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/lit/ - Literature

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13107253 No.13107253 [Reply] [Original]

Has Lem written anything as good as Solaris?

>> No.13107293

>>13107253
Bumping for interest. Also read “Invincible” by him, but it was just ok.

>> No.13107361

Cyberiad is a good comedy but not great in the same way Solaris is

>> No.13107408
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13107408

>>13107253
I think all of his lighter, more comedic books are fantastic:

>Tales of Pirx the Pilot
>More Tales of Pirx the Pilot
>The Star Diaries
>Memoirs of a Space Traveler

'His Master's Voice' is a bit more serious, a bit like Solaris.

>> No.13107459

Did anyone else get really frustrated when reading memoirs? I mean it was still an enjoyable book though

>> No.13107554

Bumping for interest. I remember reading the futurological congress expecting something deep and serious kinda like Solaris and needless to say it gave me mixed feelings towards the author.
Still his humor kinda grew on me so I got a couple more books by him.

>> No.13107570

>>13107253
>Solaris is good
>muh library
>muh shapes
The only good thing about Solaris is the slightly novel idea about a sentient ocean and lifeforms so different from humankind that we basically cannot comprehend them.

>> No.13107732

>>13107570
Can you not even say that it’s a fantastic book for how it emotionally plays with you, despite you knowing that all the things that happen are just an illusion conjured by a being that can’t understand humanity? It’s and extremely dense and well constructed book, the undisputed greatest sci-fi of all time imo if you don’t count things like Frankenstein.

>> No.13107738

>>13107408
agreed
i also really like the futurological congress

>> No.13107856

>>13107253
I hope you know he didn't like how his ideas had been changed in the movie.

>> No.13108010

>>13107856
He never even watched it, he just read the script. Tarkovsky is all about the cinematography.

>> No.13108014

>>13107253
PLANET IS SENTIENT

>> No.13108038

>>13107253

Solaris isn't good.

>>13107856

Authors often dislike the film adaptation of their works, Frequently, they are wrong. However, this doesn't exactly apply to Solaris, as both book and (both) movie(s) are shit.

>> No.13108050

>>13107253
Solaris isnt his best work. All that encyclopaedia parts drag the book.
>muh alien world is incomprehensible
yeah yeah Stan I get it

>> No.13108076

>>13108038
Bad opinion
>>13108050
What is his best work then?

>> No.13108131
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13108131

>>13108076
>What is his best work then?
A Perfect Vacuum.
>The book contains reviews of 16 imaginary books and one real book: itself.
>Some of the reviews remind the reader of drafts of his science fiction novels, some read like philosophical pieces across scientific topics, from cosmology to the pervasiveness of computers, finally others satirize and parody everything from the nouveau roman to pornography, Ulysses, authorless writing, and Dostoevsky.
Some of the stories:
>Rien du tout, ou la consequence: review of a book written entirely in negations ("The train did not arrive. He did not come.").
>Being Inc.: review of a book that portrays the world as the result of elaborate computer planning of individual lives, a huge choreography of humanity;
>The New Cosmogony: review of a fictional oration by a Nobel Prize laureate, who presents a new model of the universe based on his analysis to the Fermi Paradox: the universe is a game.

It is glorious, I have never read anything like it before, even by Lem's standards. Glad he is being talked about here for once, he deserves much more attention.

>> No.13108267

>>13108131
Seems interesting, I will give it a go

>> No.13109429
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13109429

>>13108038

>> No.13109736

>>13108010
The ideas in the film are different from ideas in the book, that's why I hinted at whether we discuss the book, or the film.

>> No.13111466

>>13107253
The Star Diaries

>> No.13111543

>>13107738
the futurological congress is absolutely bonkers and totally amazing

>> No.13111679
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13111679

>>13107253
Not as good as Solaris, but underrated.
Most of the reviews I've seen of it online only talk about the frame narrative in the introduction, which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual book and was only included so it wouldn't look like a criticism of the USSR.

>> No.13111717

>>13108038

Edgy and contrarianpilled

>> No.13111958

>>13107856
Who cares? Tarkovsky had a different vision, which isn't surprising given that he was working in a different medium. Lem is a better author than Clarke, but at least Clarke had the class not to bitch about Kubrick's 2001 for being different from the book.

>>13108038
how does it feel to be a nigger pleb?

>> No.13111996

i liked return from the stars. i think it'd make a great movie too.

>> No.13112018

>>13111996
What is wrong with you?

>> No.13112066

>>13107253
I think His Master's Voice is really great. A lot of the philosophical and emotional things the protagonist said about mathematics really resonated with me.