Stanisław Lem and His Aliens: A Tribute and a Challenge

Stanisław Lem was one of the greatest, and one of the most misunderstood, science fiction writers of the twentieth century. His work was both brilliant and challenging. His aliens were truly ‘alien’—beings whose thoughts are so incomprehensible to human minds that they call into question our own intelligence, society, and place in the universe.

This collection is an investigation of his work through both essays and fiction. Essays by leading literary scholars examine his ideas and beliefs revealed in his writing. They look at how he used the alien to hold a mirror to up humanity. Stories, inspired by the ideas and motifs of his writing, highlight his continuing influence on the science fiction genre.

This book is a both a celebration and an examination of Lem’s work. Learn more about this literary innovator, and be challenged by the mind-bending ideas he presented.

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C O N T E N T S

AJ Odasso—“The Vector’s Dream” / V
Elana Gomel—“Introduction” / 1

PART 1: THE LOUD SILENCE OF THE OTHER
Elana Gomel—“New Worlds and Old Histories: Stanislaw Lem and Science Fiction in the Age of Disaster” / 13
Jakub Gomułka—“Stanisław Lem’s Atheism and His Two Approaches to Transcendence” / 23
Jarosław Boruszewski—“Masters’ Silence. Lem’s ‘Alienomorphic’ Model of Communication” / 55

PART 2: SCIENCE AS FICTION
Emma Johanna Puranen—“Through a Mirror, Earthly: ‘Solaris,’ Gaia, and the Search for Habitable Worlds” / 77
Filip Świerczyński—“Reality as a Fluctuation, Reality as a Singularity: Between Stanisław Lem’s Reception of the Universe and ‘The Investigation’” / 107
Pablo Contursi—“Literary Expressions of Nonexistence in Stanisaw Lem and Italo Calvino: ‘The Third Sally, or the Dragons of Probability’ and ‘The Nonexistent Knight’” (Transl. by Romina Propato) / 137

PART 3: FICTION AS SCIENCE
Neil A. Hogan—“Air Cows” / 159
Robert Walton—“El Peligroso” / 207
Elana Gomel—“The Prison-house of Language” / 235