My Blog

Random tidbits, ideas and thoughts from a portuguese man living in Sweden and immersing himself in the beautiful things the world has to offer.
  • rss
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Me

Stanislaw Lem

March 28, 2006

The Polish writer of Science Fiction Stanislaw Lem died this Monday in south of Poland, due to heart problems. He was 84 years old.

Stanislaw Lem was the author of “Solaris”, the book from which Andrei Tarkovsky based his movie “Solaris” (“Solyaris” is the original title) in 1972, one of my favorite pieces of timeless cinema. I remember seeing the movie for the first time when I was on my very early teens, casually stopping by the 2nd channel of Portuguese public TV of the time, in front of an old Grundig black&white TV. I could only understand the subtitles (after all the movie is in Russian). The plot was also strange and with plenty of slow moments, to say the least. But I still couldn’t let go and was never able to explain why. The idea of a planet made up of a massive ocean, likened to a conscious brain, was hypnotic. Many years later I bought the book and the questions got clearer. What is human life? Will we ever be able to recognize other kinds of life? Memories, by defining our lives, can they have a life of their own? And what about conscience?

Solaris - bc

One of Lem’s favorite themes was the impossibility of communication between human and alien civilizations (we seem to find it impossible to communicate between human civilizations too, so maybe there’s our culprit). But in some of his work he also spoke of the problems of human existence in a world where technology makes human impulses obsolete or even dangerous. This is a problem of our day and age set to worsen with time.

Be Sociable, Share!
  • Tweet
Categories
Random tidbits
Trackback
Trackback

« The Road Not Taken “No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” »

Comments are closed.

Office'cam

View from my office in Gothenburg

Weather

Fair Gothenburg 15°
Mostly Cloudy Porto 9°
Mostly Cloudy London 10°

Recent Visitors

Listening to

  • Cover artwork for Martha's Harbour
    Martha's Harbour
    All About Eve
    19 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes ago
  • Cover artwork for Naked And Savage
    Naked And Savage
    The Mission
    19 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes ago
  • Cover artwork for Dominion / Mother Russia [Medley]
    Dominion / Mother Russia [Medley]
    The Sisters Of Mercy
    19 days, 19 hours and 24 minutes ago
  • Cover artwork for Love Like Blood
    Love Like Blood
    Killing Joke
    19 days, 19 hours and 29 minutes ago
  • Cover artwork for A Day
    A Day
    Clan Of Xymox
    19 days, 19 hours and 37 minutes ago

Social Me

Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Last.fm Google Profile

Skype Me

Call me! - Pedro Rodrigues: Offline
Chat with me - Pedro Rodrigues: OfflineAdd me to Skype - Pedro Rodrigues: OfflineView my profile - Pedro Rodrigues: OfflineSend me a file - Pedro Rodrigues: Offline





Search

Navigation

  • Music (17)
  • Poetry (73)
  • Random tidbits (236)
  • Rant (7)
  • Retro (1)

Blogroll

  • :::Farfalla:::
  • as folhas ardem
  • IÉ-IÉ
  • Into the wild
  • Palavras levam o vento
  • PostSecret
  • Torpedo @ London

Sites

  • Creative Tools
  • Make: online
  • MatrixSynth
  • Olhares
  • Photography Now
  • Radio Paradise
  • Retro Thing
  • Synthtopia
  • The Local
  • The Register
  • World Of Spectrum
.
rss Comments rss valid xhtml 1.1 design by jide powered by Wordpress get firefox