It's LEM-ERIFFIC! New Editions of Stanislaw Lem: RGBIB 142

[@ratonsito2836]

Thanks, well presented.

[@darklingeraeld-ridge7946]

Excellent as always, thanks.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks for dropping by the bathtub, Geraeld! s

[@robinbergfeld5140]

The run by robots story reminds me of a quote by J.D. Salinger; 'the world is full of actors pretending to be human.' There's a book called: Veiled Sentiments. This book delves into that aspect of human nature within a bedouin community living in a egyptian desert. Poetry is their outlet and conformation of the social structure they live in, actually not just poetry; stories are their way to be truthfull while playing the game of pretending to retain order.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Interesting... in Lem the humans are so scared of being slaughtered by robots they pretend to be robots and go around slaughtering humans, sounds pretty close to home! s

[@isolationdisorder]

Really excited for some of these! I have been a LEM fan for decades, really looking forward to filling a couple of holes in my LEM library! Some of my favorites are "Memoirs found in a bathtub" (of course...) "Eden", "The Investigation", and "The Cyberiad.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah some of these will fit your collection... others are reprints of what you probably already have!

[@scififan9533]

Thanks for sharing theses new MIT Press editions of Lem. I read Solaris a few years ago, but I struggled with the translation, so I'm glad to hear there is a new e-book out. I am inspired to check out the new hard books, too. And I'm with you that super Tuesday 2020 might be the last one. So sad. At least we still have books (for now)!

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, SciFi. I haven't read the e-book of Solaris but the opening pages look good. And I really enjoyed Johnston's trans of Invincible. Yeah, keep it in the bathtub! If you want to join the IBA, give me a location and I'll put you on our map! You'll never feel so famous!

[@scififan9533]

@@Scottmbradfield Boston, MA

[@Scottmbradfield]

Great! Welcome to the IBA! Here's the link to your map of fellow bathers: drive.google.com/open?id=1Tc7RT3iL24ErPt8HJgjXj4m5Pey1HnSi&usp=sharing And to our Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/702202229874384/

[@marekmynarczyk9800]

I have read all of Lem's novels in their native language. Language is very rich, many neologisms in it. I read them as a teenager. I miss hard scifi at such a high level.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Marek Młynarczyk they don’t make writers like Lem in any genre, Marek. Stay safe and we’ll take more Lem into the bathtub soon! Scott

[@helenatokarska8364]

we pronounce it rather "eeyon tea-he", the surname tichy looks like Czech Word for 'quiet'. But pronounce it as you like. Just to notice.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Helena! Now if I can only remember that the next time I read an EE-yon Tea-hee book! Considering Lem's sense of humor, there may be a mnemonic device in "tee hee!" Stay safe. s

[@gregwallace552]

I've read almost all of Lem's books at least once and I tend to like the hard science fiction ones the best: Solaris, Eden, Fiasco, Return From the Stars and The Invincible. On the other hand I've never found one that I didn't like. Those Pirx the Pilot stories are pretty hilarious as are the Ijon Tichy stories. And the fables are a bit like Calvino. I've actually read Return From the Stars at least twice. You are right that it does change a bit once he settles into the Earth society that he finds upon returning. But I like the stories he tells his new wife of the weird experiences he had out in space. Some of that writing is quite beautiful and haunting. I recently got the new edition of The Invincible that I'm now really looking forward to reading. I read the old translation awhile ago but this one sounds like it will be quite a bit better. One more thing I want to mention is that I read this collection of Lem's essays which included the ones on American science fiction and Philip K. Dick. Those stirred up a bit of controversy in the SFWA. Interesting stuff. Thanks for the reviews.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah, Lem sort of discovered American sf in retrospect, and those essays are pretty interesting. My favorite is easily The Cyberiad. Take care! S

[@gregwallace552]

@@Scottmbradfield The Cyberiad was one of the first ones I read back in the 80's. I haven't got a copy so maybe I should get one.

[@ism2703]

"Return from stars" is a very accurate book for nowdays. It is worth of reading and of thinking about what Lem described. Thank you for mentioning about it.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Ism! Lem is great! Scott

[@angusorvid8840]

If he wrote it today it would be about waking up on the wrong side of the bed and realizing how nuts everything has become.

[@Grigoriygb]

Part 2 Lem himself regularly published in the American "fanzines" SF Commentary and the Journal of Omphalistic Epistemology, where his critical articles were published, and in Science Fiction Studies with theoretical and literary works. The spark that ignited the conflict was Lem's article "Science Fiction - A Hopeless Case with Exceptions" in the September 1973 issue of SF Commentary, which is an abridged and revised version of the "Sociology of Science Fiction" chapter from his two-volume Fiction and Futurology » (1970). Where Lem writes that the American market for SF literature, creating specialized magazines and awards, developing institutions of criticism and developing criteria for the "quality" of the genre, is only engaged in superficial copying of great literature. "Authors (even the most talented) are forced to adapt to the demands of publishers and editors catering to the tastes of the silent majority - dumb and passive readers." And the work of Phillip K. Dick (the only one worthy of attention), due to cultural isolation, as well as the characteristic of authors and critics The NF of ignorance cannot be appreciated.” The article caused furious discontent in the SFWA. And the reaction of F.K. Dick, became a denunciation to the FBI, in which he not only reports that Lem's criticism of American fiction is deeply offensive, but also claims that Lem (because he writes in different styles) is not a person at all, but a committee, a communist ideological body consisting of all foreign SFWA authors (!!!). The last straw was Lem's article "Looking Down on Science Fiction: A Writer Picks the Worst of World Literature," which appeared first in Germany in the February 1975 issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, then in English (with large cuts and changes that affected not only composition but meaning) in the Atlas World Press Review (August 1975). The translation was later reprinted in the October issue of the SFWA Forum of the same year, where Lem reiterates his point that American SF does not stand up to scrutiny, either in terms of literature or science: in the vain hope of finding worthy ones among them. I wrote fanzine critiques, naively believing that I could show readers how bad the literature they were supplied was, how banal it was, and what opportunities its writers were missing. "My efforts turned out to be a waste of time because the readers I addressed were not literature fans, but science fiction fans who appreciated the fact that they made me sick." The situation was especially dramatic due to the fact that due to an oversight of the editor in the SFWA Forum issue, along with this article, the news about Lem's official acceptance as an honorary member of the SFWA (two years after the invitation!) was published, and on the cover there was a photograph of Lem with inspiring quote: "It is with great pleasure that I accept the invitation to be a member of the Science Fiction Writers Association of America." From October 1975 to February 1976, the SFWA secretary received letters from six active members, notably Philip H. Farmer and Philip K. Dick, demanding that Lem be removed from the association. All letters literally screamed in unison: Lem cannot be a member of the SFWA, as in his articles he speaks critically about the genre, and also refuses to pay membership dues, thereby showing disrespect for the charter. (Lem just didn't know that membership costs money, otherwise he would have refused right away.) Based on the results of active correspondence in SFWA, they come to the decision that Lem's participation in the association as an honorary member is "illegal", because. contrary to the statute. As a result, Lem is offered an actual membership on the condition that he pays dues regularly, which Lem simply rejects. And in April 1976, at a meeting, with an anonymous vote: 15% against, 15% abstained and 70% for, Lem was expelled from the SFWA. As James Gunn perceptively noted, the scandal surrounding Lem's expulsion did nothing to harm the growth of his English-language publications, and probably even helped. Only the reputation of the SFWA really suffered.

[@Grigoriygb]

Part 3 The conflict between SFWA and Lem is theoretical and aesthetic in nature. Lem, stating that he hoped to show American readers how bad their science fiction is, set himself the goal of formulating its internal criteria for "quality". According to Lem, the social institutions for genre evaluation that appeared more or less naturally (awards, anthologies, criticism, etc.) did not cope with their task. Lem sought to discover the structure of science fiction and determine its place in the social institution of literature. American SF over several decades of its existence (since the 1920s) has turned from a local phenomenon into an independent sector of the book market. In the course of this development, the rate of circulation of texts has accelerated and the reader's need for more and more regular updates has increased. Lem believed that these social conditions impose restrictions on the writing process (for example, force authors to work under tight deadlines, fight for royalties, etc.) and harm the quality of literary publications (style, syntax, grammar, etc.). At the same time, Lem admitted that not all American science fiction is equally bad, which means that the genre potentially has internal guidelines, a kind of achievable horizons of quality, which Lem undertook to find, describe and explain to his American colleagues. Lem proposes to distinguish between "final" and "passing" literary fantasy. The first type is found in fairy tales and science fiction, the second - in the work of Kafka. For example, Lem writes, the appearance of dinosaurs in the final fantasy is seen as part of the "empirical" world of the text, in the passing - as an allegory, metaphor or symbol, in other words - provokes an allegorical reading. Lem divides "final" fantasy into "pseudo-sf" and "real sf", establishing a hierarchy within the genre. For Lem, NF is a game or a puzzle whose value is determined by the skill and sophistication of its design. The quality of individual science fiction works is thus directly proportional to the responsibility with which the author approaches the structuring of scientifically based hypotheses into a scenario or model of technological progress. The problem with modern science fiction, Lem believes, is that "at least 98-99% of its authors do not read scientific journals and textbooks that are widely available today", in it "not a single word deserves belief", i.e. it does not reveal actual scientific knowledge, which is often replaced by pseudoscience, general ideas about technical progress that exist in the mass consciousness. In essence, Lem applies to science fiction the same criteria of "quality" that apply to non-genre literature, i.e. reads SF in the same way as "great" or canonical literature is read.

[@gregwallace552]

I was thinking, if you like Lem's (and Calvino's) fables you might be interested in a little book called My Afterlife Guaranteed by Nanos Valaoritis. That book was put out by City Lights and is composed of short prose poems which have been compared to Kafka's parables. Nanos was a professor of creative writing and world literature for many years. He was also a member of the Parisian Surrealist group during the fifties and sixties, the tail end of that movement. Nanos wasn't that interested in science fiction but we did have a very interesting conversation about The Star Diaries and he did enjoy Lem's satirical/comical fables. I took every class he offered while I was attending SFSU and we remained friends until he passed away last year at the age of 99.

[@TheCrossroads533]

Personally, not all Lem novels translated well into English in those Avon books, so maybe when new translations become available they may be worth checking out. I agree with you about comparing him to Calvino but he is less mythological.

[@Grigoriygb]

Part 4 Two modalities dominated the responses of SFWA members to Lem's criticism: treating Lem as an "outsider" and feeling ashamed. One of the letters in the Lem case from British author Brian Aldiss begins: "Lem's obvious crime is not that he spoke out as a representative of a communist country, but that he opposed science fiction." In his letter, Aldiss, while emphasizing that Lem's criticisms had nothing to do with his political views, nevertheless draws attention to Lem's "foreignness". Moreover, some of Lem's SFWA apologists even refer to the fact that he, as a representative of a totalitarian state, simply could not help but scold the American organization and that Lem's statements should not be taken seriously, since his "anti-American" judgments are dictated by the desire to preserve his status in Poland. As the conflict grew, it gradually turned into a political confrontation between the socialist and democratic regimes. Thus, the expulsion of Lem was equated with a local victory of the liberal American public over totalitarianism. However, the more astute members of the association, in this "victory" discerned alarming symptoms of the transformation of the SFWA into a totalitarian body. Pamela Sargent even sees the SFWA's behavior as a "personal vendetta" that exposed feelings of xenophobia and mistrust of "outsiders." The same idea was echoed by Zebrowski, who said that the bureaucratic "mistake" (offering honorary membership instead of actual membership) was just a cover that allowed the SFWA to punish the "outsider" Lem for his views. Strictly speaking, the "Americans" themselves have repeatedly criticized their science fiction. This phenomenon has even been called "Sturgeon's law", after the writer Theodore Sturgeon, who in 1953 at the World Convention said: "90% of science fiction is garbage." An ideologically pointed analogy was made by Ursula Le Guin, comparing the SFWA with the Union of Writers of the USSR: “The influence of the SFWA is not comparable with the weight that, say, the Soviet Union of Writers has, however, when the former uses the methods of the latter, I think this is a cause for concern and a reason to be ashamed” . This analogy is developed in a letter from one of the editors of Science Fiction Studies, Darko Suvin: “Whether Lem was right or wrong in this case is completely irrelevant. I am sure that Solzhenitsyn, judging by his recent speeches, is largely wrong in his assessment of the USSR, but does this mean that his expulsion from the Writers' Union is justified? “It was a whole scandal, as a result of which I was awarded the nickname “Polish Solzhenitsyn”. This event was the last manifestation of my apostolic activity in partibus infidelium [in the land of the infidels] in science fiction." -------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- * Sargent and Zebrowski's report was published in the July 1977 issue of Science Fiction Studies. The discussion of the Lem Case continued in the March 1978 issue of the magazine.