1/08/2006

One of the great Science Fiction writers has died. Having survived both World War Two and a communist regime known for its sense of humor Polish S.F writer, philosopher, punster, satirist, and atheist, Stanislaw Lem passed away on March 27th, aged 84, after suffering from a long illness. Lem's two dozen or so books were translated into 41 languages and sold 27 million copies, making him one of the most widely read non-English language science fiction writers.
Lem wore many other hats in his long career: mechanic, welder, WW 2 Resistance fighter, research assistant and so on. He was a polymath, and the same can be said for the astonishingly broad range of his fiction, essays and poems. Simply listing the sub-genres explored in his Science Fiction alone reads like an A-Z of library categories. Lem was a writers' writer who could turn his hand from reviewing imaginary novels to crafting whimsical but bitingly ironic cybernetic fairy tales and speculating about the difficulties of communicating with sentient oceans.

Speaking of which, his most famous but perhaps not his most mature Science Fiction novel, Solaris, published in 1961, was twice adapted into motion pictures. The 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky version is much acclaimed, though not necessarily by Lem himself, and frequently appears in critics' all-time top S.F film lists. Steven Soderbergh's 2002 Hollywood adaptation is markedly more accessible than the famously leisurely paced Tarkovsky film but at the high cost of abandoning most of the subtitles of the story, making it a wan reflection of Lem's original novel, though I still salute the Soderbergh's courage, if nothing else, for tackling such a thankless task in the first place. A hard pitch if ever there was one. Other Lem stories have also less famously been adapted for the screen.
Nevertheless, carried on the backs of the films, it's Solaris that you're most likely to find in bookstores in English language translation, followed by The Cyberiad and perhaps Fiasco. Although Lem's themes and concepts remain remarkably relevant, sometimes specific technologies do date in his work, though sometimes not as much as you might think. I recall being struck by the helicopter exploration (Ouch!) of planet Solaris in the novel, when I re-read it recently, because it seemed rather amusingly state of the art.
On the subject of art, Lem's work has inspired many filmmakers, artists, scientists and writers, as well as one or two composers. Synthesizer artist Isao Tomita's wonderfully textured composition "The Sea Named Solaris" showed up on Carl Sagan's Cosmos Television series and is available on Isao's own album Kosmos. Esa-Pekka Salonen adapted some Lem texts for his 1982 composition, Floof.
The bulk of Lem's works remain a largely untouched for the majority of English speaking Science Fiction fans. It would be marvelous if new translations were to be forthcoming, and I for one would love to see a new bumper omnibus of his collected stories. A fitting tribute to an influential Science Fiction writer whose quantity and quality of work warrants placing him alongside grandmasters like Clarke, Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, Verne and Wells.

Obituary from ZERO-G AUSTRALIAN RADIO by Rob Jan
http://www.lem.pl/

Stanislaw Lem: Life and Works

1921 Stanislaw Lem was born in Lwow, Poland (presently Lvov, Ukraine) to a family of a wealthy laryngologist
1932 starts education at the II K. Szajnocha State Grammar School in Lwow 
1939 obtains secondary school certificate
1940-41 studies medicine at the Lwow University
1942 after the occupation of Lwow by German forces works as a mechanic helper and welder for a German firm recovering raw materials.
1944 after the second marching in of the Soviet army continues medical studies
1946 following the repatriation laws along with his family leaves for Krakow.
1946 makes his debut with a novel Czlowiek z Marsa (A Man from Mars) published as several episodes in "Nowy Swiat Przygod"
1946-48 cooperates with "Tygodnik Powszechny" and published poems and short stories
1946 enrolls at the Jagiellonian University to study medicine
1947-1950 works as a junior assistant for Konwersatorium Naukoznawcze lead by doctor Mieczyslaw Choynowski and collaborates with the monthly "Zycie Nauki." ("The Life of Science")
1948 starts writing his first novel Szpital Przemienienia (Hospital of the Transfiguration)
1951 publishers his first book Astronauci (The Astronauts)
1953 marries M.D. Barbara Lesniak, a radiologist
1954 his father dies
1955 Czas nieutracony (further volumes of Hospital of the Transfiguration)
1957 Dialogi (Dialogs); Dzienniki gwiazdowe (The Star Diaries)
1959 Eden (Eden); Sledztwo (The Investigation) 
1961 Pamietnik znaleziony w wannie (Memoirs Found in a Bathtub); Powrot z gwiazd (Return from the Stars); Solaris  (Solaris)
1964 Niezwyciezony (The Invincible); Summa Technologiae
1965 Cyberiada (The Cyberiad)
1966 Wysoki Zamek (Highcastle)
1968 birth of his son
1968 Opowiesci o pilocie Pirxie (Tales of Pirx the Pilot); Glos Pana (His Master's Voice)
1970 receives a prize from the minister of foreign affairs for popularization of Polish culture abroad
1971 Doskonala proznia (A Perfect Vacuum)
1972 becomes member of the committee of Polska Akademia Nauk (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Polska 2000 (Poland 2000).
1973 Wielkosc urojona (Imaginary Magnitude)
1973 A literary prize of the ministry of culture;  honorary member of the Science Ficiton Writers of America 
1976 Katar  (The Chain of Chance)
1976 State Prize of the first degree for literature;  expelled from SFWA
1981 receives a honorary degree from the Wroclaw Polytechnic
1981 martial law in Poland
1982 departure for a one-year scholarship of Wissenschaftskolleg in West Berlin.
1982 Wizja lokalna
1983-88 temporary residence in Vienna
1986 awarded Austrian state prize for European Culture for 1985
1987 Fiasko (Fiasco); Pokoj na Ziemi (Peace on Earth)
1988 returns to Poland
1991 Austrian Kafka-prize for Literature
1994 becomes a member of  PAU (Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci)
1996 receives the Medal of the White Eagle
1997 receives honorary citizenship of the city of Krakow
1998 honorary degrees from: Opole University, State Medical University in Lviv, Jagiellonian University.
2000 Okamgnienie
2001 Swiat na krawedzi
www.lem.pl