Dick, Vonnegut, Lem

For me, Stanislaw Lem.

Edited by InstrupsychedeMental - March 16 2016 at 19:51

I love Lem in an erotic way.

Great to see admirers of all three authors posting here. Thanks. I love The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldtritch, great choice (A particular fave of mine that I quite forgot about). Haven't read Maze of Death as local libraries (and I've lived in quite a few places) and bookstores I've checked haven't carried it. I'm in serious need of a Dick fix -- guess I'll order online. Been years since I've ready any new books of his. With Vonnegut, I have more reading to do to, of ones mentioned I haven't read Mother Night that I recall or Galapagos. And with Lem I have lots to catch up on. Love the Investigation and Solaris, and have long wanted to read Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

Lem by a country mile. since many of his works (some of his best) have not been translated into English yet I am not surprised he does not win.

it's a tossup for second between Vonnegut and Dick for me

dr wu23 wrote: I've read all of the Lem and Vonnegut that appeals to me but there are still a few Dick books I haven't read....I might look those up and read them....he was very prolific for many years. Too many good books and too little time to read them all. btw if you like hard hitting supernatural fiction with a twist I recommend the Sandman Slim series by Kadrey...great fun to read and well written also.

Read some little book reviews of the series, and I'm confident it's something I'd really like. Going to see if he can find some of his books to read this weekend (there actually is a great public library where I grew up, and going to go there on Saturday -- library closest to where I now live is terrible unless perhaps you are Punjabi).

BaldJean wrote: Lem by a country mile. since many of his works (some of his best) have not been translated into English yet I am not surprised he does not win. it's a tossup for second between Vonnegut and Dick for me

I would have thought that almost all of his fiction would have been translated into English, but not so much with his non-fiction works.

By the way, since translation is being discussed, Lem thought Dick a visionary and translated works of Dick's into Polish. Lem wrote an essay on Dick called "Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Amongst Charlatans".   Lem was made an honorary member of The Science Fiction Writers of America and wasn't too popular since he denigrated US sci-fi writers, except Dick who he highly admired. Mentioned it in a another thread, but while Lem admired Dick, paranoid Dick wrote a letter to the FBI claiming Lem was "a communist committee". Yes, Dick, wasn't just claiming he was part of a communist committee, he claimed that Lem was a committee -- a committee acting under the name Stanislaw Lem. Apparently Dick may have been upset about not getting royalties from a Polish edition Of Ubik that Lem had translated and he was upset about Lem's denigration of American author's, since he mentioned that to the FBI. Dick may not have noticed that Lem denigrated others but praised Dick's writings.

http://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-a-communist-committee

Edited by Logan - March 17 2016 at 13:16

BaldJean wrote: dr wu23 wrote: BaldJean wrote: Lem by a country mile. since many of his works (some of his best) have not been translated into English yet I am not surprised he does not win. it's a tossup for second between Vonnegut and Dick for me Just curious...but do you read Lem in Polish or German..? German. but due to the GDR having been a befriended state of Poland a plethora of his works have been translated into that language

oh, and since you wanted a recommendation: Karel Čapek "Krakatit", "R.U.R." and "War with the Newts" are must-reads. the word "robot" stems from "R.U.R.".

Čapek is extremely satirical, and his inclusion of an illustration of the "homo diluvii testis", also known as "Andrias Scheuchzeri", a giant prehistorical newt believed to be a human witness of the deluge by Johann Jacob Scheuchzer, a Swiss scholar of the early 18th century, is a stroke of genius


Edited by BaldJean - March 17 2016 at 14:14

BaldJean wrote: Logan wrote: BaldJean wrote: Lem by a country mile. since many of his works (some of his best) have not been translated into English yet I am not surprised he does not win. it's a tossup for second between Vonnegut and Dick for me I would have thought that almost all of his fiction would have been translated into English, but not so much with his non-fiction works. By the way, since translation is being discussed, Lem thought Dick a visionary and translated works of Dick's into Polish. Lem wrote an essay on Dick called "Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Amongst Charlatans".   Lem was made an honorary member of The Science Fiction Writers of America and wasn't too popular since he denigrated US sci-fi writers, except Dick who he highly admired. Mentioned it in a another thread, but while Lem admired Dick, paranoid Dick wrote a letter to the FBI claiming Lem was "a communist committee". Yes, Dick, wasn't just claiming he was part of a communist committee, he claimed that Lem was a committee -- a committee acting under the name Stanislaw Lem. Apparently Dick may have been upset about not getting royalties from a Polish edition Of Ubik that Lem had translated and he was upset about Lem's denigration of American author's, since he mentioned that to the FBI. Dick may not have noticed that Lem denigrated others but praised Dick's writings. http://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-a-communist-committee "The Astronauts", "The Magellanic Cloud" and "Observation on the Spot" (in my opinion his best novel) have not been translated into English yet. "Summa Technologiae", a non-fiction work, is absolutely stunning. Lem predicted many of today's technological advances decades ahead in that book. I like the title a lot too; clever pun with Thomas Aquinas. even though I voted for Lem I like Dick and Vonnegut too, so perhaps I should have put my vote into "I like all three". but I consider Lem to be the best of those three

I find it appalling in a way that such works of his have not been translated into English. He was a great writer and thinker.

Incidentally, I'm quite scatterbrained, I had had it mind to write "No preference, I like all three equally" so I'm glad you voted for your favourite.

BaldJean wrote: oh, and since you wanted a recommendation: Karel Čapek "Krakatit", "R.U.R." and "War with the Newts" are must-reads. the word "robot" stems from "R.U.R.". Čapek is extremely satirical, and his inclusion of an illustration of the "homo diluvii testis", also known as "Andrias Scheuchzeri", a giant prehistorical newt believed to be a human witness of the deluge by Johann Jacob Scheuchzer, a Swiss scholar of the early 18th century, is a stroke of genius

Thank you, I haven't read those. Sounds like must reads. By the way, I have received so many great suggestions at this site that I really need to start a journal to keep track of it all.