Can Sport Exist Without Aggression? On a Certain Thought Experiment by Stanisław Lem

The main objective of the paper is to present and analyse a thought experiment concerning the existence and specifi city of sport in a society completely devoid of aggression. The experiment comes from the novel Return from the Stars by Stanisław Lem, Polish writer and thinker. The article provides an explanation why sports, and boxing in particular, were included in Lem’s refl ections on the problem of evil and attempts to “improve the world”. Lem’s vision of sport in a society subjected to betrization – a procedure that eliminates aggression – is presented and commented on from the perspective of the contemporary philosophy of sport. The presented analysis of Lem’s considerations focuses on their relationships with currently debated issues. An illustration of this thread of considerations is tchoukball – a sport designed to minimise players’s aggression.

Powrót do (już) nie swojego domu. Analiza porównawcza „Powrotu z gwiazd” Stanisława Lema i „Cylindra Van Troffa” Janusza A. Zajdla

The article is an attempt at a comparative analysis of the novels: Return from the Stars by Stanisław Lem and Van Troff’s Cylinder by Janusz A. Zajdel. Both works belonging to Polish science fiction present visions of humanity in the future. Despite obvious differences (both novels were written in different circumstances, one novel is a dystopia, the other an anti-utopia) it is possible to find areas common to both works representing the Polish science fiction genre. The novels present a pessimistic vision of humanity in the future. The greatest similarity, however, can be observed in the creation of the main characters, who experience culture shock when faced with a new vision of human society. The protagonists find themselves confused, discordant and despairing. They see that the changes have gone in the wrong direction. But it is too late for them to do anything about it, except for accepting this reality or trying to escape from it back into the stars.

Krytycznie o gatunku – Lema i Dukaja poglądy na fantastykę naukową

In the essay Science fiction: a hopeless case - with exceptions, Stanisław Lem spoke negatively about science fiction (but also about its authors and fans), proving its secondary nature and entanglement in market laws, pointing out the lack of reliable criticism from outside the fandom and flattering the tastes of recipients who only seek entertainment in literature. The author of Solaris included science fiction in the “lower kingdom” of literature, contrasting it with mainstream (“upper kingdom”). Thus, he symbolically strengthened the division into the fantastic “ghetto” and mainstream literature.Jacek Dukaj also spoke about science fiction in a slightly less categorical tone. In the essay Krajobraz po zwycięstwie, czyli polska fantastyka AD 2006 [Landscape after victory, or Polish fantasy AD 2006], the author of Ice noticed similar problems that Lem had seen in the past (lack of external criticism, lack of ambition, stagnation and reluctance of SF writers to go beyond plot and language patterns, flattering fashions and treating science fiction prose only as entertainment literature); however, unlike Lem, he seemed to be interested in the fate of his environment and proposed specific solutions that could raise the rank of science fiction.

Solaris and the Dao: The Reception of Stanislaw Lem’s Novel in the Sinophone World

The most popular science fiction novel written by the Polish author Stanisław Lem, Solaris, was published in 1961. Although it was translated into English as early as 1970, the book was unknown to the Sinophone readers until 2003, when the first translation from English into Chinese was published, most probably following the popularity of the resounding Hollywood film adaptation from 2002. Still, Suolalisi Xing (which can be translated as ‘Solaris Star’) did not attract broader audiences in China or Taiwan, at least not until the third version of the novel, translated directly from Polish into Chinese, saw the light of day in 2010. The appearance of this translation coincided with the beginning of a New Golden Era of Chinese and Taiwanese science fiction, which undoubtedly had a significant influence on the positive re-reception of Solaris. In the paper, the author focuses on the philosophical aspect of Lem’s work and investigates which themes and concepts present in Solaris caught the imagination of Chinese-speaking readers. The author wants to show how this reception, while coming from a different historical, cultural, and linguistic background, can enrich our understanding of the novel and introduce a new way of looking at the important existential questions stated by the writer.

Of Bugs and Masks

This essay examines the entanglement of Galin Tihanov’s three regimes of relevance of literature—literature as art, literature as high-minded social engagement, and literature as popular entertainment—in the encounter between a literary theoretician (Tzvetan Todorov) and a science fiction writer (Stanislaw Lem). The overt clash takes place in a polemical article by Lem, in which he attacks Todorov’s theory of the fantastic. Not so obviously, the writer’s revolt against the theoretician imbues Lem’s masterpiece “The Mask.” Kafka’s novella “The Metamorphosis” plays a considerable role in both Lem’s polemic and in his fictional response, raising questions of genre (and its dependence on the market and the entertainment industry), of subjective agency (and its philosophical and political implications), and of artistic ingenuity vis-à-vis despotic power. Although Lem’s reading of Todorov involves considerable misunderstanding, it nevertheless produces fascinating results and exemplifies the impossibility of relegating literary theory to a single regime of relevance.

Stanisław Lem. Fantasta, który nazywał swoje marzenia.

Stanisław Lem, który w swojej twórczości z nurtu science fiction tworzył niezwykłe światy, odznaczał się nie tylko wyjątkową wyobraźnią, ale i wyrafinowanym zmysłem słowotwórczym. Wytwory jego wyobraźni fascynowały i nadal fascynują badaczy wielu dyscyplin naukowych: literaturoznawców, filozofów, socjologów, astronomów, futurologów. W tym gronie nie mogło zabraknąć językoznawców – swoje genialne pomysły Lem przelewał na papier, wprzęgając w opisy wymyślonych światów nie tylko istniejące zasoby słowników języka polskiego, ale także zapożyczenia z języków obcych i własne neologizmy. Te neologizmy sprawiały zresztą tłumaczom Lema dosłownie kosmiczne problemy podczas przekładu na inne języki.