Lem wrote from behind the Iron Curtain and could not escape having to demonstrate ideological correctness from time to time. Taking a few cheap shots at anythi

Lem wrote from behind the Iron Curtain and could not escape having to demonstrate ideological correctness from time to time. Taking a few cheap shots at anything American (as in Futurological Congress or Memoirs in a Bathtub), and then getting on with the story, was the straightforward way to do this, and would be quite transparent to the Polish or Soviet reader. Here, he wants to praise an American author - but that just wouldn't be tolerated; however, if he adds some hyperbolic American-culture-so-shallow notes (and for good measure praises a then-acceptable dead Russian), he can make his pro-PKD point and still have the essay published without consequences.