SOURCE: “Stanislaw Lem: Socio-Political Sci-Fi,” in Modern Language Review, Vol. 94, Pt. 3, July, 1999, pp. 758–74.

In the following essay, Tighe examines the social and literary context of Lem's fiction and publishing history in communist Poland, drawing attention to his sociopolitical concerns, particularly in Solaris. Tighe also addresses the impact of censorship on Lem's interest in closed information systems.

The existing criteria of value have been falsified and distorted. The force brought to bear against consciousness must, sooner or later, develop into physical force. To take note of this and to give warning is the role of literature.

Stanislaw Barańczak, passage cut from the Catholic journal Wiez, in the Department of Censorship's internal journal, Bulletin on Themes of Materials Censored.

(Second Quarter, 1974)

In the former Eastern bloc science fiction could sometimes be seen as a form of dissidence, an oblique way of considering important social and political themes, of side-stepping...