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

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

#41
post #28

As far as I know Stanisław Lem was not allowed to like anything from US. These days the soviet propaganda in Poland disallowed people to like anything that came from "the rotten west"

> As far as I know Stanisław Lem was not allowed to like anything from US. These days the soviet propaganda in Poland disallowed people to like anything that came from "the rotten west"

Such statement would hold somewhat true for the Soviet Union until the 80s, but not for Poland, whose society never stopped seeing itself as a part of wider European community, and because of significant migration in the XIX and XX century, also felt a connection with the US. Poland took advantage of Stalin's death to wrangle itself somewhat free of Soviet hegemony and starting with Gomułka's Thaw [1], adopted a more liberal model. It was still a dictatorship, but in comparison with the Soviet Union itself and also a few of the more repressive regimes in other satellite states, it was significantly more open. Edward Gierek's [2] rule only reinforced that course.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all roses. The inflow of Western culture faced many obstacles still, but those were often more of economical nature — in general books were translated, movies were shown in cinemas, the TV was filled with (somewhat dated) American and Western European TV shows, and Polish artists followed world trends in music (although with significant delay). The „rotten west” mindset never took root in Polish society and the authorities didn't enforce it with much zeal once the most repressive era ended in the mid-50s.

[1] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_October

[2] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gierek

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

#42
post #19

> 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 grandstandi…

The only thing stronger than society's ability to undercut authors is the author's ability to find any excuse to talk about it.

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

#43

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.

I suppose someone on the Internet had to ship these two for a first somewhere sometime.

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

#44

> 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.

one mind there is.

within it, two principles contend...

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

#45

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.

Philip K. Dick was vindictive, continually broke, terrible at titles, unlucky, and a wonderful writer. He never had a happy ending.

Are those even his titles? Authors generally don't make up the title themselves. Sometimes they can help pick one from a list created by a title editor.

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my all time favorite books! The Empire never ended.

one mind there is. within it, two principles contend...

I can feel the plasmate stirring within me. Time for my yearly reread.

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

#47
post #28

As far as I know Stanisław Lem was not allowed to like anything from US. These days the soviet propaganda in Poland disallowed people to like anything that came from "the rotten west"

Yes, and as far as I know Stanisław Lem was also genuinely contemptuous of the 1950s default style of US sci-fi: square-jawed heroes who triumph over every puzzle, right every wrong; Cowboys and Indians on a frontier planet, manifest destiny, etc. A lot of his work emphasises how this tendency fails in the face of the sheer unknowable alienness of the outer universe. e.g. Solaris, The Invincible, Fiasco. Lem liked Ph…

I'm sure you know this, but for those who might not, US sci-fi was just as varied as anywhere else... except in the domain of John W. Campbell, for decades the editor of the biggest-circulation sci-fi magazine in the country, where he very much explicitly selected for that kind of story. Lots of famous authors active in the era have tales of how they edited their work to meet Campbells demands -- I recall one where the author switched the 'human' and 'alien' species because Campbell wouldn't print a story where humanity 'lost.'

Truly a fascinating character, and an author in his own right, responsible for the story that John Carpenter would adapt for his film The Thing. I don't share his taste in science fiction, but he had a massive impact on the genre.

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

#48
post #39
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do retain their power because of the notoriety of the stories they head. It's a matter of taste and thus hard to argue, but I do think his titles were kind of clunky. Can you imagine if Blade Runner retained the title of the work it was derived from?

> Can you imagine if Blade Runner retained the title of the work it was derived from? ... or even some parts of the plot ... It would have been more interesting than the shooting based thriller we got instead.

I'm a big fan of PKD and also Blade Runner. You've got a point about the film being so very different, but I think it's subsequent success (it wasn't that successful at the time) justifies the approach to the subject matter.

However I do wish that Mercerism (the religion in the book) was included in the film. Maybe someone should attempt to film a more literal adaptation.

Edit: thinking about the difference between the novel and the film makes me think of The Shining and I'm very much in the Kubrick camp - the film being a work of art by itself and so doesn't have to follow the source material.

However, I also really like A Scanner Darkly which is arguably the closest PKD adaptation.

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

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philip K. Dick was vindictive, continually broke, terrible at titles, unlucky, and a wonderful writer. He never had a happy ending.

>... terrible at titles... I disagree. Here are some that retain their power all these decades later and will likely do so for the foreseeable future: Time Out of Joint The Man in the High Castle Martian Time-Slip The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Clans of the Alphane Moon The Simulacra Now Wait for Last Year Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)/Blade Runner (1982) Ubik We Can Build You Flow My Tears, The…

Vast Active Living Intelligence System (VALIS) might not be PKD's best title, but it's arguably his best book.

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

#50
An EPIC scene from "The Congress" (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMI8HWhqEc

The Congress (2013) Scan Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPAl5GwvdY8

HN thread about "Bruce Willis Sells Deepfake Likeness Rights So His 'Twin' Can Star in Movies" and The Congress discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33044479

>According to director Ari Folman, some elements of the film were inspired by the science fiction novel The Futurological Congress by Stanisław Lem in that similarly to Lem's Ijon Tichy, the actress is split between delusional and real mental states. Later, at the official website of the film, in an interview, Folman says that the idea to put Lem's work to film came to him during his film school. He describes how he reconsidered Lem's allegory of communist dictatorship into a more current setting, namely, the dictatorship in the entertainment business, and expresses his belief that he preserved the spirit of the book despite going far away from it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36209861

>People who haven't used psychedelics don't tend to get or appreciate The Congress as much as those who have.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34953477

>I just watched The Congress -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film) -- and WOW, it was excellent.

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