4 ms·
I grew up with Lem's works as a kid, teenager and young adult in West Germany in the 80's. Lem spoke German so he was involved with the translations and there w
by virtualritz 6y ago
I grew up with Lem's works as a kid, teenager and young adult in West Germany in the 80's. Lem spoke German so he was involved with the translations and there wasn't anything he wrote that didn't get translated to German.
Not least because East Germany, together with Poland, was part of the Soviet block.
I read 'Eden' when I was in 3rd grade -- my dad left it laying on the table in our living room. It had the world 'alien' as part of the subtitle so I was hooked.
When my dad found out, about a year later, that I read and grokked the book he read my three years younger brother and me the 'The Invincible' as a bedtime story over many nights. My poor little brother. :)
I think it was 'Eden' that thus set the standard for my expectations of sci-fi (aka: hard sci-fi).
It was probably also the reason that I am forever disappointed by the pale vision of blockbuster and series sci-fi. Or most sci-fi in general, written or filmed.
And I often have deja-vus when I read contemporary sci-fi because of my exposure to Lem. When I e.g. read Watt's 'Blindsight' I couldn't help comparing it to Lem's 'Fiasko'.
I never understood the public's focus on 'Solaris' and even less how both movies missed the core theme of the book so badly.
And lastly: there is unfortunately a substantial body of shorter works from Lem that has still not been translated to English.
- justin66 6y agoInterestingly, Watts himself makes a pretty good case for Solaris: https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5566 https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5566
- danidiaz 6y agoI absolutely love 'Eden', even if Lem himself thought it wasn't among his best work. It's an alien dystopia seen through human eyes. Are the scenarios the explorers encounter something "normal" in some sense, or something gone terribly, terribly wrong? And how can the humans judge, coming from outside? The final revelation dispels some of that ambiguity, and what it shows is not pretty. For me, it's among the most unnerving passages in science fiction. Also, it taught me the word "procrustean"...
- BruceEel 6y agoAbsolutely. As for hard sci-fi, Lem's work had a similar impact on me. I would also like to recommend the 'Pilot Pirx' short stories. Reading 'The Accident' (on OMNI) as a teenager is perhaps what got me into sci-fi in the first place. Speaking of robot-related stories like 'The Accident', you might want to check out this very interesting article 'The Uncanny Robots of Pilot Pirx: Stanisław Lem’s Tales' (PDF) : https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/IL/article/view/IL.2016.21.1.12/8063 https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/IL/article/view/IL.2016.21.1....
- ZWoz 6y agoReading Lem in early age spoiled Matrix movie for me. I hated movie, it seemed unoriginal and weak, compared to Ijon Tichy story, where one professor created artificial universes in lockers or chests. Later I have learned appreciate Matrix series, but my first impression was negative. Lem has several really cool stories, "Return from the Stars" is one my favorite.
- Gravityloss 6y agoSpoiler alert: In "The Futurological Congress", the protagonist is offered two potions to choose from, red or blue. The Matrix is like a 10x dumbed down version of it.
- scandox 6y agoAlso The Futurological Congress as a film: how to take one of the funniest books I've ever read and turn it into one of the least funny movies. I think his sense of pessimism and the absurd is antithetical to modern filmmaking in some way. I loved Fiasco. Brilliant book that I never hear mentioned.
- chewz 6y agoIt was 'Invincible' for me. And Pilot Pirx stories - the atmosphere that flying spaceships is just dirty, demanding, lonely job like driving a lorry. 1978 Polish-Soviet film based on 'Pilot Pirx Test' was very good ... https://youtu.be/JSft0QLoVpQ https://youtu.be/JSft0QLoVpQ And Futurological Congress. EDIT: Also Perfect Void (Doskonała Próżnia) and Imaginary Value (Wielkość Urojona) - introductions to non-existing books and Inquiry (Śledztwo) - one of two Lem's quirky crime novels about mysterily disapearing corpses from mortuaries... https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_pierwszych_wyda%C5%84_dzie%C5%82_Stanis%C5%82awa_Lema_drukiem_zwartym https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_pierwszych_wyda%C5%84_...
- minxomat 6y agoThere was a German TV show adapted from that: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ (Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot) It's pretty quirky. A mix of Lem and maybe old school Doctor Who. It operated on zero budget and thus had a few charming props. If you understand German I highly recommend it. Sadly it's almost impossible to translate to other languages because of the made up dialect used in it, which is the basis for much of its comedy. But looking at clips on YouTube should give you some idea.
- trwired 6y ago> There was a German TV show adapted from that: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ (Ijon Tichy, Space Pilot) I just want to point out that Ijon Tichy is a different character than Pirx and a hero of its own series of tales. The confusion is understandable, because at at a glance they appear to be very similar characters.
- Random_ernest 6y agoA little off topic, but is there a german version of Solaris that is "readable"? The one I got reads like it was done in google translator (back when it really sucked).
- klft 6y agoThe translation of Kurt Kelm (e.g. ISBN 3-7464-0149-6) is much better then the one from Irmtraud Zimmermann-Göllheim.
- arpa 6y agoAll Tarkovsky ever did with subjectmatter, both Solaris and Stalker was to take characters and setting. Everything else was Tarkovsky alone.