A space station called Stanislaw Lem

The author of 8216;Solaris8217; was one of the world8217;s greatest writers of science fiction

Stanislaw Lem, who died earlier this week, was one of the giants of science fiction in the 20th century and, probably, the finest writer in the genre outside the English-speaking world. Though he wrote over 57 books, he will be best-known for Solaris, which was filmed by the Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.

Lem was born in Lwov in Poland in 1921. An ethnic Jew, he was raised as a Catholic. Lem8217;s studies of medicine were interrupted by the Second World War. Using false papers to avoid the concentration camps, Lem worked as a car mechanic and welder, and joining the resistance, used his skills to sabotage German vehicles. After the war he resumed his medical studies, but did not take a degree because he did not want to be drafted into compulsory military duty. He worked for a scientific research institution and wrote in his spare time.

Solaris is among the classics of science fiction. In it Lem explores his favourite subject 8212; the limits of human understanding, and the difficulty of communication between humans and alien civilisations. The story is set in a space station over the planet Solaris, which is covered by an ocean that is living and intelligent. It reproduced events from a person8217;s earlier life which were traumatic, leading to mental breakdowns among the station8217;s scientists. A scientist sent out to investigate finds himself forced to confront his own past, with his dead wife returning again and again. Lem was not pleased by Tarkovsky8217;s haunting film version, saying that it was more Dostoevsky than Lem.

Solaris was immediately recognised as a masterpiece. However, Lem8217;s other novels, although they attracted a cult following, never received as much attention as Solaris. This probably accounts for Lem8217;s ferocious attacks on the science fiction establishment. The Science Fiction Writers of America made Lem an honorary member in 1973 but, infuriated by his attacks on American writing as bad, ill-thought out, and purely for money, expelled him in 1976. Ursula K. Le Guin forced the association to take back Lem, but he refused to do so. Lem was one of the few writers outside the communist establishment to be tolerated, probably because his political references were so obscure as to be invisible.

It is interesting to note that the only science fiction writer Lem praised unreservedly, without a hint of barbed undertone, was Philip K. Dick. This is perhaps not surprising, given that both had an understanding of humankind, and a vision of the future of humanity, which were in many ways similar 8212; stark, fully conscious of the pitfalls, but still hopeful.