Editing Stanisław Lem (section)

==Writings==
{{main|List of works by Stanisław Lem and their adaptations|List of works about Stanisław Lem}}
===Science fiction===
Lem's prose shows a mastery of numerous genres and themes.<ref name=TF/>

====Recurring themes====
One of Lem's major recurring themes, beginning from his very first novel, ''The Man from Mars'', was the impossibility of [[Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence|communication between profoundly alien beings]], which may have no common ground with human intelligence, and humans.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanislaw-Lem|title=Stanisław Lem &#124; Polish author|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=17 July 2020|archive-date=12 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200912054539/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanislaw-Lem|url-status=live}}</ref> The best known example is the living planetary ocean in ''Solaris''. Other examples include the intelligent swarms of mechanical insect-like [[micromachines]] in ''The Invincible'', and strangely ordered societies of more human-like beings in ''Fiasco'' and ''Eden'', describing the failure of [[First contact (science fiction)|first contact]].

Another key recurring theme is the shortcomings of humans. In ''His Master's Voice'', Lem describes the failure of humanity's intelligence to decipher and truly comprehend an apparent message from space.<ref name="google1"/><ref name="google2"/><ref>"you cannot conceive of your neighbors from the stars in any connection other than a civilizational one," p91, Golem XIV, Imaginary Magnitude</ref><ref>"the obstinacy of your antropocentrism," p55, Golem XIV, Imaginary Magnitude</ref> Two overlapping arcs of short stories, ''[[Fables for Robots]]'' and ''The Cyberiad'' provide a commentary on humanity in the form of a series of grotesque, humorous, [[fairytale]]-like short stories about a mechanical universe inhabited by robots (who have occasional contact with biological "slimies" and human "palefaces").<ref name=TF/><ref name="solaris"/> Lem also underlines the uncertainties of evolution, including that it might not progress upwards in intelligence.<ref>"uncertain zigzags of the evolutionary game", p. 85, Golem XIV, Imaginary Magnitude</ref>

===Other writings===
''The Investigation'' and ''The Chain of Chance'' are [[crime novel]]s (the latter without a murderer); ''Pamiętnik...'' is a psychological drama inspired by [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]].<ref name=TF/> ''A Perfect Vacuum'' and ''Imaginary Magnitude'' are [[Stanisław Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexistent books|collections of reviews of and introductions to non-existent books]].<ref name=TF/> Similarly, ''Provocations'' purports to review a non-existent [[Holocaust]]-themed work.<ref name=TF/>

===Essays===
''Dialogs'' and ''Summa Technologiae'' (1964) are Lem's two most famous philosophical texts. The ''Summa'' is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances;<ref name=TF/> in this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction at the time, but are gaining importance today—for instance, [[virtual reality]] and [[nanotechnology]].

===Views in later life===
Throughout the entirety of his life, Stanisław Lem remained deeply attached to his original hometown of Lwów (then in Poland, now Lviv in Ukraine) and missed it greatly. Although he never called for Poland to retake the city, he expressed sorrow and felt a sense of injustice at Poland losing the city to the USSR after the Second World War.<ref name="rdto">{{cite book|last=Lem|first=Stanisław|date=2006|title=Rasa drapieżców. Teksty ostatnie|location=Kraków|publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie|isbn=9788308038901}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Wilgusiewicz|first=Antoni|date=2021|title=Obraz Lwowa we wspomnieniach Stanisława Lema|url=https://cyfrowa.biblioteka.krakow.pl/Content/6768/nr3i4_2021.pdf|journal=Cracovia Leopolis|volume=104-105|issue=3–4|pages=1–7|issn=1234-8600|access-date=2024-09-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Nespiak|first=Danuta|date=2021|title=Lwów w optyce Stanisława Lema|url=https://cyfrowa.biblioteka.krakow.pl/Content/6768/nr3i4_2021.pdf|journal=Cracovia Leopolis|volume=104-105|issue=3–4|pages=8–10|issn=1234-8600|access-date=2024-09-19}}</ref> His criticism of most science fiction surfaced in literary and philosophical essays ''Science Fiction and Futurology'' and interviews.<ref name="interview.htm"/> In the 1990s, Lem forswore science fiction<ref>{{cite web|url=https://english.lem.pl/home/reading/interviews/folha-de-spaulo|title="Folha de S.Paulo"|website=Stanislaw Lem The Official Site|access-date=17 July 2020|archive-date=24 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924085203/https://english.lem.pl/home/reading/interviews/folha-de-spaulo|url-status=live}}</ref> and returned to futurological prognostications, most notably those expressed in ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Okamgnienie|pl}}'' [''Blink of an Eye'']. He had a deep appreciation for the works of Polish writer [[Czesław Miłosz]] and respected [[Józef Piłsudski]] as a national leader.<ref name="rdto" /> 

Lem said that since the success of the trade union [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]], and the [[Collapse of Communism|collapse of the Soviet empire]], he felt his wild dreams about the future could no longer compare with reality.<ref>Christopher Priest, Introduction, ''The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age'', Lem</ref> He became increasingly critical of modern technology in his later life, criticising inventions such as the Internet, which he said "makes it easier to hurt our neighbors."<ref name="english3"/> He was a proponent of [[nuclear power]], which he saw as a potential means for Poland to secure its sovereignty via reducing dependency on fossil fuels from Russia.<ref name="rdto" /> In his 2004-2006 columns for ''[[Tygodnik Powszechny]]'', Lem was highly critical of [[Vladimir Putin]], [[George W. Bush]], [[Andrzej Lepper]], [[Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland|Samoobrona]], the [[League of Polish Families]], and the [[All-Polish Youth]].<ref name="rdto" />