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Lem had a genuine and lifelong interest in technology. Polish authors found plenty of ways to be critical without having to divert into genre fiction. Lem wrot
by idlewords 12y ago
Lem had a genuine and lifelong interest in technology. Polish authors found plenty of ways to be critical without having to divert into genre fiction. Lem wrote it because he loved it.
I wholeheartedly agree that the need to read between the lines politically, and the belief that science fiction is a serious literary endeavor, put Polish and Soviet scifi on a completely different level of quality than in the West. (The same is likely true for other countries in the Eastern Bloc, but I'm out of my depth there).
- cageface 12y agoWhat other Polish or Soviet authors are worth reading? (and translated into English) I love Lem's work but that's the extent of my familiarity with Eastern Bloc sci-fi.
- arafalov 12y agoTry Sergei Lukyanenko (multiple spellings). Most of his works are not translated in English (German has many more), but at least the Night Watch and Day Watch are. They were both made into movies too, though the movies absolutely sucked comparing to the books.
- idlewords 12y agoI highly recommend the Strugatsky brothers. There's a new translation of "Roadside Picnic" out, that would be a great place to start. Another good one is "We" by Evgenii Zamyatin. It's a dystopian novel Orwell cribbed from for 1984.
- vdaniuk 12y agoI am from xUSSR and happy to recommend Strugatsky brothers. Their sci-fi books are deep, thoughtful and authentic.
- idlewords 12y agoCan't agree enough. Is there any more recent Russian sci-fi that you recommend too?
- vdaniuk 12y agoNot really :( I've heard some good things about Metro 2033 by Gluhovskiy, a post-apocalyptic novel about survivors living in Moscow underground train system after the nuclear war in 2013, but haven't read it myself.
- flohofwoe 12y agoMetro 2033 is a good read, I've been reading the German translation, and this still had that specific 'Russian soul' in it which is hard to describe. I was shocked how bad Metro 2034 is though in comparison, and I am not sure whether it was just a very bad German translation or whether the original book was also 'soul-less'.
- qwerta 12y agoI mostly know Czech authors by name. Some are probably not translated to english: Karel Čapek (pre soviet) František_Běhounek (part of Italia north pole expedition) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5%A1ek_B%C4%9Bhounek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5%A1ek_B%C4%9Bhounek J. M. Troska https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcs.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJ._M._Troska&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... Ondřej Neff (post soviet) and his stories around Clarkes monoliths.
- sigsergv 12y agoUnfortunately there not so many soviet and contemporary russian authors are translated. So besides already recommended Strugatskie borthers there almost nothing.
- idlewords 12y agoWhich ones should we translate? :-)
- sigsergv 12y agoVyacheslav Rybakov and Andrey Lazarchuk
- selimthegrim 12y agoDoes Pelevin count as sci-fi? Omon-Ra?
- sigsergv 12y agoWhy not? Pelevin and Vonnegut are in the same boat.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoI strongly recommend the works of Jacek Dukaj. His "Black Oceans" is one of the most idea-dense science fiction book I have ever read. And eerily relevant to our times, especially wrt. HFT and proliferation of surveillance.
- ajuc 12y agoJacek Dukaj is great, but I don't know when he will be translated. He mostly writes hard sci-fi with political and philosophical elements, often about transhumanism, but he also did weird philosophical alternative history book - "Lód" (Ice). Some English reviews of his books: http://greglewicki.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/perfect-imperfection-jacek-dukaj-and-power-of-mind/ http://greglewicki.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/perfect-imperfec... http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2012/02/10/black-oceans-czarne-oceany-by-jacek-dukaj/ http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2012/02/10/black-o...
- kgabis 12y agoDukaj is amazing, his "Other Songs" ("Inne Pieśni" in polish) is one of the best books I've ever read. I really hope it gets translated to english so non-polish speakers can read it.
- mtobi 12y agoActually, on a polish fantasy convention Polcon Dukaj told a story about the attempted translation of "Lód". Hea gathered a group of seven people, Polish to English translators, russophiles, cultural experts and what not. He said, that after two days they gave up after not being able to agree on the first page. The historical and cultural baggage this book carries is just too great to be even remotely translated into english, although he also mentioned that there is a steggering amount of pirate translations into russian.
- ajuc 12y agoYeah I wonder how you can translate "Pomyślało się" :)
- lafar6502 12y agoI can recommend Kir Bulychov and his funny stories about Great Guslar (fictional city somewhere in USSR that was frequently visited by aliens). I'm not sure, however, if this has been translated to english. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kir_Bulychov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kir_Bulychov
- scotty79 12y agohttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel
- qwerta 12y agoI think he could be best compared to earlier authors such as Karel Čapek (inventor of word robot), I think he would call himself 'futurologist'. Scifi on west was defined by laser-guns and girls in bikini on comic covers. East scifi just adored soviet ideal of future. Hard scifi was recognized much later. Lem had complicated approach to technology. From his wiki page: > His criticism of most science fiction surfaced in literary and philosophical essays (Fantastyka i futurologia) and interviews.[24] In the 1990s Lem forswore science fiction and returned to futurological prognostications, most notably those expressed in Okamgnienie (Blink of an Eye). He became increasingly critical of modern technology in his later life, criticizing inventions such as the Internet.[25]
- ableal 12y ago> Karel Čapek (inventor of word robot) Funnily enough, his robots were actually androids - biological, rather than mechanical, beings. He also wrote, in 1922, a pantheistic gem called The Absolute at Large: mankind finds out how to get energy from matter annihilation. But that frees up "the absolute", which inspires religious devotion ... (Pierre Boule, in "Les jeux de l'esprit", probably wrote up the opposite premise, general triumph of rationalism, with pretty much the same result, general conflict.)
- Squarex 12y agoActually the word robot was invented by his brother Josef Čapek.
- EthanHeilman 12y ago>Polish and Soviet scifi on a completely different level of quality than in the West That isn't entirely true, Lem praised the work of Philip K. Dick (American)[0][1] and Olaf Stapledon (English). He has two essays in which he analyzes Stapledon two great works: Last and First Men, and Star Maker[2]. I think you might also be suffering from a filter. The best of Polish writers were translated, whereas you have access to the glut of all American writers. It is probably true that there was a greater number of bad American writers. [0]: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm [1]: Dick returned the favor by reporting Lem to the FBI as a communist conspiracy against the west. Arguing that Lem was in fact a committee and not a person. Read the letter here: http://english.lem.pl/faq#P.K.Dick http://english.lem.pl/faq#P.K.Dick [2]: http://dpuadweb.depauw.edu/icronay_web/lem%20stapledon.html http://dpuadweb.depauw.edu/icronay_web/lem%20stapledon.html
- idlewords 12y agoThose are good points, and I hadn't even heard of Stapledon. Thank you!
- jacquesm 12y agoLast & First men and Starmaker are in a single book, and it's great. One of the classics of SF, if you can't find a copy let me know and I'll send you mine when I'm back in NL.
- EthanHeilman 12y ago'Last and First Men' tends to be a book that science fiction authors read and borrow from. I suspect that there is a slight conspiracy: "the first rule of science fiction writers club is that you don't talk about Stapledon". It inspired most of modern science fiction but very few outside of the field have heard about it. Accelerando, The Shape of Things to Come, 1984, That Hideous Strength, 2001, Blindsight, most of HP Lovecraft, etc... all borrow from him. To C.S. Lewis and AC Clarke's credit, they do acknowledge the importance of Stapledon to their work.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago> Polish authors found plenty of ways to be critical without having to divert into genre fiction. There is this misconception popular even among young Poles that the communism in Poland was a period of hardship and oppression. Sure, many things were bad, but if one talks to one's parents and grandparents, they seem to be mostly happy with that period and in many ways would gladly trade it for what we have today. Especially censorship in Poland was mostly a façade. The system paid lip service to it, but generally people were free to criticize the government, communist reality and made a great lot of self-criticizing works of art. Living might have been harder in other Soviet states. It definitely was bad in Russia. But here in Poland, we had as benevolent socialist system as one could be. You could be known as a religious person and not a member of the Party, and still hold a top accounting position in a strategic government enterprise.
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- jacquesm 12y agoBeware of romanticizing of the past by the older generation, who will be good at remembering their own relatively trouble free lives while ignoring the hardships that others endured. Poland had a ton of things that were very very wrong, look no further than the SB and their victims. The fact that 98% of a nation experienced no significant hardships does not detract from that at all. It is very well possible to have a totalitarian dictatorship in which everybody has a job and there is food on the table and an outward appearance of relative prosperity, but totally rotten underneath. Poland did not have a 'benevolent socialist system' by any measure. I'll just leave this link here, you can research the SB and Jaruzelski on your own good time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popie%C5%82uszko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popie%C5%82uszko
- galfarragem 12y agoAnyway I wouldn't trade a 'benevolent socialist system' (somehow Polish case) for a 'benevolent fascist system' (somehow Portuguese case). Average life standards in Portugal were light-years distance from Polish ones. Ex: While living in Poland, once I commented to a friend that my grandparents could barely read and one grandmother couldn't read at all. He thought I was joking. Or another example: my grandfather got his first shoes when he went to military service. These situations were unthinkable in Poland during communist times. In Poland at the same time lots of people were having university education and most people from lower classes were having holidays.