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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lemglobe.jpg]]
2->''"According to Lem's Law, "No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets".''
3-->-- ''One Human Minute''
4
5->''"[...] 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 [...]"''
6-->-- Creator/PhilipKDick's [[http://www.lem.pl/english/faq#P.K.Dick letter to FBI]]
7
8Stanisław Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a [[UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} Polish]] novelist, most credited for his ScienceFiction writings. His works range from philosophical books and analyses to "tall tales", to light and [[BlackHumor 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. In 1996, he was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland's highest decoration).
9
10[[PungeonMaster 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 switches between the OnlySaneMan and an UnreliableNarrator, occasionally veering into ParodySue.
11
12Lem had a low opinion of most of science fiction, and thought that the existence of the SciFiGhetto 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 Creator/PhilipKDick; Dick did not return his respect, and 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.[[note]]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 for dollars. He was already extremely paranoid, so it added fuel to the fire. Note, Creator/BrianAldiss, having been paid in złotys a couple of years later, and visiting Poland at the time (just how, we have no idea) simply ''bought beer for the entire fantasy convention'' and was done with the problem.[[/note]] Despite Lem's views, he was defended by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin in his conflict with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
13
14!!!His works include:
15[[index]]
16* ''Literature/TheAstronauts'' (Astronauci, 1951)
17* ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'' and ''Memoirs of a Space Traveler'' (Dzienniki gwiazdowe, 1957, expanded 1971; trans. in English 1976 and 1982)
18* ''{{Literature/Eden}}'' (1959; trans. 1989)
19* ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' (Powrót z gwiazd, 1961; trans. 1980)
20* ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'' (1961; trans. 1970)
21* ''Literature/{{The Invincible}}'' (Niezwyciężony, 1964; trans. 1973)
22* ''Fables for Robots'' (Bajki Robotów, 1964; the American translation is called ''Mortal Engines'' [1977])
23* ''Summa Technologiae'' (1964, second ed. 1967; trans. 2013)
24* ''Literature/HisMastersVoice'' (Głos Pana, 1968; trans. 1983)
25* ''Literature/TheCyberiad'' (Cyberiada, 1967; trans. 1974)
26* ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot'' and ''More Tales of Pirx the Pilot'' (Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie, 1968; trans. 1979 and 1982)
27* ''A Perfect Vacuum'' (Doskonała próżnia, 1971)
28* ''The Futurological Congress'' (Kongres futurologiczny, 1971; trans. 1974)
29* ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub'' (Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie, 1971; trans. 1973)
30* ''The Chain of Chance'' (Katar, 1975)
31* ''Literature/WizjaLokalna'' (''Observation on the Spot'', 1982)
32* ''Golem XIV'' (1981; trans. 1985)
33* ''Literature/{{Fiasco}}'' (Fiasko, 1986; trans. 1987)
34* ''Literature/PeaceOnEarth'' (Pokój na Ziemi, 1987; trans. 1994)
35[[/index]]
36----
37!! His work includes examples of:
38
39* ActualPacifist: Had nothing but the deepest disdain toward not just warfare and the military (and that was even before [=WW2=] turned his life upside-down), but just violence in general. This is especially prominent in his non-fiction writing, but his fictional characters tend to be the men who "keep their fists in their pockets", so to speak.
40* AuthorTract: Some of the Ijon Tichy stories arguably qualify, but it's usually subtle and well-written.
41* BlackComedy: The entire point, really, of the Ijon Tichy stories is darkly humourous satire. Whenever Lem is being funny, it's either wonderfully [[SurrealHumor absurd]] or black comedy. Or both. [[CrossesTheLineTwice And it gets very black]]. One summer vacation, he was helping his nephew improve his ortography by the tried-and-true method of "dyktando" (dictation) exercises that Lem improvised on the spot. The nephew later published the contents of his exercise book as ''Dictations, or Rather How Uncle Staszek Taught Then Michaś, Now Michał, to Write Without Errors''. Those contents are full of ''BlackComedyCannibalism'', among other things.
42* CelibateHero: Most of Lem's protagonists are solitary males who show no interest in romance over the course of the story.
43** Averted in ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', where the protagonist is not technically married, but encounters a copy of his fiancee (or possibly wife, it's unclear) who died ten years prior, and, after some hesitation, takes up the relationship.
44** In ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'', the astronaut protagonist returns to Earth after 120 years. While trying to find a partner (and succeeding, after a fashion), he ultimately stays isolated in a society that has changed too much to re-integrate him.
45* ContrivedCoincidence: ''Chain of Chance'' is not the only Lem's story that hinges on a wildly improbable piling up of innocuous circumstances that, acting together, result in mysterious deaths. [[Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot Pirx]] has solved enough of these puzzles to call himself a WeirdnessMagnet in a LampshadeHanging of yet another.
46* CrapsackWorld: Often. Lem was not an optimist.
47* CrapsaccharineWorld: ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars''. The world the protagonist [[ColdSleepColdFuture ends up in]] is colourful and, above all, ''safe'', to the point of treatments everyone receives that make people risk-averse and nonviolent. And he is an astronaut, for whom risk had been the reason of his existence. And ''The Futurological Congress'' even more so [[spoiler:but it was all a dream.]]
48* CrazyCulturalComparison: ''Wizja Lokalna'' (''Observation on the Spot'') is a veritable feast of complex and multilevel cultural jokes and comparisons. Craziest of which is the discussion of the mating rituals during his visit to some university -- both sides are thoroughly baffled by the experience: locals by the closed and intimate nature of Earthlings' reproduction (for them it's [[BizarreAlienBiology the most public thing possible]]), and Tichy by the outlandish theories they invent to give this behavior a logical explanation.
49* CyberneticMythicalBeast: In the "Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon" from ''Bajki Robotów'' (''Fables for Robots'' a.k.a. ''Mortal Engines''; 1964), set on the planet of Cyberia, the faulty transmission of a royal order causes a computer which is tasked to build synthetic enemies for the wargames of the king of Cyberia to construct a hostile ''elektrosmok'' ("electro-dragon") on Cyberia's moon. The electro-dragon, which grows uncontrollably by devouring the moon piecemeal and transforming it into its own body, soon threatens Cyberia and lays claim to the throne, but is defeated in time when it is persuaded to "to subtract itself from itself".
50* DescriptionPorn: Lavish, picturesque descriptions of Moon and Mars surface abound.
51* DeusEstMachina: Golem XIV in the book of the same name.
52** Golem XIV--despite expressing itself in human language--experiences a rarified world of pure intellect, so far above and beyond human concerns, it has become a {{Starfish Alien|s}} in every sense except the physical. One wonders the extent to which the almost painfully-rigorous Lem felt similarly alienated from his fellow human beings (and, therefore, was an ideal writer to depict what a DeusEstMachina might think about).
53*** In the US, "Golem XIV" appears as a "story" in Lem's [[RealTrailerFakeMovie anthology]] ''Imaginary Magnitude''; it takes the form of an article from an academic journal, albeit one eventually given over entirely to the title AI, reproducing its attempt to communicate with humanity. All of the book's contents are in peculiar formats with which Lem was experimenting: such as [[FictionalDocument Fictional Documents]], or prefaces which can only hint at the nature of the as-yet-unrealized media they purport to be introducing.
54** Also the [[FunWithAcronyms Digital Engrammic Universal System]] (called the General Operational Device in the original) from ''Fiasco''. [[LampshadeHanging One character notes that the acronym was probably intentional]].
55* {{Dystopia}}: He portrayed many dystopian societies, and wrote about the impossibility of creating an {{Utopia}}.
56* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion. In the short story "Invasion from Aldebaran" (''Inwazja z Aldebarana'', 1959), two StarfishAliens from Aldebaran scouting for planets to conquer for their galactic empire land on Earth, at a random spot which turns out to be in rural Poland. Although the Aldebarans are technologically highly advanced and command an arsenal of sophisticated bioengineered devices, their attempt to reconnoitre the nearby village is impeded by the poor state of the local roads. Before they have reached the town, they meet their doom by getting into a brawl with a late-night drunkard who clobbers them to death in a drunken stupor, [[ItMakesSenseInContext mistaking them for someone else]]. Unfortunate to them, their bioengineered weapon system is disabled by the man's alcoholic breath, as alcohol is apparently poison to all organisms from Aldebaran.
57* FirstContact: Possibilities of contact and communication between profoundly alien beings was a theme Lem explored often - be it the living planetary ocean in ''Solaris'', MicrobotSwarm in ''The Invincible'' or strange and incomprehensible societies in ''Eden'' and ''Fiasco''.
58* GeniusLoci: The eponymous planet in ''Literature/{{Solaris}}''. Probably.
59* GodIsInept: At the end of ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', Kelvin theorizes about a god "whose imperfection represents his essential characteristic: a god limited in his omniscience and power, fallible, incapable of foreseeing the consequences of his acts, and creating things that lead to horror." Snow suggests that the ocean might be the first phase of such a god.
60* GratuitousLatin:
61** More frequently in his non-fictional works. Arguably, that was less a personal trait of Lem than it was common for the educated Poles as a whole. Due the immense influence the [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Catholic Church]] and its liturgical language, Latin, had in Polish culture and history, literary Polish itself became heavily Latinized, and it shows.
62** He studied medicine in Lwów, although he did not finish the studies because he did not want to succumb to the party-mandated doctrine of Lysenkoism. The fact that medicine is the most prominent (if not only) field in which Latin is actually used, probably had its influence too.
63* HardOnSoftScience
64* HumansAreCthulhu: ''Mortal Engines'' sometimes treats humans like this (particularly in ''The White Death'', which manages to be a horror story among light-hearthed fables). Other times the robots just consider them mythical beasts.
65* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: A recurring theme. Rafał Ziemkiewicz attributes this (as well as Lem's atheism and dislike of the optimistic science fiction by people whose families got to America before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) to terrible SurvivorGuilt - Lem got through the Holocaust, quite possibly by hair's breath, and he never wanted to speak or write about his early life, even the life before the war - he did write ''Wysoki Zamek'' ("High Castle", a district of Lwów where Lem grew up), a memoir of his childhood, but it's nebulous, the people in the book have no names, like ghosts. In any case, there's a lot of simple disgust with humanity in his books.
66** "It's comforting to know, when you think about it, that only man can be a bastard."
67* LoopholeAbuse: Lem disliked studying medicine and had no real heart to the practice, only going back to university directly after [=WW2=] to avoid age-related military conscription... but he deliberately never finished it, either, as freshly certified doctors were instantly conscripted as military surgeons.
68* LostInTranslation: Lem's love of puns and wordplay often makes him a daunting task for a translator. For example, his SF whodunnit ''Katar'' is translated into English as ''The Chain of Chance'', but often dubbed ''The Cold'', from its Polish title. Except the Polish word "katar" ''actually'' means "runny nose" and is just used for mild colds metonimically (as in DefinitelyJustACold): what the hero had was hay fever ("katar sienny") -- which was an important plot point, but was lost on the translator. ''The Cyberiad'' and ''Mortal Engines'' are regarded as particularly difficult to translate, since they are written in an idiosyncratic style that relies on the Polish rules of word coinage to create archaic-sounding neologisms.
69* MechanicalEvolution, MechanicalLifeforms: ''The Invincible'' the most prominent example, though the latter trope is recurring in his work.
70* MicrobotSwarm: The [[CreatingLifeIsUnforeseen spontaneously evolved]] population of microautomata destroying all land-based life in ''The Invincible''.
71* MoodWhiplash: A characteristic of the Ijon Tichy books, for example ''The Star Diaries'' and especially ''Memoirs of a Space Traveller''. See also in ''Peace on Earth'': Actually plot-advancing fragments are interchanged with Ijon Tichy describing his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain split-brain condition]].
72* {{Neologizer}}: The chief reason why his works are so hard to translate. There is just an absurd amount of puns, neologisms and made-up terms in his texts that make sense - or even are plot-relevant - in Polish, but are at worst nigh-impossible to translate, utterly LostInTranslation on average. ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub'' are the prime example, where all the made-up words are integral part of the plot - and good luck rendering them into other languages without changing the context.
73* NoPaperFuture: PlayedForLaughs in the introduction to ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub''. Seems to be averted otherwise (protagonists read books a lot), although in ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' books have been replaced by {{Data Crystal}}s and television rules the place, which may be for the ColdSleepColdFuture effect.
74* {{Pun}}: Quite a lot in the less serious works. Especially ''Literature/TheStarDiaries''.
75* RandomNumberGod: A theme of many Lem's works, especially ''The Investigation'' and ''The Chain of Chance''.
76* RealTrailerFakeMovie: His book ''Imaginary Magnitude'' contains introductions to nonexistent books. Also ''A Perfect Vacuum'' that contains reviews of these. Among Lem's readers, they are collectively known as "apocrypha".
77* RecycledInSpace: ''Bajki Robotów'' are fairy tales [-IN SPACE! WITH ROBOTS!-]
78* RiddleForTheAges: In ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', why did the planet send the visitors (copies of people from the protagonists' pasts)? Was it an effort to study humans, as the humans study Solaris? Why these memories specifically? (There are suggestions the copies come from emotionally loaded, guilt-laden memories, but ''why''?) And who was Gibarian's visitor? (We do see her, but Kelvin, who has known Gibarian for years, has no idea who she was.) The main theme of the novel is the incomprehensibility of a truly alien intelligence and impossibility of real, meaningful interaction with it.
79* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Often.
80** ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot'' have one that gets destroyed while ScalingTheSummit it doesn't need to climb, but the mountain ''is there'', a mining robot that goes mad in a disturbingly human way, and the robot on board of ''Coriolanus'' that [[spoiler: holds the personalities of the dead crewmembers in its memory, whom you can talk to and they ''reply'']].
81** In ''Literature/TheCyberiad'', everyone is a robot! And you can very well forget about it while reading. Lampshaded by the existence of "palefaces", weird, unrobotic monsters also known as humans.
82** ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'' are full of robots that act exactly like humans, in one case [[spoiler: actually humans who think they're hiding among robots, but the [[FlockOfWolves robots turn out to be humans]], too]].
83** In ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' the protagonist visits a robotic-operated factory and hears people crying, moaning and calling for help. Horrified, he goes to them and learns they're malfunctioning robots.
84* SceneryPorn: Quite often. Lem could go on for pages about strange, alien, beautiful planetary landscapes.
85* SexIsCool: Deconstructed and parodied. For example, in the twentieth voyage of ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'', Ijon Tichy whines how ugly and misplaced human sexual organs are. [[spoiler: It was his fault. Indirectly.]]
86** This theme was revisited in ''Observation On The Spot''.
87** And in ''The Sexplosion'' (from ''A Perfect Vacuum'', the sex drive (after roboporn took it up to eleven) is accidentally wiped out, but since nature abhors a vacuum (sorry), the end result is literal FoodPorn.
88* SimulatedFantasyPostApocalypticReality: In ''The Futurological Congress'', the [[spoiler:hallucinated]] Earth of the future is an overpopulated frozen wasteland, so the people are kept under crazy amounts of hallucinogens and believe themselves to be in a beautiful utopian world. [[spoiler:George Simington]], who is revealed to be the mastermind behind it, tries to convince Ijon Tichy that keeping people in a sweet delusion is an act of "the last Good Samaritans", only for Tichy to counter that if [[spoiler:Simington]] really thought so, he would have fed Tichy a pill or two of belief-inducing hallucinogen and Tichy would have become his biggest fan instantly.
89* StarfishAliens: A recurring theme in his works is the portrayal of profoundly alien civilizations, and the impossibility of understanding or even simply communicating with them.
90* TakeThat: Half of ''A Perfect Vacuum''. Lem wasn't a fan of modern literature, and his reviews of fictive books [[AuthorTract make that clear.]] Especially [[Creator/JamesJoyce James Joyce]] gets outpunned to hell and back.
91* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Ijon Tichy experiences this in ''The Futurological Congress'' after he and his colleagues are dosed with powerful hallucinogenic drugs by a terrorist group.
92* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: ''The Chain of Chance''.
93* UnbuiltTrope: Lem's writings contain many motifs that would be instantly recognizable by a SF enthusiast nowadays (FirstContact and TheSingularity are just two examples), and he usually discussed them thoroughly years before they became popularized, in ways that go ''wildly'' against later-established conventions.
94* ViewersAreGeniuses: The author was. Science and philosophy fill his writings.

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