Learn About Stanisław Lem on good-read.club

Stanisław Lem

4/5 ( ratings)

Born: September 11 1921

Died: 2626 03 20062006

Website: Go to Website

Stanisław Lem was a Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer of Jewish descent. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of Solaris, which has twice been made into a feature film. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.

His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult and multiple translated versions of his works exist.

Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad . In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi , one of his two most famous philosophical texts along with Summa Technologiae . The Summa is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today—like, for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.

He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris , His Master's Voice , and the late Fiasco , expressing most strongly his major theme of the futility of mankind's attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.

He was the cousin of poet Marian Hemar.

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Popular Genres

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem

Books from Stanisław Lem

Solaris

The Cyberiad

The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy

The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy

The Invincible

Tales of Pirx the Pilot

Eden

Return From the Stars

His Master's Voice

Fiasco

Hospital of the Transfiguration

The Chain of Chance

The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul

The Seventh Voyage: A Graphic Novel: Star Diaries

О дивный новый мир

Korkunun Bütün Sesleri

Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy

Golem XIV

Racconti matematici

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub