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Stanislaw Lem: Difference between revisions
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{{creator}}
[[File:Stanislaw Lem 2.jpg|thumb|300px|Stanislaw Lem in 1966]]
{{quote|''"These days no one ever reads anything. [[Viewers are Morons|If they read, they don't understand.]] If they read and understand - [[Viewers Are Goldfish|they forget immediately
{{quote|''"[...] Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not [...]"''|[[Philip K. Dick]]'s [http://www.lem.pl/english/faq#P.K.Dick letter to FBI]}}
'''Stanisław Lem''' (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish novelist, most credited for his [[Science Fiction]] writings. His works range from philosophical books and analyses to "tall tales", to light and [[Black Humor|darkly comic]] satire; and he enjoyed subverting many common genre tropes. He is one of the most recognized and respected Polish writers, as well as one of the most prolific science-fiction writers; and was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle.
[[Pungeon Master|He loved word-plays]], making up new words and divining the future of civilisation from them; it was one of the many ways in which he subjected plot to paradoxical associations rather than to the straight and narrowly reasonable prognoses. He was particularly fond of satirizing religion, technology, and human foibles; typically with a sharp and incisive wit. Later in his career, he grew increasingly critical of technology, particularly the Internet, which he considered little more than a gathering of idiots. Many of his works, both novels and short stories, feature the recurring character Ijon Tichy; an intelligent, accident-prone, adventurer who varies between being the [[Only Sane Man]], and an [[Unreliable Narrator]], occasionally veering into [[Parody Sue]].
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Lem had [[Sturgeon's Law|a low opinion of most of science fiction]], and thought that the existence of the [[Sci Fi Ghetto]] was justified, not because the genre is inherently worthless, but because the authors haven't used the possibilities in it. The only contemporary author he considered worthwhile was [[Philip K. Dick]]; Dick did not return his respect, but considered Lem's attacks on American science fiction to be unjustified and insulting. At the same time, he also became a target of Dick's increasing paranoia.<ref>It stemmed from a series of publishings of foreign science-fiction in communist Poland, signatured by Lem - Dick received payment, but in Polish złotys, which he couldn't exchange to dollars. He was already super paranoid, so it added fuel to the fire.</ref> Despite Lem's views, he was defended by [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula LeGuin]] in his conflict with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
{{bibliography}}
* ''[[The Astronauts]]'' (Astronauci, 1951)
* ''Eden'' (1959)
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