film's a masterpiece that I highly recommend, and since it was published before 1975 it is not subject to copyright. You can find it on YouTube [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE

I really like Lem, but Solaris is probably my least favourite of his stories. It does have the thing I most admire in Lem's work of being about true aliens - that is, not just us again but in a Halloween costume like a Star Trek alien - but somehow Solaris doesn't "work" for me even though say, Memoirs Found In A Bathtub or Futurological Congress do.

I find it funny that i hated Lem for most of my life... because i was forced to read only his Robot stories in school.

I still despise those moralist fables.

But his other works? i love them! My favorite is The Star Diaries, despite having some robot stories in them.

Post reply on HN