Lech Keller

Visions of the Future in the Writings of Stanis?aw Lem : Volume 1 Lech Keller

The main argument of this thesis is that Lem is a political writer. A related argument is that Lem is known in his parts rather than for the breadth of his writing. Lem is firstly a writer of political utopias such as Astronauci and metaphorical political books such as Cyberiada where he frequently utilises humour in order to disguise the political contents, as well as an author of theoretical scientific works such as Dialogi, which contain very important analyses of politics and political science plus strictly political essays, such as published in Parisian Kultura or Tygodnik Powszechny. Until the late 1980s the majority of Polish critics largely denied that Lem was a political writer. For example Andrzej Stoff strongly rejected even a possibility of reading Lem?s Eden as a political novel. Antoni Smuszkiewicz in his recent publications repeats his earlier opinion that nothing allows us to read Eden as a political novel. Smuszkiewicz and Stoff strongly argue that Lem is not a political writer, and even those who find important political elements in Lem?s output (such as Jarz?bski) treat them as rather marginal..