Stanis?aw Lem

Stanis?aw Lem (born September 12, 1921) is a Polish satirical, philosophical, and science fiction writer. His books have been translated into 40 languages and sold over 27 million copies. At one point he was the most widely read science fiction author in the world. Lem's writing is full of intelligent humor, puns, and neologisms, and Michael Kandel's translations into English have been praised by many for capturing Lem's style.

Controversy

Lem was awarded an honorary membership in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973, which was then rescinded in 1976 after he made comments about American pulp science fiction literature. He described it as kitsch, ill thought-out, poorly written, and interested more in making money than ideas or new literary forms. The SFWA then offered him a regular membership, which he refused. He has also been critical of sci-fi in general, and recently he distances himself from sci-fi, saying that his young works may be sci-fi, but his latter ones are more mainstream. He has not written any kind of novel or short story in many years, and his newer works are simply collection of essays, critical of technological progress and pessimistic about world's future.

Related Topics:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - 1973 - 1976 - Kitsch

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Lem is also well-known for criticizing the films based on his work, including two famous creations of Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and Steven Soderbergh (2002).

Related Topics:
Andrei Tarkovsky - Steven Soderbergh

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