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I've read almost all of his books in the original Polish and in English. Both good and bad translations. For example, the only English translation of Solaris was translated from French, making it a dull read in English, though it's much better in Polish.

The majority of his books, esp. those translated by Kandel, are very faithful to the original. Not the details, of course, but in the sense of wordplay and humor. For example, in the Polish version of the story "How the World was Saved" from the Cyberiad, the machine can make anything that starts with the letter "N". The joke is, the machine is asked to make Natrium (Latin for Sodium), but it refuses, saying that it's not the machine that can make anything starting with N in any conceivable language, since every word has some equivalent that starts with N in another language, and so therefore it would be equivalent to a machine that can make anything starting with any letter, but that's not what it is. Anyhow, you can see the English version for yourself:

http://english.lem.pl/index.php/home/bookshelf/how-the-word-was-saved

In Polish, the made-up words are different, but the spirit, and the joke are very much the same in this instance.

In other stories, which rely too much on wordplay and puns, the translation has to be different to work, but Michael Kandel does an excellent job of that. It's certainly an art--though I'm fluent in both Polish and English, I couldn't come close to making such faithful translations.

But they're made of....meat...

Missing link augmented.

Not to forget Lem (The Cyberiad), of course.

CC.

Crichton's Prey

The Invincible
(link)
(the Seventies are calling)

Besides, I am quite optimistic that mankind will present itself as an evolutionary failure in the long run (or as a component of a transient process, since failures are impossible if one shares the view that each and every process contributes to a current state of affairs).

CC.

You have just perfectly summarized the point of Stanislaw Lem's short story, "The Seventh Sally" in his excellent book "The Cyberiad" (also reprinted in DugHof's "The Mind's I"), which inspired SimCity.

From Wikipedia's SimCity article:

In addition, Wright also was inspired by reading , a short story by Stanislaw Lem, in which an engineer encounters a deposed tyrant, and creates a miniature city with artificial citizens for the tyrant to oppress. [1]

"And how do you know there aren't civilizations a hundred million times larger than our own? And if there were, would ours then be a model? And what importance do dimensions have anyway? In that box kingdom, doesn't a journey from the capital to one of the corners take months-for those inhabitants? And don't they suffer, don't they know the burden of labor, don't they die?"

"No, Trurl, a sufferer is not one who hands you his suffering, that you may touch it, weigh it, bite it like a coin; a sufferer is one who behaves like a sufferer!"

-Don

I am old fan of Stanislav Lems work. I have to say i would never call American version a remake (Are we calling all versions of "Hamlet" a remake after first one?" Tarkovsky is brilliant director, but unfortunately i have to say for director of his class borth "Solaris" and "Stalker" are plain failures. They still show his high class and much better that a lot of movies out there, but if you compare them to the rest of his work you can say that he is not really good Sci-fi director. You also need to realize that American and Russian version are talking about different things, and yes American Version is not following the book exactly ,but bring the central idea of the movie (not the book) better and that part of artistic process, finding something in the book and making a movie about it. Probably it will be more fair to call movie differently but say it's based on Solaris novell in this case (you can read lem comments about second movie here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/kiosk/kiosk .htm#solstation [www.lem.pl] ) Russian version unfortunately didn't really cover main idea of the book and tried to do too many things at the same time. You can read Lem comments about russian version here.: http://alek.xspaces.org/2005/07/28/lem-on-tarkovsk y [xspaces.org]
Also you can read some ideas about book here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/sola ris/solarispl.htm#1 [www.lem.pl]
In general I have to say Lem probably wouldn't like the second movie either, but i still must say that doesn't make it a bad movie, it just probably should have have a different name and say --- based on the characters and event from the book instead of being called Solaris. As with many good books there are usually interesting ideas in them that authors might not have originally planned to explore. So it take good director and script writer to explore those. In my own opinion and based of what i know about Lem work i would say second movie bring some of those idea better that Tarkovsky did. If you really want to see great work by Tarkovsky you should see Andrey Rublev. But this is not science fiction. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/ [imdb.com]

I am old fan of Stanislav Lems work. I have to say i would never call American version a remake (Are we calling all versions of "Hamlet" a remake after first one?" Tarkovsky is brilliant director, but unfortunately i have to say for director of his class borth "Solaris" and "Stalker" are plain failures. They still show his high class and much better that a lot of movies out there, but if you compare them to the rest of his work you can say that he is not really good Sci-fi director. You also need to realize that American and Russian version are talking about different things, and yes American Version is not following the book exactly ,but bring the central idea of the movie (not the book) better and that part of artistic process, finding something in the book and making a movie about it. Probably it will be more fair to call movie differently but say it's based on Solaris novell in this case (you can read lem comments about second movie here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/kiosk/kiosk .htm#solstation [www.lem.pl] ) Russian version unfortunately didn't really cover main idea of the book and tried to do too many things at the same time. You can read Lem comments about russian version here.: http://alek.xspaces.org/2005/07/28/lem-on-tarkovsk y [xspaces.org]
Also you can read some ideas about book here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/sola ris/solarispl.htm#1 [www.lem.pl]
In general I have to say Lem probably wouldn't like the second movie either, but i still must say that doesn't make it a bad movie, it just probably should have have a different name and say --- based on the characters and event from the book instead of being called Solaris. As with many good books there are usually interesting ideas in them that authors might not have originally planned to explore. So it take good director and script writer to explore those. In my own opinion and based of what i know about Lem work i would say second movie bring some of those idea better that Tarkovsky did. If you really want to see great work by Tarkovsky you should see Andrey Rublev. But this is not science fiction. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/ [imdb.com]

I am old fan of Stanislav Lems work. I have to say i would never call American version a remake (Are we calling all versions of "Hamlet" a remake after first one?" Tarkovsky is brilliant director, but unfortunately i have to say for director of his class borth "Solaris" and "Stalker" are plain failures. They still show his high class and much better that a lot of movies out there, but if you compare them to the rest of his work you can say that he is not really good Sci-fi director. You also need to realize that American and Russian version are talking about different things, and yes American Version is not following the book exactly ,but bring the central idea of the movie (not the book) better and that part of artistic process, finding something in the book and making a movie about it. Probably it will be more fair to call movie differently but say it's based on Solaris novell in this case (you can read lem comments about second movie here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/kiosk/kiosk .htm#solstation ) Russian version unfortunately didn't really cover main idea of the book and tried to do too many things at the same time. You can read Lem comments about russian version here.: http://alek.xspaces.org/2005/07/28/lem-on-tarkovsk y
Also you can read some ideas about book here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/sola ris/solarispl.htm#1
In general I have to say Lem probably wouldn't like the second movie either, but i still must say that doesn't make it a bad movie, it just probably should have have a different name and say --- based on the characters and event from the book instead of being called Solaris. As with many good books there are usually interesting ideas in them that authors might not have originally planned to explore. So it take good director and script writer to explore those. In my own opinion and based of what i know about Lem work i would say second movie bring some of those idea better that Tarkovsky did. If you really want to see great work by Tarkovsky you should see Andrey Rublev. But this is not science fiction. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/

I am old fan of Stanislav Lems work. I have to say i would never call American version a remake (Are we calling all versions of "Hamlet" a remake after first one?" Tarkovsky is brilliant director, but unfortunately i have to say for director of his class borth "Solaris" and "Stalker" are plain failures. They still show his high class and much better that a lot of movies out there, but if you compare them to the rest of his work you can say that he is not really good Sci-fi director. You also need to realize that American and Russian version are talking about different things, and yes American Version is not following the book exactly ,but bring the central idea of the movie (not the book) better and that part of artistic process, finding something in the book and making a movie about it. Probably it will be more fair to call movie differently but say it's based on Solaris novell in this case (you can read lem comments about second movie here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/kiosk/kiosk .htm#solstation ) Russian version unfortunately didn't really cover main idea of the book and tried to do too many things at the same time. You can read Lem comments about russian version here.: http://alek.xspaces.org/2005/07/28/lem-on-tarkovsk y
Also you can read some ideas about book here : http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/sola ris/solarispl.htm#1
In general I have to say Lem probably wouldn't like the second movie either, but i still must say that doesn't make it a bad movie, it just probably should have have a different name and say --- based on the characters and event from the book instead of being called Solaris. As with many good books there are usually interesting ideas in them that authors might not have originally planned to explore. So it take good director and script writer to explore those. In my own opinion and based of what i know about Lem work i would say second movie bring some of those idea better that Tarkovsky did. If you really want to see great work by Tarkovsky you should see Andrey Rublev. But this is not science fiction. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/

The problem with multi-species science fiction is that it assumes contemporaneous (nearly synchronous!) technological development.

I grow up reading "The Invincible" ("Niezwyciezony" in polish) novel again and again.
It's so marvelous!
http://www.lem.pl/english/dziela/niezwycie/niezwyc ie.htm/
I even prefer it to "Solaris".

/Z

Stanislaw Lem was easily of my favourite writers, regardless of genre or language. His short stories are nothing short of brilliant (no pun intended) - it's the caliber of writing that subtly changes the way you think of the world.

A couple of links to bibliographies and excerpts:

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/dzie la.htm (his official site)
http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/lem/lem.html

Some of my favourite works are The Cyberiad, The Futurological Congress, and of course The Star Diaries. I have a lot of his work left to read...

May he rest in peace. Douglas Adams had nothing on Stanislaw Lem.

Stanislaw Lem was easily of my favourite writers, regardless of genre or language. His short stories are nothing short of brilliant (no pun intended) - it's the caliber of writing that subtly changes the way you think of the world.

A couple of links to bibliographies and excerpts:

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/dzie la.htm (his official site)
http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/lem/lem.html

Some of my favourite works are The Cyberiad, The Futurological Congress, and of course The Star Diaries. I have a lot of his work left to read...

May he rest in peace. Douglas Adams had nothing on Stanislaw Lem.

Stanislaw Lem was easily of my favourite writers, regardless of genre or language. His short stories are nothing short of brilliant (no pun intended) - it's the caliber of writing that subtly changes the way you think of the world.

A couple of links to bibliographies and excerpts:

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/dzie la.htm (his official site)
http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/lem/lem.html

Some of my favourite works are The Cyberiad, The Futurological Congress, and of course The Star Diaries. I have a lot of his work left to read...

May he rest in peace. Douglas Adams had nothing on Stanislaw Lem.

Stanislaw Lem was easily of my favourite writers, regardless of genre or language. His short stories are nothing short of brilliant (no pun intended) - it's the caliber of writing that subtly changes the way you think of the world.

A couple of links to bibliographies and excerpts:

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/dzie la.htm (his official site)
http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/lem/lem.html

Some of my favourite works are The Cyberiad, The Futurological Congress, and of course The Star Diaries. I have a lot of his work left to read...

May he rest in peace. Douglas Adams had nothing on Stanislaw Lem.

If by "greatly admired" you mean "reported to the FBI"...

"Speed: It will turn you into your parents." -Frank Zappa

And the admiration was mutual: read "Science Fiction: A Hopeless Case - with Exceptions" and "Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans", from Microworlds.

From Stanislaw Lem's web site:

On September 2, 1974 Philip K. Dick sent the following letter to the FBI (Please keep in mind Mr. Dick was most probably suffering from schizophrenia):

Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974

I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.

What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not - to gain monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas. Peter Fitting has in addition begun to review books for the magazines Locus and Galaxy. The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction. And in earlier material which I sent to you I indicated their evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA.

Their main successes would appear to be in the fields of academic articles, book reviews and possibly through our organization the control in the future of the awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).

It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to find much of our criticism and academic theses and publications completely controlled by a faceless group in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do not know.

BTW, here's Stanislaw Lem's Web Site.

Schwab

Stanislaw Lem, aged 85, one of the world's greatest scifi writters has passed away. Most membered works include 'Solaris', 'The Cyberiad' and Pilot Pirx stories.

would be good read.

Lem

CC.

And Death Shall Have no Dominion

http://www.lem.pl/english/faq/faq.htm#dylanthomas

KFG

Incidently, I found your comparision to Dick both apt and ironic, given that their interesting history.

Stanislaw Lem predicted this in his short story "Professor A. Donda" (the first real information scientist).

RMN
~~~

In his wonderful book Peace on Earth, Lem has banished all warfare to the Moon, where robot armies, in a self-evolving arms race, battle each other on behalf of their nations on Earth. Highly recommended, this book is a great joy and very memorable not just for the plot and action, but the philosophical meditations we expect from Lem.

With the swarm of nanobots. Tetrahedric nanobots.

yeah, that was my first thought too. However, given the fact that in Prey (the book) the prey was us, humans, I'm not so sure nanorobot swarms are exactly what I'd like to have prepare Mars for the 'our' arrival there. Unless they behave like the swarm in Nemesis or the one in Solaris...?

Maybe he was referring to the science fiction novel. In it's original language.

Then there are other equally inspiring, phenomenal books that I'd think of as sci-fi but I'd rather not mention titles or authors, since a few people consider them sacred and get offended if others don't treat them as religion...

Dick deserves the "blame" for that letter as much as he deserves the "credit" for everything else he wrote during the time that he was insane. If you don't hold him responsible for that letter, you can't hold him responsible for the other stories he wrote, either. I think he deserves credit for everything he wrote.

Here are some refreshingly harsh quotes from Lem about science fiction. I have to agree with him that most science fiction is trash. But I love trash, and reading his essays helps me better appreciate the trash I read.

From http://www.geocities.com/bill_testerman/LemQuotesP art1.html:

"American science fiction, exploiting its exceptional status, lays claim to occupy the pinnacles of art and thought. One is annoyed by the pretentiousness of a genre that fends off accusations of primitivism by pleading its entertainment character and then, once such accusations have been silenced, renews its overweening claims." (from his essay "Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans" - Lem was once a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but was expelled in 1976)

"Science fiction became a vulgar mythology of technological civilization. I wrote its monograph without the intention of creating a crushing critique....I think that this monograph is an expression of my personal utopia: a longing for a better science fiction - one that should exist." (writing about his Fantastyka i futurologia)

"Some time ago crime was modest - take Al Capone and his mere two dozens of victims. Now we have the Independence Day movie, where alien spaceships murder almost the entire mankind. Some American producer claims now that his next picture will be even stronger. But what can be stronger? To murder an entire biosphere? This is so disgusting for me, that I decided to leave the street-car of science fiction on a stop of essay writing." (from 1996 Orlinski interview)

-Don

Author of The Cyberiad, starring Trurl and Klapaucius, which inspired the game SimCity.

A articulate Polish universal fiction writer, who thinks that Philip K Dick is a Visionary Among the Charlatans.

Nobody can figure out how he writes in Polish, yet the English translations of his books are full of brilliant poetic puns and neological phonetic jokes. He's got a great translator, Michael Kandel, to say the least.

His son Tomasz Lem created and maintains his father's official Stanislaw Lem Web Site.

-Don

PS: But here's what Philip K Dick, another great writer, had to say about Stanislaw Lem to the FBI:

Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974

I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.

What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not - to gain monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas. Peter Fitting has in addition begun to review books for the magazines Locus and Galaxy. The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction. And in earlier material which I sent to you I indicated their evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA. "

Their main successes would appear to be in the fields of academic articles, book reviews and possibly through our organization the control in the future of the awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).

It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to find much of our criticism and academic theses and publications completely controlled by a faceless group in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do not know.

-Philip K Dick

From Stanislaw Lem Questions and Answers.

Author of The Cyberiad, starring Trurl and Klapaucius, which inspired the game SimCity.

A articulate Polish universal fiction writer, who thinks that Philip K Dick is a Visionary Among the Charlatans.

Nobody can figure out how he writes in Polish, yet the English translations of his books are full of brilliant poetic puns and neological phonetic jokes. He's got a great translator, Michael Kandel, to say the least.

His son Tomasz Lem created and maintains his father's official Stanislaw Lem Web Site.

-Don

PS: But here's what Philip K Dick, another great writer, had to say about Stanislaw Lem to the FBI:

Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974

I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.

What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not - to gain monopoly positions of power from which they can control opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free exchange of views and ideas. Peter Fitting has in addition begun to review books for the magazines Locus and Galaxy. The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction. And in earlier material which I sent to you I indicated their evident penetration of the crucial publications of our professional organization SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA. "

Their main successes would appear to be in the fields of academic articles, book reviews and possibly through our organization the control in the future of the awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem's creative abilities now appear to have been overrated and Lem's crude, insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American science fiction and American science fiction writers went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).

It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to find much of our criticism and academic theses and publications completely controlled by a faceless group in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do not know.

-Philip K Dick

From Stanislaw Lem Questions and Answers.

Just had to add a link to this story:

How the world was saved

Definitely. Not only is his science believable (and already possible, in some cases), but his fiction is also what I'd call "literature", not just forgettable adventures that happen to take place in space.

Visit his official site at http://www.lem.pl.

Golem XIV

However, when you think about it a little, the idea of a disembodied intelligence exiting in a computer is silly. Think what happens to human conciousness when deprived of all sensory input.

...richie

Or what if intelligent alien life is actually... alien? Let's face it; the aliens in Star Trek are all exactly like humans, except for a single key difference. The Klingons are exactly like humans, except more aggressive. The Ferengi are exactly like humans, except more materialistic. Etc. This makes for an interesting show, but realism it ain't.

Now for a plausible look at what intelligent alien life might be like, read _Solaris_ by Stanislaw Lem. The difference between us and an intelligent alien is likely to be far greater than the difference between any two terran species.