Editing Stanisław Lem (section)

==Life==
===Early life===
[[File:4 Lepkoho Street, Lviv (02).jpg|thumb|House No. 4 on [[Bohdan Lepky]] Street in Lviv, where, according to his autobiography ''[[Highcastle]]'', Lem spent his childhood]]
Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, [[Second Polish Republic|interwar Poland]] (now [[Lviv]], Ukraine). According to his own account, he was actually born on 13 September, but the date was changed to the 12th on his birth certificate [[Triskaidekaphobia|because of superstition]].<ref name="Orliński37">{{cite book|author=Wojciech Orliński|title=Lem. Życie nie z tej ziemi|year=2017|publisher=Wydawnictwo Czarne/Agora SA|isbn=978-83-8049-552-4|page=37}}</ref> He was the son of Sabina née Woller (1892–1979) and Samuel Lem{{refn|group=note|Samuel Lem changed his last name from [[wikt:Lehm|Lehm]] (meaning "loam", "clay" in German/Yiddish) to Lem in 1904.<ref>Agnieszka Gajewska, ''Zagłada i gwiazdy Przeszłość w prozie Stanisława Lema.'' Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań, 2016, {{ISBN|978-83-232-3047-2}}</ref>}} (1879–1954), a wealthy [[laryngology|laryngologist]] and former physician in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]],<ref name="Jarzȩbski1986"/><ref name=TF/> and first cousin to Polish poet [[Marian Hemar]] (Lem's father's sister's son).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lem.pl/polish/faq/faq.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625093849/http://www.lem.pl/polish/faq/faq.htm|url-status=dead|title=Lem's FAQ|archive-date=25 June 2007}}</ref> In later years Lem sometimes claimed to have been raised [[Roman Catholic]], but he went to Jewish religious lessons during his school years.<ref name="Zaglada"/> He later became an [[atheist]] "for moral reasons ... the world appears to me to be put together in such a painful way that I prefer to believe that it was not created ... intentionally".<ref name="rc"/><ref name="MisI"/> In later years he would call himself both an agnostic<ref name="SP-19960115"/> and an atheist.<ref>В. Шуткевич, [http://www.fandom.ru/inter/lem_6.htm СТАНИСЛАВ ЛЕМ: ГЛУПОСТЬ КАК ДВИЖУЩАЯ СИЛА ИСТОРИИ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316060927/http://www.fandom.ru/inter/lem_6.htm |date=16 March 2016 }} ("Stanislaw Lem: Stupidity as a Driving Force of History", an interview), ''[[Komsomolskaya Pravda|Комсомольская правда]]'', 26 February 1991, p. 3.</ref>

After the 1939 [[Soviet invasion of Poland|Soviet invasion of Poland's former eastern territory]] (now part of Ukraine and Belarus), he was not allowed to study at [[Lviv Polytechnic#History|Lwów Polytechnic]] as he wished because of his "[[bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] origin", and only due to his father's connections he was accepted to study medicine at [[University of Lviv|Lwów University]] in 1940.<ref name="self"/> During the subsequent [[Occupation of Poland (1939–45)|Nazi occupation]] (1941–1944), Lem's Jewish family avoided placement in the Nazi [[Lwów Ghetto]], surviving with false papers.<ref name=TF/> He would later recall:<ref name=TF/><ref name=NY/>
{{bquote|During that period, I learned in a very personal, practical way that I was no "[[Nordic race|Aryan]]". I knew that my ancestors were Jews, but I knew nothing of the [[Mosaic faith]] and, regrettably, nothing at all of [[Jewish culture]]. So it was, strictly speaking, only the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazi legislation]] that brought home to me the realization that I had Jewish blood in my veins.}}

During that time, Lem earned a living as a car mechanic and welder,<ref name=TF/> and occasionally stole munitions from storehouses (to which he had access as an employee of a German company) to pass them on to the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance]].<ref>Stanisław Lem, [http://german.lem.pl/home/biographie/mein-leben ''Mein Leben''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022095520/http://german.lem.pl/home/biographie/mein-leben |date=22 October 2016 }} ("My Life"), Berlin, 1983.</ref>

In 1945, Lwów was annexed into the [[Soviet Ukraine]], and the family, along with many other Polish citizens, [[Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine|was resettled]] to [[Kraków]], where Lem, at his father's insistence, took up medical studies at the [[Jagiellonian University]].<ref name=TF/> He did not take his final examinations on purpose, to avoid the career of military doctor, which he suspected could have become lifelong.<ref>E. Tuzow-Lubański, "Spotkanie ze Stanisławem Lemem", ''Przegląd Polski'', 9 May 1996, pp. 1, 15. ([http://www.lwow.home.pl/semper/lem.html fragment] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127061535/http://www.lwow.home.pl/semper/lem.html |date=27 November 2019 }}) ''Quote:'' "W 1948 r. zrobiłem absolutorium z medycyny. I wtedy okazało się, że jak się kończy medycynę i dostaje dyplom, to trzeba iść do wojska jako lekarz – i nie na rok czy dwa, ale na zawsze"</ref><ref name=self/><ref group="note">Lech Keller suggests a slightly different reason why Lem did not pursue the diploma: since his father was a functionary of Sanitary Department of the infamous UB ([[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)|Ministry of Public Security]]), he would have probably been assigned to the hospital subordinated to UB, probably to the same department his father served. Keller further remarks that it was well-known that UB doctors were used to "restore the conditions" of the interrogated [[Dissident movement in the People's Republic of Poland|dissidents]]. See Lech Keller, [https://www.academia.edu/41989171/ACTA_LEMIANA_MONASHIENSIS_SPECIAL_STANISLAS_LEM_EDITION_OF_ACTA_POLONICA_MONASHIENSIS_PRZYCZYNEK_DO_BIOGRAFII_STANIS%C5%81AWA_LEMA_CONTRIBUTION_TO_BIOGRAPHY_OF_STANISLAS_LEM_VOLUME_3_NUMBER_2?auto=download "Przyczynek do biografii Stanisława Lema"] (retrieved 16 February 2020), ''Acta Polonica Monashiensis ''([[Monash University]], Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Volume 3 Number 2, R&S Press, Melbourne, Victoria, 2019, pp. 94, 107</ref> After receiving ''[[absolutorium]]'' (Latin term for the evidence of completion of the studies without diploma), he did an obligatory monthly work at a hospital, at a maternity ward, where he assisted at a number of childbirths and a [[caesarean section]]. Lem said that the sight of blood was one of the reasons he decided to drop medicine.<ref>"Jestem Casanovą nauki" In: [[Marek Oramus]], ''Bogowie Lema'', Kurpisz Publishing House, 2006, p. 42. {{ISBN|978-83-89738-92-9}}.</ref>

===Rise to fame===
[[File:Stanisław Lem.jpg|thumb|Stanisław Lem and toy [[cosmonaut]], 1966]]
Lem started his literary work in 1946 with a number of publications in different genres, including poetry, as well as his first science fiction novel, ''[[The Man from Mars]]'', serialized in ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Nowy Świat Przygód|pl}}'' (''New World of Adventures'').<ref name=TF/> Between 1948 and 1950 Lem was working as a scientific research assistant at the [[Jagiellonian University]], and published a number of short stories, poems, reviews, etc., particularly in the magazine ''[[Tygodnik Powszechny]]''.<ref name=PWN/> In 1951, he published his first book, ''[[The Astronauts]]''.<ref name=TF/><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/one-hundred-years-ago-today-stanislaw-lem-was-born-he-would-go-on-to-become-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-sci-fi-writers-24688 | title = One hundred years ago today, Stanisław Lem was born. He would go on to become one of the world's greatest sci-fi writers | access-date = 14 September 2021 | archive-date = 13 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210913163600/https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/one-hundred-years-ago-today-stanislaw-lem-was-born-he-would-go-on-to-become-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-sci-fi-writers-24688 | url-status = live }}</ref> In 1954, he published a short story collection, ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Sezam i inne opowiadania|pl}}'' [''Sesame and Other Stories''] .<ref name=TF/> The following year, 1955, saw the publication of another science fiction novel, ''[[The Magellanic Cloud]]''.<ref name=TF/>

During the era of [[Stalinism in Poland]], which had begun in the late 1940s, all published works had to be directly approved by the state.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stanisław Lem – biografia, wiersze, utwory |url=https://poezja.org/wz/Lem_Stanis%C5%82aw/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=poezja.org}}</ref> Thus ''The Astronauts'' was not, in fact, the first novel Lem finished, just the first that made it past the state censors.<ref name=TF/> Going by the date of the finished manuscript, Lem's first book was a partly autobiographical novel ''[[Hospital of the Transfiguration]]'', finished in 1948.<ref name=TF/> It would be published seven years later, in 1955, as a part of the trilogy ''[[Czas nieutracony]]'' (''Time Not Lost'').<ref name=TF/> The experience of trying to push ''Czas nieutracony'' through the censors was one of the major reasons Lem decided to focus on the less-censored genre of science fiction.<ref name=PWN/> Nonetheless, most of Lem's works published in the 1950s also contain various elements of [[socialist realism]] as well as of the "glorious future of communism" forced upon him by the censors and editors.<ref name=PWN/><ref name=sfenc/> Lem later criticized several of his early pieces as compromised by the ideological pressure.<ref name=TF/>

Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the [[Khrushchev Thaw|de-Stalinization period]] in the [[Soviet Union]] led to the "[[Polish October]]", when Poland experienced an increase in [[freedom of speech]].<ref name=TF/><ref name=PWN/><ref name=sfenc/> Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored seventeen books.<ref name=sfenc/> His writing over the next three decades or so was split between science fiction and essays about science and culture.<ref name=PWN/>

In 1957, he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, ''[[Dialogs (Lem)|Dialogs]]'', as well as a science fiction anthology, ''[[The Star Diaries]]'',<ref name=TF/> collecting short stories about one of his most popular characters, [[Ijon Tichy]].<ref name="Lem2000">{{cite book|author=Stanisław Lem|title=Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DNVzphAHD0C|year=2000|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-1732-7|quote=[Tichy] endures as one of Lem's most popular characters|page=Back cover blurb|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-date=28 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128110321/https://books.google.com/books?id=1DNVzphAHD0C|url-status=live}}</ref> 1959 saw the publication of three books: the novels ''[[Eden (Lem novel)|Eden]]'' and ''[[The Investigation]]'', and the short story anthology ''An Invasion from Aldebaran'' (''Inwazja z Aldebarana'').<ref name=TF/> 1961 saw the novels ''[[Memoirs Found in a Bathtub]]'', ''[[Solaris (novel)|Solaris]]'', and ''[[Return from the Stars]]'', with ''Solaris'' being among his top works.<ref name=TF/> This was followed by a collection of his essays and non-fiction prose, ''Wejście na orbitę'' (1962), and a short story anthology ''Noc księżycowa'' (1963).<ref name=TF/> In 1964, Lem published a large work on the border of philosophy and sociology of science and futurology, ''[[Summa Technologiae]]'', as well as a novel, ''[[The Invincible]]''.<ref name=TF/><ref name=sfenc/>

[[File:Stanislaw Lem by Kubik.JPG|thumb|Lem signing in [[Kraków]], 30 October 2005]]

1965 saw the publication of ''[[The Cyberiad]]'' and of a short story collection, ''The Hunt'' ({{Interlanguage link multi|Polowanie|pl|3=Polowanie (zbiór opowiadań)}}).<ref name=TF/> 1966 was the year of ''[[Highcastle]]'', followed in 1968 by ''[[His Master's Voice (novel)|His Master's Voice]]'' and ''[[Tales of Pirx the Pilot]]''.<ref name=TF/><ref name=sfenc/> ''Highcastle'' was another of Lem's autobiographical works, and touched upon a theme that usually was not favored by the censors: Lem's youth in the pre-war, then-Polish, Lviv.<ref name=TF/> 1968 and 1970 saw two more non-fiction treatises, ''[[The Philosophy of Chance]]'' and ''[[Science Fiction and Futurology]]''.<ref name=TF/> Ijon Tichy returned in 1971's ''[[The Futurological Congress]]''; in the same year Lem released a genre-mixing experiment, ''[[A Perfect Vacuum]]'', a [[Stanisław Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexistent books|collection of reviews of non-existent books]].<ref name=TF/> In 1973 a similar work, ''[[Imaginary Magnitude]]'', was published.<ref name=TF/> In 1976, Lem published two works: "[[The Mask (Lem short story)|The Mask]]" and ''[[The Chain of Chance]]''.<ref name=TF/> In 1980, he published another set of reviews of non-existent works, ''[[Stanisław Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexistent books#Provocation and One Human Minute|Provocation]]''.<ref name=TF/> The following year saw another Tichy novel, ''[[Observation on the Spot]]'',<ref name=TF/> and ''[[Golem XIV]]''. Later in that decade, Lem published ''[[Peace on Earth (novel)|Peace on Earth]]'' (1984) and ''[[Fiasco (novel)|Fiasco]]'' (1986), his last science fiction novel.<ref name=TF/>

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lem cautiously supported the [[Polish dissident movement]], and started publishing essays in the Paris-based magazine ''[[Kultura]]''.<ref name=TF/> In 1982, with [[martial law in Poland]] declared, Lem moved to [[West Berlin]], where he became a fellow of the [[Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin]] (''Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin'').<ref name=TF/> After that, he settled in [[Vienna]]. He returned to Poland in 1988.<ref name=TF/>

===Final years===
From the late 1980s onwards, Lem tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays, published in Polish magazines including ''Tygodnik Powszechny'', ''[[Odra (magazine)|Odra]]'', and ''[[Przegląd]]''.<ref name=TF/><ref name=PWN/> These were later collected in a number of anthologies.<ref name=TF/>

In early 1980s literary critic and historian [[Stanisław Bereś]] conducted a lengthy interview with Lem, which was published in book format in 1987 as ''[[Rozmowy ze Stanisławem Lemem]]'' (''Conversations with Stanisław Lem)''. That edition was subject to censorship. A revised, complete edition was published in 2002 as ''Tako rzecze… Lem'' (''Thus spoke... Lem'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wyborcza.pl/1,75517,909390.html?disableRedirects=true|title=Tako rzecze...Lem, Bereś, Stanisław|last=Orliński|first=Wojciech|date=1 July 2002|website=Gazeta Wyborcza|language=pl|access-date=29 March 2019|archive-date=29 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329134918/http://wyborcza.pl/1,75517,909390.html?disableRedirects=true|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the early 1990s, Lem met with the literary critic and scholar [[Peter Swirski]] for a series of extensive interviews, published together with other critical materials and translations as ''[[A Stanislaw Lem Reader]]'' (1997). In these interviews Lem speaks about a range of issues he rarely discussed previously. The book also includes Swirski's translation of Lem's retrospective essay "Thirty Years Later", devoted to Lem's nonfictional treatise ''Summa Technologiae''. During later interviews in 2005, Lem expressed his disappointment with the genre of science fiction, and his general pessimism regarding technical progress. He viewed the human body as unsuitable for space travel, held that information technology [[Lem's Law|drowns people in a glut of low-quality information]], and considered truly intelligent robots as both undesirable and impossible to construct.<ref name="zeit"/>