Stanislaw Lem RIP

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p.s. love that the very first sentence of the obit link goes: 'a science fiction writer whose novel "Solaris" was made into a movie starring George Clooney...'

dja, Monday, 27 March 2006 22:02 (eighteen years ago) link

i almost started a thread about the cyberiad the other week, too.

so, uh, tarkovsky or soderbergh?

tom west (thomp), Monday, 27 March 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...
Should I read Solaris for a book club? Or is it boring?

Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 24 April 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Sure - it's good - not boring at all. Perhaps you're thinking of the Tarkovsky movie? Which isn't boring either, but I could see how somebody might think that it is...

Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 24 April 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Thanks. I saw the movie while drifting in and out of sleep in a crappy hotel room. It did seem good, if not entirely not-boring, but I could easily see the book version being a slog.

Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 24 April 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

dave fischer to thread.

the unbearable lightness of peeing (orion), Monday, 24 April 2006 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

solaris is maybe not his most interesting book

that said when i read it i had already fallen asleep in front of both versions of the movie. i think i also managed to fall asleep whilst reading the book, my edition of which had george clooney on the cover, by the way. i think the book was in my friend m.'s room when he set his house on fire. huh.

i have recently read memoirs found in a bathtub. it had some notable features.

tom west (thomp), Monday, 24 April 2006 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Huh.

Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 24 April 2006 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

huh.

tom west (thomp), Monday, 24 April 2006 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link

fifteen years pass...

The bio piece on him in the New Yorker is good. Checked the library and they have a weird smattering of his books (in electronic form, anyway), no Solaris or His Master's Voice. Anyone read The Cyberiad, Peace on Earth, the Star Diaries, More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, or A Perfect Vacuum (fake book reviews)?

change display name (Jordan), Monday, 17 January 2022 15:50 (two years ago) link

Yeah, I would recommend The Cyberiad and the Star Diaries as good entry points from that list. Both are essentially short story collections with vaguely overarching plots and the Star Diaries, in particular, has a couple of stories that I think about all the time.

Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, 17 January 2022 16:00 (two years ago) link

I've read the Cyberiad, a decent collection of sarcastic, cynical, and silly fables concerning two inventors and their inventions, nothing like Solaris or His Master's Voice.

two sleeps till brooklyn (ledge), Monday, 17 January 2022 16:08 (two years ago) link

Never heard of that guy who wrote the NYer thing before, but probably would read something else by him.

A Perfect Vacuum is the best thing of his I've read outside of Solaris and His Master's Voice, especially the 'review' of Gruppenführer Louis XVI about ex-Nazis cosplaying the 18th century French aristocracy in a South American jungle.

the great replacement bus service (Matt #2), Monday, 17 January 2022 16:36 (two years ago) link

The Cyberiad is a fun read - "a decent collection of sarcastic, cynical, and silly fables concerning two inventors and their inventions" is a good summary from ledge.

emil.y, Monday, 17 January 2022 18:35 (two years ago) link

three months pass...

Reposting this from the Jonathan Lethem thread (via the pinefox):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bx7umZ8aRI

change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 19:02 (one year ago) link


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