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A Stanislaw LEM Reader
Contributor(s): Swirski, Peter (Editor)

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ISBN: 081011495X     ISBN-13: 9780810114951
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
OUR PRICE: $20.95  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: November 1997
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Annotation: In The Lem Reader, Peter Swirski has assembled an in-depth and insightful collection of writings by and about, and interviews with, one of the most fascinating writers of the twentieth century.

Stanislaw Lem has a large and devoted following. Best known for his work in science fiction -- his novels and short stories have been translated into over forty languages and have sold over twenty-five million copies -- Lem is also a prolific writer of nonfiction monographs. Though not widely available in English, Lem's extensive studies of literary and contemporary culture, and of philosophy, rhetoric, and social theory, have been widely read and analyzed in their original Polish and in German and Russian translations.

The Lem Reader forms an introduction to Lem's nonfiction oeuvre: it includes two interviews conducted with Lem, as well as a fascinating introductory essay by Swirski and an essay by Lem himself, "Thirty Years Later", in which he discusses the predictions he has made in his extensive philosophical works. Chief among the works discussed is Lem's Summa Technologiae (1964), in which Lem presents a series of wide-ranging prognoses on the social, cultural, and technological destiny of our civilization. Lem also analyzes the cognitive parallels, aesthetic differences, and shared social responsibilities of the science of futurology and the literary genre of science fiction. Included are a complete bibliography of Lem's works in English and Polish, and a bibliography of critical sources.

Anyone interested in Lem's provocative and uncompromising view of literature's role in the contemporary cultural environment, in Lem's opinions about his own fiction, and about the relation ofliterature to science and technology, will be fascinated by this eclectic collection.

Click for more in this series: Rethinking Theory (Paperback)

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures
Dewey: B
LCCN: 97023102
Series: Rethinking Theory (Paperback)
Physical Information: 0.45" H x 5.61" W x 8.51" L (0.43 lbs) 129 pages
Features: Bibliography
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 08/25/1997 pg. 56
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/1997 pg. 1295
Booklist 10/01/1997 pg. 301
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
This collection assembles in-depth and insightful writings by and about, and interviews with, one of the most fascinating writers of the twentieth century. Anyone interested in Lem's provocative and uncompromising view of literature's role in the contemporary cultural environment, and in Lem's opinions about his own fiction, about the relation of literature to science and technology, and the dead ends of contemporary culture, will be fascinated by this eclectic collection.
 
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